| January 26, 2021
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Are You Measuring User Satisfaction with Your Virtual Service?

Even in a face-to-face environment, it’s not always easy to gauge user satisfaction. They’re smiling and seem to appear satisfied with the service you provided, but are they really? Nowadays, you’re probably doing more virtual reference service than ever and its even harder to know if they’re satisfied. They’ve submitted their question via email or chat, you responded, and maybe you’re lucky enough to get a “thank you” reply. But, were their needs met? Were they satisfied with the service they received? That’s why it’s so important to perform user satisfaction surveys.

ALA’s Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) outlines the need for patrons to have access to satisfaction tools.

Cost, benefit, and quality assessments of reference services provide meaningful and practical feedback for the improvement of services, staff training, and continuing education.

3.2 Reference Service and Program Effectiveness

If you’ve been using LibAnswers, our virtual reference platform, you may have seen a prime opportunity to integrate patron feedback into the tool – truly making it an all-in-one communication platform. We’ve had this on our wish list, too, and these features are in our most recent update!

Quality of Service Features

Our latest LibAnswers release features our new Quality of Service functionality. A brand-new tool designed to help you collect patron feedback on their overall satisfaction with your virtual reference service.

It All Starts with the Survey

Automated Follow-Up Satisifaction Email/Survey

Create a customizable follow-up user satisfaction survey and email to send to patrons. There’s one customizable “rating” question included in the email. When the patrons click on their rating, a browser window opens to allow them to add any comments/feedback via a free-text field. Users will receive this email about 24hours after their LibAnswers ticket has been closed, and even if they reopen the ticket with a reply – they’ll still only receive the survey once.

Quality of Service Metrics

We’ve created three new reports and a new way to access an existing report in our brand-new Quality of Service Dashboard.

Quality of Service Stats Dashboard

Ticket/Chat Turnarounds

Measuring the quality of your service is not limited to just gathering user feedback. Other metrics include how long it takes you to first reply to a patron’s question. Or how long does it take from the moment their question is asked and the ticket is closed. Or, how many staff interactions an average ticket takes before its closed. If it takes you, on average, 48+ hours to first reply to a patron and 12+ staff interactions to close a ticket, then your patrons are waiting 2+ days to get an initial reply back and there’s a lot of back & forth before their question has been satisfactorily closed. A valuable metric for “the  improvement of services, staff training, and continuing education”. (RUSA, 3.2 Reference Service and Program Effectiveness).

Our new ticket and chat turnaround metrics will give you incredible depth of information that will not only help improve your services but ensure that you’re accurately reporting all your hard work! Sure, you might have received 10 new patron questions yesterday – but on average it took 40 staff interactions to close those 10 tickets. If you’re only counting the 10 questions in your reference stats, you’re drastically undercounting your reference volume.

Metrics Viewable within Individual Ticket

With this update, we also wanted to provide valuable metrics when you’re answering a ticket… right at point-of-need. This is especially helpful if you’ve noticed that you’ve sent 10+ replies to this patron and their time to first reply is 2+ days, so chances are… they might be frustrated. A potentially dissatisfied patron might require a different quality of service – and this information helps you pivot accordingly. Additionally, patron info, which was previously hidden inside a pop-up, is now visible in the top right column. So easily view who asked the question, where, and when.

View metrics while answering a ticket

Ticket/Chat Ratings

LibChat has always had a chat rating feature, since it’s evolution back in the day (LibChat > Chat Statistics). We added another entry point for this data in the Quality of Service Dashboard (Stats > Quality of Service) plus, we’ve jazzed it up! In Ticket Ratings, you can view patron responses to your User Satisfaction Survey. Filter by Source (Email, Question Form Submission, Twitter, Facebook, etc.), date range, just weekends or specific days, by Ticketing queue, and more.

Chat rating and feedback

Learn More!

We’re so excited about the Quality of Service dashboard which will not only help you better survey your patrons and their satisfaction with your virtual reference service… but it will also help to inform and empower your staff with data to make actionable decisions.

We’re working on a SpringU course so you can learn more about LibAnswers’ new Quality of Service metrics. If you’re keen to get it setup now, check out our help documentation which walks you through each step.

