• 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.

• 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.

1. LibAnalytics. We introduced a new product called LibAnalytics, which borrows from the functionality of the current Reference Analytics module. This is for libraries who require the statistics functionality of the Analytics module but do not need the rest of the LibAnswers system (public q/a, the ability for patrons to ask questions, etc). In LibAnalytics, libraries can define multiple analytics instances – each instance can track up to 10 metadata fields with up to 30 values per field. You can track anything you want with LibAnalytics, i.e. it is not just limited to reference. So, track and analyze away!  Please contact us if you would like more information on LibAnalytics.
2. The Reference Analytics module has been expanded to support additional instances as well (just like the LibAnalytics product but this is integrated into LibAnswers).  Now the Reference Analytics clients can define multiple analytics instances (i.e. if you’d like to track statistics at the circulation desk, info literacy sessions statistics, or media desk, etc – you can track anything you’d like). Contact us if you’d like more information on the expanded Reference Analytics module.
3. The “More Ways to Contact Us” box now has icons/options for phone contact and email contact (previously it only had twitter/sms contact icons). With this enhancement your patrons can easily note how to contact you via the phone or email.
4. Private questions can now have replies. Emailed answers include a link for the recipient where they can comment/leave a reply to the answer. These replies/conversations are threaded in the View/edit private answer page.
5. It is now possible to “close” a question without sending an answer.
6. Linked answers! They are here, at last! When answering a public question you can “link” to an existing answer, so any changes to the original entry will automatically be propagated to all “linked” answers (it works just like linked pages/linked boxes in LibGuides).
7. Added privacy/access control options. Now you can put your entire system behind an IP access/address range, or you can password-protect access to the entire system. There is also a new option to disallow search engine indexing.
8. Improved QuerySpy interface. QuerySpy is the unsung hero of LibAnswers – people love it and for a good reason. Now it’s easier to use – you can delete entries from the grid, set date range filters, export data to excel, etc. Check it out – it’s cool!
9. Improved “Comments” for q/a pairs. Comments can now be edited directly from the admin interface. Logged in users’ comments are approved automatically, and you can automatically send an email to the original questioner, with the text of the comment.
10. “Change Topic” dropdown now appears on the homepage, to enable visitors to easily browse the list of topics.
11. “Featured Questions” box on the homepage – now you can customize which questions will appear on the homepage (this works just like the featured guides box in LibGuides).
12. Improved mobile interface – you can now set the default text inside the “Ask us” box in the mobile interface.
13. The “success” message on the question form submission page is now fully customizable.
14. Emailed answers now explicitly note if there is multimedia (videos, or attached files) associated with the answer, and point the email recipient to the anchored page where they can view this multimedia.
15. To see other questions from the same email address you can click on the email address in the “Unanswered” tab or click the link next to the email in the answer/edit page for the individual answer.
16. Link checker! Yes, you read it correctly, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. Link checker is now available in LibAnswers, too – it will periodically (twice a month) check the validity of links you included as part of your answers.

Phew, that’s a lot of new stuff, so check it out when you get a chance and, as always, please let us know what you think. Thanks to everybody who contributed their ideas, comments, suggestions, testing, and blood sweat and tears which went into developing this awesome new LibAnswers release.

An online trivia contest (“Outwit the West” – top prize: $1 million dollars) recently caused an internet sensation, and a patron submitted one of the questions from the contest to ABC Librarians via LibAnswers’ SMS service. The question was:

What horse won the 800 yard Christmas Day race between Perico and Dude in Fairview NM in 1886?

Before they could respond to the original SMS, ABC Librarians started seeing the question crop up in multiple channels – through LibAnswers, phone calls, and emails. And the answer was ambiguous: The race was scheduled in Fairview, NM on Christmas Day, 1866 – but was won, by Perico, on January 10th, in Chloride, NM – and the library’s considerable archives offered no information on what happened in between.

What happened next is a great example of jumping head first into social media. Using LibAnswers, ABC Librarian Anne Lefkofsky was able to quickly publish the info the library had on the race. The answer’s URL was shared in contest discussion forums, and it spread like wildfire. As trivia hunters asked for more details, library staffers updated the answer with more source materials. When patrons called the library, staff emailed them the answer with two clicks. Meanwhile, LibAnswers’ built-in Search Engine Optimization meant the answer quickly rose to the top of internet search rankings.

The real-time statistics in LibAnswers let the ABC Librarians know how popular the question had become. Within a few hours of posting, the answer had 500 hits; by the next day, 5,000. Driven by the popularity of this topic, ABC Librarians created a new LibGuide that compiled links to climate data, maps of the towns involved, images, and user link submission. Not long afterward, a librarian from the Fray Angélico Chávez History Library in Santa Fe, NM submitted a link to a photo of the elusive newspaper that explained exactly what happened on Christmas Day, 1886 in Fairview, NM. Pretty amazing, right!?

