John Kerber

WhoFi's New Help, Tutorials, and Community

Finding help should be simple, especially during a busy library day. Community Connectors is WhoFi’s new help, support, and tutorial system built to make learning easier for staff.

It brings training, product updates, webinar recordings, and support content into one searchable place.

What Is Community Connectors?

Community Connectors is a new learning and resource space for WhoFi users.

Inside, staff can find:

• Short tutorial videos
• Feature-specific courses
• Product update posts
• Webinar details and recordings
• Searchable help content
• Common questions and tips
• Comment areas for questions and discussion

It’s designed to help staff find answers quickly and learn at their own pace.

Short Videos for Busy Staff

Most tutorial videos in Community Connectors are designed to be under five minutes. That makes it easier to find a quick answer without watching a long training session.

Videos are organized by WhoFi feature, including:

• Event registration
• Community Calendar
• Spaces
• Passes
• Reporting
• Advanced settings

Helpful for New and Experienced Staff

Community Connectors can support onboarding for new staff by giving them a clear place to learn WhoFi basics.

It also helps experienced users explore features they may not use often. Staff can search for topics like time slots, organizers, registrations, or calendar settings and find related lessons or posts.

Product Updates and Webinars in One Place

Product update emails are helpful, but they can be easy to miss. Community Connectors keeps updates in one place so your team can review them anytime.

Going forward, WhoFi product webinars will also be hosted through Community Connectors. Recordings will live there too, making it easier to revisit updates or share them with team members.

Built to Grow with the WhoFi Community

Community Connectors starts as a support and tutorial space, but the goal is to grow it into a collaborative hub for WhoFi users.

Over time, it can become a place for:

• Shared best practices
• Discussions
• Success stories
• Event ideas
• Troubleshooting
• Library impact conversations

How to Access It

Community Connectors is available inside your WhoFi account.

To get started:

1. Log in to WhoFi.
2. Click the blue help button on the right side of the page.
3. Choose the option to log in or join.
4. Create an account if it’s your first visit.

Once a staff member has been added to WhoFi, they can join too.

Community Connectors was created to help library teams learn faster, find answers more easily, and feel more confident using WhoFi.

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by John Kerber

WhoFi Unified View - One Calendar for Events, Spaces, and Passes

Library calendars can fill up quickly. Programs, study rooms, community meetings, pass reservations, and staff-led events often happen across the same day.

Unified View is the new feature from WhoFi that brings those moving parts together.

What Is Unified View?

Unified View is a new option that shows activity from across the different WhoFi features in one calendar.

Staff can now see:

• Community Calendar events
• Space bookings
• Pass reservations

This gives your team a clearer picture of what’s happening across the library.

What Makes It Unique?

Unified View is more than another calendar layout. It combines different parts of WhoFi so staff can see how programs, rooms, and passes overlap.

This helps your team:

• Spot open times in the schedule
• Avoid conflicts
• Understand busy days
• Plan new programs around available space
• Coordinate with front desk and facilities staff

For busy libraries, that full-picture view can make planning much easier.

Color Coding and Filters

In Unified View, items are color coded by feature. Events, spaces, and passes each have their own color, and those colors can be adjusted in calendar settings.

Filters also let staff turn different items on or off. You can view everything at once, or focus only on the activity you need.

Flexible Calendar Views

Unified View includes several ways to review the schedule:

• Week view
• Week list view
• List view
• Printable PDF view

Week list view is especially helpful when many things are happening at once because it removes open gaps and shows activity in a simple list.

The printable PDF can be used for staff meetings, desk reference, facilities planning, or internal communication. If shared digitally, links can take users directly to related events.

Better Visibility for All-Day Activity

All-day events and pass reservations now appear in a clear all-day section at the top of the schedule. This keeps important activity visible without crowding the timed calendar.

A Clearer View of the Day

Unified View helps staff see the full schedule without checking multiple places. With events, spaces, and passes together, your team can plan more confidently and make better use of your building.

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by John Kerber

Q2 2026 WhoFi Updates: What's New

Libraries manage a lot each day, from room bookings and program registrations to reporting, patron questions, and community events. In our Q2 2026 product updates webinar, we shared several improvements designed to make those daily tasks easier for staff and smoother for patrons.

Watch the full Webinar Here:

https://youtu.be/vlJqVG-jElk?si=rrBz9Az1DI2RzGze

Here are the highlights.

Easier Website Integration

We highlighted improvements to WhoFi’s website integration tools, especially for libraries using WordPress or similar platforms.

The integration page now includes clearer links and copy-and-paste options, making it easier to display WhoFi services on your library website, including:

• Community Calendar events
• Available spaces
• Pass reservations

This helps patrons find programs, request rooms, and view available passes directly from your website, while reducing extra manual steps for staff.

