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SpringyNews: A Decade Dedicated... to You!

March 2017

Recent Product Updates

For the past couple of months a lot of our development efforts went into planning and coding for the global data center expansion. We are almost finished with this process, and starting in April, the pace of development of new features in all our tools will accelerate again!

LibGuides subject page with blog posts
  • More Blog Features & OAI Overhaul, Feb 6, 2017
    - OAI rewritten from the ground up
    - More Blogging Features:
    -- Pin a featured post
    -- Feature posts/E-Reserves on Subject Pages
    - More Alt Text Options for Images
End of LibWizard options
  • 1.7.9 Update, Feb 15, 2017
    - Redesigned End-of-Quiz/Assessment Options
    - Drag & Drop File Uploader
    - Updated Look for 'Edit Question' Screen
    - "Use Spam Control" enabled by default
LibCal equipment checkin screen

LibCal Dedicated Spaces Page

My Scheduler appointment categories
  • My Scheduler Updates, Jan 20, 2017
    - Organize Appointments into Categories
    - Customizable Text Areas for My Scheduler Groups
    - Email Updates and Additional Tokens
LibAnswers Edit Reply Menu
  • LibAnswers 2.12 Encryption Update, Mar 6, 2017
    - Patron data encrypted 'At Rest'
    - Chat widgets now load via https
    - Editing a patron ticket reply
    - Bug Fix: Manage Assets > edit and click filename now loading
    - Bug Fix: Systems Status Manager > image manager now integrated
    - Accessibility updates

prevent back-to-back scheduling with LibStaffer
  • LibStaffer 2.3 Update Now Live, Mar 8, 2017
    - Prevent back-to-back shift scheduling
    - New Inactive account level
    - Expanded shift notes
    - More email features and options

Amazing Product Features Coming Down the Pike!

April, 2017 - European Hosting Facility

For our European clients who are concerned with their Springshare apps being hosted on US soil, we are establishing a new server cluster at the AWS facility in Ireland. This server cluster is completely independent of our US server cluster, so the data in there will not “cross” into the US. We will announce the Canadian, Australian, and Asian server clusters in the upcoming months, as well.

This is not just for LibGuides but for *all* Springshare apps:

  • LibGuides / LibGuides CMS
  • E-Reserves Module
  • LibAnswers & LibChat
  • LibCal
  • LibInsight
  • LibWizard
  • LibStaffer
  • LibCRM

Search the Entire LibWizard Community!

Exciting news for LibWizard fans, the LibWizard community site is coming soon! The new community site will be loosely based on our current LibGuides community site (community.libguides.com). It will make it super easy to search and browse for LibWizard content - including forms, surveys, quizzes and assessments - at institutions who choose to share, to help inspire your own creations!

Databases A-Z Community
LibGuides CMS Only

  • Run peer comparisons on database holdings to identify gaps in subject coverage.
  • See which databases are popular, best bets, etc., across the entire Databases A-Z community.
  • Share and reuse database descriptions, browse reviews, and more!
Database A-Z Community

Analyze Holdings
LibGuides CMS Only

A dedicated A-Z Analyze Holdings page gives you several ways to review your database holdings, each in its own box. The first box provides you with an overall summary of your holdings, including:

Summary Analysis

Subject Analysis

Vendor Analysis

A-Z Items Analysis

  • Total number of databases in your A-Z List.
  • Total number of trial, new, and popular databases.
  • Total number of databases assigned to subjects.
  • Total number of vendors in your database list.
  • The ratio of active (aka "visible") to hidden databases.
  • View database distribution by subject category.
  • Identify subjects that may not be sufficiently covered by your current database subscriptions.
  • View database distribution by vendor.
  • Provides a quick, at-a-glance overview of the vendors represented most/least in your collection. 
  • View a title-level analysis of your database holdings. 
  • Displays items currently in your A-Z List.
  • Filterable by New, Trial, Popular. 
  • Search and sort by database title and vendor. 

More LTI Features

We'll be adding more features to make LTI setup easier and faster. Plus, better statistics.


LibAuth Integration

This will be rolled out to LibGuides and E-Reserves so end-users can authenticate into your Guides and E-Reserves Courses. 

OER Functionality in LibGuides

We'll soon be offering the ability to compile, curate, and publish OER content within LibGuides.


Write APIs for *all* Springshare Apps

Enable your in-house developers to develop exciting apps and functionality to turn LibGuides, LibAnswers, LibCal, and LibCRM into data and content repositories, letting you distribute this data and content from our apps to anywhere, at the point-of-need.

Currently Available

  • LibGuides v2 A-Z List - Update and add to your database A-Z list with information from your 3rd party A-Z tool. 
  • LibCal v2 Equipment & Spaces - Create bookings for Equipment and Spaces via any 3rd party application.
  • LibInsight Custom & Gate Count Datasets - Populate your Custom or Gate Count datasets programmatically...no more spreadsheet uploads!

We will expand Write APIs based on users’ feedback. Let us know what you want the Write APIs to do, and we’ll put it on the to-do list.

