C&RL News September 2021 362 Like so many facets of higher education, academic libraries adapted admirably when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Collections and consultations moved online. Books went contactless for pick-up, drop-off, and shipping. Events went virtual. Seats in the library spread out. Learning and research continued. As COVID-19 restrictions are relaxed, it’s time to look to the future and understand which adaptations will remain, what trends will accelerate, and where progress may be on hold. Will libraries continue as hubs that bring together information, collections, technology, services, and spaces to support creativity, create knowledge, build community, inspire concen- tration, and foster collaboration? Or will there be retrenchment into quiet study halls divorced from student success, coursework, and the research enterprise? To answer these questions, we offer four big ideas for the future on library spaces, services, and collections. A new role for the campus One paradox of COVID-19 is that we all learned how much more we can do online and yet how much more we value being together in person and the residential college experi- ence. Students, faculty, and staff have come to appreciate the flexibility to work and learn anywhere. They’ve also missed the community and sense of belonging that campuses foster. As we fully reopen this fall, we’ll re-enter a new reality in which the physical campus is even more important than before but is no longer the default, with online as an alternative. Instead, we’ll be intentional about what we do in-person: the things that we can’t do (or do as well) online. There’s no rush back to the lecture halls since those are better done online. But there is a desire to return to the seminar room, the dance studio, the laboratory, the archives, the makerspace, the innovation lab, the meeting space, and the quad connecting them. The campus isn’t for classes, it’s for community, collaboration, and creativity. As the go-to place for the space, col- lections, technology, information, and advice for projects, libraries can lead the way. Partnerships and service hubs for experiential learning What does that paradox mean for the services, expertise, collections, spaces, and technologies libraries provide? Libraries will accelerate their development into centers for experiential, in- terdisciplinary teaching, and learning, with a focus on the activities that benefit most from proximity. Through existing and emerging ef- forts with programs such as makerspaces, visu- alization, augmented and mixed reality, digital media, data science, and emerging technolo- gies—academic libraries can become centers Christopher Cox, Elliot Felix, Greg Raschke, and Mary Ann Mavrinac Looking through the COVID fog Toward resilient, reimagined libraries Christopher Cox is dean of libraries at Clemson University, email: cnc2@clemson.edu, Elliot Felix i s C E O a t B r i g h t s p o t S t r a t e g y, e m a i l : e l l i o t @ brightspotstrategy.com, Greg Raschke is senior vice provost and director of libraries at North Carolina State University, email: gkraschk@ncsu.edu, Mary Ann Mavrinac is vice provost and Andrew H. and J anet Dayton Neilly D ean of the Universit y of Rochester Libraries, email: mar yann.mavrinac@ rochester.edu © 2021 Christopher Cox, Elliot Felix, Greg Raschke, and Mary Ann Mavrinac the way I see it mailto:cnc2%40clemson.edu?subject= mailto:elliot@brightspotstrategy.com mailto:elliot@brightspotstrategy.com mailto:gkraschk@ncsu.edu mailto:maryann.mavrinac%40rochester.edu?subject= mailto:maryann.mavrinac%40rochester.edu?subject= September 2021 C&RL News363 of experiential learning. While these are not exactly new developments, the pandemic and subsequent evaluation described above of how we use space will accelerate and intensify the transformation of traditional spaces. Partnership-based, collaborative service hubs in library spaces will become standard as librar- ies increasingly align with and house strategic campus partners to deliver services that drive student success, improve teaching, centralize research support, and promote community engagement. More than simple co-location, the emerging waves of partnerships will emphasize deep integration that leverages the expertise and service ethos found in libraries while opening expanded channels to emerging services such as research facilitation and data services, and at- tract more users with services such as tutoring, writing, career counseling, and collaborative public programming. This will be made pos- sible by the decline in emphasis on traditional stacks storage, large or multiple service desks, and private, single user spaces. Monitoring and responding in real- time COVID-19 protocols for physical distancing resulted in the loss of two-thirds of the seat- ing and in-person collaborative study options, decidedly reducing the “buzz” of activity in library spaces. Interesting developments that can be applied post-COVID-19 include us- ing sensor technologies, such as Occuspace, to provide real-time information on study space density that adheres to strict privacy proto- cols. Information is deployed using an app or through an API for data visualization on digital signs to help inform students of their study-space options. Students find this in- formation very useful, optimizing their time spent searching for an available study space. During the pandemic, many libraries or- ganized virtual study groups to address the vacuum that occurred when physical group study spaces needed to be removed to respond to social distancing protocols. Students missed the motivation and inspiration they gleaned from studying in the presence of others. The virtual study space service resulted in varying degrees of success underscoring that not all in-person services map well to a virtual environment. Working in a primarily virtual state did am- plify the importance of frequent, iterative, and meaningful engagement and assessment with faculty, students, and the broader community. Myriad changes spawned myriad questions and the importance of creating timely opportunities for input and response. Regular meetings with student leaders and advisory groups that oc- curred in-person prior to the pandemic flipped to virtual. COVID-19-related plans, including new and retrofitted services, programs, and events, were run by student leaders and faculty to gauge their response and to obtain their input in what became an iterative planning process that, at heart, supported a spirit of continuous improvement. Information provision, outreach, and engagement also occurred more vigorously through social media and the library website. These became critical channels for monitoring