COVID-19 Library Updates and Resources

• A Message from Janet Bishop, A. J. McFadden Dean of The Claremont Colleges Library, to the Claremont Colleges community (3/14/20)
• Resources for Instruction (updated regularly starting 3/17/2020)
• Guide to COVID-19 Resources (updated regularly starting 3/17/2020)
• Access to Course Materials for Remote Teaching (3/18/2020)

Unfortunately, starting Monday, March 23, the Library will be closed to all visitors and staff. While the Library proper will be closed to all visitors, Connection, will still be open and accessible. Please use the South entrance of the Honnold/Mudd building for access to Connection.

Although the Library facility will be closed, our Library staff will continue to work to support you in the following ways:

• Questions? Ask Us
• Access to, borrowing and mailing print materials: (3/31/30): Due to the unfolding Covid-19 situation, the library has reduced the number of staff working onsite in the library building. We have heard from a handful of TCC faculty, staff, and students that there is a need to access some materials only available in print for their teaching or research. This is our effort to support our users during these challenging times:
  • We will always try to provide an e-copy of a requested book if it is available. 
    • Non-course reading materials: Requests for e-copies or chapter scans may be sent to Resource Sharing.
    • Course Readings: The Library has acquired e-copies of course readings for which we have records and an electronic copy is available for us to license. This covers about 80% of all course readings. Please check this Course Reserves page on the library’s website to see if an e-option is available. 
      • Additionally, please be aware that RedShelf (an e-textbook direct-to-consumer platform) is providing students up to seven free textbooks from participating publishers until 5/25/20. A free account is required to gain access. Search by ISBN or title. 
      • If not available online or on RedShelf, chapter/section scans may be requested by faculty via Resource Sharing. Please specify which sections are most important for us to scan.
  • Subject Librarians are available to work with you to identify alternative editions or titles if no e-copy of a requested book is available.
  • If we are not able to find an electronic copy of a book or of a suitable substitute, but we have the print book in our collection and it is not a course reading, we may be able to mail it to you. TCC faculty, staff, and students residing within the continental United States may request up to five books each to be mailed to them. Please be advised that, depending on demand and staffing capacity, we may not be able to fill requests as quickly as we typically do.
    • Submit requests for mailing via the Resource Sharing book form at this link or via the “Get this Item” button from within Library Search, which will populate the Resource Sharing form. Please be sure to add your home mailing address. 
    • Please note that our ability to mail items may change without notice due to the evolving events related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Patrons are advised to consult the State of Emergency issued by California Governor Gavin Newsom on 3/19/2020 and the “Safer at Home” policy that went into effect on 3/20/2020 for LA County.
    • Stay tuned to this web page for updates.
• Items that are currently checked out: Loan periods for current loans will be extended until September 30, 2020. With this in mind, and to conserve space in our book bins, please try to hold on to your materials if you expect to be back on campus for the 2020-2021 academic year.
  • Students who will have graduated or faculty who will have moved to other institutions by the 2020-2021 academic year may return their books by mail at the Library’s expense via the mailing address below. More information on how to do so will be provided on this page in the coming days.
    • The Claremont Colleges Library, Attention Library Circulation, 800 N. Dartmouth Ave, Claremont, CA 91711
• Scanning print materials:
  • Effective March 18, 2020: Requests for scans of print books can be submitted through the Resource Sharing “book chapter” request form.
  • Effective 3/31/20: We have limited staff in the building to scan materials. We will do our best to fulfill your requests in a timely manner when we are onsite. Please see Access to Course Materials for Remote Teaching for more details.
  • Requests for digital copies from Special Collections are managed via our online registration and request system. For help with requesting a digital copy, please review this guide.
• Resource Sharing (ILL):
  • We will continue to acquire copies of articles and book chapters for titles we do not own (as long as other libraries remain open and provide this service to us).
  • Due to the move of many colleges and universities to remote work, we are changing our workflows for providing access to books we do not currently own. Instead of borrowing print materials we will be attempting to fill all book requests by purchasing an e-copy. If no e-copy is available we will be unable to fill your request at this time.
  • For book requests that have not yet been processed, we “canceled” those requests and asked requesters to re-submit their request if they still want us to pursue obtaining an e-copy of the title.
    • If you have an ILL book checked out we are asking that you hold onto it and the Library will request renewals from the lending library on your behalf. No late fees will be charged.
    • For physical requests delivered from lending libraries between 3/16/2020 – 3/20/20, Resource Sharing will mail these books to home addresses if requested. Please contact illiad@claremont.edu with any questions or requests.
• Databases and access to e-resources:
  • Please note that over half of our collections are accessible electronically. All of our online resources will still be accessible.
  • Additionally, many publishers are also announcing that they are opening up access to their online materials; some materials we did not previously have access to may now be available.
• Course readings: Library staff will work closely with faculty to provide students electronic access to course readings in their entirety or in part. We will be reaching out to faculty in the coming two weeks to share access options. Please note that, effective immediately, students will not be able to check out print course readings.
• Remote research assistance: Faculty, staff and students may meet with librarians virtually using Zoom, email, or chat. Contact or schedule an online appointment with a subject librarian.
• Remote Library instruction: Faculty may still arrange for their classes to meet with librarians virtually via Zoom. Request an instruction session via the Library website.

All Library events and programs scheduled for Spring 2020 have been postponed or canceled.

Access Update 4/1/2020

While the library building is closed to visitors, Special Collections staff is working remotely and available by email (specialcollections@claremont.edu) to answer questions and continue our work as much as possible. For Claremont Colleges’ students, faculty, and staff, if we can support your research by providing digitized copies of some Special Collections materials, please send us a request through your Special Collections account. And, we encourage you to browse our digital collections as well as online digital repositories such as Calisphere and the Library of Congress Digital Collections.

Please visit the library’s web site for further updates as the situation evolves.

We wish you good health and hope to see you soon.

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• Student Health Services (The Claremont Colleges Services)