| June 20, 2018
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Days with Beignets! Springshare is jazzed about ALA 2018 in NOLA

Forget the mumbo jumbo… we’re all about the mumbo gumbo in New Orleans — June 21-26 where ALA Annual 2018 brings librarians to The Big Easy. Before you get too wrapped up in the excitement, make a note that Springshare will be in Booth 3920. Come by, say hello, and check out our brilliant Flash Presentations given by us and… “bayou.” We’re thrilled about our guest speakers and can’t wait for you to see how they use our tools in their libraries.

If coming to NOLA is not in the tarot cards for you this year, you can still catch the Flashes on Facebook Live as we will be recording the guest sessions. Make your way to the Springshare Facebook Page at the scheduled local New Orleans time and it will be like you were there. In fact, you can even ask questions in the comments section. We’ll be sure to get those over to the speaker so we can get you your answers.

BiblioEvents and Springshare Integration Demo

Back by popular demand, we have teamed up with the BiblioCommons folks to show the special integration between LibCal spaces booking and BiblioEvents. Curious? Come to Booth 3920 and see exactly how it works.

Product Flash Presentations

Guest Presentations

We know you’ll be out catching beads in the French Quarter! Make sure to catch these inspiring presentations, too. Springshare clients will take the stage and share the innovative ways they’ve been using our solutions in their institutions. It’s always amazing to see how a different use can come into the world and how imagination and fearless librarians can push tools beyond even our original vision. Don’t forget, we will be recording all the guest presentations live on our Facebook page.

Friday, June 22: View Entire Day’s Schedule

 

Kelly Wilson

Rachel Hooper

Troy Univ. Library: LibGuides Outside the Classroom

6:00pm-6:15pm

The Troy University Librarians use LibGuides to help train library student workers, provide access to Government Documents, and help professors for specific classes by using both bibliographic and subject-specific styles. This presentation will showcase the various ways Troy University has utilized LibGuides as well as ways we intend to use them in the future.

 
 

Ashley Creek

Ashley Creek

Univ. of Saint Mary: Active Learning in the Library

6:30pm-6:45pm

As part of our campus active learning initiative, the library now checks out equipment for audiovisual projects using the LibCal Equipment Manager. In order to provide training and support for both students and faculty, the Emerging Technologies Librarian also creates tutorials, technology overviews, and customized project instructions using LibGuides. By combining the two platforms, students are supported from project assignment to completion, and faculty can collaborate with librarians to develop projects, assessment tools, and experiment with flipped classroom and other learning technologies.
  

Saturday, June 23: View Entire Day’s Schedule

 

Mary Weppler

San Joaquin Delta College: Adding Emaze to LibGuides

9:30am-9:45am

This LibGuide presentation covers how to incorporate a virtual environment into your LibGuide. When used effectively within the LibGuide homepage, Emaze presentations can provide a visually engaging user experience, one that may enhance and reiterate the content within the LibGuide.

 

 

Lisa Campbell

Univ. of Florida: LibGuides Remix

12:00pm-12:15pm

Learn how Lisa remixed their LibGuide with LibWizard (and other cool embedded tools) to coordinate, teach, and assess library instruction for first-year writing students.

 

 

 

Kristin Conlin

Sean Hogan

Univ. of Baltimore: Developing Finding Aids w/ LibGuides

2:30pm-2:45pm

Learn how the University of Baltimore Langsdale Library student staff from Access Services, Achievement and Learning Center, Integrated Digital Services, and Acquisition & Discovery Services departments collaborated to develop a mobile-friendly finding aid in basic LibGuides for use at a single service point.
 
 
 
 

Sunday, June 24: View Entire Day’s Schedule

 

Sally Stieglitz

Adelphi Univ. Libraries: #TrendingNow: LibGuides to Promote Current Events

9:30am-9:45am

This presentation will share the development of three Adelphi University LibGuides on trending topics and how they impacted outreach and instruction. Best practices for developing similar guides will also be discussed.

 

 

JoAnn Krzeminski

Henry Ford Hospital: Using LibGuides CMS to Create a Library Website

11:30am-11:45am

This presentation will describe the use of the Springshare product LibGuides CMS to create a hospital library website. In the spring of 2017 our Web Services department began the final stages of migrating institutional webpages, including the library website, to a new web content management system (CMS). When the new web CMS template failed to meet the needs of the library, we were given special permission by Web Services to use our existing LibGuides CMS instance to create the library website.

 

Jeanette Sewell

Rice University: LIS is for Everyone

3:30pm-3:45pm

As the new LIS Subject Specialist at Rice University’s Fondren Library, I decided to create my first ever LibGuide. To be honest, it’s actually something that’s been on my librarian bucket list. My goal in designing this LibGuide was to promote Fondren’s collection of LIS books and journals as well as to provide resources that are freely available and of interest to LIS students and practitioners in general.

Category: Conference |
| June 8, 2018
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These Libraries Are Fully-Equipped < /pun>

Pardon the pun, but we just couldn’t keep ourselves in check. We were too busy checking out these awesome uses of LibCal’s Equipment booking module, and we just couldn’t reserve our excitement.

Cue the groans. 😛

But in all seriousness, we get lots of folks asking us for examples of libraries using our tools. So, we’d like to highlight a few different types of libraries, from all over the world, using the LibCal Equipment Booking module.

