October 17, 2020

Returning to TEAL: The First Few Steps

Mail and deliveries to TEAL. At time of writing, many of these items have already been processed, but we are still working our way through the backlog.

After six months away, a limited number of staff have been working on-site at the University of Washington’s Tateuchi East Asia Library (TEAL). Throughout the COVID-related closure, TEAL staff have been hard at work providing our users access to ebooks, databases, and other electronic resources. Nevertheless, we’re glad to have the opportunity to provide you with access to our physical collections once again!

Safety is still very much the order of the day, and UW Libraries staff are taking every precaution they can to minimize the risks to our students, staff, and faculty. Masks and gloves are worn by staff while handling all materials, and quarantine protocols are in place to reduce the likelihood of transmission via returned books. We’ve also posted signage within the library to ensure that our staff working on-site are following best practices when it comes to hygiene and safety. We don’t yet have an estimate for when we will be able to offer additional services to our users, but at each step along the way, we’ll continue doing our best to be mindful of staff and user safety.

Our first order of business upon returning to on-site work at TEAL was clearing the backlog of deliveries and mail that accumulated in our absence. Over 15 bins of mail and 70 boxes of acquisitions sent by vendors from around the world had made their way to TEAL over the past six months. Fortunately, our dedicated staff have already begun the work of processing this backlog, and we hope soon to resume something closer to our typical workflow. We’re also heavily involved in support of the UW Libraries No Contact Curbside Pickup Service, ensuring that our interested users can still access the many Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (CJK) titles held by TEAL.

For continued updates on the services that UW Libraries is able to provide, check the Coronavirus update page at https://www.lib.washington.edu/coronavirus