Highly Anticipated Features Include Seat Bookings & Contactless Holds Pickup
MIAMI (June 25, 2020) - Springshare is announcing new features of its LibApps platform, all designed to help safely reopen public spaces. Coming in mid-July, LibCal Seats will empower building managers to adhere to social distancing guidelines, support contact tracing efforts (where required), and monitor building capacity by designating individual seats and spaces for reservation. LibCal will also expand integrations with LibAnswers & ILS and offer 2-way communication via SMS/chat to enhance the curbside pickup of holds materials.
“As our customers begin to reopen their buildings, safety is of utmost importance,” said Slaven Zivkovic, Chief Springy. “In this new normal, the process of reopening requires careful planning. Over the past couple of months, we’ve worked closely with our current customers to devise a new Seat booking functionality while also streamlining the process of booking anything in the library – be it a seat, a space, a virtual consultation or the like.”
Building upon LibCal’s existing Spaces reservation system, the Seats module allows patrons to view available seats, reserve, and check in/out by using QR codes – all from their smartphone and without unnecessary contact with staff. Administrators can configure availability slots and allow extra cleaning time after each reservation, and enable/disable individual Seats and Spaces for booking to adhere to capacity restrictions (30%, 50%, etc.). The admin dashboard gives real-time building capacity overview. The module also supports contact tracing, with optional privacy scrub, for institutions who wish to have this capability.
LibCal already enables effortless scheduling of holds pickups but will see additional new communication and notification features for contactless checkouts via integration with LibAnswers and ILS systems. Launching at the end of July/early August, the new curbside pickup/contactless checkout module will enable patrons to schedule a pickup timeslot and contact the library via SMS/Chat when they arrive for the pickup. This results in a smoother and safer experience for patrons and staff, and more automated statistics gathering for libraries.
LibCal is Springshare’s robust calendaring tool with online events management, online appointment scheduler, and space/seat and equipment reservation system.
LibAnswers is Springshare’s total communication platform with searchable FAQs, live chat, SMS, social media integration, and more.
About Patron Point
Patron Point is a fully featured patron relationship management system that helps public libraries around the world attract, onboard, inform, engage, and retain library customers through targeted marketing and automated engagement. Libraries can benefit from a foundation of Proven Programs™ or create their own workflows that are customized to their communities and needs.