 

Academic Library: Milwaukee School of Engineering

Circulating Molecular Models

The Walter Schroeder Library at the Milwaukee School of Engineering was an early adopter of the LibCal Equipment Booking Module, and their use-case is absolutely fascinating. They use it to manage online reservations of their molecular models, which they ship all over the country to their students. Their loan time is three weeks, which includes two weeks of expected shipping time. They’re able to manage these reservations and the additional padding all from within the Equipment Module. Additionally, their custom reservation form includes all the important mailing information, so the library can cut down on the back-and-forth and get right to the business of shipping out the models.

Want to hear more about how the Walter Schroeder Library manages these long-distance reservations? Check out their ALA-MW 2017 flash presentation lead by librarian Denise Gergetz. You can also download her presentation slides.

Circulating Molecular Models…Long Distance!

 

Public Library: Pioneer Library System

Circulating Costumes, Blue Blocks, & More

Just looking at the super-cool stuff the Pioneer Library System is circulating with their LibCal Equipment Module makes me want to be a patron of this library! Not only can their patrons reserve maker space items like littleBits and access to their 3D printer, but they also have button makers, jewelry making tools, and costumes! With the ability to manage different reservation timeframes for each type of item and with big, colorful images to advertise the cool stuff they have at the library, we can see why the Pioneer Public Library System’s LibCal Equipment Booking Module is busy busy busy!

The Pioneer Public Library has amazing usage of their Equipment. Look at all that red!

 

Public Library: Tiverton Public Library

Circulating Museum Passes

When you think of ‘Equipment’ it’s easy to get hung up on physical stuff. But, that’s not always the case! The Audubon Society of Rhode Island’s Education Center has a ton of museum and zoo passes that are available to their patrons. They’re using the LibCal Equipment Booking Module to manage circulation of those items.

Using Equipment Bookings to Manage Circulation of Library & Museum Passes!

 

K12 Library: Scotch College in Australia

Circulating Media Equipment… with a Twist

Although Scotch College School for Boys in Australia might be using LibCal Equipment Bookings to circulate more “traditional” library items, their customizations are anything but traditional. Using LibCal’s built-in code libraries and flexible customization features, the librarians at Scotch College are able to put a little pizazz on their visual equipment catalog. Simply hover over any of the pieces of equipment; notice how the item just jumps off the page? Its that little bit extra that makes their LibCal Equipment Booking catalog pop, literally.

Gorgeous hover effect adds a pop of pizazz to Scotch College’s Equipment Catalog.

 

If you’d like to learn more about LibCal’s Equipment Booking Module or more examples of Libraries using it, please contact us.

Category: LibCal |
| June 7, 2018
8 comments

Living in an HTTPS World

We’ve sent out all of our GDPR notices, so now it’s time to get into a different security conversation: HTTPS and browsers! Good security as a baseline is important, and with browsers also working toward that goal, it’s time to really dive into the HTTPS action with all of your sites.

Remember last year when we posted about Chrome’s changes to mark any webpages that load over HTTP and contain form fields as “not secure”? Well, in case you haven’t heard, they’re continuing to raise their security game, working toward their end goal of all HTTP webpages having a “Not Secure” indicator vs. HTTPS pages having a green lock/Secure indicator, since security ought to be the standard. Springshare agrees with this impending move, which is why we have made it very easy for our customers to make this transition.

In addition, the end of life deadline for TLS 1.0 (an older security protocol) is rapidly approaching (June 30, 2018), so we are removing that protocol from our code. This will not affect most of you, as it is a protocol mainly left in place to accommodate older browsers. (…and none of you are using older browsers, right? 😉 ) What this amounts to is that we are no longer supporting outdated browsers, such as IE10 (which Microsoft stopped supporting in October 2016).

Of course, the big question in all of this is: what does it all mean for you? Well, in terms of your Springshare apps, we’ve got you covered! While there are still a few things for you to think about / do / keep in mind, we’ve been working hard over here at Springy HQ to make this transition to an HTTPS world as easy as possible for all of your Springshare apps.

First, let’s talk security certificates.

In order to load a webpage over HTTPS, you need to have a security certificate (a.k.a., a cert). This tells the interwebs that it’s okay – this site can be trusted. If you don’t have one and try to load your pages over HTTPS, you end up getting a rather scary sounding notice on the screen. Certs are provided by Certificate Authorities: reputable, trusted third-party companies that verify your organization. These certs are what allow you to put the S in HTTPS. 😉

If your site uses a Springshare domain (e.g., mylibrary.libguides.com), you’re all set! You can use the security certificate we have in place for each of our main product domains (e.g., libanswers.com, libcal.com, etc.). If you’re using a custom domain with your LibGuides, LibAnswers, or LibCal sites (e.g., ask.yourinstitution.org), those domains need their own security certificate.

In January, we announced that we’re using Let’s Encrypt as a method to obtain free security certificates for all LibGuides, LibAnswers, and LibCal sites with custom domains. This required some work on your side…really, on your IT colleagues’ side…before the certs were requested.

Well, we just made things even easier: we’ve updated our infrastructure to automatically request Let’s Encrypt certificates for all custom domains without you or your IT colleagues having to lift a finger! Woo hoo! This means that everyone can load their Springshare apps over HTTPS no matter which app or domain!

Step 1: Obtain a cert. CHECK!

Next, let’s talk HTTPS-only.

