Recharging After COVID: Creating a Virtual Reality Space to Grow Outreach and Foot Traffic at an HBCU Consortium Library

Abstract

When the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library (hereafter referred to as the AUC Woodruff Library) reopened in August 2021 following the COVID-19 closure, the following issues persisted: less foot traffic, fewer instruction session requests, and diminished campus activity. Fast forward several years and the effects of the pandemic on higher education have been dramatic, likely in some ways we won’t know for years. While students and faculty are back on campus, in many cases, AUC campuses have elected to offer hybrid options for course delivery.