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Contact-less Borrowing and New Library Sources

POSTED ON: August 26, 2020

The Cooper community will soon be able to check out books from the library using a system designed to ensure patrons’ safety.

Library director Lisa Norberg explained, “We will page physical books from the collection for pickup/checkout, and scan and email book chapters and journal articles that are not available online.”

Borrowers will be able to take out books by first contacting the library via an online form. Librarians will then place the requested materials in a wrapper with the last three letters of the borrower’s last name and the first letter of his/her first name. Students and staff will be able to access their books on shelves placed just inside the library doors in order to minimize risk of contracting COVID-19, which can be communicated more easily indoors.

Library staff collaborated to devise the new system. Dale Perreault, senior library technician, pointed out that in addition to this new method for borrowing books, the library has expanded its offerings to make this contact-less moment as fruitful for researchers as possible. Besides offering patrons longer loan periods and removing late fines, the library has expanded its collections of ebooks and databases, accessible remotely with the 14-digit barcode on your Cooper ID.

What’s more, Mr. Perreault said, the streaming service called Kanopy is back this semester, in addition to other streaming options.  “We’re only licensing titles that faculty members need for classes, but everyone in the Cooper community can view these films anytime.”

Mr. Perreault noted that “the new semester energy jolt is unique this year.  We look forward to being of assistance on a variety of fronts.  In person and online."

More News from The Cooper Union

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.