Since you can load your site over HTTPS (without having to lift a finger), the next step is to require loading of your sites over HTTPS. After all, if you don’t require it, your users could end up loading your page over an HTTP connection (from an explicitly written HTTP-based link on the page, for example). But if your site is working well in HTTPS mode, you can force it to always load via HTTPS with the click of a button, so that users will always load your pages securely.

There are two things you need to do in order to require HTTPS for your LibGuides, LibAnswers, LibCal, or LibWizard sites:

  1. Review your sites for mixed content (anything embedded on the page via HTTP) and update anything that can be updated to load via HTTPS instead. (Remove / replace anything that can’t load via HTTPS.)
  2. Once that’s done, enable the “Force HTTPS” setting in your systems.

What does “mixed content” even mean? If you’ve embedded something in your webpages, like an image, a YouTube video, anything loaded via an iframe, or calls to JavaScript or style sheets, you need to verify it was added using an HTTPS-based URL. If the URL is HTTP, that will cause a “mixed content” error when you try to load the overall page via HTTPS, and that HTTP-based content will not load on the screen because you are trying to load items that are not secure over a connection that is secure.

It is important to note that simply changing HTTP to HTTPS does not guarantee that the embedded item will load over HTTPS. The website where you got the code for that embedded item must support HTTPS in order for it to load over HTTPS.

It is also important to note that Springshare has no control over whether other vendors / websites allow their content to load via HTTPS. That is at the sole discretion of that other vendor / website. So your mileage may vary as you take a look at your sites to ensure that all embedded content loads via HTTPS. You may find that you can no longer embed an item from another site, because they do not yet support loading that item over HTTPS. You will either need to remove that item from your page or find an alternate item to embed. (You can also appeal to that other vendor / site to allow that item to load via HTTPS.)

Once again, for Springshare related things, we’ve got you covered! Our images (uploaded via the Image Manager), widgets, and APIs are already set to roll for HTTPS action (meaning they’ll all load via HTTPS).

So how do you find these HTTP embedded things in your site, so you can update them? You have a few options!

  • In LibGuides:
    • Rich Text items: use the “Search” portion of our Search & Replace tool, and search on http: (with the colon at the end). Then review the list for embedded content. If the item is simply a link out to another website, you do not have to update that (unless the other site supports HTTPS and you want to update it). (This might be the majority of the list.) You’re looking for content embedded in the page, JavaScript, calls to stylesheets, etc. You can use CTRL+A to highlight the results, copy them, and paste them into a program like Excel for easier scanning, if you wish.
    • Widget items: use the filtering options in the Content > Assets area. Once on that page, limit Type to Widgets, enter http: in the Description / Metadata field, and click Filter. Click the edit icon for each item and review as noted above.
  • In LibAnswers you can use the “Search” part of the Admin > Assets > Search & Replace Links tool to find all instances of http: in your FAQ answers (yes, even though it says Search & Replace Links 😉 ). Be sure to check off the “Perform a search only” checkbox when using this tool. The first section will list any Public FAQ Links that contain http: – which may be just fine (though if there is an https equivalent, then it’s a good thing to update). The second section lists Public FAQ content that contains http:. Be sure to check this second area, as it’s likely where you may have embedded something. Also remember to check your Embedded Media / Widgets in your Public FAQs!
  • Load your page over HTTPS and use your Browser’s developer tools (usually something along the lines of: right click on the page > select Inspect > select the Console tab) to see what it marks as “mixed content” on each page. This may take a while, considering the number of pages you may have on your site, but it’s an option.
  • Another option is to use one of the myriad of tools that have popped up to help with this very thing! Do a web search on “mixed content check” (or similar keywords) and you’ll find options like “Why No Padlock?”, etc. (We’re not endorsing any particular thing; that site is simply noted as an example.) Continuing with using that site as an example, it works like this: you enter your https link into the tool and it scans that page (and any page that it links out to), notes any mixed content, and reports back to you with a list. It’s a great way to find all mixed content at once and/or as a check before forcing HTTPs for your site.

Once you’re done updating your sites and have no mixed content, you’re ready to require that your Springy app pages load over HTTPS! (Note: This does not affect links out to other webpages, only pages within your Springshare apps.) This helps in a couple of situations: someone types the URL of your site, but doesn’t explicitly type HTTPS at the beginning OR there’s a link on one of your site’s pages that goes to another page in the site and it hasn’t been updated to use HTTPS; in either case, the user will be automatically redirected to HTTPS, ensuring their connection remains secure.

How do you require HTTPS in Springshare apps?

LibApps screen where you set HTTPS as required.

  • LibGuides, LibAnswers, LibCal:
    • Go to LibApps > Admin > Domains and Certificates.
    • Click the padlock icon in the Actions column.
    • Go to the “Force HTTPS” tab and choose “Required”.
  • LibWizard:
    • Go to LibWizard > Admin > System Settings > Misc Settings.
    • Check off the “Load Site in HTTPS?” option and click Save.
  • LibStaffer, LibInsight, and LibCRM operate solely via HTTPS; there is nothing to change.
  • If you are using any APIs from any products, be sure to explicitly load them via HTTPS.

HTTP is dead. Long live HTTP! HTTPS is the new normal for all websites, all around the world, so in the coming months, we will completely disable HTTP (i.e., loading pages via HTTPS will be forced automatically) and make other important security upgrades for all products (such as enabling HSTS and other security related headers). Here at Springy HQ we are working (and will continue to work) tirelessly to ensure the security and privacy of all of our users and their patrons in their online activities.

Still on LibAnswers v1 or LibAnalytics?

