The December release of Talis Engage enhances the Reporting area introduced in last month’s release.

 A new monthly report has been added, to find and disable deadlinks in records. All hyperlinks, images and file links in records are tested, and replaced with a “Link not working” message if found to be not working correctly. A report is then generated and made available to the SysAdmin user (or other authorised users) in the Create/Manage Reports area, listing the records and urls affected.

 The records will still contain the original hyperlinks, images and file links, but these will now only be visible when the record is edited. Once the edit had been saved, the record will display the links again instead of the error messages.

Only the most recent month’s deadlinks report is kept, so if you want an archive copy, you should download it for local storage (reports will download as CSV by default).

We’ve also introduced Ad Hoc reporting for searches.  Once a search has been carried out by an authorised user, a Create Report button will be available on the left-hand side of the screen. The report will be queued for processing, and will appear in the Create/Manage report area in Admin (under the Ad Hoc reports section) – users will only see their own reports.  

 The current status of ad-hoc reports is displayed on this page - to track progress, you can click on the Refresh button at the top of the screen. Ad-hoc reports are not over-written, but can be downloaded and saved locally.

Finally for this release using customer feedback raised at the Engage User Day on 17th November, text boxes have been expanded for the edit record function.  (This sizing can also be changed using your CSS design).

To preview this functionality prior to the full release, visit http://trial1.talis.com/engage and login as SysAdmin with the password engage, from 2nd December onwards. Release to the live service is scheduled for the 9th December between the hours of 5:30 and 8:30 pm.

We encourage you to view the preview and feedback any comments.

This week saw the first Talis Engage User Group, and I heard some great insight into how some library services are positioning themselves as the key point of contact throughout the Council for information services, using Talis Engage.

Magda Robertson, CINDEX Project Manager at Camden Libraries told the group that the library can become the hub of information services and provide added value across the Council. She explained that this could place the library service in a strong position to provide information services in this way, especially with likely departmental cuts in the coming months.

The User Group met to discuss their different implementations, share experiences and to consider how Talis Engage should develop in the future. As part of the day, a number of Talis Engage users spoke about how it was being used in their local context. Edinburgh Libraries for instance are using Talis Engage to help reflect the new focus for the Council – neighbourhood services. Starting the project in August, they hope to go live next week and have focussed their attention on 4 key areas of information: health, leisure and culture, education and life in the community. Their work with Talis Engage will also tie in with their wider web strategy of “Your Edinburgh”.

I was interested to hear how Coventry Libraries had utilised Talis Engage, creating their own local subject directory tailored to their data. Their ongoing work with the Adult Education Service is proving fruitful, as they now promote their courses using Talis Engage too.

Camden Libraries already have an enviable reputation for excellent community information management, and their work to implement Talis Engage will feed a number of other vital Council systems; linking records with nationally required databases such as the Parent Know How Directory . The ability to add and amend records once and it feed a number of other systems removes any duplication of effort for staff, allowing them sufficient time to maintain the service.

This was the first Engage User Day and it proved a valuable day for all. It’s hoped that the next one will convene in the Spring. To find out more about the Talis Engage User Group, please contact danisha.bathia@talis.com.

The November release of Talis Engage see’s the introduction of the new Report Management functionality accessible from Admin through the Create/Manage reports icon.

 Talis have populated this area with a standard report and this will be automatically populated for you on the 1^st of every month, overwriting the previous month’s report each time. This report will allow you to view all records with a last check by date falling in the current month from the preceding year. If you require to keep an archive of all the standard reports generated it is advisable to save them locally. This functionality will only be viewable to SysAdmin users and those users have been given specific Create/Manage reports role permissions.

 To download the example file on the preview site please ensure that you add a .csv before you save.

 Talis will continue to enhance this functionality in forthcoming releases.

 We have started to refine the Advanced Search function. We have now added a “Clear Search” button at the top and bottom of the Advances Search page. Also, you are now able to search within specified associated search without defining search criteria. Such searches will detail all records within the selected subjects.

 Finally for this release, we have linked the export function to the record and field role permissions, allowing greater control over record access.

 To preview this functionality prior to the full release, visit http://trial1.talis.com/engage and login as SysAdmin with the password engage. Release to the live service is scheduled for the 11th November between the hours of 5:30 and 8:30 pm.

