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Maintaining Service while 
Sheltering in Place
How SCATLA Member Libraries Thrived 
Under the Country’s Most Stringent COVID 
Lockdown
Robin Hartman, Hope International University
Steve Jung, Azusa Pacific University
Stacie Schmidt, Biola University
Alexis Weiss, Loyola Marymount University

ABSTR AC T California has consistently been at the forefront of 
COVID-19 cases in the United States and had stringent regula-
tions to slow the curve and save lives. These regulations have had a 
dramatic impact on academic libraries in Southern California, with 
many universities conducting online Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 
semesters. This presentation includes:

• An introduction to California COVID-19 restrictions.
• An overview of how SCATLA (Southern California Theologi-

cal Library Association) libraries have dealt with the COVID-19 
restrictions.

• A deep dive into how several SCATLA libraries - Azusa Pacific 
University, Biola University, Hope International University, and 
Loyola Marymount University - implemented creative solutions 
to support their communities during COVID-19 restrictions. 
Issues of budget, instruction, online support, staffing, physical 
materials vs online materials, mailing services, and space are 
discussed in detail.

• Plans for future policies and services in a world affected by the 
COVID-19 pandemic.

A video recording and slides can be seen on the Sched page for 
the session: https://atlaannual2021online.sched.com/event/itzr/
maintaining-service-while-sheltering-in-place-how-scatla-mem-
ber-libraries-thrived-under-the-countrys-most-stringent-covid-lock-
down-on-demand. 



142  AT L A 202 1 PROCEEDINGS

SCATLA – STACIE SCHMIDT

SCATLA began in 1988 as a regular meeting of seminary library direc-
tors in Southern California. SCATLA expanded over time to include 
non-library directors, which explains why you have us with you 
today. At its founding, SCATLA was not affiliated with Atla, as that 
came later. 

SCATLA is now affiliated with Atla and is considered to be a 
regional group within Atla. SCATLA meets three times a year for two 
business meetings and one professional development meeting. There 
are two levels of membership in SCATLA: full and affiliate member-
ship. To be a full member, libraries must have graduate programs in 
religion, at least one librarian, and 10,000 volumes in their library. 
The popular reciprocal borrowing program, which allows students 
to have free access to other libraries across SoCal, is only available 
for full members. There are currently 25 member libraries spread 
throughout SoCal.

CALIFORNIA DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC –  
STACIE SCHMIDT

Both California and LA County guidelines should be considered 
when looking at how SCATLA libraries operated in the COVID-19 
pandemic, as nearly two thirds of SCATLA libraries are in LA County. 
Within California, counties were welcome to make stronger restric-
tions than the state but could not make looser restrictions than the 
state. The following timeline is based on available government press 
releases and KCET’s “One Day at a Time ... A Comprehensive COVID-
19 Timeline”.

California’s COVID-19 story began earlier than most states. Cali-
fornia (Governor Gavin Newsom) and the City of LA (Mayor Eric 
Garcetti) declared a state of emergency over COVID-19 on March 4, 
2020, a week before WHO called it a pandemic. On March 19, 2020, 
both the state of California and the City of Los Angeles issued stay-at-
home orders. Universities and schools were to complete the school 
year virtually. 

Cases in California were higher than in many other states. All of 
our SCATLA libraries are in the top four hardest-hit counties in Cali-
fornia. To put our locations in context, Biola is just 10 miles away 



Panel Discussions  143

from Hope International, but Biola is in LA County and was subject 
to very different restrictions from Orange County.

In April to August 2020, there was no word on how higher educa-
tion could safely reopen in California. News about how K-12 could 
reopen trickled out throughout the summer, but nothing on higher 
education. In California, state colleges and universities began later 
in September because they were on the quarter system. A delay 
in guidance was fine for them, but less so for private colleges and 
universities on the semester system.

Finally, on August 12, 2020, protocols were issued for higher 
education. LA County firmly declared that colleges and universities 
would not be able to resume all in-person academic instruction, but 
training for essential workers that could not be done online could 
be done in person. LA County decided in September that it would 
not review the higher education protocols until around Thanksgiv-
ing, making it all but certain that the entirety of fall and possibly the 
spring would be online. 

