The Archer Library’s website is one of the most visited University sites, with between 12,000 and 15,000 unique visitors per month at peak times of the academic year. It plays a key role in making the Library and Archives’ collections and services discoverable to students and researchers.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the campus moved to remote work, the Library’s website needed a very quick overhaul to focus on off-campus access to services. After setting up a COVID-19 status page (which was updated almost daily for the first two weeks), the Library Web Team, led by the Web Administrator, revised our home page to focus on services most critical to teaching, learning and research happening at a distance.

Many of these remote services such as chat reference existed already but needed to be highlighted on the home page. Other services such as digitization of print material were introduced to support remote work and needed new request forms and processes. For services in the physical building, such as study room booking, we had to disable the booking system and provide updated messaging to communicate that it was unavailable.

Given the number of resources provided through the library website, it is no small feat keeping everything linked and up-to-date, but we know that our website is a critical portal used for teaching and learning at the U of R.