“When we launched Encore this June, we made Encore the default search for library catalog and e-journal materials and put the search box on our home page,” says Julianna Robbins, Digital Services Librarian at Long Beach Public Library. “We want to direct people to Encore because we think that is the best direction for discovery that we can take.” An instructional screencast Julianna created also made it to the home page, although she notes that: “We’ve found that people intuitively know how to use Encore because of its use of fresh web design and features.”
Plugging In
As a first step towards launching Encore, Henry Er of the Encore Service Team configured a new server loaded with the Library’s catalog data and shipped it off. All library staff had to do was open the box and pop in a cable. “The work was minimal to get Encore live and it gives our users a big payoff,” says Susan Jones, Department Librarian of Automated Services Bureau. “We had some back and forth with the Encore Team and in a half-day we were up and running.”
While Susan has been involved in a bringing up a complement of new Innovative products that LPBL selected over the last 18 months, Julianna kept an eye out for user needs and made suggestions about configuration. For example, if you launch an Encore search at LBPL, you will see results from a federated search of their databases at the top right of the screen. Like many public libraries, LBPL has invested in database subscriptions to give them a resource of high-quality, trusted information. Julianna says: “We not only made federated search available in Encore, but also put the results front and center because we want people to be able to easily access reliable information and use it frequently.”
Tagging-Including the Library Staff!
Julianna has seen the first uses of Community Tagging by patrons, watching them come through in Encore’s Community Manager tool. Tags are not just for patrons at LBPL – the library staff are making rich contributions as well. Librarians are adding tags to group together items of interest and leverage the pathfinders they’ve already created. “We have librarians in the children’s department tagging items ‘readalouds’, which become a facet in searches.” Librarians across the library are thinking about lists, such as New York Times or Los Angeles Times bestsellers, or titles from the Brown Bag Book Club, as possible new tagging targets.
“We chose Encore because we need technologies that are actually working in the field for libraries, rather than products that are promised or years away from being stable,” says Sloan Sakamoto, Manager of LBPL’s Automated Services Bureau. The speed of the implementation means LBPL staff has bragging rights in the region, having punched Encore 3.0 live before a cross-town academic library did. Says Julianna: “We’re proud of being ahead of the curve and the Encore Team helped us get there.”