On November 19, 2020, California hit one million COVID cases and 
headed into a terrible spike over the holiday season. On December 
30, 2020, another Safer at Home order was issued, in addition to a 
quarantine: if someone travels outside Southern California for non-
essential travel, there is a ten-day quarantine when they return. Cali-
fornia pushed through the surge, and from March to April 2021, Los 
Angeles County restrictions were eased. On June 15, 2021, all state 
COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings and recreational activities were 
lifted. Workplace restrictions remained in place for several weeks 
but eased by the end of June 2021. 

AZUSA PACIFIC UNIVERSITY DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC – 
STEVE JUNG

APU by the Numbers

Azusa Pacific University (APU) has less than four thousand undergrad-
uate students, the majority of whom live in on-campus housing, and 
between six and seven thousand graduate students. APU’s seminary 
offers various master’s degrees and a Doctorate in Ministry degree 
in English, Spanish, and Korean. There are around 400 total students 
in the various seminary programs, and nearly half take classes in 
English. APU’s seminary has around 200 Spanish speakers and 40 



144  AT L A 202 1 PROCEEDINGS

or so Korean-speaking students. The English and Spanish programs 
are on APU’s main campus in Azusa. The Korean-speaking students 
take all their courses at the LA Regional Center (LARC) in downtown 
LA. The San Diego Regional Center offers courses in English. Both 
Regional Centers (LA and San Diego) have small circulating collec-
tions managed by student workers and their campus directors.

Campus Restrictions

Face-to-face instruction ceased on March 21, 2020, and students were 
sent home. About 300 students remained on campus: international 
students who couldn’t leave and some students with difficult home 
situations. The campus became “closed” to the public. Only students, 
faculty, and staff were allowed on campus and only if registered as 
an essential worker AND after filling in your online daily health 
and wellness check. Of course, masks and social distancing were 
required.

Two of APU’s libraries closed to all public use on March 20, 2020. 
Our Hugh and Hazel Darling Library “closed” to the public on the 
28th. We quickly established a grab and go service, available two 
hours a day, five days a week. InterLibrary Loan, mailing of materials 
to students, and scanning services all ran through the three libraries 
by the staff that remained. We lost all but two of our eighty student 
workers by the end of that March. All faculty librarians began to 
work from home.

APU’s Response

Some of our financial responses: we increased e-book purchases, but 
we did not end physical book purchasing. We eliminated physical 
reserves. We told seminary and School of Theology faculty to only 
look for e-books or articles with permalinks or DOIs. We had been 
mailing materials to students at regional centers for about twenty 
years, so we had that service already going; it was not a new fiscal 
burden for us.

Most of our reference interviews were done online through 
LibChat (newish to librarians in the theology library) and Zooms 
scheduled in LibCal, which was new to us. Lindsey Sinnott’s (liaison 
to the School of Theology) schedule got far busier with both instruc-
tion and research consultations. Liz Leahy’s schedule got busier with 
research consultations for the Seminary and one crazy graduate 
nursing course. Most in-class instruction became Zoom meetings. 



Panel Discussions  145

We had an actual increase in instruction opportunities, which we 
hope to see carry over into the “new normal.”

Of our thirteen staff members, only six continued to come in on 
any consistent basis. This included the three circulation coordinators, 
our InterLibrary Loan manager, our Link+ manager, and the head of 
our technical services people. Our scanning of articles and lending 
of materials actually increased during that first spring and summer. 
One lending consortium (LINK+) only had a dozen operating/func-
tioning libraries lending, even though most of those schools were 
still operating online. We still serviced SCATLA students as we could.

At our San Diego Regional Center, all classes went online, and 
their courses were absorbed into our main campus sections of the 
same course. They had no library services, except through the main 
campus. They had no access to the reading room in San Diego. And 
because all SCATLA libraries closed to the public, they had no access 
to any theological libraries.

At the Los Angeles Regional Center, all classes went online like 
they did in San Diego. Their reading room was closed, but the site 
administrator created his own “grab and go” service for the current 
students. He also wanted to serve the Korean alum, but we have not 
gotten that system up and running yet. We did have a cataloger that 
also did reference work at LARC before the pandemic. Her email is 
known to all the LARC students, and she is still doing reference work 
from home.

The APU Libraries have a major problem: we have no control over 
our own website. It is controlled by University Relations. Addition-
ally, two of our librarians created two competing COVID websites/
LibGuides for the library. So, patrons had three places to look for 
guidance and three places to find bad or outdated information.

