UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Thursday evening’s (March 19) announcement by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf closing all “non-life-sustaining businesses” across the commonwealth, effective at 8 p.m., necessitates the closure of all Penn State University Libraries locations, effective immediately and until further notice. University Libraries virtual library services and resources remain open and faculty and staff are available remotely to assist with Penn State academic and research needs.
The Ask a Librarian service continues via online chat, text message, email and phone. Details are available at https://libraries.psu.edu/ask. Also, faculty subject specialists are available for consultations regarding advanced questions, and contacts by location and department can be found at https://libraries.psu.edu/about/libraries. Reference and instruction also will be available remotely on Zoom by appointment.
Library users University-wide are encouraged to make use of the University Libraries’ robust online services and resources available at https://libraries.psu.edu. A new Remote Resources for Library Users page, curated with links to a variety of resources and services, is available at https://libraries.psu.edu/remote-resources-penn-state-library-users. Content highlights include more than 850 online and expert-curated databases — including a variety of multimedia resources available for streaming — as well as 225,000 online journals and more than 2.2 million e-books.
Circulation of the Libraries’ physical materials is suspended while locations remain closed. Upcoming spring due dates for students’ checked-out materials due while locations remain closed have been extended until May 7, and potential fines waived. Standard semester-long loans of materials will be auto-renewed in April for the summer term, and Libraries leaders may consider future extension dates.
Library users who have checked out other material should email UL-Lending@lists.psu.edu with questions about renewals and for requests for extensions. Interlibrary Loan requests for material from other academic research libraries will be processed but will remain dependent on the ability of other libraries to fill them. Requests for loans of print materials will not be processed until the Libraries’ locations re-open.
Please contact the Libraries at askalibrarian@psu.edu or complete the form at https://libraries.psu.edu/ask/question for reference help, instruction, consultations and assistance with other online services.
Updated information from Penn State leadership and its COVID-19 action groups can be found at https://psu.edu/virusinfo. The University Libraries’ COVID-19 updates page also will be refreshed as changes occur.