Encore is different—not only for its features and technologies, but also for the way it is supported. The Encore Team was established as a fully dedicated group that works to back your Encore product from “day one” forward. The experts who install your Encore interface, support the product, and participate in the Encore support forum are all members of the same team. By sharing information with each other and staying close to your library’s needs, the Encore Team has the expertise and knowledge you need to succeed.

When the Encore Team delivers a product, they truly deliver it. A team member will come to your library for a special launch event that demonstrates the library’s finished implementation. Additional customization, harvesting new content into the discovery tool, or adding new capabilities such as integrating your federated search tool is as easy as talking to the people you already know.

Dedication, in every sense of the word, makes the total Encore experience the best it can be. If you have questions about service and Encore please contact the Encore Team directly.

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.”

About 40 staff members from various departments gathered in a library conference room for the event. Holly Murphy, Systems Librarian, Encore Services, gave a two-hour, interactive presentation fielded questions from reference, cataloging, and systems staff on everything from facets to Encore’s RightResult^TM search algorithm. Among those present were Garrett Kuramoto, Reference Librarian, and Marsha Pollak, Supervising Librarian for Cataloging and Processing.

Top: (l to r) Holly Murphy, Systems Librarian; Stephanie Dal Pra, Technical Lead; Henry Er, Systems Engineer; Marsha Pollak, Garrett Kuramoto; Tim Healy, Systems Librarian; Vince Briggeman, Senior Systems Librarian; Luis Cosmes, Manager, Encore Services. Bottom left: Encore demo session. Bottom right: Encore Launch Kit materials.

No launch event would be complete without the presentation of Encore T-shirts, buttons, and promotional posters to staff, to help them spread the word to library users. Marsha showed her generosity by cooking up one of her signature chocolate creations with the “Encore” written on top!

An Encore launch event says a lot about the product and the people behind it, a nimble team that dedicates themselves completely to Encore and provides wall-to-wall service from set-up, to the launch event, to support every step of the way. After the launch event all library staff needs to say is “make it live”! You can check out Sunnyvale’s implementation clicking here.

The Encore Team welcomes Sunnyvale Public Library to the Encore family!

RightResult^TM is a trademark of Innovative Interfaces, Inc.

Setting the Stage

Quinnipiac’s Systems Librarian Terry Ballard already had the HTML in place to put Encore forward as the library’s default keyword search. The Encore search screen is simply an HTML form that you can embed wherever you wish—library homepage, WebPAC Pro front page, wherever—so completing the HTML ahead of time goes a long way toward a speedy transition.

The installation of Encore was quick—just two hours—and our staff was absolutely thrilled with the implementation from the get-go.

Terry Ballard
Academic Systems Librarian
Quinnipiac University (CT)

Up and Running

Although install times do vary, Encore Services strives to bring a “no fuss” installation to your library. Typically the Encore “Pit Crew” can get you up and running in a day. The Encore Services team even concludes each launch event with an on-site presentation to staff. That’s all the training Encore requires.