I did create a Library portal with both English and Spanish for 
Library policies/procedures and to request books. (It was originally 
designed for a non-student Spanish-speaking group that feeds into 
the seminary, the FACULTAD.) The book request form was also sent 
to alumni, SCATLA patrons, and local clergy. We already had a couple 
of LibGuides for Spanish research, just not connected directly to our 
catalog, our policies, or for putting holds on books. We created a 
similar guide for our Korean students, but it has yet to be translated 
into Korean. Currently it has a “Google Translate” widget on it. The 
idea is that it would service the current student population and our 
Korean-speaking alumni. There is currently no other online APU 



146  AT L A 202 1 PROCEEDINGS

library presence specific to the Korean students—no LibGuides or 
tutorials. We hope to fill out our LARC LibGuide as a bridge for our 
Korean-speaking students to the Library.

I started a Stamps Virtual Theological Library using LibGuides. 
We created the virtual library for the undergraduate students (our 
Seminary students mostly use their LOGOS package). It was up, in 
a skeletal form, on March 13, 2020. By that Friday, many e-books 
were posted, and it had nearly 300 hits. It was advertised by School 
of Theology and Seminary faculty to their students. It was mostly 
geared towards Biblical studies as we were about to enter our 

“Exegetical Season” (last five weeks of the semester). A huge portion 
of this guide was added by Sharon Ralston, our full-time information 
specialist, and she has done a great job.

Our goal was to put up enough digital material that it would act as 
a replacement for our physical library. The major tabs represented 
the major subject areas of the library. We have pages with commen-
taries and monographs. We have pages with links to texts and trans-
lations, church history, and a lot of ministry and practical theology 
links. It currently has over 28,000 hits, ten times the next-most-used 
guide at APU in the same time period.

We have completed one revamp (May 2020) and one reorganiza-
tion (May 2021). For the revamp we moved from course-named tabs 
(for commentaries and monographs) to books of the Bible. We had 
students that apparently didn’t know that commentaries on Psalms 
would be found under “UBBL 320 Hebrew Wisdom and Poetical 
Literature”. For the reorganization, we condensed the number of 
tabs – it was ugly, but functional – three or four rows of tabs. And now 
we have been adding more print items and suggest scanning if neces-
sary. We have been discussing how to add more to church history 
and systematic theology; that is on hold until two School of Theol-
ogy courses are reworked this fall. We also created a separate chat 
channel for the Stamps workers. Functionality is a priority for us. 

What We Learned and Future Plans

As a new day dawns over our campus, we begin our “new normal.” 
The Virtual Library will continue to be updated with both e-books and 
listings of physical books for scanning purposes. We will continue 
to maintain a high standard of what gets put on the guide; not every 
e-book is worth the effort. We’ll work more on connecting with our 



Panel Discussions  147

regional centers: improve our regional center guides and connect 
with their directors.

Hopefully we will gain control over our website and create a 
better means of communication. We are toying with the idea of 
using LibGuides for a website and modifying it so it doesn’t look 
too LibGuide-ish. We want to purchase more Spanish and Korean 
e-books in order to better support our students. And overall, we 
want to improve our communication with our partners and patrons.

LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY DURING THE COVID-19 
PANDEMIC – ALEXIS WEISS

LMU by the Numbers

Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is an R2 doctorate-grant-
ing institution with just under 10,000 students. The vast majority 
of these students are used to coming onto campus for all of their 
courses, but we did have a few low-residency programs prior to the 
pandemic. We offer multiple concentrations in theological studies, a 
master’s in yoga studies, as well as an undergraduate program that 
requires theology courses for all students. We currently have 39 staff 
members, 23 of which are professional librarians.

Campus Restrictions

When the pandemic hit, LMU chose to take a very conservative 
approach to access and continues to do so. We locked down in March 
2020 with the rest of Los Angeles. Until the end of 2020, almost no one 
came onto campus, except very limited staff, faculty to get items from 
offices, and students to pick up library books. In 2021, we opened 
up just a bit, but only for faculty and staff. Finally, in March, the 
Library became the first department to welcome students, with 
limited access, solely for the purpose of having quiet, individual 
study space. They also have some limited access to recreation facili-
ties.

LMU’s Response

Over spring break of 2020 when the lockdown started, we moved 
everything we could online, and we consolidated all information 
about digital library access into a single COVID-19 LibGuide that had 
a giant link right on the front page of our website. In Reference and 



148  AT L A 202 1 PROCEEDINGS

Instruction, we moved all of our instruction online and recreated 
our sessions for a virtual environment. We were able to keep up our 
instruction goals, and I taught in 14 general education courses and 
21 courses in theology or yoga studies in the 2020-2021 year. This 
included a newly designed, three-hour-long comprehensive intro-
duction to library resources for our incoming graduate students.