 Please be aware that the preview site will only be available with the new functionality for 1 week only.

 I encourage you to view the preview and feedback any comments.

This month’s release of Talis Engage has focused on the communication of faults, with focus on how such messages are communicated to your end users, and with emphasis on how it is logged at the back end to help diagnose a swift solution.  In past releases, we have maintained and improved product resilience ensuring that errors encountered are at a minimum.  With this release, if an unexpected error is encountered during a search, the following message will be delivered:

‘The system is unable to carry out your request due to an unexpected problem. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. Please click here to return to the home page.’

A key feature in this release is the ability to view scope notes should they exist on subjects via the Browse index in public view.  If a scope note exists, hovering over the subject header will reveal a pop up box detailing the note. To demonstrate the feature, please hover over the Business and Industry subject header in Browse.

We have also applied a fix regarding the registration of User names.  Users registering for Talis Engage may have a user name exceeding 25 characters, and whilst the application is able to accept any amount of characters, the login box can only accept a maximum of 25, causing errors on login.  This has now been addressed with the addition of a note to this effect being added to the registration page and also, should the user attempt to create a User name with more than 25 characters, the cursor will stop at 25 and will not accept anything further.

To preview this functionality prior to the full release, visit http://trial1.talis.com/engage and login as SysAdmin with the password engage. Release to the live service is scheduled for the 7^th October.

Please be aware that the preview site will only be available with the new functionality for 1 week only.

The September release of Talis Engage once again has built upon the resilience of the product. Users will see that navigating search results as a logged in user no longer produces the message “You have entered an invalid search term”. Along with this, we have addressed several other areas in the product where sort and navigating search results have produced errors.

A key new feature in this release is the ability to delete record owners and contacts from the system. A warning will appear before you delete, allowing the user to be able view all records that the owner/contact is attached to. By deleting the owner/contact, all links to records will be dissolved and no further maintenance for that owner/contact will be necessary.

Searching for contacts has now been enhanced.  When a list of contacts is presented in Admin, all additional information based on the “publically visible” check box is now displayed, making it easier to identify duplications for maintenance purposes. This level of detail will be available to all users who have roles that allow them to view contacts and users accounts. By selecting the Edit contact link, a new button has been added at the bottom of the screen to allow users to view all records associated with this contact.

An enhancement has been made to the Calendar functionality. If list view is chosen, an actual list will be produced of calendar events. We have also ensured that the days of the month are listed with their full names and not the abbreviated form.

To preview this functionality prior to the full release, visit http://trial1.talis.com/engage and login as SysAdmin with the password engage. Release to the live service is scheduled for the 8^th September.

This release includes  enhanced messaging when users who are attempting to log into the system click the Forgotten Password link.  The system now responds with meaningful error messages to help diagnose why ‘reset password’ emails can not be delivered.

In addition, this release removes the search string  (which resembled lines of code)  that was automatically displayed at the top of the search results screen. Future  releases  will re-instate the search string so that it contains more meaningful text .

A number of bug fixes have been included in this release and we have again built upon resilience and reliability of the product.

To preview this functionality prior to the full release, visit http://trial1.talis.com/engage and login as SysAdmin with the password engage.

Release to the live service is scheduled for the 12^th August.

Please be aware that the preview site will only be available with the new functionality for 1 week only.

This release includes enhanced subject searching, new reporting options, and improved reliability. To preview this new functionality prior to the full release, visit http://trial1.talis.com/engage and login as ‘SysAdmin’ with the password ‘engage’.

When using the Advanced Search, users can now filter their search criteria to ensure Talis Engage only returns records associated with the specified Associated Subjects. Up to 50 subjects can be specified.

A new reporting feature allows search results to be exported as a CSV file. Only those fields that have been flagged with a new Exportable option from the Edit Record Type screen will be included in the report. A new permission (Can create/manage reports) allows this function to be associated with roles.

A number of bug fixes have been implemented, which include improved RSS compatibility across more RSS readers, and improved security regarding the editing of contact details.

Release to the live service is scheduled for 29th July, during which we expect the administration aspects of Engage to be unavailable for up to 4 hours. Public interfaces will be unaffected during this time.

