Melissa Carle & David LeCrone, KCPL
Previous Process
- Hard-clunky
- Online web form — that reflected the paper form — sent to circ staff via email
- staff creates card & sends by mail to verify user’s address
- a time-consuming, manual process
- Sirsi had an online registration mechanism, but it was clunky & didn’t work well in e-library, the previous generation OPAC
- Mailing, up to 10-day process to get a card in user’s hand
Different Concepts — based on Policies
- “Taster card” <– didn’t work
- valid for a limited time
- limited privileges
- move patrons eventually to traditional cards
- all electronic things access, could later be physical
- Online signup for the traditional library card
- same account privileges as everyone else
- adjust workflow to verify addresses, etc
- Digital Card <– their solution
- Focus on immediate access to digital resources
- Thought of lots of ways to make this expensive
Focusing on Digital = “eCard”
- Marketing person came up with this concept
- No need to verify mailing address
- No need for extensive physical borrowing privileges
- No need to provide a physical card
- If they do visit us in person, we can issue a traditional card
- When you remove the policies related to physical items, it becomes much easier
Goals
- Users have immediate presence in the ILS
- Users can be authenticated immediately by Online Services
- No staff mediation
- Focus on ultimate service and not the software mechanism
Process
- Online form to fill out; certain fields required (email address; PIN; zip code
- Form is submitted; immediate account in ILS and email sent to patron’s email account with activation link, includes account number & PIN
- After the confirmation, and clicking on library link, it takes you to eresources page.
- Second email — confirms activation
- Welcome email –Â Third email sent a day later, including all the things you can do with the eCard
Access restrictions
- Over 13 only — board policy; path of least resistance & also being done in a very quick timeframe
- Library doesn’t verify the street addresses
- Restrict by Zip Code to metro area:Â Closer to “one metro library card” concept
- Cannot duplicate name already in the ILS
Emphasizing access over ownership and remove barriers — cope with a few bad seeds
Collection development — all for access to digital resources; increasing circ. More access –> more stuff getting bought.
Risks
- Messy Data
- abbreviations, misspellings, capitalization
- NCOA data scrub from Unique Management
- Cheaters
- false emails, name, age, address
- Poor customer experience
- eligible for eCard, but prevented from self-registering
- Little appeal/traction among users
Staff Training
- Recognizing eCard profiles in the ILS
- Moving account from eCard to traditional card
- Manually signing patrons up for eCard
- Troubleshooting online registration issues
Getting physical stuff
- the online cards are allowed to place up to three holds in the ILS
- when the user comes in, their card is converted to a physical library card after their address is verified with their ID
- Most of our database vendors seamlessly accept the new physical card User ID, with the noted exception of Overdrive
Outcomes
- In the eight months since we went live, over 2500 accounts activated — 260 a month
- Only 4.5% of these accounts have been transformd into full collection access cards
- Have we become a daily part of their lives? A weekly part? How many people were just in the moment?
12pm-4pm heavy use; 9-10pm as well
Consider this to be a very successful launch in the 9 months since it was launched — lots of promotion online — because audience isn’t going to be coming into library.
Birthday verification question — gold standard — but capability not in their ILS yet
Outreach to users — broadening library service — is where the marketing needs to happen to push e-resources.
Expired Cards?Â
- NCOA database scrub — solution….
- Public services doesn’t want to delete cards anymore