Over the past week, Cornell University Library staff have been working hard to make sure that Cornell libraries can continue to support teaching, learning and research at Cornell as we transition to virtual environments and remote work. The urgency of COVID-19 mitigation requires that all Cornell libraries stay closed to physical visits by the public until further notice. In compliance with the “New York State on Pause” Executive Order presently in effect, there are currently no library staff on site on the Cornell campus. However, we continue to operate a strong virtual presence to meet the needs of our faculty, staff and students.
We will be more posting detailed updates and guidance about available services and resources on the Mann Library news page over the coming days and weeks, but for now, we offer a broad overview, especially for faculty.
Access to library materials
All Cornell libraries are currently closed for physical visits by patrons and no staff are on site until further notice. Book paging and pick up as well as scanning services are also suspended for now. But Cornell University Library’s online collections are extensive, and although we are, at this time, unable to obtain physical materials or supply scanning services for items held in the Cornell Library, we are still able to supply many chapter or article scans electronically to active Cornell faculty, students and staff. Please first use the library catalog to identify resources that are available to you online. If you find you cannot get electronic access to the resource you need via the catalog, you can ask the library to purchase an ebook via the online purchase request, or you can contact library staff in a variety of ways, including via a Zoom session with a Mann librarian, and we will help you get to what you need. If you wish to connect with your favorite licensed resources directly, please remember to use Passkey to get through the paywalls.
Research support
We have a strong online help presence through the Ask-A-Librarian service, including e-mail reference and chat reference; chat services currently are available 24/7.
- Research Support is available via email or Zoom
- You can request online library instruction
Cornell librarians stand ready to help Cornell faculty teach remotely successfully.
- We have created a library guide providing a host of information for faculty preparing to teach remotely. Please check out Library Support for Remote Teaching Guide to check out the info we have there (and if you see anything missing, let us know!)
- As you identify materials that need to be moved into digital format, please use your usual channels to place requests including email to culreserves-l@cornell.edu or contacting your liaison.
- Guide to working off-campus provides helpful tips for anyone digging into work from an off-campus location.
- Recommend a purchase can be used to obtain electronic versions of books that you find to be unavailable at Cornell. This may not be possible with all titles, but as Cornell Library has significantly increased its e-book purchasing capacity in response to the current situation, you may well find an e-version of your requested book can in fact be made available.
As everyone is likely keenly aware, the COVID-19 situation remains fluid and quickly changing. To stay as up-to-date as possible on any changes in services and resources that we are able to offer to Cornell faculty, students and staff, please check the Cornell University Library COVID-19 Library Services Update page. And please be in touch and let us know what questions and concerns you have, as well as your suggestions for moving forward: mann_outreach@cornell.edu




They’ve been called our country’s best idea, a space to connect with each other and something bigger than ourselves, a remarkable expression of democracy, preserving for everybody and for all time some of the earth’s most breathtakingly beautiful wilderness. And this year our national parks are being celebrated for a major milestone: The 100th anniversary of the U.S. national park system.
Formally, the National Park Service came into being with legislation signed by President Woodrow Wilson on August 25, 1916. But the roots that nurtured the birth of the NPS reach much deeper into U.S. cultural history, fed by earlier legislation (such as the 1864 act signed by Abraham Lincoln to protect Yosemite Valley) and values and visions shaped by generations of thinkers, writers, scientists, and artists–James Fenimore Cooper, George Catlin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Muir, Ferdinand Hayden, Fredrick Law Olmsted, to name a few.
As with any big idea, the story of America’s national park system has many perspectives, some inspiring, some that conflict with each other, some that have yet to be told. A new summer book display at Mann Library puts a spotlight on this multi-faceted history. As the life sciences library at Cornell, Mann’s collection in the areas of conservation, natural resources, and park management is particularly strong. We invite you come browse and explore a little of the philosophies, social and political forces, struggles, achievements, and hard, slogging work that brought America’s national parks into being. In line with the National Park’s Service celebration theme this year, we hope the browse will inspire our audience to go “
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Sarah Kennedy ’10 started at Mann in July as the Collection Development & Digital Collections Librarian. She coordinates the library’s book selection process (both print and electronic) and serves as the coordinator for liaison services to the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station community in Geneva, NY. Sarah is also the liaison to two departments (Entomology and Food Science). Sarah comes to us from the University of West Virginia, where she was the Agriculture, Natural Resources, Design, and Extension Librarian. Sarah’s net id is sek45.
Kate Ghezzi-Kopel is the Applied Health Sciences Librarian at Albert R. Mann Library. She serves as liaison to the Cornell department of Human Development and the Division of Nutritional Sciences. Kate holds a B.A. in English from Ithaca College and a M.S. in Library and Information Sciences from Syracuse University. Her interests include health information literacy, systematic reviews, social media in libraries, and promotion of evidence-based research practices. Prior to joining Mann Library, Kate was Research Assistant at The Center for Bioethics and Humanities at SUNY Upstate Medical University and Intern at the SUNY Upstate Health Sciences Library. She also spent several years in academic publishing developing and acquiring content in the fields of biology, communication studies, mathematics, and clinical medicine. Kate’s net id is kwg37.
Mary Lee “Mel” Jensen was hired as a part-time reference assistant at Mann Library. She has experience as the Head of Instructional Services and as an Assistant Professor at Kent State University. She was also the Instruction Coordinator at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, Ohio. Mel will be working the front lines as a reference assistant where she will help manage reference desk operations, and help triage and answer the thousands of annual questions we get at the reference desk. Her hours will be 8:15am – 1:15pm, Monday through Friday. Mel’s NetID is mj533.
Megan Benson started as another new part-time reference assistant In July. Before coming to Mann, Megan worked in the Orange County Library System in Orlando Florida, and as an Adjunct Professor at Valencia College in Orlando. Megan will also be helping to manage reference desk operations, and helping to triage and answer our volumes of reference questions. Her hours will be 12:00 – 5:00pm, Monday through Friday. Megan’s NetID is mlb459.
Deborah Cooper joined Mann’s Collection Development department as our new Collections Specialist on September 29th. Deborah comes to us from Digital Scholarship and Preservation Services (DSPS) in Olin where she has worked on the arXiv repository team. Previously she worked at the SUNY Cortland Memorial Library where she had reference and collection development duties. She also has Special Collections experience from an internship at the Rakow Library at the Corning Museum of Glass and has done volunteer archival work for Historic Ithaca. Deborah earned an MLIS from San José State University and has a BA in History from Leeds University, U.K. Her net id is dsc255.
This coming spring semester, Mann librarian Sarah J. Wright will again collaborate with the Office of Undergraduate Biology to offer BIOG 3020: Seminar in Research Skills for Life Sciences.