The best advice we can give you is to move to LibAnswers v2 or LibInsight / LibInsight Lite (respectively) in order to ensure that your systems are taking advantage of the latest options for security, including ensuring loading of sites over HTTPS. We do not support security certificates for v1 products.

On a Domain Other than libguides.com for your LibGuides site? (e.g., campusguides.com, communityguides.com, libguidescms.com, etc.)

Please contact our support team to discuss changing your domain to one on libguides.com so you can use our security certificate. We are not supporting certs for those other domains.

Category: General |
| May 25, 2018
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Springshare’s Opt-In Options

Compliance with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

You’ve no doubt been hearing a lot about the GDPR lately. ICYMI, it’s very important. IMHO the GDPR could use an FAQ.  We are going to keep it simple and emphasis just three important points.

  • * Springshare is GDPR ready! We’ve released a new privacy policy.
  • * The changes we have made via our system updates are not just for our customers in the EU but apply to all our customers worldwide.

* There is no change in your ability to receive operational emails. You will still get emails generated by Springshare tools, for instance:

  1. New account emails
  2. Support ticket notifications
  3. Important administrative notices, etc.

The Choose Your Own Adventure(s) Part

Let’s have a look at the super fun choices you can now opt-in to receive going forward.

Springshare Newsletter – This is chock-a-block full of Tips and Tricks designed to help you get the most out of all our solutions. There are featured stories written about current Springy product highlights like this one on Creating Digital Library Storefronts with LibCal’s new Equipment Booking module. You’ll get the inside scoop on Recent and Future Updates like these UnBOOlieveable ones from a Halloween issue. Each issue is essential and exciting…like a map at an amusement park!

Promotions, New Products & Special Offers – Never miss out on learning what’s new at Springshare. Whether it’s excellent features that have been added to our existing solutions or being one of the first to hear about a brand new product that’s ready for launch. Plus, promotions and special offers are like real icing on the proverbial cake. Opt-in today!

Upcoming Webinars, Online Training & Events –  All our clients know that we provide free training and free support. However, it’s not a limited time thing that you have access to for a few weeks after you subscribe to a tool. We create new training sessions often and provide not just basics classes but admin and advanced classes, too. We also promote special webinars targeted to specific user groups like LibCal for Publics or LibAnswers for Academics, etc. And, we love to talk about Events we’re attending or ones we’re hosting like the Brunch & Learn series or our popular SpringyCamp, virtual user conference. Opt-in so you can attend, attend, attend to your mind’s delight.

So, before I say TTYL about the GDPR, if you want to continue to LOL or have a case of FOMO, make sure to opt-in to all the Springy Stuff you want, which is timely, super helpful and FUNfessional development.

Category: General |
| May 23, 2018
2 comments

LibAnswers 2.20 Coming Soon

The LibAnswers 2.20 release is on its way, and will be live in all regions by end of the day on Thursday May 24th. We have several great features to share, including GDPR privacy updates and an exciting announcement about upcoming changes to the Chat Operator screen!

GDPR & Privacy Related Updates

We’ve worked on a number of issues to help get LibAnswers ready for the impending GDPR changes. In case you missed it, check out our full GDPR post. Here are the tools we’re rolling out in this update:

Public Cookie Notice and Privacy Statement – We’re adding an optional, dismissible notice to alert users about the use of cookies and IP address collection on LibAnswers public pages. To turn on this notice and customize its text, admins can head to Admin > System Settings > Privacy Settings.

Data Submission Notices – We’re also adding an optional data submission notification, to help you alert your patrons to what personal information you collect in order to submit a question or idea to LibAnswers. This gives you an opportunity to let your patrons know why you collect particular data in forms, what that data is used for, etc. To turn on this notice and customize its text, admins can head to Admin > System Settings > Privacy Settings.

Expanded Privacy Scrub – We’re expanding our current privacy scrub options so that now, in addition to scrubbing patron name and email address, you can also choose to scrub all possible identifying information from both ticket interactions and/or LibChat transcripts on a rolling basis.

This new privacy scrub option will remove the entire contents of a ticket conversation and/or chat transcript – all of the messages that were exchanged between librarian and patron will be removed, and replaced with a short indicator message: [Removed during Privacy Scrub]. This option will also remove all of the patron’s responses to question and chat forms, so all possible identifying information will be removed.

With this new scrub option, your site will still retain usage data, so you’ll still be able to see things like how many chats or tickets came in by month, day, and hour. All potential identifying information will be removed and cannot be restored. Once the scrub is run, your tickets and/or chat transcripts will look like the following:

To enable the privacy scrub for your site, get in touch with our awesome support team and let them know whether you’d like to scrub just name, email, and SMS number, or whether to scrub the entire contents of the conversation for tickets and/or chat transcripts. Please also let us know how many months of data you’d like to retain before running the scrub.

Additional Updates and Fixes

  • We’ve added a new “Link to FAQ” option on the Add/Edit FAQ page, so it’s easier to add links to related FAQs when building an FAQ. To use this option, head to the Add/Edit FAQ page > Add/Edit Links.
  • We’ve added a Keyword Filter on the FAQ Entries Knowledge Base Explorer page, so it’s easy to filter results by a particular keyword. To try it out, head to the Knowledge Base Explorer and filter by Keyword.
  • We fixed a bug where Topic List Widgets weren’t opening links in a new window when that option was selected (now they will!).
  • We fixed a bug with the Helpful Tools search box on the Ticket Answer page – now, if you search for a public FAQ on this page, the results will open in a new window so you can easily browse existing FAQs.