Category: LibAnswers |
| January 21, 2021
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The University of Liverpool Goes Global

… with their chat, that is.

Let’s start at the beginning. Last summer, the University of Liverpool joined hundreds of other libraries in migrating from OCLC QuestionPoint to the Springshare 24/7 Global Chat Cooperative. If you weren’t aware, Springshare acquired OCLC QuestionPoint in May 2019, which migrated over the QuestionPoint 24/7 Reference Cooperative and all active QuestionPoint subscriptions to Springshare.

Before the migration, the University of Liverpool was a non-contributing member of the Cooperative. Meaning, they received overnight/backup coverage from the Co-Op, but didn’t contribute any hours. All that changed when they migrated to the Springshare 24/7 Co-Op. Like other academic libraries, they joined the Academic Co-Op. Springshare has two others (with more coming!): Public Library Co-Op and the En Español Co-Op.

With the migration came a ton of new exciting features in LibAnswers, including full-text searchable Policy FAQs, live screensharing with Zoom or Microsoft Teams, optional webcam, on-screen annotations, recording capabilities, and more. We added a ton of functionality for librarians to chat with each other and work together – especially in our new remote workplaces – including the ability to screenshare a meeting. We expanded our chat emoji library, added more customizable sounds for new chats, added the ability to automatically create a follow-up ticket from missed chats, and so so so much more.

Choose from over 400 emojis when chatting with patrons

Suffice it to say, all of these features make it so much easier, and dare we say fun, for libraries to contribute to the Global Chat Cooperative. And with the migration, the University of Liverpool changed their status from non-contributing to contributing – giving 15 hours/week to the Global Chat Cooperative. So, not only are their students receiving 24/7/365 chat support from librarians around the world… Liverpool librarians themselves are answering questions from patrons around the world too! Their chat service has truly gone global!

Are they happy with the service?

In a nutshell, yes! Here’s what they said in a recent interview:

“Cooperative librarians do a great job of providing answers for our customers and the customer feedback on the queries they’ve dealt with is overwhelmingly positive. We’ve seen some really excellent answers from the global librarians; we couldn’t have done a better job if we’d picked those up ourselves.“

— University of Liverpool

Learn more at our live webinar!

If you’d like to learn more about the University of Liverpool going Global with Springshare’s 24/7 Chat Cooperative, join us on February 4 at 11:00am U.S. EST. And hear directly from Gwen Jones, Customer Services Online Manager from the University of Liverpool, discuss their experience offering 24/7 library chat to their students, and what it’s like helping other students around the globe.

REGISTER: THU, FEB 4 @11am U.S. EST

If you can’t attend the live webinar, register to receive the recording! It will be available, along with presenter slides/notes, on Buzz. 

Category: Client Stories, LibAnswers, LibChat |
| January 13, 2021
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New Year, New Springy Tips

While it’s hard to believe it’s already mid-January, we put away our party hats and noisemakers long ago (although our holiday decorations are still up 😉). Hopefully, there’s still a glimmer of that “brand new year” feeling left, and Springy HQ is here to help you start off 2021 on the right foot!

To that end, we’ve rounded up a bunch of quick Springshare tool tips to help you save time, streamline your workflow a bit, and perhaps remind you of that “Oh yeah, I need to do that every January!” task.

Under 10 Minute Tips for Every Springy App

Before and after profile example

1. Give Yourself a LibGuides Profile Refresh.

In the spirit of “new year, new you,” freshen up your profile with a new image, widget, or social media icon.

  • Double-check your contact information.
  • Use the multi-line address field to add your pronouns, time zone, and/or ORCID.
  • Update your profile image.
  • Add your work-related social media accounts.
  • Embed a chat and/or Appointments widget.

For more ideas on how to use profile boxes and pages, watch our related training video!

2. Set Your LibCal Spaces, Equipment, & Calendar Preferences.

In case you missed it, in November we added new user preference options so you can select default Spaces and Equipment locations and booking management tabs. By the end of this week, you’ll be able to pick your default calendar, too! To set your preferences, click on the Preferences tab on your LibCal account page. 