More Flexible Recurring Schedules

The webinar also covered new custom recurring schedule options for Community Calendar events and Spaces bookings.

Staff can now create recurring items that happen:

• On multiple days each week
• Every few weeks
• Monthly by date or day pattern
• For a set number of occurrences
• Until a specific end date

A preview shows the recurring dates before the item is saved, helping staff confirm the schedule before it goes live.

This is useful for program series, recurring community group meetings, workshops, classes, and seasonal events.

Smoother Forms for Patrons

WhoFi forms now help guide patrons through the process more clearly. After a library card validation step, the form automatically scrolls to the remaining questions.

This is especially helpful for longer registration or booking forms, where important questions may appear farther down the page. Patrons are less likely to miss required fields, and staff have fewer incomplete submissions to follow up on.

Easier-to-Read Display Options

Libraries can also choose how calendar items appear for staff and patrons:

• Text on colored blocks
• Colored dots with text on a white background

This gives libraries more control over readability and accessibility.

Small Updates That Help Staff Work Faster

A few smaller updates were also included in the webinar.

Browser tabs now have clearer labels on popular WhoFi pages, which makes it easier for staff to move between bookings, registrations, reports, and calendar pages when several tabs are open.

The Community Calendar archive also now displays longer event titles more clearly, making it easier to review past programs and find the information staff need for planning or reporting.

Unified View and Community Connectors

We also introduced two larger updates: Unified View and Community Connectors Help and Tutorials.

Unified View brings events, space bookings, and pass reservations into one calendar view.  Unified View Launch Post

Community Connectors is our new help, support, and tutorial space with short videos, product updates, webinar recordings, and searchable resources.  Community Connectors Launch Post

These Q2 updates were shaped by real feedback from libraries and community spaces. We hope they help your team save time, stay organized, and keep focusing on the community you serve.

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by John Kerber

Library Card Validation via SIP2 and 7 Other Updates

We're thrilled to announce additional enhancements to the WhoFi suite of services. Many of these updates were suggested directly by users and are designed to help you better manage your spaces and serve your community more effectively.

Library Card Verification for Patrons

Partners had requested the ability to link their WhoFi account with their ILS and verify patron card holders before they (in any desired combination):

• Register for a program

• Request to book a space

• Request to reserve a pass

You can now enable ILS integrations in your account by contacting your support representative.  WhoFi currently has integrations available for SirsiDynix, Koha, or SIP2, and are happy to grow the list as needs arise.

7 Other Updates

Attendance Breakdowns

Some users of WhoFi requested the ability to enter a breakdown of their program attendance by age, such as counting how many children vs. adults attended. While the age group data isn’t a requirement for state reporting, libraries have let us know that it is essential for local decision-making and advocacy.

Syncing Data from Spaces and from Summer Reading Programs into Question Sets

Currently, WiFi and Community Calendar data sync nightly into Question Sets. Several libraries have requested that Spaces usage and summer reading data should sync as well.

While not every state currently requires this information, it has increasingly been included in annual surveys over time and is often tracked locally through custom Question Sets. Now, this data will sync automatically within your account. This further automates data collection, reduces manual reporting effort, and improves accuracy for both state and local reporting. Check this out in your Question Sets to see it in action!

Resend Confirmation Emails

Feedback from users requested a one-click button to resend any confirmation emails to patrons. You'll find these links at the bottom when you edit a patron's registration, and on the right when you open a submitted booking or review a pass request.

New Default Option for Organization Names in Spaces

We’ve introduced a new default setting in Spaces that allows bookings to be associated with an organization name rather than an individual patron. When this option is enabled:

• The Organization Name field is automatically populated internally.

• The organization name is displayed in place of the patron name on bookings.

• Staff can more easily search, filter, and manage reservations by group or organization.

This enhancement is especially helpful for libraries that frequently manage bookings for community groups, nonprofits, and schools or recurring organizations.

And More!

We also made several other enhancements based on your feedback:

• Bulk editing: Recurring Space bookings can now be bulk-edited for easier mass changes.

• Custom booking form questions: These are now open by default when editing or adding a booking, so they aren't missed.

• Invoice improvements: Cleanups and improvements were made to the invoices sent to patrons.

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by John Kerber

Q1 2026 Webinar and Product Updates

At libraries and community spaces, even small improvements can have a big impact. When staff can move through daily tasks more easily, patrons get a smoother experience, programs run more efficiently, and teams spend less time working around process issues.

That’s what this latest round of WhoFi updates is all about.

In our recent quarterly updates webinar, we shared a set of improvements designed to help partners save time, simplify workflows, and manage programs, spaces, and reporting with more confidence. These updates were shaped directly by partner feedback and built around real day to day needs.