The end result? Eleven thousand people found the ABC Libraries LibAnswer, which now linked them to a resource only available at another library. Talk about librarians using technology to improve services and collaboration! When we contacted David Hurley (Digital Services Manager at the ABC Library System) about the story, he put things in context: If those 11,000 hits saved the time spent answering a hundred phone calls or emails to our Special Collections library, then LibAnswers paid for itself with one question. And us? We’re really pleased that LibAnswers and LibGuides got to play a small part in a success story like this. Way to go, Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Librarians – you rock!

1. Mobile version of LibAnswers. It’s here. And it looks awesome! Just like with LibGuides, the system will auto-detect when the user is accessing LibAnswers from a mobile device and serve mobile-friendly pages. You have to try it out. The Auto-suggest feature works great, and the question submissions via mobile are enabled as well. Here’s an added bonus – now your patrons can send you SMS questions just by clicking on your local SMS phone number – how cool is that?! You do have to have our SMS module for this SMS functionality to work – those of you that don’t have it, what are you waiting for?
   In general, the mobile version of LibAnswers is looking great, working great, and we look forward to hearing your suggestions and ideas for making it even better!
2. Multi-lingual interface for public pages. We have worked with several of our international clients (in Sweden and France) to translate the public screens in LibAnswers and we’re pleased to be able to offer a multi-lingual interface for LibAnswers public pages. If you are interested in translating your LibAnswers system into your local language, please email us at our standard springshare support email and we will send you the translation files.
3. We also made many behind-the-scenes improvements in the code and in the database so the system is now faster than ever!

Big thank you to all our clients who contributed ideas which went into this update, and also thanks to Derik and the LibAnswers team who made it all happen! As always, we’re here if any questions pop up, and please continue sending us your ideas and suggestions for further improving LibAnswers.

Our new training program allows you to sign up for the training you want on a day & time that works for your schedule. Schedules alternate each week, so a “LibGuides Basics” session will be offered in a morning slot the first week, and an afternoon slot the second week. Check out our guide on the training program for the full schedule, or subscribe to our training session feed to stay up to date with upcoming sessions!

Please note: If you want to see what LibGuides/CampusGuides/LibAnswers is all about (but haven’t yet subscribed to our products), we offer weekly half-hour demos that will give you a great overview of each system. Check out our Demo Schedule for this week’s offerings!

LibGuides/CampusGuides:

1. Mobile interface for your guides! The system auto-detects mobile devices and serves the mobile version. It’s pretty cool, check it out. Also, we don’t want to let the cat out of the bag too soon, but watch for a super-major announcement in a few weeks – a cool new tool which lets libraries easily build mobile websites. The process will be as easy and as fun as creating guides!
2. Including non-LibGuides guides in the LibGuides index. Now you can create “placeholder” guides in the system which can point to non-LibGuides pages, and display those pages alongside your LibGuides/CampusGuides content. Say you have a page which you want to make accessible/searchable from LibGuides. Now, you can place that page’s URL in your system, assign it all the standard LibGuides markup (title/description/tags/subject categories/etc.), and display it alongside your LibGuides/CampusGuides. This way your LibGuides/CampusGuides can aggregate *all* research and guide-related content at the library. The potential of this is far-reaching, to say the least!
3. Unique CSS class for each box type. Now you can customize the look and feel of individual box types to your heart’s content.
4. Folder support for E-Reserves (CampusGuides-only).
5. More streamlined way to import your course lists into E-Reserves module (CampusGuides-only). We can help you import your course lists into our E-Reserves module simply by populating a simple Excel spreadsheet.
6. Updated Asset Management screen (now includes “Books from the Catalog”) and Guide Index screen (more/better filtering options for finding guides).
7. Custom Homepage Redirect – now you can assign a custom guide to act as your LibGuides/CampusGuides homepage (rather than the system default) by using the “Custom Homepage Redirect” option in your Customize Homepage screen.

LibAnswers:

1. Keywords for enhanced searching/better auto-suggest matches. Now you can include up to 5 keywords with each Q&A pair. These are hidden fields (for the patron) but they will greatly enhance searching/finding answers).
2. Much improved SMS Module. It now includes “Send a follow-up” option for librarian to send a follow-up message to the patron, to make sure their question has been answered. We  also have new and improved SMS Statistics with detailed charts for auto-responders, keyword-responses, turnaround time, “direct messages”, and more!
3. The new LibAnswers html widget. Fully customizable html widget which can be embedded into any webpage, to make searching the knowledge base available from anywhere – literally.
4. The Reference Analytics module can now track up to 10 fields (up from 6) and each field can have up to 30 values (vs 25 in the old version)
5. Librarians can record Analytics information right on the “answer” page, without having to be redirected to the Analytics module screens. This makes recording analytics a snap!
6. Improved Statistics screens – more charts and graphs, more statistics options, and the ability to filter statistics range by day (as opposed to monthly statistics in the old version).
7. You can now use the handy “Edit Answer” link on the public question/answer screen to edit/update questions (rather than searching for the question in the Admin interface).

There are many other ”small improvements and fixes” for both products, but we wanted to give you the heads-up on the most important changes in this post. The full details will follow in our Newsletter next month.

Many of these new features were developed as a direct result of your suggestions and feedback, so here’s a big THANKS to everyone who contributed ideas and helped with testing. Please let us know what you think!

