Springshare Support Blog

We are announcing two important new features for LibAnalytics: Instance Designer and LibAnalytics Widgets. These new features open up a slew of possibilities to use LibAnalytics in a whole new way.

Our new Instance Designer makes it easy to fully customize the look and feel of your instance! It has everything from reordering fields using a drag-and-drop interface, to being able to define instructions and help text for each field. The new interface makes it easy to customize what your instance recording screen will look like.

And, we’re adding a new tool to your Data Ninja arsenal – LibAnalytics Widgets. Hold on to your hats, because we’re about to turn the concept of LibAnalytics “instances” on its ear!

When we talk about ”instances”, all we mean is “a set of data that libraries want to track”. Up until now, the librarians were the only ones who could record this data in LibAnalytics. But we got to thinking – what if we open data-recording to users? What about collecting patron feedback? Satisfaction surveys, feedback on library instruction, website feedback, database trials… why should librarians always be the ones entering data? Open the data recording and collection to everyone, and then use our awesome analytics tools to make sense of all your data.

Thus, LibAnalytics Widgets were born! Forged in the dark fires of our ninja enclave, LibAnalytics widgets give you the power to collect user feedback right from the source. For example, let’s say you want to collect feedback about your library website. Create an instance for “Website Feedback”, and embed a widget on your library website. You can have the feedback widget appear on page load, on page exit, on button click, etc. Examples:

Floating Button Widget (note the feedback button on the left side of the screen)

Embedded Text Widget (note the purple area below the banner)

Or send an email to faculty with a link to your survey, like this: http://demo.libanalytics.com/p.php?in=238

LibAnalytics now enables you to collect all kinds of data, from all kinds of sources, all in one place. You can browse the data, find patterns, generate statistics, and analyze stuff like there’s no tomorrow.

If you thought it doesn’t get any better, well it does – a single instance of LibAnalytics is free, so sign up today and get started on your Data Ninja skills.

We’re so excited, and we just can’t hide it! What’s got us so hyped up, you ask? We’re announcing *Free* subscriptions for our two newest products: LibCal and LibAnalytics. Pretty awesome right? We thought so too!

A free subscription to LibCal comes with all the bells and whistles – event registration management, personal schedulers, and room booking management. You get 3 calendars, 3 personal schedulers, and 3 room bookings – all free!

And our free LibAnalytics instance is also the whole enchilada – collect data points, record unlimited transactions, and view/download awesome reports.

We say this all the time, but we want you to know – we love being a part of the library community. We love working with clients and creating web apps that solve real problems for libraries. Giving something back for free, especially in these difficult budget times, is a way for us to say “thank you” for your continued support, and the trust you’ve placed in us.

With that in mind, we hope you’ll check out LibCal and LibAnalytics and sign up today!

The last LibAnswers update was just 4 weeks ago, but our LibAnswers development team has been feeling hyper this August, so we’ve just rolled out some excellent new features!

• Full-text Search has arrived – WOO HOO! You can now search the full text of question and answer contents, both in the public search screens, and in the KnowledgeBase Explorer. This may add more question hits per search so…
• We’ve redesigned the search landing page. Now, instead of returning search results on the same page (potentially pushing the question form down the page into oblivion), patrons will see a spiffy new page with search results on the left, and the question form on the right. Check it out, it’s cool!
• File Attachment upgrades – we have 2 major changes to share: 1)You can now include file attachments when answering private questions. 2)Hey, did I just say attachmentS, plural? You bet I did! Public and Private questions can now have multiple file attachments.
• New Account Type: Analytics Only (for Reference Analytics clients) – We’ve added a new account type that only allows access to the Reference Analytics transaction screen. This new level allows people to record transactions, and doesn’t allow access to the incoming question queues, creating public answers in the knowledgebase, etc.

