I am writing to my staff today to provide a message of thanks in a period of unprecedented uncertainty and trepidation. The coronavirus is profoundly impacting all of our lives, changing how we live, work, and interact with each other. Keeping ourselves, our friends, our families and our community safe is consuming all of our energy and has left little room for much else.
We are physically separated from our HMS friends and colleagues with no real end in sight, to satisfy social distancing protocols. The unfortunate by-product of this is that we feel unsettled and are experiencing a sense of heightened anxiety about what the future may hold. While you are working remotely, please know that you are a vital part of the Countway Library and Harvard Medical School community. I am collecting stories that continuously demonstrate how we are adapting our practices to stay connected and to continue to support our faculty, staff, students, and each other. While our library building may be physically closed, we are OPEN providing the vital reference, research, instruction, history of medicine, access to information, and other services to our community and beyond. We are making a difference.
In just a few short weeks we have needed to totally transform the ways in which we conduct business in order to support the vital research, education, and clinical mission of HMS and its affiliates. These are all things that, individually, might be challenging but as a team, we continue to rise to the challenge in an organized, transparent, and successful manner.
Medical Schools and Libraries are moving through unchartered waters with challenges that seem to be insurmountable for many institutions and their employees. The drastic fluctuations and decline in the stock market have put intense pressure on endowments. Some schools and their respective libraries are ill-prepared. This constant drumbeat of negative news is understandably taking its toll.
With that said, I know your individual pressures are more personal and acute. Therefore as a Library, we will do everything we can to help you mitigate those pressures. We are moving towards developing resources that move away from social distancing protocols to those resources that can foster social honoring. We are focusing our efforts on keeping us connected while we may be apart. We are working towards getting us to the “we” while we may be alone. To that end, we have implemented a number of mitigation measures to help. The following represents a sample of those measures:
- Lunch and Learn sessions
- Facebook Live
- Resources for staff list (HR, EAP, etc.)
- Free Educational Offerings listing online
- Weekly Staff Newsletter
I wanted to close by expressing my deepest appreciation as to how all of you are responding to the needs of our faculty, staff, students, and our colleagues. I am so proud of all of you. These are difficult but not impossible times. We are all in this together.
Elaine Martin