3. Streamline Ticket Views in LibAnswers.

Directing all student/patron questions and interactions into LibAnswers makes life easier (just ask Ken Winter from VDOT Research Library!). And if you find yourself applying the same dashboard filters to switch between Twitter DMs, reported database access issues, and open reference questions, you can make your life even easier by creating dashboard views!

Create a personal view for yourself – or if you’re an admin, create a view for all LibAnswers users. For detailed instructions, watch the SpringyU Setting up Dashboard Views Block.

Pickup Manager Macro example

4. Expand Pickup Manager Macro Usage.

After months of coordinating item holds, and the year-end stats resulting from them, you have a good sense of your patron/student pickup trends. Are they normally late? Or early? Do staff often forget to mark a pickup as complete? Now’s a great time to create or update Pickup Manager chat/SMS macros and set/modify pickup status changes where needed.

5. Review LibWizard User Access.

Did you know you can reassign content when deleting a LibWizard user’s access? If you haven’t reviewed your LibWizard accounts recently, now’s a great time to use the ‘transfer to a user’ feature to make sure form/survey/quiz/tutorial editing and report viewing privileges are up to date.

6. Check LibStaffer Calendar Syncing Status.

A well-planned schedule unfortunately never lasts, and as shift swapping and dropping begin in the new semester, start off the year by ensuring that everyone’s LibStaffer shifts and personal Outlook/Exchange or Google calendars are syncing. LibStaffer admins can do this by checking everyone’s integration status in one place!

Need to know when someone’s calendar syncing fails? Admins can also add an email notification address in your LibStaffer site’s System Settings.

7. Create Alert Reminders in LibInsight.

This time of year, folks are gathering year-end data, creating 2021 dashboards and datasets, and completing annual reports. It’s important to remind users where things are stored, recent changes, or new fields/datasets they will be using.

Alert boxes help reinforce your message by putting the information at the top of the LibInsight dashboard! Admins can even create separate reminders for admins and regular users.

8. Examine LibCRM User Roles & Permissions.

LibCRM Interactions permissions options

Have there been any staff reorganizations? Are you tracking projects, adding and editing People, Organizations, and Interactions in LibCRM differently now than you did at site launch? Take a look at your roles and how they’re assigned to LibCRM users!

Haven’t configured LibCRM roles and permissions yet? Read our related FAQ.

Bonus Tip: Update Your LibApps Password!

Using strong passwords – and keeping them in a safe place – is standard security practice. While there’s not a clear consensus on how often you should change your password, the start of the year is a good time to do an annual checkup if you haven’t done one recently. 

In LibApps, you use one account/password for all of your sites – LibGuides, LibCal, LibAnswers… you get the picture. So fortunately for you, there’s only one place to change it!

There are two ways to update your LibApps password:

  • *Recommended* While logged in: Jump to LibApps > My Account. In the Account Information box, enter your new password and confirm the change using your existing password.
  • While logged out: Head to your LibApps login page. You’ll know you’re in the right place when you see “LibApps Login @ [Your Institution]” at the top of the page.
    • Click on the “Reset Password?” link underneath the login form.
    • You will receive an email from do-not-reply@libapps.com to change your password. If it’s not there, be sure to check your spam folder.
    • Don’t see an email? Contact one of your LibApps admins. They can reset your password for you.

For detailed instructions on how to change your password, read the related FAQ. After updating your password, don’t forget to save the new one in your password manager!

Here at Springy HQ, we’re thinking of our customers near and far – especially those currently locked down or have family and friends affected by the rising COVID-19 case numbers across the globe. Please know we are always here to help if you have any questions!

Category: LibAnswers, LibCal, LibGuides, LibGuides CMS, LibInsight, LibStaffer, LibWizard, Tips and Tricks |
| January 8, 2021
2 comments

Code Release: New LibAnswers, LibCal, LibStaffer & LibInsight features coming your way!

Happy New Year to all, and goodbye to 2020! We are pleased to open 2021 with some great improvements across several Springy apps. These releases are on their way to you next week and will be live in all regions by the end of the day on Friday, January 15. Read about: LibAnswers | LibCal | LibStaffer | LibInsight

LibAnswers

We are so very excited to introduce this newest LibAnswers release. This update brings our brand new Quality of Service suite of features – these features are designed to help you track and analyze how satisfied your patrons are with the service you provide via LibAnswers, and keep your finger on the pulse of how your users are feeling. Read on for all the details of these exciting new features. For full release notes of every feature that is rolling out in this update, please visit the Springshare Lounge Release Notes.

