SpringyNews - On Your March, Get Set, Go!

Boost usage of your Springshare tools with these smart tips for getting more out of these systems. You can glean more from your data and do it quicker than ever before with LibInsight's new Dashboard option. LibCRM is now set up to help you share more of what's important. Connect better with your patrons by providing more information and feedback in LibWizard. Plus, we're sharing a checklist to raise your security game. 

Amp up your data communication by using the new option for Dashboard charts. It cuts through the facts and figures, letting you display numbers from a Numeric, Currency, or Calculated field alongside values from a Multi-Select field! This cross-tab-like option will let you divide up a field that contains numbers by another field that describes those numbers.

The result is informative while being effortlessly clear. See, for instance, the total number of students attending which kinds of instruction sessions. Do a sweep of your datasets and see which ones have the kind of information that would be effectively shared via this new dashboard option. 

People appreciate being kept in the loop. Strive to be even more efficient in doing this with LibCRM. Take advantage of the new Operational Emails module to send essential library information and updates to many profiles at once. The Operational Emails will be visible as interactions with those profiles as part of your history. To make it even more of a must-use feature, it also provides important statistics like “Number of Opens” and “Number of Clicks”, among others.

To get this up and running, just create reusable Distribution Lists of profiles. This will help you to avoid the busy work of manually adding the same recipients to different emails. Having a painless way to send operational emails to, for instance, let your patrons know about the scope of a library renovation, will ensure that you can keep a number of specific people informed about things that are pertinent to them. Head to Emails > Operational Emails to get started.

Note: This is not for Marketing emails. We have something on the horizon to tackle those.  

LibWizard helps you create opportunities to further guide and support your quiz and tutorial takers. Level up by adding individualized feedback to the answer selections for your questions by enabling ‘Display individual feedback’ on the ‘Answer Properties’ tab for your question. Be encouraging. Make recommendations. Promote further reading. Share a link to where the correct answer is. Give praise. So many possibilities! Do as you wish, just don't waste the chance to do more. This is only available for multiple-choice question types. 

Rolling your sleeves up and getting down to the business of scrubbing is often what March and the whole Spring Cleaning time brings to mind. But Springshare wants you to work toward being more secure as you implement the items on this checklist. There is some scrubbing involved, but you won't need any gloves! 

1.  Make sure HTTPS is set to Required (not Supported) for LibGuides, LibCal, and LibAnswers. All other products already require HTTPS.*
2. Ensure no mixed content.
3. Review accounts so that only people who should have access do so and at the right level.
4. Request privacy scrubs for Springshare products where available.
5. If you're uploading and managing your own HTTPS certificate, check that it won't expire soon. Or, switch to the free Let's Encrypt certificate that Springshare provides.*
6. Verify that the Admin contact details are current. This is important so that we can contact you regarding any operational or security-related issues.*
7. Ensure that your web browser is updated to the latest available version.
8. Make sure you are using a strong password to access Springshare apps and not reusing it on any other websites/applications.

*This step is for LibApps admins. If you don't see the Admin menu item when on your LibApps dashboard, one of the administrators listed in the My LibApps box can help. If there's nobody listed there, please let us know at Springy Support!