Have you explored the thousands of creative lists created and shared by libraries using Librarian Recommends: Lists? Today we’re spotlighting some awesome lists—both general and hyperspecific—that our librarians have made, including read-alikes, interesting themed lists, types of romances, and of course, lists for spooky season.
Are you going to the American Library Association meeting in San Diego? Come say hi! LibraryThing’s founder Tim Spalding will be at booth #2309, demoing and answering questions about Syndetics Unbound. Stop by and see our newly revamped Awards and Honors element, which makes it easy to find out what awards a book has won or been nominated for, and to discover all the other books under that award. We’ll also have Syndetics Unbound tote bags, for you to stuff with all the free books you find on the exhibit floor!
Looking for books that won the Women’s Prize for Fiction? This year’s finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award? We’ve revamped how Awards and Honors display in Syndetics Unbound, making it easier to spot what awards a book might have won, and to find all the other books under that award. On an item page in the library catalog, you’ll now see all the awards, distinctions and honors, and notable lists that apply to that item, along with the stage (so you can easily find nominees, longlists, and winners), and the year.
The Public Library Association’s 2024 Annual Conference is this week (April 3-5) in Columbus, Ohio. Tim and Abby will be at booth 1843, demoing and answering questions about both Syndetics Unbound and Talpa, our new AI-powered search for “What’s that book?” questions. Stop by to say hi, and maybe grab a tote bag or a pin!
Today we’re showcasing another set of the innovative lists created and shared by librarians around the globe, using Librarian Recommends: Lists. With Librarian Recommends: Lists, these lists display right in your library’s catalog, ready to inspire discovery.
By Abby Blachly in Lists
Today we’re happy to highlight some of the creative lists created and shared by librarians around the globe, using Librarian Recommends: Lists. With Librarian Recommends: Lists, these lists (and hundreds more) can display right in your library’s catalog, ready to inspire discovery.
Use Cover Upload to upload images to the Syndetics Unbound image repository. Utilizing an easy drag and drop upload tool, Syndetics Unbound helps to streamline the process for updating images in your catalog, enhancing discoverability. This new service is available for all Syndetics Unbound subscribers. You can use Cover Upload to either add an image where one is missing or to replace an incorrect or low-quality image. Uploaded images will be reviewed by Syndetics Unbound librarians before being included in the image repository.
Did you know that Syndetics Unbound’s Librarian Recommends: Lists—an enrichment that allows librarians to curate lists to showcase staff picks, genre guides, and other topics—can also be displayed outside the catalog? Use List Display Widgets to showcase your Lists on library or catalog homepages, LibGuides, or any other webpage. Watch this tutorial on how to create List Display Widgets, and find all the Librarian Recommends: Lists tutorials here.
Today we’re pleased to announce Librarian Recommends: Lists—a new enrichment in Syndetics Unbound, free to subscribers, that allows librarians to curate lists within the catalog, showcasing topics, genres, staff picks, and more. Lists can also be showcased outside the catalog, on library or catalog homepages. Check it out in this quick video. By default, lists are shared between libraries, so your patrons can benefit from the expertise and creativity of librarians in thousands of libraries around the world.
Will you be at American Library Association’s 2022 Annual Conference & Exhibition in Washington, DC this weekend? Stop by the ProQuest/Clarivate booth (#2507) to catch up with the Syndetics Unbound product team and get a sneak peek at what’s coming soon to Syndetics Unbound: Lists. Lists are a new element soon to be released within Syndetics Unbound that empowers librarians to curate and display custom book lists right in the catalog.
Show off your LGBTQ+ titles with Book Display Widgets. To celebrate Pride Month, we’ve made a page on our LibGuide of Book Display Widgets that showcase LGBTQ+ titles. Book Display Widgets, as we’ve mentioned before, are a great way to show off your collection. Our curated widgets on the LibGuide make it fast and simple to copy a widget into your own Syndetics Unbound account. Just click “Get This Widget” and it’s yours.
Recently, ProQuest released Enrichment Highlights a new Syndetics Unbound functionality that improves a library’s search results page by adding key enrichment elements to them. Mount Laurel Library was an early adopter of this free update and has seen an increase in their collection usage as a result of it. “We added the Enrichment Highlights functionality to our catalog last December. Now the Syndetics Unbound content appears in the search results list making it much more visible to our patrons and staff.
Last year we released a major new feature to Syndetics Unbound—Mark and Boost Electronic Resources—to help libraries adapt to full and partial shutdowns of their physical collections during COVID-19. One year later, and Mark and Boost remains a powerful tool, letting libraries highlight and promote their electronic resources. The feature marks the library’s electronic resources and “boosts,” or promotes them within Syndetics Unbound’s discovery enrichments, such as You May Also Like, Tags, Book Profile, and Reading Levels.
In honor of Women’s History month, we’ve created several Book Display Widgets, which you can check out on our LibGuide. We talked about how easy Book Display Widgets are to make previously on the blog (see Showcasing Titles for Black History Month). Our curated widgets on our LibGuide make the process even simpler—all you have to do is click “Get this widget” to copy it into your own Syndetics Unbound account.
Want to highlight some books for Black History Month on your library’s homepage? Use a Book Display Widget to create a virtual book display! Book Display Widgets supplement the catalog enrichment of Syndetics Unbound, allowing you to create virtual book displays, with covers that link to each item’s record in your catalog, driving traffic and discoverability. Making a widget is an easy process in the Syndetics Unbound admin. Choose what items you want to display.
We’ve looked at a lot of different catalogs and discovery layers over the past few years, and learned a lot about usage statistics (read more about our new usage stats here. Out of that, we thought we’d share some tips about how you can optimize your Syndetics Unbound subscription. Don’t hide the content The more a user has to click, the less they will do so. If Syndetics Unbound is shown within an accordion, behind a tab, or very far down on a detail page, your patrons will see it less, and accordingly, interact with it less.
We’re very pleased to announce a major improvement to our Syndetics Unbound statistics page. Our new usage statistics include deep dives into coverage and interaction statistics, many charts and graphs, a date selector tool, and the ability to limit your view by instance. Syndetics Unbound subscribers can check it out in the Syndetics Unbound Admin, under Statistics. Some of the metrics we’re tracking and displaying now include: Coverage charts show the number of times Syndetics Unbound showed any enrichment on a catalog page, and as a percentage of all catalog pages loaded.
Want to increase usage of Syndetics Unbound? Increase its visibility! Many users don’t click beyond the search results page to view the detail record in your catalog. To that end, we’ve added an abbreviated version of Syndetics Unbound that launches small lightboxes for each element, directly from your search results page. We’ve seen usage statistics rise dramatically when libraries enable Syndetics Unbound on search results pages, so give it a try!