Quality of Service Features

Our new Quality of Service features are designed to help you collect feedback from patrons on their overall satisfaction with the service you provide via LibAnswers. These features will assist you with collecting direct patron feedback in the form of a follow-up user satisfaction survey that’s sent to patrons 24 hours after a ticket has been marked closed. In addition, these features include a wealth of indirect feedback on patron satisfaction, in the form of a suite of new metrics available for every ticket that show data related to time to first reply, total turnaround time, and number of interactions (i.e. the number of time that staff members interacted with a given ticket). 

Our new suite of Quality of Service features includes the following elements:

  • Image of Follow-up user satisfaction emailFollow-up User Satisfaction Email/Survey – With this new feature, you can create a follow-up user satisfaction survey and accompanying email to send to patrons. The survey you create consists of one customizable “rating” question in which you specify the number of values in the scale and customize the scale’s labels and layout, so it’s fully targeted to your users. Users will respond to this rating question directly in the email by clicking on their chosen response. Choosing a rating/response opens a new tab in the patron’s default browser which prompts users for additional free-text comments to explain the rating they’ve chosen.  Users will receive this email approximately 24 hours after their ticket has been marked closed, and users will only ever receive a survey once per ticket. 
  • Quality of Service Reports – These new reports gather all Quality of Service metrics and reports together in one place, so it’s easy to see your patrons’ satisfaction at a glance. Admins will find these reports at Stats > Quality of Service; here you’ll find reports on patron responses to user satisfaction surveys, as well as turnaround metrics that will help you investigate tickets with long vs short turnaround metrics. 
  • Updated Ticket Answer Page – We’re updating the layout on the ticket answer page to include all of the available turnaround time metrics (time to first reply, time to close, and total interactions). We’ve also made some additional changes in the page to better expose information about your patrons; you’ll see a new Patron Info box in the top, right corner of the page, which displays high-level info about the patron, responses they’ve provided in your question form, and their full patron history details, so you can view the full history of conversations with this particular patron. 

To start customizing your site’s user satisfaction survey and email, admins can head to Admin > Queues > Edit Queue > Quality. 

Excited? Us too!! And in even more exciting news, this is just our first step into giving you a full picture of your user’s satisfaction. In the coming months, we’ll also introduce a new suite of features centered around calculating your Net Promoter Score, a standardized industry metric of user satisfaction. We’re creating new widgets that can be embedded in any website and collect satisfaction data, as well as targeted reports that will showcase your users’ satisfaction and segmentation metrics. Stay tuned for this exciting new module, coming in the first quarter of 2021!

In addition to the new Quality of Service tools, we have so many more features coming in this release. For the full list of new features, please check out the Springshare Lounge Release Notes. There you can read about all of the new features we’re introducing, including:

  • We’ve added a couple of new LibChat settings:
    • To automatically create follow-up tickets from missed chats; and
    • To limit users to viewing chat transcripts only in departments to which they belong.
  • We’re adding a full emoji picker to the LibChat dashboard, so you can pick from a library of over 400 emoji with the click of a button! 🙂
  • We’re improving the connection between chats and follow-up tickets; now you’ll be able to view at-a-glance which chat transcripts and missed chats have had follow-up tickets created. 
  • Did you know you can launch a patron chat without a chat widget? It’s true! We’re expanding our documentation to make this clearer, and we’re also updating our direct chat link option so it can accept more query string parameters, so you can programmatically pass information like a user’s name and email address into a chat. Hello, chatbots! 

Upcoming LibAnswers Training Sessions:

Also check out our recorded sessions! [Back to Top]

LibCal

We’re happy to bring you the following LibCal updates to help improve Seat/Space booking daily operations and policies! Also included in this release are some helpful usability features as well as our new Email Queue feature, which you can read about further below.

