Listening to public health officials, libraries are doing their part to encourage social distancing by cancelling programs, events and even closing their doors completely. We recognise how tough these calls are to make and how important the safety of your library staff, users and communities is during this critical time to flatten the coronavirus curve.
As the COVID-19 pandemic quickly evolves, we are faced with new realities that didn’t exist just a week ago. Below you can find the latest updates from bibliotheca and tips for libraries who use our solutions.
For libraries who use our cloudLibrary digital service, we will continue to serve your library users with 24/7/365 access to ebooks and audiobooks and have additional helpful tips to handle a surge in usage below.
Working with the team at bibliotheca:
To ensure the health and safety of our staff, we have stopped all non-essential travel. bibliotheca staff work from offices around the world and we have policies and infrastructure in place for staff to work remotely.
As of COB, 17th March, 2020, we will have the majority of our teams work remotely apart from some skeleton staff in the office, as we practice social distancing so we can all do our part to reduce the short-term pressure on our healthcare system.
Remote support capabilities
Our helpDesk teams are committed to resolving any issues you may experience. We have a robust team with the technology and capability to remotely monitor, diagnose and resolve most issues. This may require help from your IT team to provide appropriate access to allow us remote access to your hardware. If you do not currently allow remote access or are not sure please click here to complete the form and we will be happy to provide some free advice.
On-site support & installation
If a field service technician is needed to replace hardware components or to install new equipment, we are closely monitoring the Public Health England, World Health Organization and local guidelines and will act accordingly in the interest of our staff and customer safety. If changes to planned visits are necessary, we will reschedule as needed.
Upcoming bibliotheca meetings
We’ve heard some libraries getting creative to maximise this time with less people in their libraries to do things like RFID conversion and take inventory. Our teams are here to answer questions, demo solutions or discuss ways to help virtually. Please discuss these flexible options with your bibliotheca contact.
Tips for selfCheck customers:
How to best disinfect bibliotheca solutions
For a detailed guide to cleaning bibliotheca solutions, click here. We also recommend that you follow the COVID-19: Infection prevention and control guidance provided by Public Health England, GOV.UK.
Limiting touchscreen interactions
We pulled together a few configuration options to help minimise touchscreen interactions throughout transactions. Click here for the full guide.
Tips for cloudLibrary customers:
Send messages directly to digital users
The Library Messages functionality inside the cloudLibrary app was designed to share important details with users and communicate in real time. We wanted to remind libraries of this functionality, as they communicate with users throughout this pandemic.
Prepare for a surge in digital demand
We understand you will see a surge in usage, borrowing and browsing over the coming weeks. We are working with publishers to make more content available at affordable prices and are making internal resources available to help manage holds and content delivery during these high demand times.
Inside CAT, a few quick changes can make a big difference for your readers.
- Increase the number of allowed borrows and holds
- Turn on autocarts to automatically relieve holds
- Turn on Pay-Per-Use to instantly increase reader selection
Stay healthy and reach out if we can help!
General questions: info-sg@bibliotheca.com