And Coming Soon…Chat Operator Redesign!

We’re also hard at work behind the scenes to bring you a really exciting update – this summer, we’ll be rolling out a brand new interface for Librarians monitoring and responding to chats! This new interface will completely streamline the process of responding to patron chats – we’re moving away from having each chat open in its own window, and moving toward a list view of all of your chats in progress. Active chats are listed on the left, and each chat conversation is displayed on the right, so it’s worlds easier to manage multiple conversations without needing to rearrange chat windows. We’re also adding a host of frequently requested chat features with this update, including things like improved Group chats, improved alerts (including a nicer alert tone when new messages arrive), better integrated user history, and so much more!

Needless to say, we are super excited for the new chat update, but we also recognize that the new UI is a big departure from the existing chat UI. For this reason, the new chat UI will initially be an opt-in update – once it rolls out, all librarians at your site will be able to try it out live before you make the switch. Once your site is ready, your site admins can officially switch everyone to the new interface. If you have ideas or suggestions about what you’d like to see in the new LibChat Operator screen, please let our support crew know and they will relay the message to the LibAnswers product team.

Category: LibAnswers, LibChat |
| May 17, 2018
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LibStaffer 2.7 Release Out Now!

The LibStaffer 2.7 release is live and brings tons of great features, including a public view of schedules (and a widget, too!), plus Google Calendar sync, a new email digest for open shifts, and a whole lot more.

Public Views of Schedules (and Widgets too!)

Have you ever wanted to quickly check a schedule / your shifts without having to log into LibStaffer? Now you can with public schedules! These new public schedules offer a great way to share information about who’s working when, even with folks who don’t have a LibStaffer account. To set a schedule to have a public view, admins can head to Admin > Schedule Settings > Edit Schedule and assign the schedule a friendly URL. Then share that friendly URL however you’d like!

And of course, no public view would be complete without a widget version to easily embed in any website, so we’ve included those too. 🙂 Better yet, with the widget you can even choose the default initial view of the schedule, so it’s easy to start the page in Day, Week, Month, or Timeline view. To view the new widgets, admins can head to Admin > Schedule Settings > Widgets.

Google Calendar Sync

With this release we’re also upping LibStaffer’s integration points with all new Google Calendar Sync! This integration offers a 2-way sync, so shifts you’re assigned to in LibStaffer will automatically appear in your Google Calendar, and events in your Google Calendar will mark you as unavailable to work a shift in LibStaffer. To get sync’ing, head to Edit Profile > Google Calendar. Please note, this integration requires a Google Service account – check out our FAQ on Syncing your Schedule with Google Calendar for more help!

Available Shifts Email Digest

We’ve heard from several folks who’d like more streamlined and targeted emails from LibStaffer, so we’re making it happen! We’ve introduced a new batched email digest for available shifts in LibStaffer. Now, instead of getting multiple emails when someone gives up several shifts, we’ll batch these notifications into a single email, sent on the hour. We’ve also included a handy “claim shift” link right in that email, so available shifts can be claimed with just one click.

Edit Time Off Requests

We know how it is – sometimes when people request time off, you may need to edit or adjust the request before approving it. In this release, we’re addressing this pain point – admins can now edit time off requests prior to approval! To see this in action, head to the Time Off Approval tab – you’ll now seen an option to Edit Time Off alongside any new time off request:

Admin Shift Notes

We’ve added a handy new option to help communicate with other admins about interesting happenings that took place during a shift. Head to the Edit Schedules > Edit Shift modal window, and you’ll see a new area for Admin Shift Notes. Whether it’s that one of your staff members did an awesome job at a routine task, or you have an interesting story about a patron to share with other admins, you can use this field to share that information, and other schedule admins can view it via the reports tab.

Additional Updates

  • We’ve updated the look of all Schedule Settings Pages: We’ve moved all of the functionality that was previously found in modal windows into individual tabs, so it’s easier to manage a schedule’s settings.
  • We fixed a bug with splitting shifts that spanned days (i.e., shifts that run past midnight). In some cases this was throwing an error message, which we’ve corrected.
  • We’ve added more specific alert messages when overriding a shift conflict. If you find the need to override a shift clash, we’ll display more information about the clash, so you’ll know whether the conflict is that the person is scheduled to work on another schedule already, or they’re listed as busy in their Outlook or Google Calendar schedule, or the shift is outside of their working hours, etc.
Category: LibStaffer, New Features |
| May 15, 2018
4 comments

Privacy-related Updates and More for Your Mid-May

Coming this week! This month’s LibGuides & LibApps code release includes a slew of privacy-related updates. We recently announced updates to our privacy policy and tools per the upcoming enforcement of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. If you’re new to the GDPR, the enforcement date is May 25, and we at Springshare took the opportunity to review our privacy policies, procedures, and functionality. Check-out our full GDPR compliance plan and policy.

As part of this week’s updates, we’re adding in new privacy control features and we’re extending these “GDPR tools” to all clients around the world, not just our clients in the European Union. Any library, anywhere, using Springshare tools can take advantage of these new features.