Over the last few months we held a number of events around the country talking about Community Information and discussing with a large number of people how they deal with the demands of supporting the communities that they serve.  The last blog post, mentioned this in more detail, and as a result when we held the last event we decided to video the majority of the day so that others could see it.  It’s never easy to capture the essence of a lengthy event, but we’ve had a go, and the results can be seen here

The day was a varied one, with our keynote speaker, Liz McGettigan (Libraries and Information Services Manager,  Edinburgh City Council) talking  about building a 21st century library and the importance of the web to that service.  Then there was a session from myself and my colleague, Paula Keogh, showing some of the functionality of Talis Engage, before finally Richard Wallis pointed out, that just because you build it, it doesn’t mean that users will come (shamelessly purloined from “Field of Dreams“)

As ever the conversation around approaches to Community Information provision was a lively one, and we hope that these videos mange to convey this.  Have a look, and if you’ve any comments, please feel free to add them below.

We’ll be holding some slightly different events in the future, and the invitations for these will be sent out soon.

I was at one of our regular Talis Engage Open Days yesterday, this one held at the Barbican library in the centre of London. For much of the day, I was reminded of how the communities libraries serve are always changing. Our communities become evermore diverse and rich and with today being St George’s Day, it’s a great time to reflect. David Watkins, Skills for Life Manager at London Borough of Southwark discussed their experiences of supporting and serving a radically diverse community with the use of Talis Engage. It was great to see some of the real life examples of this, like linking to English for Speakers of Other Languages (EOSL) courses right across the Borough.

Simon Rice, Asst. Head of Libraries and Information Services at Coventry also illustrated this diversity. For example in Coventry, over 100 languages are spoken. It could be a bit daunting to work out just how the library service is going to deal with this wide range of information needs – how would it be maintained?!

It was great to see yesterday that libraries are putting themselves at the centre of that and championing the cause for a hub of information in the community. By getting the community itself involved in maintain the information, it makes for a sustainable approach and a good way to get libraries involved with the community itself.  I was really pleased to see the range of information being discussed at the day; we covered adult education course, local clubs, children’s services, support groups, local history information, health data and newspaper archives…actually anything that the community wants to know about!

It’s always a challenge to meet the needs of an ever-changing community, as the MLA have highlighted this week with their work on Migration and New Communities[pdf]. Here they have outlined initiatives that have really contributed to putting the library at the heart of community information:

‘Libraries act as hubs of information, where people can come to find out about local services and opportunities to get involved in their local community.’

Cornwall Libraries have created comprehensive information[pdf] for migrant workers and in a similar vein, the London Borough of Camden Libraries support refugees through work experience programmes. North Yorkshire also used the National Year of Reading as a way of promoting collections to their diverse user base.

Yesterday’s event reminded me that libraries are really forging the way with community information and helping to enrich the lives of their citizens.

There are more Engage events – if you are interested, check out the events page.

(Posted on behalf of Paula Keogh)

Picture of Barbican by Martin, published on Flickr

New Look, No Shush

I attended the launch of the ambitious “New Look, No Shush” North Yorkshire Library Strategy 2008 to 2023.  Ambitious not only in its aims but also in its time span.  The day attracted speakers from the libary world, including Keith Bartlett (from the MLA) and Tony Durcan (President of the SCL) and as a theme the day seemed to be encapsulated in the phrase that Tony used “Better service, lower cost, more choice” for all citizens.  Something that all libraries must be striving for in these challenging economic times.  However, other speakers filled the day, including library staff from North Yorkshire talking about the importance of provision of foreign language items for migrant workers as well as the social inclusivity of the Home Library Service (Karen Thornton and Sheila Coxon respectively)

It was gratifying to see that community engagement was also included as a central theme for the strategy as well.  From the Executive Summary:-

The community is at the heart of the library and people will be involved in the running of their local library, and have a say in the service it provides. Our libraries promote the health and well-being, heritage and culture of our communities.

It’s no coincidence then that North Yorkshire have recently gone live with Talis Engage as the technology behind the creation of a community information directory, that is online, accessible and most crucially, maintained by the community itself.  Not only do they have an attractive interface, but they have also found that accessing it easily from the council website is a key way of attracting visitors.  They have embedded a search box on the council webpages. Give it a go and see what you think.

Seamless community engagement for the citizens of North Yorkshire.