Herman B. Wells Library was closed for few months from mid-March until August 24th. During COVID-19, the library building was closed, however the service was never shut down for students. And finally on August 24th, the library opened the building inside for students to come in and study with new rules and updates. The library inside is now re-designed, allowing for students to keep 6 feet away for each other. Students are required to wear a mask for safety. Safety is number one rule at Wells Library. Anti-Bacterial items such as hand sanitizers and cleaning wipes are always nearby at tables in the building where students can easily access them. Students can reserve the same seating for three hours maximum at a time. Reserving a seat is new idea at Wells Library to keep students socially distanced.  Students can easily access Wells Library on their website and click “reserve seat” they would like to do so, here’s the link: https://libraries.indiana.edu/spaces

After reserving a seat and arriving, students show their reservation on a phone to a library host. Hosts sit behind the screen at both the East and West tower entrances. Students should not ever take their masks off. And lastly they need to make sure to clean the seat after-use with cleaning wipes for safety reasons.

Question. How can students check out books?

Anna Johnson answered, “Some of our books are not available to be checked out currently, because they are available electronically. So about 12 years ago, the Google and HahtiTrust scanned many of our books, a really big portion of them, those are copy-righted, so normally they are not available, this was for preservation purpose; things like caught fire. When the library was closed on March, HahtiTrust was able to turn those books on for us. so that even though you couldn’t get in the building to check the book out but you could still use the book online. Unfortunately, those books are under copy right so we can’t have two copies. So the fact we have copy in HahtiTrust means that we can’t have a physical copy of book circulate. But this is helping so many IU students and facility who can’t come into the building. Maybe they are compromised, maybe they are far away, they are not in Bloomington this semester; this is allowing many people to have access.”

 

 

Parking spaces are limited at the Wells Library. Currently, 45 minutes parking is the maximum parking limit for students. Students need to find an empty parking meter spot at the library then find a parking meter and put in the car license plate number. After you pay with your credit card or coin, take the printed receipt and put it on your car window. For some students who need to stay longer at the library, they can reserve the same parking spot twice more with maximum of 45 minutes parking; which means in total a maximum time of 135 minutes. However, students need to come outside and pay the parking meter every time separately when they are reserving a parking space.

According to Anna Johnson, the library has no power to control and parking is purposely for students who need to come to the library for the short period of time such as running in, grabbing a book or returning items. It is impossible for students to park longer at the library and if students perhaps want to come to the library for studying purpose then she highly recommended students to just walk in or park somewhere farther away. Parking spaces at the library are limited and students need to aware the parking is only for short period of time.

 

 

Anna Johnson gave useful information to IU students who are trying to come to the Wells Library. The library is open from Monday through Thursday 8AM to 10PM and open on Friday at 8AM to 6PM, closed on Saturday and open at 1PM to 10PM on Sunday. Those hours will change after November 20th when students go home. And for students who are wanting to come to the library for studying purpose then, make sure that you have that seat reservations before you get here. Most students want to sit together with friends or closer but students must keep 6 feet apart away each other. However you can get seats that are least near each other, maybe like catty-corner. So for some students who would like to sit closest possible, then feel free to go online or to come and ask us for buddy seat or is there someway that I can sit kind of close to your friend but still socially distanced. And lastly, the library chat online is available for students, so most of those hours that library is open, there is someone that you can chat and get help. So if you do have a question either about seating, about your research, about something that is not working on website, you can always ask anytime and we are glad to help with that.

 

Library cafeterias are currently closed for students, however The Bookmarket Eatery; Hubbard & Cravens, Panino Mio, Scholars Inn Bakehouse and Good2Go are available for pick up and delivery only due to COVID-19.

 

The library is closed every Saturday, so it’s important to check updated hours if you are planning to go. You can check out updated hours and more information about Wells Library by following this link: https://libraries.indiana.edu/

Here’s another link for students can follow Wells Library on twitter for new updates: https://twitter.com/hermanbwells