Alert your users to how their information is used with a Privacy Alert Banner

We’ve added a new tab in Look & Feel that allows you to enable a small banner that shows on your public pages. The default language is short-and-sweet and also links to a longer Privacy Statement that details cookies and how we use information to collect statistics. This is a dismissible banner similar to ones you may have seen on other websites. It’s off by default; turn it on by going to Admin > Look & Feel > User Privacy Alert.

screenshot

You’ll also see privacy information displayed on your Account settings page, and if you use Patron Accounts, your patrons will see this information on their Account settings page. Patrons will also see this information on the Self-Registration screen, if you have Self-Registration set up.

Being GDPR-compliant also means providing a way for you to opt-in to the emails that you receive from us. Now when you go to your Account Settings page, you’ll be able to opt into the three types of emails that we send: our semi-regular Newsletter (full of tips and tricks as well as news!); our Promotions emails; and word of upcoming webinars, online training, and SpringyCamp events. We hope you’ll opt in for all three! We’re commited to only sending you one email/month in each of those three email cateogries. You can change your options at any time by going to LibApps > My Account.

New to Image Manager—Location Mappings!

Afraid to delete an image because you’re not sure whether it’s being used inside LibGuides? Never fear! Easily see where your images are used, regardless of their location! When you go to Image Manager, you’ll now see a number below each image. Click on the number to see where images are used. Potential locations are:

  • Guides:
    • Rich Text content
    • Gallery Boxes
    • Blog pages > posts and comments
    • Discussion Board Pages > posts and replies
  • System blog > posts and comments
  • System & Public Discussion board > posts and replies
  • Assets*:
    • Database thumbnails
    • Link thumbnails
    • Document thumbnails

You’ll see the mappings when you open Image Manager from LibApps or when editing content in LibGuides.

* Book covers generally are retrieved from Syndetics or Amazon and so are not included here.

screenshot

We will include the locations of images used inside your LibCal and LibAnswers sites, if applicable, in a future release.

Blog Subscriber Management!

Dying to know who has subscribed to your system or guide blogs? Us too! Now you can view the list and, if necessary, unsubscribe email addresses. Just click Blog Management on any admin-side Blog page to view and manage your list.

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Accessibility Update: Resource Icons

We made a change last year that saw blank ALT text added to Resource Icons. We heard from several of you who pointed out that while these are small, they tend to convey meaning, and sometimes even are linked, which means our move to declare these little beauties “decorative” was a move in the wrong direction. We’ve fixed that! The title of a Resource Icon is now used as its ALT text, and icons (and their links) are screen-reader and keyboard accessible.

As a reminder, your mileage may vary depending on your browser, operating system, and screenreader. We test with widely-used accessibility checkers, browsers, and screenreaders, but accessibility is often a moving target. Did we miss something? Let us know! (link opens in a new tab).

Small Fixes and Features

  • When only one expert is assigned to a subject, that person’s full profile box is shown.
    screenshot
  • Profile boxes added as custom boxes to guide templates now show the person’s correct title.
  • The A-Z databases page was changed so that it does not load Bootstrap when the admin has specified that Bootstrap should not be used across the site.
  • We corrected a name spacing issue that was interfering with LibraryThing widgets.
  • Since the Email Me button in a profile box is a mailto: link, we now validate email addresses entered there.
  • You are now able to edit link assets when you have filtered the assets list by URL contents.
  • We implemented the new Google logo for the Google Search content type, as well as added a missing ARIA label.
  • We added the white background to the LibApps menu, when viewed on a mobile device.
  • We corrected the processing of Gallery Boxes so that all slides do not show momentarily in Internet Explorer, and all Gallery Box content loads more speedily.
  • Notification emails for blog posts now contain a full URL rather than a relative one, which was confusing some email programs.
  • We inadvertently changed how A-Z database search results were presented. They’re now back to a single list, sorted by Relevance.
  • Resource icons order has been restored to sort by the order in which they were added.
  • In keeping with common practice, RSS feeds for blog pages now return the first 10 posts, rather than the entire blog feed.
Category: Accessibility, LibGuides, LibGuides CMS, New Features |
| May 15, 2018
6 comments

LibCal 2.15 Release Coming Soon!

The LibCal 2.15 release is on its way to you this week, and will be rolled out to all regions by the end of the day Thursday May 17th. We have tons of goodies to share in this release, including a brand new Card View, plus new filter layouts for upcoming events, and several GDPR related updates. Read on to learn about all the great new features coming your way this week!

Card View and Flexible Filter Layouts

Searching for public calendar events is about to get a whole lot more flexible – Card View and flexible Filter layouts are here! We’re adding two new public side options to make your events stand out from the crowd:

Card View – We’re introducing a new “card” layout to show your upcoming events in style. In this new view, each event is represented as a card – the event’s date, time, and location are displayed at the top of each card for easy scanning, and each event’s title and description are displayed inside the card, with categories and audiences displayed at the bottom. This new layout is integrated into all public calendar views, so your patrons can switch to the view that works best for them with just a click.

Flexible Filter Layouts – With such a lovely new view of upcoming events, we realized it would be great to get even more flexible – we’re introducing a new display option so you can choose whether your calendar event filters display on the left side of the screen (as in the above screenshot) or across the top. This new top view for filters gives the various event layouts much more room, and works a treat for mobile users.

To choose the default view and filter layout that works best for you, admins can head to Admin > Calendars > Settings.

Good to Know: In order to make these new features possible, we had to centralize the Calendar Display templates at the system level vs. individual calendar-level. It used to be possible to customize the monthly view and list view templates for each calendar, via Calendars > Edit Calendar > Settings > Display Settings. Once the release is live, these templates will no longer be part of individual Calendar settings, and will be located under Admin > Calendar > Settings with only a single template for each view (Event Listing and Monthly), which will apply to all calendars in your system.

