Summer Reading Ideas Abound!

We loved this blog post:
http://aclayouthservices.blogspot.com/2010/02/mini-conversations-early-bird-src.html

It was written by the folks at the Allegheny County Library Association Youth Services Division and gives a roundup of ideas they have for promoting summer reading!

The ideas focus on this year's Collaborative Summer Library Theme: "Make A Splash: Read!" But can be made to fit whatever your program theme may be.

We love the idea of placing a "secret clue" each week on your Summer Reader site, which encourages participants to keep coming back.

What fun ideas do you have for summer reading? We can't wait to see!

Here it is: Summer Reader Version 8

We are happy to announce the release of Summer Reader Version 8 for 2010. New features include Facebook integration, new reports features and capabilities, added prize configurations and changes to the program setup page. Click here for a full list of new features visit or you can view the pre-recorded webinar “What’s New for 2010" to learn more.

All Evanced customers that are current on their maintenance or subscription payments are eligible for this upgrade at no additional charge. The upgrades can be done at any time and require almost no downtime (a few minutes in the worst case scenario). All of your data and programs will be preserved without problems (though we do suggest just in case you do wait until any live and open off season programs you might be running are complete before scheduling your upgrade). On February 20 the manual will be ready for the newest version of Summer Reader and can be found at: http://www.evancedsolutions.com/manuals.asp

To schedule your upgrade you need to do only 1 of the following 3 things:
1 - Email Evanced Support ( support@evancedsolutions.com) that you would like to be upgraded as soon as possible and at anytime.
2 - Email Support that you want to be upgraded as soon as possible but during a certain time of day window (please specify e.g. "Before 9AM EDT").
3 - Email Support that you would like to be upgraded on a certain date during a certain time window (again please specify Date & Time Window). For this option you must give us at least a 5 day cushion to be sure we can accommodate that specific date and time.

Please note that upgrades are performed between Monday through Friday 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM EDT.

If you are part of the Statewide licenses in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Arizona, or New Jersey your upgrade is being coordinated through your state library system and you do not need to contact us to be upgraded.

We’re happy to hear your feedback, suggestions for Summer Reader changes for 2011 and to take questions you may have. Please contact us at support@evancedsolutions.com or 888-519-5770. You can also talk with other members of the Evanced Community at http://forum.evanced.info/.

FAQ: How Do I Edit A Single Date in A Recurring Event?

Introducing: Frequently Asked Questions by Larry Woodhouse, Evanced Training Coordinator. Every few weeks, Larry will be responding to the most asked question or questions he is receiving in training webinars and will pass those answers on to you!

Q: How Do I Edit A Single Date in A Recurring Event?

A: There are actually about three different ways for doing this. One of the easiest is to go the event calendar from the staff side by clicking on “Calendar/Registration”. Locate and click on the event on the actual date. Then click “Edit Event” at the bottom of the page. This opens the event date in Edit Mode and you can change the Event Time, Location, Description, etc. But you are only affecting this one date in the event series; the other dates will remain as they are.
As an alternative, go to Add/Edit/Archive and locate the recurring event. It will show all the dates that the event takes place. Click on the date that you want to edit. Again, this opens that specific date in Edit Mode. The changes you make will affect that date only. The rest of the event series will not be touched.

Lastly, you can also uncheck “Combine Recurring Events” and click Search. This separates the event into its individual dates. You can now select the individual date and makes any changes this way, too.

Please note, however, that if you change certain information for an individual date, such as the date or the time, and then make a change to the entire recurring event, it may overwrite the change you made to the single date. Should you edit a single date in the series and then, sometime later, make a change to the entire recurring series, you will see a warning message when you click Save. The message will look like this:
“There are individual events within this recurring series which have different properties than the series. Click ‘Cancel’ to go back, or ‘OK’ to proceed with overwriting them.”

Most of the changes you make to the individual dates will not be overwritten, but the possibility exists and so the message is there as a warning that it might happen.

As always, please contact us at support@evancedsolutions.com if you have any questions.

