The most recent announcement about the closing of non-life sustaining businesses in Pennsylvania did not have a stated end date.  It’s a good time to take a deep breath, and relax.  Take care of yourself and all those around you.  Be kind.

SPARK Libraries have shifted quickly, and are now providing different services to communities via online tools and resources and telephone.  Some staff are working from home, some are working in mostly empty buildings, and others are taking time to re-group while next decisions are made.  Many SPARK libraries are offering expanded digital resources and new ways of connecting with streaming story hours and programs.   As always, SHARE your ideas with others on the listservs, the forums, to fellow User Group and Committee members, in the online meeting room, or by submitting to SPARK Support for inclusion in the Knowledge Book.

Here’s a little re-cap of the last week:  And an update in our support book.

• PaILS worked with our vendor to put a standard message about the closing, using the Maintenance Message portion of the public catalog.
• If your location hadn’t applied the Emergency Closing Handler feature before Saturday on your own, it was applied for you.
  • This feature adjusted due dates and extended hold pickup time.
  • Overdue fees will not continue to accrue during closed days.
  • Patrons can place holds in your online catalog, to be queued up for when we return, but your daily hold shelf pull list will not populate unless you change a setting.
• Standard patron facing notifications were turned off; an overdue or hold pickup notice isn’t useful to your patrons right now.
• To increase digital access, patrons who were in a window of expiration had their expiration date pushed forward.  Many locations requested even more batch patron expiration date updates and those are being processed.
• If you want to adjust your Group Penalty Threshold to increase it to allow those with higher fines to access digital services, ask Support.
• Software maintenance was completed and many bug fixes were applied.
• Library staff who are working have begun data analysis and cleanup projects.  We’re talking through ideas and continuing to make progress.

Thank you for all of your support and courage.  Embrace the future with your fellow SPARK Libraries together.