As the fall semester and 2020 come to a close, what does the future look like for our libraries, colleges, and world? What new practices or workflows will we keep, and which will be abandoned come 2021 and beyond?

Sarah Copeland, director of desks and patron experience at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, voices her concerns over staff burnout once normal working functions return. Lauren Magnuson, head of collections, delivery and access at the California State University San Marcos, predicts that her library’s cost-per-use model will come in handy when the inevitable cuts to the collection come next fiscal year. “A cancellation in one area saves money, but then there’s costs in other areas, and so that’s really the challenge there, is that how do we make the cuts in a way that is totally sustainable?”

In the final episode of the series, Sarah and Lauren explain what pandemic-related policies they’ll be happy to say goodbye to, and their pie-in-the-sky hopes for next semester—expand contactless pickup, please! They chat about the sustainability of current staffing models, the empowerment their libraries have found on campus, and the tough decisions that must be faced next year.

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