Seats/Spaces & Equipment

  • We’ve added the ability to select multiple booking statuses when browsing the Booking Explorers for Spaces & Equipment.
  • If set for a location, the “Reminder” and/or “Follow-up” email info will now display in the booking details. Also, if mediation is enabled, the details of mediation approvals/denials will be available to view in the booking details.
  • A new location setting enables only LibCal Admin users to check users in or out of a booking.
  • The ability to modify the Check In/Out Date & Time fields for a booking is now available on the admin side, when viewing the details of a booking.

Appointments

  • If the availability duration entered does not meet the minimum requirement for a user’s set duration plus padding, the user will not be able to save the availability until making adjustments.
  • We’ve modified the stats report to only display available times for users currently assigned to a group.
  • When the Exchange/Outlook integration is enabled for an Appointments user, events created in Outlook by this integration will be marked “Private.”

Misc.

  • Verification of Email Delivery! From this release forward, you will be able to see whether an email was successfully sent out of LibCal, regardless of whether you are using the Springy email service or your own SMTP server. Head to Admin > System Settings > Email Queue to find filters with which you can narrow results, or to view the full contents of any email. Bonus! if an email was not submitted successfully and is marked with a “Failed” status, you can resubmit it. If your system sends out a large volume of email, you will also see any emails that are queued for impending sending.
  • You can now select which tab to land on when visiting the “Event Calendars” page. You can also specify a preferred Calendar. Go to Admin > Accounts > Edit Account > Preferences, or click your email address in the top, right corner to set preferences.

Upcoming LibCal Training Sessions:

Also check out our recorded sessions, and don’t miss the LibCal release notes on the Springshare Lounge! [Back to Top]

LibStaffer

  • We’ve modified the “Staff” Report so the correct “Next Shift” for a user always displays.
  • We fixed an issue that prevented schedules from printing in Landscape orientation.
  • Inactive users will now be available for reporting on the Scheduled Shifts report, when “All Schedules” is selected. These will be at the bottom of the staff list and be labeled “Inactive.”

Also check out our recorded training sessions, and don’t miss the LibStaffer release notes on the Springshare Lounge! [Back to Top]

LibInsight

Twelve Hour Time Format for Custom / Shared Dataset Recording – You will be able to select the time format to record any time-related fields in your custom/shared dataset. To select which time format you would like, head to System Settings > Dates & Currency > Record Data / Widget Time Format. Please note that the Analysis page will still render the entered time data in 24 hour format.

Filter COUNTER 5 Top 100 Titles by Platform

Ever wanted to view the Top 100 Databases, Journals, Books, Other titles by platform? Now you can! Simply select the individual platform you want to filter the top 100 title reports by in the COUNTER 5 Analysis page.

Check out the LibInsight release notes on the Springshare Lounge! [Back to Top]

That’s it for this round of updates from Springy HQ. We would like to thank you, our user community, for sharing all your great ideas with us! We love making them a reality and look forward to bringing you many more improvements in 2021. We are always here for you if have any suggestions or questions.

Category: 24/7 Chat Cooperative, LibAnswers, LibCal, LibChat, LibInsight, LibStaffer, New Features |
| December 22, 2020
3 comments

Springshare Support Closed for Holidays

It’s been said before, but it is worth repeating – 2020 has been a year. Springshare support is not only excited to say goodbye to this really tough year but also to take some (well-deserved) time off. ICYMI, in our recent newsletter – the Springshare Support team answered 35,000 support questions this year… up 19% from 2019. We also taught training sessions to 8,500 attendees, had 20 major product releases, and more. Phew, we’ve been busy! Therefore, our Springshare Support, Training Team, and our Facebook and Twitter accounts will be closed for a few days over the holidays.

Springshare Support Schedule
(Including Training & Social Media)

Closed

Will be monitoring for emergencies. All non-emergency questions will be answered when we reopen.

  • Thursday, Dec 24
  • Friday, Dec 25
  • Friday, Jan 1

Reduced support hours (9am-5pm U.S. EST):

  • Monday, Dec 28 – Thursday, Dec 31

Springshare 24/7/365 Global Reference Will Be Open!

