REALM Project

Crisis management planning: Eccles Health Sciences Library

The Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library sits on the northeast side of campus at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, along with the schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, the college of health, and two level 1 trauma centers—one specifically for children. The library sits at the center of this complex and serves these various institutions with an approach that prioritizes flexibility and responsiveness, simplicity of communication, and attention to staff workload and wellbeing.

In 2013, the decision was made to eliminate the large print journal collection, while preserving the digital collection and the History of Medicine Collection. This opened hundreds of square feet in the library and enabled a flexible approach for student needs regarding computers and furniture for study and learning spaces. In this way, the library is prioritizing the student community they serve. Interestingly, an unexpected side effect of the lack of a physical collection is that the library’s hard, open surfaces create an atmosphere ripe for echoes. Heidi Greenberg, Associate Director for Operations and Logistics, shared, “We didn’t think we wanted all of the books, but now we actually need some of them!” The library is looking into noise-dampening options to make the space more comfortable for students.

Following the lead of the Public Safety Department on campus, the library prioritized becoming a safe space for students by staying open 24/7 and giving students badge access to a secure location where they can come to study and feel protected. To enable this, the library received funding to employ a security guard who patrols the buildings around the campus after hours and encourages students to relocate to and congregate in the library, thereby providing safety in numbers and a comfortable space to set up and study. The guard also patrols the parking lots and will walk students to their cars. An added benefit to this patrolling is that the security guard has caught leaks and other facility issues in the library building and reported them so that the library can address them right away before damage sets in. Students have also sought out this space when dealing with roommate issues and other personal problems in their own living spaces. Everyone in the library encourages students to move furniture around, arrange things how they like it, and make the space their own.

When the pandemic began, the library initially closed and then reopened just a few weeks later. This allowed the library to continue serving as a secure space for students who couldn’t move home or be in their rooms with their roommates, a study space for nursing students who needed to study for the boards, and more. Having security in place was key to the library being able to do this smoothly and quickly.

Construction management - flexibility

Located on active fault lines, the Eccles Library is undergoing a seismic retrofit, which is a major construction project to ensure that the building is seismically sound. In the meantime, however, the disruption is leading to a return to some of the work-from-home policies used during the pandemic as staff try to navigate noise and, at times, unsafe conditions in and near the building. Once again, flexibility is paramount for both staff and students, as the library remains open to continue to provide a safe space for students and staff who need to work on site, while providing remote work options and relief for staff from the dust and noise. As Heidi put it, “We asked people to be patient with the construction, we don’t know how loud it is going to be, we don’t know how disruptive this is going to be, so please hang in there with us.”

The library stays in regular communication with students to let them know about conditions on campus through both physical signs on the doors as well as alerts on the library website; however, students continue to seek out the space despite the adverse conditions, demonstrating a persistent need for this safe space to study and interact. At times, the library has lost power and/or water, and in those instances the building is locked down. What library staff have learned through this is the importance of simple, clear communication with students and campus staff to ensure comprehension and compliance.

This attention to flexibility and simplification also extends to how library staff have developed their policies. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the library had extensive, complex policies and procedures. More recently, the staff and administration have tried to develop policies that can be adapted as needed, depending on the current situation. Additionally, library staff are trying to capture the tacit knowledge and expertise they’ve relied on for a long time; in this way, as Heidi says, “We’re trying to get information out of people’s brains and into a document so that it’s easily accessible if somebody leaves or isn’t around.”

Heidi also discussed how she and others are working to address what they see in terms of symptoms of staff exhaustion and frustration with the construction and the accompanying disruptions to routine and workplace safety. She mentioned that, during the pandemic, the staff did a great job of building connections online in virtual “water cooler” meetings where colleagues could share information about their kids, their pets, etc., which offered some relief and connection. She also pointed out that a few years ago they created a policy whereby sick hours can be used for mental health days, to “go enjoy the sunshine, go outside, be away from here.” She is engaging in ongoing conversations with staff about how to handle morale and wellbeing during the final upcoming year of construction, to try and give people a sense of control over a difficult situation. Heidi explains, “This is library culture, right? We all want to be helpful, to have our hands in everything, and it’s very hard to say no. So, I think there needs to be some more work around that to really train people how to say no, how to prioritize.” As a close group, the staff recognize when one of them isn’t okay, and there is an emphasis on making some changes soon to help with that.

Heidi Greenberg looks forward to a bright future for the library and the campus, not just in terms of the increased safety during seismic events but also because the new architecture of the campus will connect the library to the School of Medicine, and the library can continue to build additional partnerships there as well. Clinical librarians are already embedded with medical staff as they do rounds in the hospital to provide library services to them, and library staff are building connections with rural facilities to continue to offer resources and materials that may not be available otherwise.

For more information, visit the university’s website. 

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Look for innovative and emergent ways to support students, faculty, and staff on campus. The Eccles Library prioritized safety for students and discovered benefits not just for the students but also for the library in terms of additional security and surveillance of the building.
2. Look out for and listen to your staff as they experience and live through various crises. Consider revisiting strategies you’ve used in the past, such as a virtual water cooler, to help disparate staff build social connections and stay in touch with one another.
3. Find ways to simplify and streamline your communication methods and policy development approaches. If your community wants more details, they can ask for them, but sometimes, in a crisis, the simpler the information, the better.