The UGA Libraries’ reopening plan begins with contactless porch pickup services for graduate students and faculty beginning June 23. UPDATE: Undergraduate students may reserve books for porch pickup as well.
Most library services and resources will remain available digitally through the summer, as a small group of library faculty and staff return to campus to begin preparations for safe on-campus operations during the upcoming academic year. However, due to requests, certain books may be checked out and retrieved by faculty and graduate students.
Students and faculty currently have remote access to more than 2 million volumes through the UGA Libraries’ e-book collection, as well as a partnership with Hathi Trust, a digital preservation consortium of 150 academic libraries.
The contactless pickup service applies to books that have no digital copy available through our catalog, and only items located at the Main Library, Science Library, or off-site repository will be accessible, initially.
Graduate students and faculty may reserve up to five items at a time through UGA Libraries’ online catalog at libs.uga.edu. They will be notified via email when items are ready for pickup during limited service hours of 1-4 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays at the Main Library on North Campus.
Consistent with UGA’s guidance on social distancing, the Libraries will follow a “no-touch” procedure. Staff will wear masks and gloves during the retrieval process, and books will be placed in plastic bags. When patrons arrive at the Main Library, they will need to call 706-542-5199 and a staff member will deliver their materials to the front porch location. To check out the materials, faculty and graduate students must show their UGA ID.
Faculty and students who requested inter-library loan materials prior to the campus closure in March may be able to retrieve the items through this process. Contact the inter-library loan office at borrow@uga.edu to find out the status of your request.
For most UGA Libraries books, due dates have been extended to August 10. However, those who want to return their materials may use a drop-off location in the Main Library’s parking lot on North Campus. Materials borrowed through inter-library loan should be placed in a bag and marked for ILL return.
For more information about UGA Libraries services and response to COVID-19, see https://guides.libs.uga.edu/COVID19.