Our Springshare 24/7 global reference service, which backs up your reference chat service with MLIS-degreed librarians, will be open! When we say 365 days a year, we mean it. 🙂

If you’re interested in adding 24/7/365 chat coverage to your reference outreach, contact us at sales@springshare.com.

If You’re Still Working… We Have Suggestions!

If you’re still working over this holiday season, we have some suggestions for you to help make the most of your time!

SpringyU – is all about self-paced learning via short videos. Choose to learn with Blocks or beef up your skills with Courses. If you’ve got 5 minutes or a lot more than that, you can attend SpringyU right from your chair. 

Pickup Manager Blocks on SpringyU

SpringyNews – Find yourself in the midst of a slow period? Peruse our latest newsletter, which just so happens to be our 50th edition!

Springshare Buzz – Been hearing the buzz about Pickup Manager, and want to check it out? Or perhaps you’ve been hearing a lot about the LibAnswers Co-Op but don’t know what it is? Does a 5-minute LibCal Seats overview video sound exactly like what you’re capable of handling today? Check out the Product Highlights page on the Springshare Buzz Site for quick looks and more.

Catch up on Updates – It’s really helpful to keep up with all the new features and fixes for Springshare tools that are now available to you. Plus, we also released a mini-update for LibCal last week!

Opt In – for the gift that keeps on giving. Or follow us on Facebook and Twitter so you can check out the stories we’re sharing all year long.

We want to thank you for continuing to be our awesome’sauce clients in what was most certainly a difficult and turbulent year. We are so grateful for the opportunity you’ve given us and the trust you have in us to help you and, ultimately, your patrons. Thank you for sharing your feedback, suggestions, and wishlists and for your never-ending example of true dedication. We’ll see you in the New Year and goodbye 2020!

Category: General |
| December 15, 2020
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Springshare Learning Lab: Reopening Libraries Safely

Our December Springshare Learning Lab focused on how the Gwinnett Technical College reopened their library safely using LibCal Seats. Over the summer, as campuses were preparing to open fully or modeling a hybrid approach for the Fall semester, library administrators were tasked with opening the library to students, safely. This meant ensuring access but in a manner that adheres to social distancing protocols and mandated occupancy restrictions.

Deborah George faced this task for the Gwinnett Technical College library and they used LibCal seats just in time for the first day of their Fall semester. Her Springshare Learning Lab covers how they used LibCal seats to provide access to computers/webcams, printers, study rooms, and staff (!!!) to students requests those services.

Springy Michelle then covers the second half of the webinar which includes an overview of the LibCal hierarchy of Locations > Categories > Spaces > Seats, setting up restrictions/limitations, creating accessibility/powered Seats, and more.


In case you missed it, the full recording is available. Watch below and find Deborah’s slides on the Buzz site. LibCal Seats is designed for all libraries, so whether you’re an academic library like Gwinnett Technical College or a public library, or if you’re not a library at all, LibCal seats can help you reopen your buildings safely.

Category: Client Stories, Customer Service, LibCal |
| December 10, 2020
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Final Code Release of the Year: LibCal Goodies

Before we usher in a much-needed new year, we are happy to bring you some LibCal goodies for the holiday season! This release is on its way to you next week, and will be live in all regions by the end of the day on Friday, December 18.

Seats/Spaces

  • We’ve added the ability to move or bulk-move Seats between their containing Spaces. Bulk-deleting Seats is also now available!
  • The admin booking grid has been enhanced to include additional search filters for the ‘Accessible’ & ‘Powered’ Seat/Space attributes. The appropriate icons will also display on the admin booking grid.
  • The ‘Back-to-Back’ booking limit has been modified to support the ability to restrict simultaneous bookings without enforcing the minimum of one hour required before the next booking can be made.
  • To assist users who want to check into a Seat/Space but have not yet made a booking, we added a link to the Check in/out page. The link will bring the user to the individual booking page for that Seat/Space.
  • It’s now possible to disable the check in/out requirement for a booking. You can do this when making a booking on the admin side or by editing a booking created through the public booking pages.
  • There is now an accessible / screen-reader-friendly booking page for Seats. Support for period-based booking locations has also been added to these pages. These links are at the bottom of each page.
  • A few changes have been completed for our API:
    • New endpoints for Spaces & Equipment to return all spaces or items and their availability in a location.
    • The Zone, Accessible, & Powered attributes are now available in the space/category/:id & space/item/:id endpoints.
    • Check In & Out codes have been added to the Spaces /booking/:id & /bookings endpoints.