The first marketing/advertising “how to” we put together is for LibAnswers - http://help.springshare.com/advertisingsms. It’s full of great ideas and practical advice about how to encourage patrons to use your LibAnswers SMS service – things like tear-away flyers with your SMS number, business card stickers, adding your SMS number to your databases, using keywords in classroom instruction, etc. There are many *free* templates you can download and customize for use within your library.

http://help.springshare.com/advertisingsms. Use it, and don’t lose it!

If you don’t have our SMS/Texting module for LibAnswers, check out what you’re missing:

To start off with a bang, we have two exciting additions to CampusGuides/CommunityGuides to annouce:

• Our Assessment Tool is ready for prime-time! You can now integrate surveys and quizzes directly into your guides – collect formal feedback from your users about your programs and services, website, guides, or… anything else you can think of – and get tallied reports on user responses right in the system! As an added bonus, any survey created in Campus/CommunityGuides can be linked anywhere outside of the system – just embed the unique survey URL and get instant feedback from your users from anywhere! Best of all, the assessment tool comes standard for all Campus/CommunityGuides systems!
• Academic Libraries will freak out about our new E-Reserves module! This optional module allows you to securely integrate reserve materials directly into your CampusGuides system, and will allow your students to access reserve materials right alongside your course and research guides. This module truly makes CampusGuides a one-stop-shop for all library-related research needs – and did we mention that the E-Reserves module costs orders of magnitude less than your current e-reserve solution? It’s true – ask us, and you’ll see for yourself!

We’ve also got quite a few upgrades and changes to the existing LibGuides/CampusGuides interface:

• Resource Icons – This new functionality integrates custom icons alongside your database/resource links (without having to hack your links with img tags). You can create a standard set of “meaningful” icons and easily deploy them across your resources. Create icons to represent trial databases, offsite/home-accessible resources, recommended resources, or any other info you want to convey to your users, and integrate them with your database links through a simple check-box!
• A-Z database import tool (for Serials Solutions clients) – We’ve added new options to the import tool – now, you can “check-all”, “uncheck-all”, and “restore defaults”. We’ve also updated the tool and made it easier to maintain any custom database descriptions you create in LibGuides – now, blank descriptions in SS won’t overwrite descriptions in LG, and you can use our new checkbox option to prevent description updates in subsequent imports.
• Librarian Profiles have seen a number of upgrades, including an improved layout to the profile page, a new “LinkedIn” field, and better CSS customization options
• The API now offers more layout control on subject links, and options to return guides sorted by popularity or publication date
• We’ve updated the Rich Text Editor to a more recent version of TinyMCE, which should fix the issue of stripped FORM tags when using IE

LibAnswers has also received a number of improvements:

• Statistics including segmentation between private and staff-entered questions, and now offer statistics on questions transferred between systems
• Export (to excel/CSV format) is available for data in the Reports Wizard / Knowledge Base Explorer
• Filtering options – the “words” filter in the “My Home” tabs now search the answer as well as the question. You’ll also see new pagination links on many administrative pages
• Email notification options – you can now send system emails via SMTP, and librarians can create unique email signatures through their LibAnswers profile. Librarians can also create an “Address Book” for storing non-account holder emails
• New LibAnswers users can login via their LibGuides account, which will automatically generate a LibAnswers account

Frankly, there are too many things to tell you about in just one blog post – so if you want more information, grab an iced beverage and check out this month’s edition of Springy News!

1. Importing of LibGuides accounts into LibAnswers. It’s true – it’s here and it is not even Christmas yet! Now our libraries who have both LibGuides/CampusGuides and LibAnswers can import their LibGuides user accounts into LibAnswers.
2. Improved accessibility for public pages. We’ve taken a big step towards making the system 100% compliant in terms of accessibility on all public pages (properly organized and nested headers, alt tags on images, title tags on links, “skip to content” links for screen readers, improved form labeling, and more…)
3. RSS feeds for new answers and answers by topic. This is a biggie – note the orange RSS icon on the homepage and on every topic page. You can take these RSS feeds and embed the questions/answers from the system anywhere (including LibGuides/CampusGuides, of course!)
4. The notification emails (when patron submits a new question) now include the demographic information about the patron (if provided).
5. Better email notifications when transferring/emailing a question to another librarian to answer.
6. Custom email signatures and more email options for answering questions. When an individual librarian is answering a question and an email gets sent to the patron, they can include a custom email signature (defined in the Edit Profile screen). System admins can also decide whether outgoing emails have the “From” line of the individual librarian answering the question, or whether the email comes from the general system-wide account.
7. SMS Questions/Answers: the ability to see the previous message exchanges with the same user.
8. Reference Analytics module: improved Visual Data Analyzer filtering – you can now filter data and create graphs in the Visual Data Analyzer for individual librarians (filter data by user).

There you have it. The best web 2.0 reference tool just got a whole lot better. As always, we thank all our users who submitted the ideas and we look forward to hearing more of the good stuff which we will then turn into new features.

Enjoy and let us know if any questions pop up – support@springshare.com