and responding in real-time to user needs and for conveying critical, and sometimes fun, in- formation. A more intentional focus on strategic virtual communications will continue beyond the pandemic. Enabling physical and digital access to collections and services The pandemic has accelerated trends in collec- tion building, access, and delivery. The chal- lenges of delivering physical content coupled with moving classes online resulted in more demand for online access. Even with classes moving back to in-person this fall, libraries will continue to invest heavily in ebooks and streaming media, while focusing their physi- cal collections on subjects of local interest. Consortia agreements will help fill in the gaps. Challenges in the delivery of physical text- books and course materials have led to greater advocacy and investment in e-textbooks and open education resources (OER), providing faculty flexibility in delivering course-specific content while making education more afford- able. Libraries can also support the speedy (continues on page 368) C&RL News September 2021 368 Tacoma Community College, 2019, 5, accessed May 14, 2021, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z4P s94y0RGD3jZIYbb6Rj9eAdBp9fFMx4WNuuRCh tw4/edit?usp=sharing. 6. I. Branch, “Why I Take OER Courses,” The Liberated (blog), Tacoma Community College, January 17, 2014, http://opentacomacc.blogspot. com/2014/01/why-i-take-oer-courses.html. 7. TCC OER Project Annual Report 2012/13, Tacoma Community College, January 25, 2015, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QzCK8 _G3RoeHjD73Kn07s2BDdS5yrEGhDI9Jxtp8Fsc /edit?usp=sharing. 8. Kristin M. Woodward, “Building a Path to College Success: Advocacy, Discovery and OER Adoption in Emerging Educational Models,” Jour- nal of Library & Information Services in Distance Learning 11, no. 1–2 (January 2, 2017): 206-12, https://doi.org/10.1080/1533290X.2016.1232053. 9. Julie McLeod, “Student Voice and the Politics of Listening in Higher Education,” Critical Studies in Education 52, no. 2 (June 1, 2011): 179-89, https:// doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2011.572830. 10. Tacomacc4Reel, “OER Student Panel,” YouTube Video, 2:23, June 8, 2012, https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=sdoMP2B6yQQ. 11. TCC OER Project Annual Report 2012/13, 1. 12. “Student Learning Technology Needs Survey,” Tacoma Community College, 2021, https:// www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-XJQ22RR57/. 13. Desrochers, 15. 14. OE Steering Group and ASTCC, TCC Student Toolkit for Textbook Affordability and OER, 5. 15. Kristina Pogosian, “Working for a greater purpose,” Legislative News (blog), Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, March 15, 2019, https://www.sbctc.edu/blogs/legislative -news/2019/working-for-a-greater-purpose.aspx. 16. Boyoung Chae, email to Candice Watkins, March 31, 2021. 17. Ibid. 18. Merinda McClure and Caroline Sinkin- son, “Caring for Students in Postsecondary Open Educational Resource (OER) and Open Education Initiatives: Inviting Student Participation and Voice,” Reference Services Review 48, no. 3 (January 1, 2020): 473-87, https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR-03- 2020-0018. 19. Amy T. Nusbaum, “Who Gets to Wield Academic Mjolnir? On Worthiness, Knowledge Curation, and Using the Power of the People to Diversify OER,” Journal of Interactive Media in Education 2020, no. 1 (2020), https://eric. ed.gov/?id=EJ1253867. dissemination of research data by developing platforms for sharing content and advocating for open access. Services are changing, as well. Self-serve options for materials pickup are leading to the prioritizing personalized, in-depth human interactions over transactional ones. Reference and instruction will transform, with services delivered in person and online. The availability of real-time research assistance where and when the patron needs it will allow libraries to inte- grate into researchers lives more fully. Special Collections and Archives will digitize more of their collections to increase access and provide online research services. This will elevate the impact of these collections for both research and pedagogy. The way forward While nothing is certain, we think that as campus- es fully reopen, they’ll do so with a more focused purpose and new role to play to foster community, support creativity, and create impact for students and communities through experiential learning. Pre-pandemic pace and workflows won’t be fast enough to understand what’s happening and re- spond, and so agile service and staffing models will be needed to help spaces, services, and systems adapt. Experiential learning and the right suite of support services will be the priority as libraries pro- pel learning and research forward by bringing to- gether the people, information, and tools needed. To enable access and advance equity, services and collections will be reimagined to increase aware- ness, access, and usage with greater flexibility. (“Looking through the COVID fog,” continued from page 363) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z4Ps94y0RGD3jZIYbb6Rj9eAdBp9fFMx4WNuuRChtw4/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z4Ps94y0RGD3jZIYbb6Rj9eAdBp9fFMx4WNuuRChtw4/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z4Ps94y0RGD3jZIYbb6Rj9eAdBp9fFMx4WNuuRChtw4/edit?usp=sharing http://opentacomacc.blogspot.com/2014/01/why-i-take-oer-courses.html http://opentacomacc.blogspot.com/2014/01/why-i-take-oer-courses.html https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QzCK8_G3RoeHjD73Kn07s2BDdS5yrEGhDI9Jxtp8Fsc/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QzCK8_G3RoeHjD73Kn07s2BDdS5yrEGhDI9Jxtp8Fsc/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QzCK8_G3RoeHjD73Kn07s2BDdS5yrEGhDI9Jxtp8Fsc/edit?usp=sharing https://doi.org/10.1080/1533290X.2016.1232053 https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2011.572830 https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2011.572830 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdoMP2B6yQQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdoMP2B6yQQ https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-XJQ22RR57/ https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-XJQ22RR57/ https://www.sbctc.edu/blogs/legislative-news/2019/working-for-a-greater-purpose.aspx https://www.sbctc.edu/blogs/legislative-news/2019/working-for-a-greater-purpose.aspx https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR-03-2020-0018 https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR-03-2020-0018 https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1253867 https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1253867