We moved all research support online, building up our how-to 
videos and LibGuides. We also pushed education on research consul-
tations in our library instruction. This was a very successful effort, 
as I had 122 one-on-one research consultations through Zoom this 
past year, a record number for consultations.

We significantly increased document delivery and uploads into 
digital classrooms. I also moved a significant portion of the theology 
collection development funds from our heavy print purchasing into 
purchasing e-books, filling all requests where an e-book was avail-
able on both faculty and student request.

Finally, we began a print request service.  This is something that 
we have never done, despite having some programs that are low 
residency. We piloted this with our yoga studies program, and then 
quickly made it available to all students, faculty, and staff. Patrons 
were given an option to pick up at the campus distribution center, 
campus access by appointment only, or to have items mailed to them. 
For the mail service, we even provided return postage.

What We Learned and Future Plans

What did we learn? First, sometimes online instruction is better. This 
was particularly true for our first-year general education courses, 
but also applied to some of the theology courses I taught in. Second, 
active learning is a must! I don’t think our grad students would 
have survived a three-hour-long session without putting in inter-
active group work in breakout rooms about every fifteen minutes. 
We worked to build this into every class to help avoid both student 
and teacher Zoom fatigue, and we will be continuing this practice 
heavily in person. Third, if we have students that don’t take classes 
on campus, it is a disservice to not have mail delivery. We can keep 
doing this in the future. We also found that online research consulta-
tions actually increased the number of advanced reference session 
we provided – our students were more eager to get help when they 
could do it from home on their schedule. Lastly, something LMU 
was never before open to, is that hybrid schedules are possible – not 



Panel Discussions  149

everyone needs to be in the building every day to be able to do their 
jobs, and some people work more efficiently at home. We really hope 
that hybrid will continue into the future. 

HOPE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY DURING THE COVID-19 
PANDEMIC – ROBIN HARTMAN

HIU by the Numbers

Pre-pandemic, almost 50% of Hope International University’s 
students were already completely online. (All of our master’s-level 
Ministry and Biblical Studies programs are completely online.) All 
of our on-ground courses also have an online component for taking 
attendance, uploading assignments, distributing reserve readings, etc. 

About the Darling Library – March 2020

Our Library is about 15,700 square feet situated on two floors of 
the main building on campus with about 70,000 physical items. We 
have two service desks covered by student workers. Circulation of 
reserve readings for Biblical Studies constitutes the greatest activity 
at the Circulation Desk on the first floor. The Information Commons 
on the second floor is the only computer lab on campus. It provides 
reliable computers, printing, and technical support.

Two librarians – myself and a Systems and Technical Services 
Librarian – provide all reference and instruction for the university 
and many other services beyond what our titles suggest. Our part-
time library technical assistants provide copy cataloging, technical 
processing, Interlibrary Loans, and many other “stand in the gap” 
services. However, we lost one of our part-time assistants due to 
budget cuts.

About the Darling Library (August 2020)

The pandemic was perfectly timed with the university’s plan to relo-
cate a satellite campus to the main campus. During the shutdown, the 
library lost 20-25% of our square footage as three offices, a record-
ing studio, and two classrooms were moved into the library. We had 
to do major weeding of the reference collection and back issues of 
periodicals to move them into much smaller spaces. 



150  AT L A 202 1 PROCEEDINGS

Campus Restrictions

After the chaotic up-and-down roller coaster of March/April 2020, our 
administration decided to provide all instruction online. Almost all 
employees worked from home until July 1st.  Although the library 
remained closed during the summer, the library staff returned to 
campus on July 1st because, as mentioned earlier, the library had 
been “renovated” while we were away. We had major work to do 
in the aftermath to get the library ready for Fall 2020.  At that point, 
our administration was still hoping that classes would resume face-
to-face on campus in the fall. (That did not happen.)

Library Response (Spring 2020) 

We had been heavily in online resources for many years due to the 
high percentage of online students and were fairly well prepared in 
that area for the sudden turn of events. 

