King's Principal's COVID-19 Update - King's Library

A message from Dr. David Malloy, King's Principal:

As the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to King’s becoming a largely virtual campus in March, our staff and faculty showed their flexibility by pivoting to providing students and other members of the King’s community the same level of service and support as before. This flexibility and ingenuity have continued throughout the months and during the various states of the pandemic.

The Cardinal Carter Library’s goal remained, as always, to provide faculty and students with high quality resources for study and research. In mid-March, the library shifted and offered all the resources possible online to continue to serve our community, no matter if the members of our community were across town or across the globe.

As the summer began, the staff at the library continued to adapt their services and offered research help, instruction, and even more access to resources remotely. Students and other members of the King’s community can access research help remotely via the AskChat program, email,  telephone, and online virtual appointments.

Library staff began returning to campus during the month of July and, by mid-August, curbside pickup of the King’s Library book collection had started.

As fall classes began, the library continued to re-open some services. Their amazing student and staff team has been on-site offering front desk assistance, access to computers and quick print/copy/scan services.

While access to the book stacks and study spaces remained closed for health and safety reasons, on-campus study space has been provided in the Learning Commons, adjacent to the library in the King Student Life Centre.

The library has launched three new programs:

• The Click and Collect contactless book pickup program
• The new Digital Delivery program where digital scans of chapters and articles can be emailed
• The Course Reserves program is now almost completely digital

These are all examples of how the staff at the Cardinal Carter Library at King’s were able to develop and implement new ways to provide the same outstanding service: supporting our staff, faculty, and students during a challenging time. The ability of the dedicated team to provide seamless access to the Cardinal Carter Library collections while working with the impacts of COVID-19 shows that while many things in the world have changed, the library’s commitment to our community has not waivered.

I encourage the King’s community to find inspiration in the ways we have seen changes implemented. The day-to-day operations of King’s continue as smooth and seamlessly as possible. All have been done with an eye towards social and physical distancing to ensure the health and wellbeing of the King’s community.

Thank you to everyone for all that you have done to take care of yourselves, take care of each other and take care of this place. Your efforts have not gone unnoticed and are appreciated.