Internal Tags

In addition to the great new event views mentioned above, we’re also adding a new classification option to help manage and view your events – Internal Tags are here! These optional tags provide a way to classify your events for internal statistics and data gathering purposes, and are never shown to the public. When events have been tagged with these new internal tags, you’ll be able to filter all statistical reports and booking explorer pages by this parameter, which makes it easy to view ex all of the events tagged with “New Ideas” or “Funded by STEM Grants”.

To create Internal Tags, admins can head to Admin > Calendars > Internal Tags. Once these have been created, they will display on the Add/Edit Event page, in the Booking Explorer for each calendar, and in our super cool new Calendar Statistics pages.

GDPR & Privacy Related Updates

We’ve also worked on a number of issues to help get ready for the impending GDPR changes. In case you missed it, you can check out our full GDPR post here: https://blog.springshare.com/2018/04/25/gdpr-your-data-new-privacy-tools-so-much-good-stuff/. Here are a few additional tools we’re rolling out in this update:

  • Public Cookie Notice and Privacy Statement – We’re adding an optional, dismissible notice to alert users about the use of cookies and IP address collection on LibCal public pages. To turn on this notice and customize its text, admins can head to Admin > System Settings > Privacy Settings.
  • Data Submission Notices – We’re also adding an optional data submission notification, to help you alert your patrons to what personal information you collect in order to create a booking. This gives you an opportunity to let your patrons know why you collect particular data on registration forms, what that data is used for, etc. To turn on this notice and customize its text, admins can head to Admin > System Settings > Privacy Settings.
  • Expanded Privacy Scrub – We’re expanding our current privacy scrub options so that now, in addition to scrubbing patron name and email address, you can also choose to scrub patron responses to all registration form questions. When the privacy scrub has been enabled, we still retain an overall usage statistic – so for example, if a space booking is being scrubbed, we retain the booking’s start and end time, but remove all identifying information about the person who created the booking. To enable the privacy scrub for your site, get in touch with our awesome support team and let them know which module(s) you’d like to scrub, whether to scrub just name and email or include registration form questions too, and the number of months for which you’d like to retain data (choose from 1-12 months).

Additional Calendar Updates

  • We’ve added an easy way to Migrate from Calendar level Categories to the new System-wide Categories and Audiences. We’ve added a new option to Transfer a Calendar-Level Category to the system level Category and Audience pages, so switching to the new system-wide options is a breeze – head to Admin > Calendars > Audiences/Categories to see it in action. In addition, if you delete a calendar level category (via Calendars > Edit Calendar > Settings > Categories), you’ll see an option to migrate existing events to the system level Categories and Audiences.
  • We’ve updated the Add/Edit Event Page so all of the menu selectors have the same look and feel, and and all of the help text has been updated as well.
  • We’ve updated the Mini Calendar Widget so that, if there are no events happening in the current month, the widget will display events from the next month.

Additional Spaces and Equipment Updates

  • We’ve fixed a bug with editing a patron’s equipment or space booking – previously, if you were changing an existing reservation to a different date (both before and after the original booking date), the alert messages that check for booking clashes weren’t updating to the newly selected date, which could create incorrect booking clash notices.
  • We’ve added the ability to Export Equipment and Spaces Statistics.
  • We’ve updated the Equipment and Spaces public pages to better alert patrons when they attempt to create a booking that exceeds the amount of time they’re permitted to book. Previously we only alerted users to these issues after they had begun to fill out the registration form; now, we’ll alert issues as soon as they attempt to select timeslots that exceed what a person can reserve in a single booking, before they reach the registration form.
  • We’ve fixed a bug that prevented selecting “User Showed Up” when a space reservation spanned days.

Additional MyScheduler Updates

  • We’ve made a number of accessibility improvements to the public MyScheduler Appointments page, so it’s easier for users with assistive devices to navigate the page and know that something has changed when they select a librarian, date, and time.
  • We’ve fixed a bug with MyScheduler Appointment Categories that contained padding – previously, patron email confirmations weren’t taking this padding into account, but now they do.

And speaking of MyScheduler, we are working on a major overhaul and tons of new MyScheduler functionality in the next couple of months. If you have ideas or suggestions about what you’d like to see in MyScheduler, please let our support crew know and they will relay the message to the LibCal product team.

Category: LibCal, New Features |
| May 9, 2018
No comments

Are you a Social Butterfly?

What are you saying? And how?

The minute you get out of bed, you have a new day and with it the opportunity to be social, if you choose to be. Though, perhaps, even your choice to keep to yourself all day and not interact with people is still communicating something. Previous generations tried to hammer home the recommendation that you should think before you speak.

Today, there are so many ways to speak to each other that we should be thinking all the time about what we’re saying and how. We can go even further to suggest that when and where should also be current considerations.

What about why? Well, the why seems to be the same reason throughout time. The why…is to connect.

Social Media — Sounds fun, right?

The idea behind social media is a really great one when you think about it. You read a good book and you fall in love with it. You tell everyone you run into about it. Excellent. But, now, you also have the option of tweeting about it, posting it on Facebook, shooting out the cover on Instagram, putting it on a Pinterest board, etc. You can share the love far and wide. It’s fun to share. But, what we’re talking about is a bit different — more about cultivating a social media voice. Coming up with a cool game plan and having an entertaining voice. We have some clients doing exactly that.