The focus of library instruction turned to Zoom sessions. We also 
jumped in to help teach how to create a poster session for an online 
presentation. We also created a LibGuide to help the professors who 
normally teach on ground to serve as a central location for finding 
the help they needed and to remind them of what we have. One Bibli-
cal Studies professor who depends heavily on print reserves for his 
classes called with a concern about how students would be able to 
complete their exegetical papers. The Biblical Studies department 
had just signed on to a campus-wide agreement with Logos Bible Soft-
ware a year prior to provide “all the resources the students would 
need.” Unfortunately, not all students had made the purchase and 
they still needed more application biblical commentaries than are in 
the customized version of Logos we agreed to distribute. I was able 
to walk him through searching WorldShare Discovery Service to 
find enough supplemental resources to satisfy him. I also gave him 
a quick tour of the e-books LibGuide. I felt very satisfied.

We reminded students of the LibAnswers (Ask-a-Librarian) online 
reference service and added and updated some of the pre-populated 
FAQs as well as some key video tutorials. With that, we did not see 
much of an increase in requests for actual research help.

Library Response (Fall 2020)

We reopened the Library in Fall 2020. We know that not all students 
have a reliable Wi-Fi, a computer for Zooming, or an environment 
conducive to studying at home. If we had not opened the library, I am 



Panel Discussions  151

convinced that some students would not have been able to complete 
assignments or even attend online classes. We hired six returning 
student workers, about half of our normal number. Only HIU students 
were allowed to enter—no alumni or community guests.  We chose to 
be open 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and kept tally of 
patrons. We averaged about 4-5 students per day through Spring 2021.

We put COVID protocols in place such as:
• PPE for our workers
• Extra cleaning responsibilities 
• Controlling foot traffic in and out of the library and up and 

down designated stairs
• Closing the stacks, promoting putting books on hold for contact-

less pick up
• Quarantining books before reshelving
• Moving furniture and adding social distancing signage on the 

chairs

What We Learned and Future Plans

1) Not everything comes to a stop just because there’s a 
pandemic.

2) The library was well prepared for providing online services 
(We deserve a pat on the back for strategically purchasing 
e-books little by little as much as possible over the years.)

3) Vendors and publishers are pretty decent. We all benefited 
from many generous offers of access from companies who 
were also suffering through the pandemic.

4) A lot of work can be done from home. For example, I weeded 
the reference collection from my Lazy-Boy easy chair!

5) Our student workers are more capable than we gave them 
credit for. 

We thought we were doing our student library assistants a favor 
by letting them work a few hours a week. We have found that they 
cannot be trusted with long-term projects – to pick up where they 
left off and communicate progress, etc. – or take on detail-oriented 
responsibilities on their own. However, we hired a small crew of 
seasoned students who rose to the occasion. They often worked alone 
and proved themselves to be responsible. With a dwindling staff, 
we will need to rely more heavily on student workers for greater 
responsibility.



152  AT L A 202 1 PROCEEDINGS

BIOLA UNIVERSITY DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC –  
STACIE SCHMIDT

Biola University is located in La Mirada, California, which is right 
on the border of LA and Orange County. Biola was founded in 1908 
in downtown Los Angeles as the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, but 
over time it transformed into Biola College, and now Biola University. 
Biola has around 6,000 students—4,000 undergrad and 2,000 grad. 
Talbot School of Theology makes up over half of that grad student 
population. As a private liberal arts university, Biola promotes a 
shared campus experience as the heart and essence of the Biola 
education.

The Library is a crucial part of that shared experience. We’re 
located dead center in the middle of campus, a hub of student study 
space on campus. Biola has a tiny student center, and there isn’t 
much student study space. Our Dean has described the Library as 
the “living room” of campus. 

Campus Restrictions

Biola spent the week of March 16, 2020, grappling with decisions. 
Initially in-person classes were canceled: students were to stay on 
campus and attend classes virtually, with the library to be open with 
reduced hours. A few days later, all students were sent home, with 
the exception of a few students who received permission to continue 
living on campus. Chaos was palpable. By the March 19th close date, 
staff had already been offered work from home, and then we stayed 
home for the foreseeable future. 

I mentioned earlier the lack of state and county guidelines for 
higher education to resume safe operations. The prevailing feeling 
on campus was frustration. While Biola is in LA County, it is at the 
far side of LA County and is only three miles from the Orange County 
border. COVID rates in our area were much less than in Los Angeles 
proper. Biola initially announced some kind of in-person Fall 2020, 
assuming that LA and California guidelines for higher education 
would provide a way to safely reopen. Biola was very interested 
in following guidelines from the county and state. It became clear 
that a fall reopening was not going to occur, as guidelines were not 
given until August. Those guidelines made it clear that classes could 
not happen in person unless they were educating essential workers.