Misc

  • Auto Zoom meeting password generation is now available for this integration.
  • The ability to link locations in the Hours module to opening / closing hours in Alma is now available.

Interested in more detail for this release? Check out the LibCal release notes on the Springshare Lounge! [Back to Top]

Want in-depth coverage of the ins and outs of LibCal? Don’t forget you can always check out our recorded training sessions!

That’s it for this round of updates from Springy HQ. We would like to thank you, our user community, for sharing all your great ideas with us! We love making them a reality and look forward to bringing you many more improvements in 2021. We are always here for you if have any suggestions or questions.

Category: LibCal, New Features |
| December 1, 2020
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ICYMI: Our First Springshare Learning Lab!

Just before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, we were thrilled to host the first session of our new client story + how-to webinar series: The Springshare Learning Lab!

Ken Winter kicked things off with a thoughtful discussion of his longtime remote working experience and its recent challenges. And how LibGuides, LibAnswers, and LibWizard have helped him and his team support their patrons during the pandemic. Next Springy Michelle highlighted using LibChat for internal staff communication, setting chat departments as fallbacks, and configuring a LibWizard form with conditional logic.

In case you missed it, the full recording is available! You can watch it below and find Ken’s slides on the Buzz site!

Got an after-the-fact question for Ken? Lounge members can ask it in his discussion thread that he’ll be monitoring for the next week or so. Any Springy user can request a Lounge account, and we have getting started guidance in our July newsletter.

Inspired by Ken’s presentation, Springy Michelle also created a special training on how to build an internal staff communication guide similar to the one in his session with LibGuides, LibCal, and LibAnswers. You can watch the recording in our training video library.

Up Next! Library Reopening at Gwinnett Technical College with LibCal Seats

Back in September, Gwinnett Technical College shared their reopening experience and how they’re using LibCal Seats to help reopen safely. For our next Learning Lab, Deborah George, director of library services, is going to share their story, give us an update, and answer audience questions. Following, we’ll look at some of the specific features they’ve found most useful during this reopening process.

Register today! COVID-19 – Bringing Patrons Back to the Building
Tuesday, December 8, 2020
11:00am – 12:00pm ET

Just getting started with LibCal Seats? Since we won’t have time to cover every setting during the Learning Lab, we have a full training session scheduled for the next day.

Register today! LibCal Seats – Get Your Library Ready to Reopen Safely
Wednesday, December 9, 2020
2:00pm – 3:00pm ET

We hope to see you at one or both of the sessions! Wishing you all a happy and healthy holiday season. 🙂

Category: Client Stories, Community, LibAnswers, LibChat, LibGuides, LibGuides CMS, LibWizard |
| November 23, 2020
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Springshare Holiday Hours & Support Schedule

It’s that time of year again, the holidays are almost here and we’re seeing an end to 2020 (thank goodness!). To that end, our Springshare Support Team schedule will see some modifications during this holiday season. Have no fear, your support question will be answered. Additionally, we will be monitoring our support queue, Twitter, and Facebook for emergencies.

Support & Social Media

Closed (monitoring for emergencies):

  • Thursday, Nov 26
  • Friday, Nov 27
  • Thursday, Dec 24
  • Friday, Dec 25
  • Friday, Jan 1

Reduced support hours (9am-5pm U.S. EST):

  • Wednesday, Nov 25
  • Monday, Dec 28 – Thursday, Dec 31

Wishing you and yours a happy, healthy, and safe holiday season.

Category: Community, General |
| November 17, 2020
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Promote Contactless Communication

In some parts of the world, lockdowns are taking place again. In others, the trend is heading that way. It’s looking like we’ll all be experiencing another shelter-in-place soon in order to stop the spread of this deadly virus. The good news, we know a lot more now than we did only eight short months ago. We’re not suddenly scrambling to a work-from-home environment or pivoting to online-only services in just a matter of days. To that end, we’d like to share our best tips for promoting contactless communication during yet another COVID-19 lockdown. Your patrons, students, customers might not be able to see you in person… but you can still ‘see’ them online.

