As 2024 draws to a close, we’re excited to share the impactful features, improvements, and bug fixes that have enhanced your library’s event management experience. With regular Vega™ releases, we’ve focused on improving workflows and usability – read on to discover how these changes elevate your library’s event management solution.
Patron Experience
We understand that your priority is creating a more intuitive user journey and fostering a stronger sense of community. To support this, we’ve introduced several enhancements:
- Improved Booking View: Patrons can now easily navigate room and equipment bookings thanks to updated booking notices and session-specific cancellation options.
- Multi-lingual Support: With the addition of right-to-left (RTL) compatibility, we’ve made the platform more accessible than ever before.
- Streamlined Event Information: Automated event flyers now display room locations and include online event URLs in confirmation emails for hybrid events, ensuring patrons have all details upfront.
Integrations and Platform Connectivity
Integrations are key to a seamless library ecosystem, ensuring that various tools and platforms work together to deliver a unified experience for both patrons and staff. Recent updates include:
- Website Events Widget: This user-friendly widget allows libraries to seamlessly showcase upcoming events on their websites, no coding required. With just a few clicks, you can embed event details, boost visibility, and engage your community with real-time updates. Whether you’re promoting a local author talk, a children’s program, or a special event, this tool ensures patrons always have access to the latest events. Customers are excited to connect with patrons more effectively, creating a dynamic online presence that enhances participation and strengthens community ties.
- Improved API Consistency: Updates to API endpoints, such as returning consistent booking fields and respecting booking open/close dates, enhance developer reliability.
- Expanded Parent Relationships: Rooms can now have multiple parent relationships, making hierarchical management more flexible.
Staff Experience
In response to user feedback, we’ve made several updates to improve usability and streamline operations:
- Improved Booking Management: Staff can now adjust set-up and cleanup times for room bookings, manage bulk bookings outside regular hours, and customize email templates for event notifications.
- Organized Event Handling: Event settings now separate public and private categories, improving organization and enabling targeted staff filtering.
- Simplified Tools: New tools like the room calendar include links to connect staff to the booking page and advanced error notifications for equipment bookings make daily tasks more efficient.
Marketing and Branding
Your library’s brand is more than just a logo – it’s your reputation with your community. We’ve introduced updates that elevate your promotional materials and ensure they reflect your unique identity. Key updates include:
- Customizable Flyers and Brochures: Adding professional touches like footer images enhances your library’s brand, ensuring that communications reflect your unique identity.
- Actionable Messaging: Updates to default text on flyers ensure promotional clarity, especially for in-person or off-platform bookings.
- Patron-Centered Content: Email templates now support image editing and customizable messaging, ensuring every communication is visually engaging and relevant.
Small updates – Big impact
Small updates may seem subtle, but over time, they add up to a significantly improved user experience. Just like each brick adds to a building’s structure, every feature update enhances the software’s overall value and functionality. Here is a list of smaller but equally important updates:
- Payments: Fixed discrepancies in multi-room payment totals and added PayPal integration for event and room booking fees.
- Accessibility: Added features like “Max Tickets per Member” for fairness and staff view enhancements for room booking details.
- Event Management: Prevented duplicate bookings and allowed deletion of unpublished events with no bookings, reducing clutter.
Looking Ahead
As we move into 2025, we’re focusing on further improving accessibility, security, and integration capabilities. We understand that managing registration and sending out reminders, creating promotional materials and processing payments, can also be challenging and time consuming to coordinate. Some exciting features we’re working on include:
- Event check-ins via app, QR code, or staff assistance.
- Unlocking doors with supported access control systems through multiple methods (PIN, QR code, Bluetooth/NFC).
You can view the Vega Program Roadmap online to see our plans for 2025 and beyond. Got innovative ideas to share with us and the community? Submit your ideas to Idea Exchange here and make an impact. We’re excited to continue enhancing the library experience alongside your library. Stay tuned for more game-changing updates!
New Partnerships
We are pleased to welcome the following public libraries that have chosen Vega Program:
About Vega Program
Vega Program is designed to give you full control of your library’s event management, attendee communication, and program marketing. Enabled with Polaris and Sierra integrations, it enhances patron experiences through easy access to event details, requesting rooms, and managing reservations. Features added for library consortia include centralized calendar management, giving community members the ability to view events at their local branch or across the consortium. You can read more online how these new features helped one consortium manage their activities easier.
Join Us at IUG 2025
If you’d like to engage with the Innovative team and connect with other community members, the IUG 2025 Conference is the perfect opportunity. Set in vibrant Denver, this event offers a platform to share insights, explore innovations, and network with industry leaders. For more details on registration and to secure your spot, visit the conference page here.