Fill Your Library with Digital Content!

It’s no secret libraries are evolving, the 21st century is all about digital content in your catalog! Increasingly, libraries are focused on managing digital information. Not only is data increasingly being produced in digital format, more and more people expect access to information anywhere, anytime. Softlink IC’s Liberty Digital can bring your newly digitized content and other electronic files to life for your users with an easy to navigate homepage you can get to anytime, anywhere.

Offering Digital Resources in Your Library

Librarians understand digital resource collections are an increasingly important way to increase their reach and value to their library users. But what do librarians need to consider and how do they go about providing digital resources? Softlink IC gives librarians a brief overview of how to ensure their library embraces the digital library resources revolution.

Access LinkedIn Learning™ Through Your Liberty Library

Published November 12, 2021

The range of resources and services today’s libraries offer continues to expand. As well as the usual digital materials, audio books and access to online databases, many now offer free access to online learning databases like Mango™ for learning languages.

Another online learning database Liberty libraries are offering is LinkedIn Learning. It is an easy to access, comprehensive online learning database. It delivers benefits for the organization and the organization’s staff. Better yet, it reinforces the library as central to the access of information and learning, and now LinkedIn Learning integrates with Liberty.

How to Promote Your Library to Your Target Audience

Published September 24, 2021

Think of the major brands that are recognizable by their logo, their color scheme, the product they sell, and the message they deliver. Then think about whether your library is recognizable to your users and non-users in the same way. If not, you need to consider how you “brand” your library.

In a digital era, users no longer need to visit the library’s physical location. They can access the library’s Homepage from anywhere, so how it looks, feels, entices, and informs users is critical.

Alex the Alpaca Has His Own Instagram Account

We all know the feeling. That temptation to give in to a child who keeps bugging you about getting something they want. Whether it’s sweets, a new bicycle, or a mobile phone with all the bells and whistles, the nagging won’t stop before they get it, or you are fit to be tied. For the sake of peace, you give in, and so it has come to pass for our illumin representative, Alex the Alpaca. Yep, we at Softlink IC gave in.

How to Source eBooks for Your Library

Are you wanting to increase your library’s eBook offerings? You’re not alone. Libraries are increasingly offering digital as well as hard copy resources. EBooks are just one of a wide variety of eresources that are an increasingly common offering in all types of libraries, from specials to public. But where can librarians, who want to provide more eBooks to their users, buy them?

Using RSS Feeds to Boost Your Digital Resource Offerings

Librarians love finding ways to increase information offerings to their users. There is so much content on the internet that is regularly created, posted, and broadcast, on a regular and semi-regular basis. There is much of that content, librarians would love to add to their catalog.

Beginner’s Guide to Reporting in Your Library

Reports are a librarian’s best friend and extracting verifiable data from their integrated library management system (ILMS) is increasingly non-negotiable. Reporting ensures you are all over the information you and your management team need. Best of all, reports prove the value of a library!

There’s another reason why reporting in your library is vital. Have you ever had to argue a case for increases to budgets, new technology, an up-to-date ILMS, additional eResources, or additional staff? Asking for more like David Copperfield with a bowl in his hands, won’t work for librarians any more than it did for him!

Softlink IC understands the real value of reporting. Our customers love Liberty’s Reporting and Analytics features. So, if you are a beginner and part of your responsibility is to produce various reports, where do you begin? Here are a few tips that may help!

It’s All About Accessibility for Library Management Systems

Published May 14, 2021

James Martin, Softlink IC’s Development Manager has a little accessibility challenge for our Liberty library management system (LMS) users.

Close your eyes. Now, try sending an email to your boss (this should be fun). How can you use a computer without being able to see the screen? How do you select a program? What use is a mouse? Once you get into a program, how do you find your way around? This is the problem facing millions of blind users worldwide.

Fortunately, there are tools and standards out there to help. There are also organizations whose sole focus is to define a consistent approach that software can implement to make a program accessible to everyone.

Future Trends and Services in Libraries

A significant increase in access to libraries online via their Home page, self-service options, mobile technology, and expanding digital resource collections was already evidenced prior to COVID-19’s impact. This was borne out by the results of Softlink IC’s #gotknowledge2020 library survey. Fortunately, many library staff have been assisted by feature rich, cloud-based library management systems (LMSs) like Liberty during a what has been a challenging 2020.

One of the aspects the survey sought to identify was what library and knowledge center workers themselves believed would be the emerging trends and services that would influence their libraries in the future.