Create Searchable COVID-19 FAQs in LibAnswers

Not only are we living through an unprecedented pandemic but an infodemic too. Your users are being inundated with conflicting and sometimes downright false “information”. It’s so hard to know where to go, online, to get credible information. Create COVID-19 searchable FAQs highlighting recent research, regional laws/regulations, and how the library’s hours/services are affected. This 35min training video covers how you can keep important information updated in your LibAnswers, including creating a COVOD-19 FAQ group.

Searchable COVID-19 FAQs in LibAnswers

Offer Live Chat with Screensharing/Webcam Functionality

You’ve spent time cultivating relationships with your patrons. They most likely know your face, your smile, and even your ‘funny’ jokes. (What building has the most stories? The Library! – cue the eyeroll). Those special bonds don’t need to end with remote services.  LibChat’s screensharing allows you to engage in back-and-forth chat and you can even conduct ‘live’ sessions with patrons with optional webcam functionality, recording, and more!

And, if you’re thinking you don’t have the bandwidth to offer chat or offer it for the number of hours your patrons would need it – our 24/7 Chat Cooperative is here to back you up with MLIS-degreed librarians. Enable 24/7/365 chat services or custom coverage hours.

What is the Status of Your Buildings & Services?

Is your building open? What about the 3D printer? Is curbside delivery available? Your patrons have questions about the status of your building, services, and more. Create a LibAnswers System & Status Dashboard (with an embeddable widget) and keep them updated 24/7 on your status. Make use of social media integration so if the status of a service changes, broadcast it out on Facebook and Twitter right from the Systems Status Dashboard. 


LibAnswers System & Status Dashboard

Keeping Staff Informed

It’s hard enough keeping staff updated and informed when you see them every day at the workplace. Updates to the manual go unnoticed. Post-it notes at the reference desk are overlooked. In our new work-from-home model, it’s even harder keeping staff informed especially if you’re relying on email and reply-all. We have some tips to help you use LibAnswers to create a powerful staff repository of information that is searchable, easily-updatable, and reduces your inbox clutter.

  • Create a robust internal staff knowledge base: Break out policies, login details, and staff-only information into individual restricted FAQs. It’s easy to search, browse, embed, and link them! This 26min training video covers all the steps.
  • Use LibChat for internal conversations & meetings: LibChat isn’t just for chatting with patrons. Set your chat status to internal and be available for quick chats with coworkers. Use LibChat screensharing to conduct internal meetings with a coworker or a whole department.
  • Create Internal Posts on the Systems & Status Dashboard: Not every post on the Systems & Status Dashboard might be suitable for the public. Create internal posts to update staff on a new process, COVID-19 restrictions, or planned downtime to a product or service.
Internal Posts on the System & Status Management Tool

Pickup Manager for Curbside/Contactless Communication

Our newest tool, Pickup Manager, integrates with multiple ILSes, LibCal, and LibAnswers to create a scheduling and communication platform for holds pickup. This way, your patrons can reserve their library items, schedule a time to pick them up, and communicate with you via chat and SMS/texting when they’ve arrived… all with seamless ILS integration to boot.

Springshare’s Pickup Manager

We’re In This Together

We know that this has been, and continues to be, an incredibly difficult and stressful time. Not only are you a library employee with all that entails but you’re also a friend, caretaker, child, or parent… trying to make sense of all the confusion, fear, and complexities that COVID-19 has brought both into your work-life and your personal life. And whether you’re working at the library or working from home, your work-lives and personal lives are now more intertwined than ever. How do we know this, well – because we’re going through this with you. Our Springy employees work-from-home and are now full-time teachers, caretakers, and more. And supporting loved ones who are working, and who are also dealing with the isolation that comes with the pandemic. So we know what you’re going through, because we’re going through it right alongside you. And we’re here to help. So, don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any questions, feedback, requests, recipes, or tips on keeping a 7 year old engaged in their Zoom class! We’re here to help and we’ll get through this in our typical Springy fashion… together.

Category: 24/7 Chat Cooperative, LibAnswers, LibChat |
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