Effective today — Monday, March 16 — at 5 p.m., the libraries are moving to a full closure of all facilities due to today’s announcement by Alameda County for residents to shelter in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus until April 7, 2020. An update should be coming from our library’s administration in coming days. The latest information on COVID-19 and how UC Berkeley is dealing with it can be found here: https://news.berkeley.edu/coronavirus/
Please see the message from the Chancellor’s office here.
However, we are here for you as your librarians to help you remotely. Here is more information on remotely accessing our resources: https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/help/research-help/remote-resources
We’ve received some queries about how students will access library resources if they are leaving campus. We have a significant amount of book and journal content available electronically that students can access from off-campus. If they tell you they are having difficulty accessing it, please point them to https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/using-the-libraries/connect-off-campus. If they are returning to a country that has restricted access to the Internet (like China) the VPN is the better option.
Remember that we are here to help students find the information they need and also access it. We may not be able to solve all their technical issues, but I can at least try to troubleshoot them. If a student cannot successfully connect to our electronic resources, we can try and deliver the content they need via email.
The students can use the 24/7 chat reference service, which has been expanded. https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/help/research-help