  1. What Write APIs Do You Want?

Self-Migration for Spaces

If your library currently subscribes to the Room Booking module, then have we got news for you. In our next update, we're going to make it super duper easy for you to upgrade your existing Room Bookings to the all new Spaces module! "Spaces" is the free upgrade to the existing Room Booking module - it vastly improves the flexibility involved with reserving spaces at your library, and includes tons of commonly requested Room Booking features, like:

  • Flexible Reservations - Reservations are no longer based on signing up for individual time slots (which have to begin and end at a specific time) - instead, users can create a reservation that starts and ends at any time! Even better, each reservation is treated as one continuous block of time, so if a user needs to cancel a long reservation, there's no more canceling multiple timeslots.
  • Availability tied to the Hours Module - Tired of adding availability for your Room Bookings? The all new Spaces module is tied directly to the LibCal hours module, so availability is determined based on your existing library hours. No more updating availability every 6 months!
  • Full Read/Write APIs - That's right, the new Spaces module offers full read/write APIs. If your library has been looking to integrate with existing tablet / panel technology, our new write APIs will make that possible.
  • Fully Integrated with the optional Equipment Booking module - And of course, if you've upgraded your subscription to include the Equipment Booking module, Spaces are fully integrated with Equipment Booking! This is super handy if you find you need to reserve Spaces and Equipment in a single reservation - for example, if you need to book a room, and a projector, and a laptop for a presentation, you and your patrons can both do this as part of a single sign-up.

Social Integration

We'll be adding auto-posting to social channels from within LibCal. So promoting your newly added events will be a breeze on Twitter and Facebook. 

Charging for Equipment & Spaces

You asked for it, and it's coming. If your library changes for equipment or space usage, you'll be able to associate and charge usage fees.

Coming Soon to LibCal Events & MyScheduler

  • Event Padding - Do you need to take setup and teardown time into account for the events you create? We're adding an all new Event Padding feature! When you create a new event, you'll have the option to add "padding" at the beginning and end of the event. This time won't display as part of the event times in the public event calendar, but it will reserve the location for that time-span, i.e. it will be part of the Room Booking, Space, or Location reservation.
  • Book Spaces when creating an event - This functionality already exists for Room Bookings, but we're adding it for Spaces as well! When you create a new event, the "Location" field will now display all available Spaces at your library. Create a space reservation right from this screen!
  • Create an Event from a Space Reservation - Especially useful for folks using space reservations - in our next update, if someone reserves a space to be used for an event, you'll have the option to create a new event right from that confirmed space reservation. All of the relevant information from that space reservation will be used to populate the event information, streamlining the process. One key use case we've seen for this is instruction session signups - have your faculty request a space reservation for an in-library instruction session, and when it's approved by the librarians, create an event at the same time so the public will know where to go for their instruction session!
  • MyScheduler Appointment Categories Per Group - We're adding a way to tie MyScheduler Appointment & Duration Categories to specific groups, which is super useful if you have MyScheduler librarian groups who only offer certain types of appointments.

More Features Coming to LibCal Equipment & Spaces

  • Equipment and Spaces Widgets - We're working on fully accessible booking widgets, so you'll soon be able to embed reservation forms for your spaces and equipment in any webpage.
  • Mediation for Equipment Booking - We already support mediation in Spaces, but we're adding it for Equipment Booking as well! This is handy if your library prefers to approve reservations prior to their being confirmed, so you can keep a closer eye on who's borrowing equipment.
  • Friendly URLs for Locations and Categories - We're adding friendly URL support for Locations and Categories in both Equipment and Spaces, making it that much easier for your patrons to find the resources they're looking for.
  • Recurring Reservations - Admins will be able to create recurring reservations for both Equipment and Spaces
  • Streamlined Item Creation - We're adding a quick copy function, so adding items in equipment and spaces is about to become a whole lot easier.
  • New Settings - we're adding in a few popularly requested settings for Equipment and Spaces, including:
    • - How far in advance an item or space must be reserved - Especially useful if your equipment and spaces need preparation before they're ready to lend - we're adding a new setting to control how far in advance a patron needs to reserve an item!
    • - Allow user to choose what time to return an item - To ensure the maximum usage for your items, you'll soon be able to give patrons a choice as to what time they plan to return an item. 
    • - Language Options - We're adding full language options to Equipment and Spaces, so you'll soon be able to customize every word on the screen. :)

We're Adding in 'Logic'

Admins will be able to define input parameters for the auto-scheduling functionality. For example:

  • Talia should not be scheduled for back-to-back shifts. 
  • Slaven should only be scheduled on Mon, Wed, Fri.
  • Sarah should not work more than 3 shifts/week. 

We're Improving the Widget Builder!

We're going to make it easier and faster for you to build and style your LibChat widgets.

Plus, we're adding in the ability to:

  • Include Profile pictures in LibChat widgets
  • Further customize the entry form
  • Follow-up via email about the chat experience

DB1 Reports Coming Soon

Analyze e-resource usage at the database level rather than just at the platform level. 

Additional Features

  • SUSHI support for Proquest eBooks Central
  • Add Dashboard Charts for Browser/OS from Google Analytics Dataset
  • See your gate count use weekly in addition to monthly/yearly