According to a Pew Research Social Media Fact Sheet, all age groups studied from March of 2005 to January of 2018 have shown a substantial increase in social media use. In the 18 – 29-year-old category, the numbers went from just 7% to 88%. So, it stands to reason that Academic Libraries would step up their social game. The English Faculty Library at the University of Cambridge sent out a tweet pointing their followers to a LibGuide they created on Shakespeare resources. They’re not the first to build such a guide, nor the first to publicize a guide’s existence via tweet. However, they took a great approach.

How much do we want to check out that guide?! Even more, how much do we want to go to that library and interact with those librarians? And, that’s the ticket. This whole action plan makes perfect sense, too. You’ve built these excellent LibGuides and crafted amazing LibAnswers FAQs. You’ve put together LibWizard tutorials and set up Events and Spaces in LibCal. Using Social Media to spread the news about them is a marketing strategy that boosts the usage of the stuff you’ve built and the resources you’ve included within them. Next, the challenge is to be creative.

The best way to connect is to listen.

The University of St. Andrews Library is fearless and inventive in the way they interact with students. Like many institutions, they have a way for people to write out comments or provide feedback. What’s super is that they scan those comment cards and then create a LibAnswers FAQ out of it. Going the extra mile, they create a tweet with the original comment and then include a link to the FAQ with the complete answer.

Additionally, this helps to close the feedback loop. How often have you been solicited for your feedback, only to see it disappear into the ether and go…nowhere. Posting the actual comment cards, with the link to the FAQ demonstrates that solicited feedback was received, discussed, and responded to – even if that response is no. Points for being thorough!

Every interaction is an opportunity to show who you are.

In a Sprout Social report, it was discovered that — no surprise — people don’t like being ignored. What was surprising was how “…90% of people surveyed have used social in some way to communicate directly with a brand.” Apparently, “social surpasses phone and email as the first place most people turn when they have a problem or issue with a product or service”, according to Sprout’s consumer survey. The University of St. Andrews Library is clearly one step ahead as it takes paper comments and shares the questions and answers with its followers to reach as many people as possible. They’re being proactive in the Social Media world. No matter which channel your patrons choose to use to communicate with you, it’s always a good idea to be responsive.

The University of Liverpool Library saw a tweet, that by the admission of the sender, seemed to be a complaint that might not have needed such a public forum. But by using social listening, the library took the opportunity to connect and in doing so, showed not just that one person but all their followers how engaging their librarians are…even when the library wasn’t directly included in the tweet.

The library shows it’s listening, even if the outcome isn’t resolved, proactive listening goes a long way to alleviate customer issues. Then they present a LibAnswers FAQ that details the food and drink policy in the library and which identifies where the water fountains are. A spectacular example of the LibAnswers Platform’s ability to have staff entered FAQs come in handy. And to keep their presence light, they add in the bit about hydration – sure to put a smile on the face of their frustrated patron.

So, let LibGuides and LibAnswers do the heavy lifting for you. You’ve most likely created excellent content in there. Then pay attention to your Social Media channels for opportunities to interact with your patrons, link to the guides and FAQs that give them all the particulars they need.

Consider using LibAnswers Social Media Management with built-in Social Listening to create richer patron experiences, instill a company culture of social listening, and closing the feedback loop.

Then enjoy your followers. Have fun with them. Be yourself. Make a connection.

Category: General, LibAnswers |
| April 25, 2018
No comments

GDPR, Your Data, New Privacy Tools… So Much Good Stuff

We live and breathe libraries, so we know very well how important privacy issues are to you, our clients. Even before GDPR-related conversations sprung (no pun intended 😉 to the forefront, Springshare has always been very careful with handling our customers’ data. We’ve never used customer data for profit or shared it with any third party. We are pleased that the rest of the world (well, at least the EU part of the world) is catching up and valuing user privacy with the same vigor and care as libraries have done all along.

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be enforced on May 25, 2018. We took this opportunity to review our privacy policies, procedures, and functionality to ensure that Springshare – and our client institutions – are in full compliance.

This is what we’re doing to that effect:

  • GDPR Compliance. Our GDPR Compliance Plan explains our relationship with our customers and users, and the specific steps we’re taking to ensure compliance – both for Springshare and our client libraries.
  • Emails You Receive from Springshare. Your privacy extends to the emails you receive from us. We will continue to send important operational emails to users, but communications including the Springshare newsletter, new product releases, training webinars, and SpringyCamp announcements will only come to you if you explicitly opt-in.
    • You do not need to do anything now. We’ll contact you in the coming weeks on ways you can opt-in to receive Springshare emails.
    • If you don’t respond to the forthcoming opt-in emails, don’t worry. We’ll consider that you opted-out of these emails, but you’ll be able to opt-in at any time on your “My Account” page (after May 25).

New Privacy Control Features Extend to All Clients

It’s worth emphasizing that these new “GDPR features”, as explained in our GDPR Compliance Plan, will be available to all our client institutions around the world, come May 25. In other words, we are not limiting the GDPR-related privacy features of our tools to our EU clients only. Any library using Springshare tools anywhere in the world can take advantage of these new privacy-related features.

Thank you for trusting Springshare to handle your data with transparency and care. If you have any questions about these changes to our products or our policies, please feel free to contact our support crew or email your Springshare account manager directly. Interacting with our clients is the best part of our day.

Category: General |
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