Goodwood Pod Improvements

I'm sure we've all experienced the horror, when at the Goodwood pod, of a customer blithely placing their pile of books on the circ assistant pad, not realising that they have inadvertently been returned, or even worse, issued to someone else.  (I'm pretty sure I've made this face, above)
Of course we all strive to close those pesky checkout and discharge windows when not in use, but sometimes it just can't be helped....
Thanks to Kristie's out of the box thinking, I've done a switcheroo of the pad and the receipt printer on the pod, to try to minimise the risk of this happening in the future.  The pad is now on the left, with the receipt printer on the right.
I would love to know how it works for you. Is it worse? Is it better?  Any other improvements we can make?  Please comment below or email me directly.

Sometimes the eBooks just have it

I had a lady today who was a little desperate to locate information on ADHD in adults. She had previously borrowed some items from us, but was having trouble reading them as she has a problem with her eyes. She asked about large print books on the topic and after scouring the catalogue, we came up with very little in large print at all.

I knew she didn't have a tablet, but knew she had a computer, so I suggested ebooks, took a punt and chucked ADHD into the search field.

Three or four books came up, not only on adults with ADHD, but on women with ADHD - exactly what she was looking for.

So I ran her through how to get to the eLibrary, how to sign in, how to borrow a book (borrowed two for her) and she left very happy. Even let her know she could ring the library before 6pm if she got stuck and we could direct her over the phone how to access the books.

I will admit that my confidence in the ebook collection has been not the highest due to my own search failures in the past, but this proves that sometimes it is definitely worth the look - our print book collection could not provide, but our ebook collection could.

it's fantastic to be @ Unley too - top marks!

And the compliments keep rolling in...

How completely lovely! Thank you all for being friendly, helpful, 10/10 kind of people.

Interestingly, another customer that Martine helped out with a bunch of course bookings on an Unley STAR shift this morning told her she got a 10 for her service too.

Loving the top marks, great work!

User Groups - Families borrowing for each other

Peeps, I am here to tell you – don’t believe the hype you may have heard that User Groups don’t work, and not to use them.  THEY DO WORK!  Especially if the groups are entered correctly. Sounds crazy, but it’s true!

 

There are a few things you need to know:

• There is a naming convention to follow to ensure each User Group is unique.  Basically, start each group with UN, then surname, initial and birth year of parent. But if you can’t remember that, whatever! Just ensure it  is going to be unique across the 1LMS.  Not just the surname.
• If there are 2 adults in the group, make them both Parents. Don’t bother using Spouse.  Then tick all but the bottom 2 boxes and save.
• Children, well, they should be entered as Child. Tick the top 4 boxes and save. 
• Holds that existed PRIOR to the User Group's existence can only be picked up by that particular member, so it is not always a smooth transition into User Group nirvana

 TOO EASY!  And oh so useful now we are live with RFID.  Go on, give it a try and give our customers an even better, more streamlined experience when coming to our libraries.  I am more than happy to give any of you a refresher on this.  You can also find the instructions, via the intranet, on the h: drive under 1LMS Operations Guides and Fact Sheets

Does the above look familiar? Yes, it is basically an email I sent around in June - with Amelia's hot tip included.  We just thought here was a good place to keep this info!

'tis good to be @ the 'wood

Kiosk Craziness Continues

Yep, I could never be a Kardashian - I honestly couldn't bring myself to use Ks instead of Cs in that blog title...

Anyhow, get excited because the latest and last new RFID kiosk is now in place @ Goodwood Library all ready for our customers enjoyment.

So what do you need to know?

1. It's there!
   The kiosk is located on the edge of the Kid's Area, next to the play school window that has the piano on the other side. This will be a great location for those super busy school visit times, and it's also conveniently located right next to the Holds shelf. Niiice! So please keep an eye out for any waiting customers and direct them to the original-Kid's-Space-kiosk and this new-other-Kid's-Space-kiosk.
   
   
2. But will it be in the way during Storytime?
   The Goody Thursday crew will leave this kiosk off during Storytime sessions and turn it on when the session is finishing up, for the improved experience of all those Storytime families. We could even make a lovely sign we can pop on it when Storytime is on - what do you think, Ruth?
   
3. It is a trial for the new kiosk operating software.
   You may notice that the screen looks very, slightly, just a tiny little bit different in a couple of places. This is because this kiosk has been setup using the very latest version of the RFID software. We are using it as a trial before we consider upgrading the rest of the kiosks. The changes you may notice include:
   * It displays 'place items/single item on the platform' in the middle of the screen rather than the top - which is great as it is way more obvious.
   * The Exit buttons now clearly display 'Exit with Receipt' and 'Exit with Email Receipt' rather than just a plain 'Exit'.
   * The emails sent from this new software display much cleaner (without tiny bits of HTML code in the middle).
   * You might also notice that instead of the trolleys it is currently showing green and red buckets. The FE Tech are going to connect in remotely soon and try and add the trolley icon customisations.
   
4. It does not have EFTpos facilities.
   So there is no pin pad, and users will not be prompted to 'pay fines'. The total amount they owe will still display up in the right hand corner of the screen though, and they can of course pay on any other kiosk or @ the pod :)
   
5. Remember the trolleys. 
   A new kiosk of course means that there are an extra couple of trolleys to keep your eye on when clearing exceptions and shelving.

The builders are visiting tomorrow morning (Thursday 3/11) to drill the kiosk to the ground. So go forth and assist our customers to kiosk up a storm @ both branches!

Bonus kiosk related handy hint (a.k.a. STAR enhancer): When you are STARing as a free range librarian and a customer asks you to extend an item for them, just take them to a kiosk and use the kiosk to show them what they have out and how to extend from there. It's easier than doing it in Workflows, and they'll see how to do it themselves if they so choose next time.