Thanks,
Larry Woodhouse
Training Coordinator
Evanced Solutions
support@evancedsolutions.com

BranchAnywhere

So as I alluded to yesterday we are officially announcing the coming release of our new U.S. designed and U.S. built BranchAnywhere library materials vending solution. The prototype of which we will unveil at PLA 2010 in Portland, OR next month.

We are leading the design in conjunction with an Indiana based machine builder that we have a long history with, and a local developer and provider of Library Self Check systems (so that we have good and proven SIP2 communications for most ILS systems at launch). The units will be built here in Indiana and will be optimized to the needs of North American Libraries.

A few highlights:
(More details to come, including some BIG ideas that will really differentiate our system from other options on the market)

• Machine will be optimized to support multi-collection types, meaning it will support MOST common library materials of various sizes: bigger/thicker fiction/non-fiction, DVDs, paperbacks, books on CD, Playaways, and even children's picture books.
  • Capacity will vary depending on collection desires:
  • We are planning at least a Std Unit which will have a mix of 4 sizes/types and have a total collection limit of about 325-350 items.
  • A DVD "heavy" unit which will be over 500 items and will heavily lean towards DVDs
  • A "Book Only" version which won't have DVD slots but could have other Audio/Visual and capacity will be under 300 items
• Because of the nature of the design of the machine MUCH LARGER capacities will be possible but will require a larger footprint
• Standard footprint will be about 4.75' deep by 6.5' wide by 7’ tall
  (though our prototype machine is a little wider than this)
• The software and User Interface are being developed to focus on ease of use and "ATM like" usability. Since the total collection size will typically be under 500 items the feedback we've gotten is a fully catalog search approach is overkill. We looked at a lot of the commercial vending solutions user interfaces for inspiration about how to keep it simple. We are also working in conjunction with a User Interface Design Expert to help make this the best interface possible.

We’ll be unveiling our working prototype at PLA next month. Our approach is that we have the great basis for the machine but we want lots of input and feedback from librarians around the country to help us really make this the best product to meet the real needs of the libraries we serve.

More exciting details to come...

BIG Announcement and a request.

I'm going to build up to this one as it is a really big deal for us here at Evanced. Later this week I will be officially announcing our latest new product offering (BranchAnywhere). It's a Library Materials Vending solution (something we initially explored approaching just as a reseller earlier in the year). We've been working on our own solution now, and it's a huge venture and investment in terms of time and money but I think our approach to it will be welcomed by Libraries particularly in North America.

Though we'll be announcing this exciting new product, we are NOT finished with it. We won't be until we find out from all of you how it really should work and be designed. What we'll be announcing and then later showing at PLA 2010 in Portland (OR) is merely our initial working prototype. Call it rather polished starting point for discussion about how these systems should be designed and built. Even though our personal experience has deep roots in automation and specialty machines we know we can't design this in a vacuum and get it exactly right. Therefore, we are actively seeking everyone's input into the best ideas and approaches. We are all very excited to start hearing what everyone thinks.

I'm planning to post something every day this week about BranchAnywhere so stay tuned.

Thanks

Rob Cullin

CSO / Co-Founder

Summer Reader 2010 - Bug Hunt Wrap Up!

What a great contest this year!

We had slightly fewer contestants but even more bug submissions. What a Great job! The participants really worked hard at it this year and we appreciate their efforts.

I know, I know, I’m stalling. All you really want to know is who won, right? OK here goes……

• 1st Place, winning a $300 Amazon Gift Certificate:
• York County Public Library
• 2nd Place, winning a $150 Amazon Gift Certificate:
• Contra Costa County Library
• 3rd Place, winning a $60 Amazon Gift Certificate:
• Manhattan (KS) Public Library

I think the staff at York County may need to get a hobby. ;-D They were submitting bugs right up until 10:00 PM Sunday night. Good thing our developers don’t sleep much.

I thought about pushing the end of the contest out a week, but our developers are football fans and you should have seen the look they gave me when I mentioned it! We are in INDY after all.

GO COLTS!!!

I hope the contestants all had fun participating this year, we certainly had a great time running the contest. We always get some great feedback and insight into how libraries are using our products. Hopefully everyone can appreciate the results.

Thanks again for a great contest!