And so, the series of Virtual User Group Meetings (VUGMs) and Masterclasses wound up in July with a very enthusiastic group of United Kingdom (UK) Liberty library management system users. The Softlink IC team were excited to catch up with them, albeit virtually, again this year. We would have loved to have met up face-to-face, but in these uncertain times that was not meant to be. Hopefully, next year!

It was an afternoon of great discussions, an overview of new features and a sneak peek at the interesting features we are looking to include in the future, followed by our ever-popular Master Class.

New and Upcoming Features

Aaron, a very popular member of the Softlink IC Support team, gave a brief overview of the new features included in Liberty. This part of any user group is always a crowd favorite, so Aaron likes delivering that part of the agenda to bask in the reflected glory!

The attendees were particularly excited about mobile app borrower card, and the RSS feeds features. You can read our blog on this particularly popular new addition to Liberty.

Zac, one of our clever developers, discussed some of the exciting new developments that are planned for future versions. He provided examples of the changes being made to several of the screen layouts in Liberty. The changes will facilitate optimization for screen reader technology. For a bit of behind-the-scenes developer learning, read our May 14th Accessibility blog, and try Development Manager James Martin’s little challenge!

The Masterclass

We love that library staff will always grab the opportunity for more training, and our UK users are no different. Due to popular demand, the topic for the masterclass was Reporting which covered:

• New reports, for example, Borrower Engagement.
• Some of the existing default reports provided in Liberty.
• Creating drag and drop custom reports using the Analytics module.

For anyone who would like more help or wants to discuss the type of reports they’d like to create and how to do so can always contact our great Support team.

A Bit of Fun

The quick trivia quiz we sprung gave everyone a bit of light relief between presentations. The quiz questions continued the meeting’s theme of digital libraries. It was a fiercely contested with little margin between the participants at the finish. We are no longer surprised by the competitive streak in library staff!

Thank You!

We would like to thank everyone who attended our second UK Virtual User Group Meeting and Masterclass. It is always a pleasure to meet and catch up with everyone. For those who won prizes, you should receive them shortly!

A recording of the VUGM and Masterclass recording has been emailed to all who registered. It will also be available to everyone shortly. Just login to the Softlink Customer Portal. We have scheduled remaining boot camps for the back end of the year, so keep your eye out for your notification emails or periodically check what’s happening on our Events page.