The holiday season is on its way, bringing a buzz of activity to the library. Heartwarming holiday reads, inspiration for DIY gifts, and scrumptious holiday recipes are all found at the library. How can you use your ILS to make things “merry and bright” at your library?
Inspiration Plus Data Equals Success
Of course, you can search your ILS for keywords and subject headings related to your holiday display. But you can take your display to the next level by using circulation statistics to identify and choose popular items to feature. Reports like Surpass Cloud’s Circulation Analysis allow you to count circulation by MARC fields such as subject headings so you can see what items are popular and more likely to attract attention.
Get the Word Out
Physical displays can be supplemented by virtual displays in your OPAC, inspiring patrons to stop by the library. Your OPAC’s calendar and bulletin features can be used to publicize events, and blurbs can be added to overdue, reminder, and holds Notice Sets in Surpass Cloud to enable you to effortlessly inform your patrons. Widgets such as Surpass Cloud’s Explore buttons and the Resource List widget on the home page of the OPAC help you promote your resources on display.
The Importance of Accurate Metadata
Metadata is crucial to ensuring discoverability of resources in the display and related resources in your collection. You can check display items to see if subject headings are accurate and consistent. The items that you selected for your display may need subject headings added or edited to make these resources easier to find. Your ILS should make it easy to edit and to add MARC fields and subfields to your records.
Measure Your Success
Once the holiday season has ended, you can run circulation reports as a measure of your display’s impact. Surpass Cloud’s Standard and Custom reports will give you the data you need to celebrate your success and repeat it in the next holiday display.
In Surpass Cloud, resources can be added to collections that enable you to limit reports to display items. You can use collections to identify which resources you used so they can be featured next holiday season. Circulation reports let you know which items were the most popular, which helps with collection development decisions.
Conclusion
Your ILS can help you show off your library’s resources by leveraging data and discoverability to help you create an effective holiday display. The Collections feature in Surpass Cloud is a powerful tool that can be used to identify what items best represent your collection’s holiday-related offerings. Historical data will be much easier to gather for your display items if you have an easy way to identify them in searches and reports. Using the features in your ILS can make holiday displays more effective while enabling easier display creation and evaluation.
About Surpass
Surpass Cloud is the easy-to-use, cloud-based library management system for libraries of all types and sizes. Whether you’re a school, church, museum, business, or any other organization with resources to lend, Surpass is likely a good fit for you. We pride ourselves on being affordable and flexible, with an expert support team ready to help you at a moment’s notice.