LibAnswers got a major upgrade last week. You’ve probably noticed the major toolbar organization changes, and may have seen our guide on the LibAnswers Update, but we have tons of additional features and upgrades to tell you about! Here’s the highlights reel:

• The New pop-up Widget is an awesome way to integrate your Ask a Librarian service in any website! Check out our Widget help guide for examples and more info.
• The question submission form is now more customizable. There are now a total of 3 multiple-choice fields and 2 free-text fields to work with, and the labels for every element of the form are customizable! More info
• We’ve consolidated new incoming content (new questions, replies, and comments) into a centralized “Unanswered” stream. Question Replies are easier to keep track of, and we’ve made it easy to break replies out out into new questions (for those “one more question… type replies)
• There are tons of new filter & sort options available for  knowledge base and Reference Analytics content, including date/day/time filters, name/email info, question-form data, etc. More info
• Query Spy now includes referrer URL information for every record (so you can see where people are asking questions – a little context goes a long way!) More info
• We’ve added monthly reporting for public question views (beginning with 8/2011)
• Chart and Stats export options also got an upgrade – it’s now easier to export, edit, and print all the beautiful data you can find in LibAnswers. More info
• We’ve also added new Cross-Tab reports for Reference Analytics clients! Compare two Analytics fields for in-depth data analysis.

Hey Hey Hey – we released an update for LibGuides & CampusGuides this weekend! Check out the new features & improvements:

• New Slider option to control column widths
  Sick of resurrecting your math skills every time you want to create custom column widths? Us too! In any guide, head to Add/Edit Pages –> Resize Columns to see the new slider.
  
• Add a customized message on your site’s support form
  Every LibGuides and CampusGuides site includes a link in the footer to “Report a Tech Support Issue”, which triggers an email to our Springy Support team  and cc’s your primary site administrator. If there are different help channels that your patrons should be using, you can add a custom note to the “Report a Tech Support Issue” form! Check out Hillsborough Community College for an example. To add custom text to your site’s form, email Springy Support and let us know what you’d like to add!
• CampusGuides – New API option lets you filter by group
  We’ve added a new filter for API calls! To filter an API call to return results from a specific group, add the term “&gid=xxx” (where xxx is the ID of the group you want to filter by). With this new feature, you can dynamically generate a list of guides, list of authors, list of subject categories, or tag cloud for an individual group in your system – neato!
• CampusGuides – Add a note to your IP rules
  Having trouble keeping track of your CampusGuides IP rules? We’ve added a new “note” field – now, you can keep track of what those random-looking IP strings actually do. To view this new option, Admins can head to System Wide Settings –> Access Rules.
• E-Reserves – New course visibility options
  This one’s for folks using the E-Reserves module. We’ve added a visibility option to E-Reserves courses. By assigning a course visibility date, you can show/hide courses (and all the e-reserve content they contain) by date. To edit your course visibility dates, head to E-Reserves –> E-Reserve Course List; click the “Course Visibility” drop-down to choose a custom date range for your course’s visibility.

We’ve added a new tool to the LibAnalytics data arsenal – Numerical Analysis! It’s perfect for answering these types of questions:

• On average, how many people use your study rooms after 3pm on Thursdays?
• In July, how many people were in the building before 10am?
• What are the total and average number of attendees in your instruction sessions?

If you thought LibAnalytics was tasty, then our new awesome-sauce feature will blow your data tastebuds away! Cross Tab Reporting is like the umami of comparative statistics.  It enables you to see a full comparison between any 2 multi-choice fields, making it easy to identify interdependencies between the data you track.

For instance, let’s say you’re tracking Reference transactions in your library. You might have chosen to track things like “Question Method” (in person, phone, email, IM, SMS) and “Who Asked the Question” (Undergraduate, Graduate, Faculty, Staff, Visitor). With Cross Tab Reports, you can create an instant comparison of the values in those two fields, making it easy to see where various users are asking questions:

Love it? Us too! Even better, you can filter cross tab report results by date range, day of the week / time of day, data entered, and/or text in the question. This helps reveal interdependencies in the data you track.

To get cooking with cross tab reports, LibAnalytics users can head to the Data Explorer, and select the “Cross Tab Report” tab. As always, thanks to the community for this most excellent feature suggestion!