Panel Discussions  153

Biola shifted to what I would call a “restrained reopening” in 
Spring 2021. Essential worker classes were held on campus, and 
Biola slowly allowed students to move back into the dorms into 
individual rooms with quarantine and distance regulations. The 
Library reopened as part of that restrained reopening a year and a 
week after we closed. 

A Closed Library: New Opportunities and Mixed Bags

We had to accommodate our new existence as a closed building. Like 
many other institutions, we created a mailing service to mail books 
to patrons and began doing so in August 2020. From August 2020 to 
June 2021, we have mailed out over 300 books. This service is only 
for students/staff/faculty in the US. In June 2020 we were able to offer 
book pickup for students, faculty, and staff from the Library lobby. It 
took much negotiation and maneuvering with Biola administration, 
as the campus was still closed. From June 2020 to June 2021, there 
were over 4,000 pickup requests placed. We continue to offer pickup 
and holds even though we are now open. 

From a librarian’s perspective, a closed library and campus 
offered new avenues for liaison support. I am the liaison for the 
School of Education and was able to select and suggest online acces-
sible curriculum for several classes. Liaisons were also essential to 
locating e-book textbooks.

Do students care about the library when the building is closed? 
We expanded research consultation booking services, which saw an 
uptick in usage, but our chat service and overall question transac-
tions took an incredible dip. Colloquially, it seemed like most ques-
tions were asking us when the building would reopen, versus asking 
for assistance with research, materials, or other library services. 

Reopening the Library

In March 2021, over a year after we closed, we were able to reopen to 
students, faculty, and staff with a strict series of guidelines. Distanc-
ing and mask wearing were enforced. Group study rooms became 
individual study rooms. We were finally open after answering so 
many questions in the past year about our reopening. As mentioned, 
we are continuing the mailing, pickup, and extended ILL services. 
From March 22, 2021, to June 8, we had slightly over 10,000 gate 
counts. (Biola is a closed library, and all students/staff/faculty are 
required to tap into the gate with their ID card.) The first month 



154  AT L A 202 1 PROCEEDINGS

alone accounted for just over 6,000 of those gate counts. In contrast, 
gate count for that same month period in 2019 was just under 59,000. 
This is a huge change in the number of patrons using our building, 
as would be expected in a pandemic when a large part of the student 
population is still at a distance. From my viewed experience, students 
wanted to use the space in ways they were used to, and the lack of 
group study space was a detriment. The shared Biola experience is 
still paramount to students, and the space without that shared expe-
rience may have been less compelling. 

What We Learned and Future Plans

I have been struck by competing ideas of what a library is, and how 
that tension has only grown in the pandemic. Is the Library primar-
ily a space? The drive at Biola and within the Library to reopen high-
lights a belief that place is paramount to service. Or is the Library 
the services that we provide, regardless of format? What does the 
Biola administration think a library is? There are no answers as we 
deliberate this. 

The second question facing the Biola Library is: who are our 
users? We reopened with the expectation that students, staff, and 
faculty would come back. These groups did come back, but not to 
any degree like in the past. Alumni and community members seem 
to have the strongest affinity for the Library and desire to return 
to our space, but they are currently not allowed to use the Library. 
Will students return in full to the Library when Biola reopens for an 
in-person Fall 2021? I think the ramifications of the pandemic will 
ring for years at the Biola Library. 

EXPERIENCES OF SCATLA LIBRARIES IN THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC 
– STACIE SCHMIDT

In our recent SCATLA meeting, we discussed our common experi-
ences as libraries surviving the COVID-19 pandemic in the strictest 
state in the US. Here’s what we learned:

Commonalities

• Desire to thrive: each SCATLA library wanted to serve their 
students, staff, and faculty with excellence even in the middle 
of a pandemic.



Panel Discussions  155

• Desire to be seen as important to administration and students: 
each SCATLA library was eager to be seen as an integral part 
of the educational experience. 

• Scattered student populations: each SCATLA library served 
populations that scattered across the world during the 
pandemic. 

Differences

• Different approaches to California’s restrictions: some SCATLA 
libraries were able to open with limitations, while other 
SCATLA libraries had to remain closed. 

• Different lessons learned by administration: some SCATLA 
libraries learned that their librarians did not need to be 
physically located at the Library to provide support, while 
other SCATLA libraries learned that their patrons were best 
supported by having librarians physically present at the library. 


