“We work hard to protect both staff and students in the library,” says Jenn Sides, Tutt Library operations manager and co-chair of the Tutt Library Safety and Health Committee. That’s true every year, but of course the campus and Tutt Library have new challenges and many changes to services and policies during the pandemic. Rather than have all the building safety concerns fall to Sides, Interim Library Director Steve Lawson convened a committee in the summer as the library was making plans to re-open and increase access. “No one really wants to be on yet another committee,” Lawson says, “but we knew that our response to COVID-19 would affect all the people who work in and use the building, so I wanted to be sure we were hearing from a larger group. I also wanted staff to feel like they could go to a committee and not only their supervisor if they had safety concerns.”
Sides and Patti Spoelman, library administrative assistant, co-chair the committee, which also includes Lawson, LeDreka Davis, circulation operations coordinator, Tia Phillip, night circulation coordinator, Pam Willock, periodicals coordinator, Charissa Brammer, systems librarian, Janet Martino, ITS: user support specialist and Solutions Center team lead, and Daryll Stevens, music librarian at Seay Library.
The committee members have been very busy with making changes to the physical building to promote social distancing, technological changes to allow seat reservation and computer reservation, and recently spoke with CC’s Community Standards and Conduct Specialist Josh Isringhausen about how best to encourage student compliance with college safety policies on COIVD-19. As Sides says, “we are trying to make sure that students, faculty, and staff still have access to the items they need and a safe, but welcoming environment to study.” Submit your suggestions of members of our CC community to Lyrae Williams to be highlighted in a future week.
