The hits just keep coming – we have new LibAnswers features to share! These updates are all about providing timely reminders and notifications, plus additional protection from viruses in file attachments and exciting news about what’s coming in LibChat. Read on for more…
Custom Email Alerts
We’re adding several new customizable email and SMS alerts, to help manage your LibAnswers system and keep on top of emergencies as they happen! These real-time alert features truly make LibAnswers a must-have help desk system and a necessity at any library. We’re introducing two new types of alerts:
Email & SMS alerts that trigger when many tickets show up in a short period of time
Think of these as “emergency alerts”, as they’re built to provide immediate notification when something unexpected is happening, so you can troubleshoot immediately. Admins can set up special email/SMS alert triggers that notify a custom list of emails/SMS numbers when either:
- a specific number of tickets arrive in the system in a short amount of time (so ex when a lot of people are reporting that a database is down), or
- Any tickets with a specific keyword shows up (so ex if a patron emails them with something that includes the word “emergency”, notify this list of people)
Periodic reminder alert email to remind people to answer their open tickets
One of our highly requested features! Admins can set up automatic reminder emails – either to a custom list of email addresses OR to individual ticket owners, to alert/remind them about particular things, including:
- When a librarian has tickets that have been open for X days
- When a librarian has tickets that have been open for X days and the patron is waiting on a reply
- When there are X number of unclaimed tickets in your system
To set up both of these types of alerts, Admins can head to Admin > Queues > Edit Queue > Notifications > Customized Alerts.
Virus Scanning for File Attachments
We’re adding antivirus scanning to all file uploads in LA, so if the patron or the librarian attempt to upload a file that contains a virus, it will be rejected by the system. If patrons attempts to upload a file with a virus, the file will be rejected, BUT the system will display a note to that effect (so you’ll know that they attempted to share a file with XYZ name, but that it was rejected).
Coming Soon: Chat Updates
We’re already busy working on the next update which will come your way in June and will contain awesome new LibChat functionality – we can’t wait to share the news with you soon… 🙂