LibCal 2.11 – Event Updates and More are Live!

The LibCal 2.11 release is live, and we have loads to tell you about! We’ve redesigned the Manage Event Screens to bring you many new event management features, plus Event Templates are here! Read on for all the details.

New Manage Event Screens

So many of you have asked us for additional features and functionality for managing events – marking attendance, more email flexibility, etc. When we coded all this we realized that the modal for the event editing was too small for all this additional functionality, so we created a separate page for event management. This gives us (and you) a lot more breathing room and the ability to add several great new management features. To see the new pages, from any Calendar, click on an event and select Manage Event. There you’ll find great new features, including…

• Event Notes – We’ve added an easy way to share internal information about an event with colleagues – event notes are here! These notes appear in the event modal and on the event overview tab, but never appear to the public. They’re perfect for sharing information about event setup information, like technology setup information or who’s bringing refreshments. To add a note to an event, head to Manage Event > Overview and add a new note.
• Confirm Attendance – A hugely popular request, we’ve added a method to track which event registrants actually attended an event! Head to Manage Event > Registrations > Confirm Attendance column, and check off the actual attendees as they arrive. This setting will also make it easy to email only the registrants who actually attended your event after the event takes place – just select “Add Attendees” from the Email Attendees tab to insert the email addresses of just the folks who attended your event. This is especially handy for sending a satisfaction/follow up email after an event takes place!
• View User History – We’ve added a new report to show all of the events a user has registered for, so it’s easy to see which of your users are power users! Just head to Manage Registrations/Waitlist and select View User History to see a list of all events a user has registered for – and even better, if you’re using the Confirm Attendance option, we’ll show you all of the events they actually attended as well!
• Search Registrations – We’ve added a simple search box to the Registrations and Waitlist tabs, so it’s easier to find a specific person’s registration info.
• View Cancelled Attendees – We’ve added a new tab that shows all attendees whose registration was cancelled – plus, you’ll be able to see whether the registration was cancelled by the patron, or by an admin. This is especially useful for outreach and user satisfaction efforts – if someone cancelled, consider following up with them to see why, in order to tailor your services to patron needs. Head to Manage Event > Cancelled to see the list of cancelled attendees.
• Send Rich Text Emails – We’ve also update the Email Attendees tab to include a Rich Text Editor, so it’s easier than ever to send patrons emails that contain basic text formatting and images, without having to muck around with HTML. 🙂 Head to the Email Attendees tab to find the new options.

Event Templates

Awesome news for sites that manage large numbers of events! We’re adding a new Event Template management area, so you can create templates that contain the basic information – things like Title, Description, Start/End Time, padding, registration details… everything you might need to create a new event in a flash! To start creating event templates, Admins can head to Admin > Calendars > Event Templates.

And even better, if you have an existing event that you’d like to turn into a template, Admins can select that event from the Calendar screen and use the dropdown to select “Create Template from Event”. We hope this makes it that much easier to transition to the new Event Template options – managing large numbers of events has never been easier!

Equipment and Spaces Updates

• Spaces Widgets in LTI Tool – If you’ve integrated the LibApps LTI tool in your LMS system, good news – Spaces widgets are now fully integrated, so you can easily add a widget for booking a space to any page in your LMS! This makes it easy for students to reserve spaces in the library without having to leave the LMS environment, and integrates the booking process right at point of need.
• Copy Space – We’re always looking for ways to make the site setup process easier, so we’re happy to introduce a new Copy Space function for the Spaces module. As you’re setting up Spaces, you’ll see a new option to Copy Space – this pulls all the key information about a space (including Description, Terms & Conditions, Room Capacity, Booking Form, Image, etc.) into a new Space record, making setup a snap!
• Spaces Filter in Event Explorer – The Event Explorer contains an option to filter by location – previously, only system locations and Rooms were appearing. We’ve updated this filter to include Spaces, so now you can search all 3 possible locations at once.
• Consolidate Sequential Bookings – For some folks migrating from Room Booking to Spaces, we’ve discovered that there are some patrons who are still booking multiple timeslots back to back instead of using the dropdown menu to select their preferred duration. We’re now consolidating those individual bookings into one continuous booking.
• Admin Recurring Booking: Error Message Update – Previously, when admins created recurring bookings and there was a conflict with one of those bookings on certain dates, the error messages weren’t making it clear that some of the bookings would not go through. We’ve updated this behavior so it’s clearer that some bookings will not go through.

MyScheduler Updates

• View Past & Cancelled Bookings via API – We’ve lifted some prior restrictions on the MyScheduler API, so you can now access bookings which happened in the past, and cancelled bookings. To view the available APIs, head to Admin > API > MyScheduler.
• We squashed a bug in MyScheduler Widgets, where the first group’s appointment availability options were being applied to all groups. Now, as you change group selection in the widget, the availability options will update as expected.

Accessibility Updates

• We’ve fixed an accessibility issue with the “close” link in MyScheduler widgets by updating the link reference so it’s no longer empty.
• We’ve addressed several accessibility issues with the Today’s Hours widget – they now include <th> elements and have the proper role=’presentation’ attribute, so they’re now fully accessible!

Coming Soon: Mediated Equipment & Space Email Digest

Looking for email alerts when patrons make a request for mediated items and spaces? Coming in the next few days, we’re adding a new email digest to alert you when there are pending Equipment or Space reservations that are waiting on mediation. These emails are a “digest” of all pending requests, and are sent once an hour to all mediators who can approve a booking. Even better, we’re also including quick approve/deny links right in the email text, so mediators can approve/deny these requests right from their inbox! It’s a super handy way to make managing mediated Equipment & Space bookings a snap. 🙂