Lauren Dubell poses on the 4th floor terrace of the Leatherby Libraries

Lauren Dubell

This week in the Leatherby Librarians at Home blog series, Assessment Librarian Lauren Dubell fills us in on her remote work, her pets, and her advice for students.

1. What has been the most challenging aspect for you of working from home so far, and how did you overcome it?

One of the challenging aspects has been working when my pets are around. I have a retired greyhound and a Maine coon cat, and they both like lots of attention. I’m sticking to my regular work schedule and so far this has worked well. One way that I keep my greyhound (Calvin) calm is by taking a short walk in the afternoon. This also gets me outside!

A greyhound dog sitting curled up on a couch, looking to the left of the frame.

Lauren’s greyhound Calvin

2. What is your favorite remote resource for students and/or faculty? 

A great database is the eBook Academic Collection, which has over 160,000 eBooks. These books can be read at home in an internet browser and are perfect for finding background information on a topic, locating a source, or simply reading for fun. We have additional eBook databases for a variety of disciplines, which can be found here: https://chapman.libguides.com/az.php?t=23423

3. What book(s) have you been reading recently?

A stack of paperback books on a red background. The book on top is J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Lauren’s reading stack

I’ve been doing a lot of reading over the last month, but the current book I’m reading is The Lord of the Rings. I recently finished watching the film trilogy, so I decided to read the books for the first time. It’s been great so far. I’m about halfway through the second book in the series.

4. What is the most interesting change you’ve made to how you do your job in the past few weeks?

There haven’t been any major changes that I’ve made, mainly since I have a background in Distance Education. This has been helpful when I’ve been meeting virtually with students about their research topics from my liaison departments, Education and Political Science.

5. What is your number one piece of advice for students learning remotely and/or faculty teaching remotely right now?

My advice is to be kind to yourself. Because it’s been so stressful with everything happening, it’s okay to relax. Also, don’t forget that the librarians and library staff are here to help you with any library need. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us!