From the Library

As a direct result of the announcement by the Federal Government that libraries are now included in the list of businesses and facilities that are to close as of midnight on Wednesday 25th March, the CHC Library will be required to continue offering library services from behind closed doors, but with open phones (07 3347 7908), open email (circulation@chc.edu.au), and open video-calls (Microsoft Teams). We look forward to being able to reopen the library doors as soon as we are permitted to do so.

Our library staff, Maree and I, will be available from 8:30am – 5:00pm on weekdays. Within reason, I will be available outside of those hours on weekdays, for students and staff who need assistance with the library’s electronic resources and who are unable to contact us during the day.

Access to electronic resources will continue unchanged. During this period, we will continue to make available appropriate additional electronic resources that suppliers are currently offering under special short-term conditions.

Access to the library’s physical resources will also continue, but through a non-contact service. You are welcome to contact us by email (circulation@chc.edu.au), phone (07 3347 7908), or video-call (Microsoft Teams), to arrange for the collection of physical items such as books, DVDs, etc. We will get them ready for you, so that when you arrive to collect them, all you need to do is let us know that you are here (phone 3347 7908 or knock loudly on the door). We will then pass the required items to you via a table that will be located near the front door – no close contact required.

Return of all physical resources will be through the 24/7 book drop. This is located in the recessed door in the wall of the library building that faces into the top carpark.

Still with regard to the library’s physical resources, for those who are unable to call in to the library, we will post books to you. We will pay the cost to get them to you, you will pay the cost of returning them to us. If you carefully open the packaging that the items arrive in, you should be able to readdress and reuse it to return these items. Please arrange the return via your local post office or other courier service, as appropriate. You are also welcome to drop them off at the library (see book drop details above), or to arrange for someone else to do so on your behalf.

Please note that all physical items are being cleansed/sanitised as they are returned. Such items are then set aside for a period of 24 hours before re-lending to another borrower. The indicated life of COVID-19 is 72 hours on plastic, hence the cleansing, and 24 hours on cardboard (assume paper also), hence the set aside period.

We are also able to provide a scan and email service for book chapters. This is provided subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act, i.e. one chapter or 10% of a book, whichever is the greater, OR, one article from an issue of a journal. We are not able to provide one chapter or 10% today, then another chapter or 10% another day. This would contravene the Copyright Act’s provision for fair use. The same applies to journal articles. To utilise this service, please email the details to circulation@chc.edu.au and we will email a PDF back to you as quickly as we are able.

I recently conducted two session on using the library catalogue and online journals with our students in SO100. These were recorded on video and the links to these session are…

Please note that these recordings are unedited, so I apologise in advance for any “interesting” parts. Additional helpful videos and text/image materials are available on the Library page in Moodle.

In these times of rapid change, there may be the need to further modify these services, and we will keep you informed if this is the case.

It remains our intention to provide you with the best library service that we are able to, even in the current circumstances.

If you have any questions regarding library services, please let us know.

 

Steve (your friendly librarian)