Email notices

Originally published in the Ketchikan Daily News, December 2009; written by Lisa Pearson.

A couple of weeks ago, you may have received an email notice about your library account from sirsireports@firstcitylibraries.org (as one amused patron asked, "Who is Sir Sireports, and why is he writing to me?"). This was the initial test of the First City Libraries' new automated notification system, and its wide-ranging capabilities caused a small amount of consternation amongst our patrons. Rather than confining itself to notifying people about their overdue items, this overzealous report sent a list of everything that people currently had checked out, anything that they currently had waiting on our holds shelf, and any bills they had incurred during the past few years - even those that had been paid.

Needless to say, this is not the goal of our new system. If you’ve already paid your overdue fines (thank you), we don’t want to keep bringing them up again. The goals of our new notification system are to prevent our patrons from incurring overdue charges, to conserve paper and to save money on postage. Working with the system technicians from the software company, we have now produced a reporting process that will do all of the above for those patrons who provide us with their email address.

Here's how it works: three days before you have library materials that are due, you will receive a courtesy email reminding you to either renew or return the materials. Of course, with our online catalog (www.firstcitylibraries.org), you can renew your items directly from your computer the minute you get our email. If - through some evil twist of fate - you don't renew or return those items, you will get an email overdue notice on the 7th late day. A second reminder will be sent out three days later, and then a final “We Are Concerned” notice when the items are 2 weeks overdue. Speaking for myself, I know how quickly time flies between getting my first overdue notice in the mail and the point three weeks later at which my overdue items become "lost" items. More frequent reminders should circumvent that problem.

If this all sounds a little familiar, it may be because you were a devotee a few years ago of Library Elf. This free third-party service also alerted users to their upcoming library due dates, but it was incompatible with the new software system we installed in 2008, so we have been working at configuring a replacement to this wonderfully handy little product. We've tweaked things a little, re-tested our system, and we are ready to start accumulating email addresses. For those of you who are wisely reticent about sprinkling your information about, let me reassure you that your email address falls under the same state privacy statute as the rest of your library account information, and will not be released to wacky Nigerian millionaires looking for someone deserving to be caretaker for their vast fortune.

By coincidence, one of the other suggestions we have received from our patrons over the past couple of years was that we email them concerning upcoming library events: author visits, slide shows, crafts, concerts and special storytimes. Therefore, we have created another email listing separate from our new notification system. If you would like to be part of this extra group, just let us know when you give us your email address. The first Event Alert we will be winging out into cyberspace will be about November Yarn Bee, which is Sunday afternoon from 1-3 pm. Coffee, cookies and conversation will follow an introduction to over a dozen new books, videos and magazines about yarn craft. If you have any questions about either of these new email services, or if you would like to give us your email address, please call us here at the library: 225-3331.