Let’s hear it for code updates! We can’t wait to share the latest features & updates with you, so without further ado…

Simpify. Eliminate. Integrate. (Part 1).
Check out the latest edition of Springy News for a great visual walkthrough the new SEI changes! Here’s the highlights reel:

• Guide Index Screen – Say hello to the new central management hub for your ‘guides. We brought the heat, and revamped the Guide Index – now, you can view and edit guide info, editors & co-owners, tags, & subject categories for your guides all in one page. There’s also a wealth of new filter, sort, & export options from the guide index screen – it’s bonkers!
• Guide Editing Toolbar – Scroll, and the toolbar scrolls with you!
• Change Guide Info – We’ve reorganized the guide settings menu – now, everything is in one screen, separated by tabs, so the function you want is easier to find! We’ve moved lots of things to this screen, including the Guide Publishing options, Subject Categories, and Friendly URL.
• Add Box screen – We’ve added so many new box types over the years that the “Add Box” window was screaming for reorganization. Check out the Box Types Explorer, which outlines the box features. Added bonus: for all our Netbook users, you won’t have to zoom out to add a box!

I’ll tell you a secret; Spring is my favorite time of year. It’s not the fresh-faced daffodils and tulips, or the Sparrow’s returning song, nor is it the return of reasonably priced berries in the grocery store. Hands down, the absolute best part of Spring is the super energizing phenomenon of Spring Cleaning. If you’re like me (giddy about cleaning and passionate about lists), read on for ideas on doing a bit of Spring Cleaning in your guides!

• Are you using the same content over and over in your guides? Now’s a great time to come up with a Reusable Content Strategy for your links to resources, content boxes, and even entire pages.
• Create a centralized “Storage“, or “Template” guide, and create “linked” versions of that content throughout your guides
• Any future changes to your storage content will automatically update in all the “linked” versions across your site!
• Thinking about a site redesign? Check out the Best Of Customizations for a bit of inspiration!
• Been holding on to outdated, unpublished content? Spring is a great time for weeding and decluttering!
• Looking for ideas on new goodies to embed in your guides? Check out Using Interactive Tools in your Guides for some fresh ideas!

Have more ideas for bringing the Spring Cleaning mindset to your guides? Share them in the comments!

We love sharing great examples of librarians using LibGuides/CampusGuides to publish high quality, timely information. When we saw Kathy Park’s guide about the tragic events in Japan, we were inspired by its breadth, quality, & currency - so we’d like to share her work with the community. Check out the COM Library’s guide to the Japan Earthquake & Tsunami:

http://libguides.com.edu/japan

From Kathy:

To be honest, one feels helpless in these tragic situations. As librarians there is always something we can do – we can compile and provide access to good quality information – it’s what we do best.
Especially for major tragedies, our patrons want to know more beyond just the latest news. How were people affected? What was it like to be there? How can this happen… and how can I help? This guide (and others like it) is a direct result of interacting with our patrons.

Using embedded media, this guide is able to continually update and evolve to reflect the changing situation in Japan. Highlights from this guide include an interactive Google map (which provides links to video and more information), and excellent RSS feeds. In the future, Kathy plans to add a page about Japan, and another on nuclear power (which is emerging as a significant part of the story), and will continue adding new angles as the situation evolves.

We love sharing these success stories – as Kathy mentions, “Every time I create a new guide, I blog it. I use twitterfeed to send the blog post to our Twitter & Facebook accounts, and I use the text from our blog to email every user on campus”. And the results are tangible – using Kathy’s links, patrons have donated to victims of this and other catastrophic events, and students have access to an incredible source of research help, akin to a time-capsule of an event.

Much like the GOSIC (Gulf Oil Spill Information Center) guide we shared back in July ( http://guides.lib.usf.edu/gulf-oil-spill ), these guides represent the best of what LibGuides has to offer. We’re proud to be able to offer librarians a fast & flexible tool to rapidly share their knowledge with their communities. We also love to share, and Kathy has graciously agreed to allow other LibGuiders to re-use her excellent content in your own sites. For more information, check out our Best Of site: http://bestof.libguides.com/collections