Coping Amidst COVID: Wellness Digest from the Natural Resources Agency – Thursday, January 28, 2021
COVID Update
Secretary Speaker Series on February 2: 2021 Priorities with Secretary Crowfoot—Resilience and Resurgence: Advancing Environmental Stewardship Across California
Natural Resources Agency staff persevered through an uncertain and difficult last year, navigating a global pandemic and catastrophic wildfire to make progress on our Agency’s mission to steward our state’s natural, cultural, and historic resources.
As we turn the page into 2021, we are positioned to advance key priorities, including doubling down on climate action, expanding environmental conservation to meet the Governor’s new “30 by 30” goal, expanding tribal engagement, and expanding equitable access for all. We are also leveraging lessons- learned from the pandemic to create a more dynamic, collaborative, and flexible workplace.
Join us on Tuesday, February 2 from 12:30-1:30 for a virtual town hall-styled Secretary Speaker Series event titled 2021 Priorities with Secretary Crowfoot – Resilience and Resurgence: Advancing Environmental Stewardship Across California to learn more—and help inform—our Agency’s 2021 priorities. Please bring your questions and suggestions!
This event will be live-streamed on Zoom. Register now!
Q&A with California Geological Survey Librarian Amy Loseth for #LibraryShelfieDay
Posted by CALCONSERVATIONPUBLICAFFAIRS on JANUARY 27, 2021
Most folks don’t know that the Department of Conservation is home to the California Geological Survey library–full of geologic resources, maps, and even rare books dating back to the 1600s!
The library, located at 801 K Street, in Downtown Sacramento (across from the Sacramento Public Library) is usually open to the public. With COVID-19 restrictions currently in place, most library use is now online.
We asked our resident librarian Amy Loseth a few questions about library life on #LibraryShelfieDay, January 27.
CGS Librarian Amy Loseth maintains a meticulous rare book room; some books date back to the 1600s.
How has managing the library changed this past year?
The digital trend is far from a new one. This last year emphasized the importance of digital resources, not only in the sense of obtaining more digital content for the library through purchasing and subscriptions, but in continuing to digitize the parts of our collection that we can, in order to make them readily accessible.
The pandemic has made it more difficult to obtain physical items as well, due to library closures and teleworking.
For more common items, we can usually find a lending source, but we’ve been running into issues fulfilling the more obscure requests, as these are sometimes available from only one or two institutions, which may or may not be lending out materials currently.
What types of requests are you getting now vs. requests pre-COVID?
The nature of the requests hasn’t changed that much actually. We have always received many requests for digitized materials from our collection, and we continue to.
What are your most requested items?
Staff requests are most frequently for articles and papers from scientific publications and theses/dissertations, either from our own collection or from other institutions through inter-library loan.
Requests from outside the organization are almost always for CGS publications, current and historic, print and digital, and of course, maps, maps, maps!
Are there any other libraries you want to collaborate or share with?
I have greatly enjoyed working with Nicole Waugh, Senior Librarian for the California Energy Commission Library, who spearheaded the initiative to share digital resources throughout all the departments of the California Natural Resources Agency. Her efforts and commitment have improved accessibility to innumerable resources for all of us working for the agency. I look forward to the furthering of this collaboration in the future.
Also, I think it would be exciting to participate in the Sacramento Archives Crawl in upcoming years to showcase some of the historical parts of our collection here, which certainly have much to contribute to the rich and storied past of the state of California.
Until you can browse our library in person again, check out CGS’ digital resources at conservation.ca.gov/cgs or browse their online catalog here.
Silver Linings
Check out the California Science Centers new website!
Throughout this time of COVID, we’ve had to adapt and evolve how we typically do things. In certain instances, this had brought forward creative solutions and improvements. With this new section titled “Silver Linings” we will share some of these new, innovative changes we’re seeing from our departments and partners.
If you’ve seen or developed a silver lining that you’d like to share, please email Elizabeth.Williamson@resources.ca.gov.
Hero Chronicles
If you know of a person or group stepping up in an extraordinary, unexpected way to help us combat the crisis, we want to feature them. Please share uplifting and inspiring things you’ve witnessed during the pandemic – sharing, giving, sacrificing, etc. Please email information to Elizabeth.Williamson@resources.ca.gov.
Featured Photo – Scenic California
Photos taken by Heather Bird from the California Energy Commission. Heather took these two sunset photos last week in Mendocino and Fort Bragg. Nature photography is a hobby for Heather, and she enjoys sharing the beauty of California with friends.
If you would like to submit a photo you’ve taken to be shared in the Wellness Digest, please email Elizabeth.Williamson@resources.ca.gov with a brief description.
Virtual Water Cooler
Tweet of the Day
Telework Tip
Visit telework.govops.ca.gov for best practices and tips to help make telework successful for every employee and the Californians we serve.
Featured Activities
California State Parks: Wild About Wetlands
California Coastal Commission: Climate Video Challenge
Full details on how to submit a video can be found here: http://www.coastal.ca.gov/climatechallenge/