Here’s a quick look at what’s new:

• More consistent account navigation
  Headers across WhoFi have been unified to make pages feel more familiar and easier to use.
• New Quick Add button
  Staff can now create a calendar event, space booking, or pass reservation from anywhere in the account.
• Improved search tools
  Search is now easier to access, helping staff quickly find bookings, patrons, and reservation details.
• One click PDF downloads
  Staff can now download a useful visual calendar of all events to keep on their desk for patrons
• The Today button is back
  A small change that makes a big difference when staff need to jump back to the current schedule fast.
• ILS verification for registrations and bookings
  Libraries can now require library card verification for selected space reservations and event registrations.
• Seasonal hours
  Partners can set different building hours in advance for summer, winter, or other seasonal changes.
• Custom space schedules
  Spaces can now have alternate schedules for renovations, special availability, or temporary closures.
• Organization names on bookings
  A new default field makes it easier to display the name of a group instead of just an individual.
• Minimum booking length rules
  Great for makerspaces, labs, or rooms that need longer reservation blocks.
• And More!
  Several other enhancements were discussed during the full webinar

What ties all of these updates together is usability. They’re designed to reduce manual work, make policy enforcement easier, and give staff better tools for serving patrons and managing operations. Whether your team is running programs, coordinating bookings, tracking attendance, or communicating closures, these changes are meant to make the work a little easier.

We’re grateful to our partners for continuing to share feedback, questions, and ideas with us. That input helps guide what we build, and it keeps WhoFi focused on what matters most: practical tools that support your staff and strengthen the experience for your community.

Watch the Full Video Here:  WhoFi Q1 2026 Product Updates Webinar on YouTube

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by John Kerber

WhoFi Launches Passes

Introducing WhoFi Passes: A Better Way to Share Museum & Attraction Passes with Your Community

Museum and attraction passes are one of those library services patrons truly remember.

When they work well, families enjoy an affordable day at the zoo or museum, students explore new interests, and your library gets to be the reason that experience happens. When they don’t, staff end up running a mini logistics operation behind the desk.

That’s why we’re excited to introduce WhoFi Passes, a new service designed to help libraries offer free or discounted admission to local cultural attractions, without the binders, spreadsheets, or phone tag.

Passes is part of WhoFi’s suite of services and gives libraries a simple way to manage reservations online, directly from the library website, while keeping workflows clear for staff and fair for patrons.

Built on Library Partnerships and Community Impact

Libraries have long partnered with museums, zoos, aquariums, and other cultural institutions to expand access to learning beyond library walls. Passes builds on those relationships by making the experience easier for everyone involved.

With WhoFi Passes, libraries can offer reservations for physical and electronic passes in one place.  This helps patrons explore their community at little to no cost while strengthening connections with local cultural partners.

Why We Built Passes

We’ve talked with many libraries still managing passes with a mix of:

• Paper logs and binders at the desk

• Sticky notes with names and dates

• Spreadsheets that fall out of sync as soon as something changes

• Phone calls just to confirm whether a pass was picked up

The challenge isn’t organization.  It’s that passes are a unique kind of high-demand, time-bound item that traditional workflows weren’t designed to handle.

Over time, the hidden costs add up:

• Equity challenges: First-come, first-served systems often favor patrons who can physically arrive right when doors open.

• Staff burden: Manual checkout, reminder calls, follow-ups, and return tracking take time away from programs and patron support.

• Patron frustration: No one enjoys driving to the library only to find a pass is unavailable, or not being able to check availability online.

• Lost impact data: When pass usage lives on paper, it’s hard to answer basic questions like which passes are used most or which should be renewed.

Libraries deserve a pass workflow that’s lighter for staff, clearer for patrons, and strong on reporting.

What WhoFi Passes Does

WhoFi Passes turns pass lending into a streamlined online experience, with simple controls for staff and clear visibility for patrons.

It supports both:

• Physical passes that are picked up and returned

• Electronic passes (ePasses) that are delivered digitally with no return required

And it works the way pass lending actually works with specific dates, limited inventory, clear policies, and scheduling rules that prevent headaches.

What Patrons See

Patrons start on a clean, easy-to-share reservation page linked directly from your library website. From there, they can browse all available passes and see key details at a glance, including:

• Pass name and type (physical or electronic)

• Benefits of the pass

• Venue website and address

• Your library’s borrowing policy

When a patron selects a date, they immediately see what’s available for that day, and what isn’t, so there’s no guesswork.

How Staff Manage Passes

Inside WhoFi, staff have one centralized dashboard for pass management.

From there, you can see:

• An overview of upcoming pass activity

• Pending reservations that need approval

• Quick access to reservation details

All reservations appear in a calendar and list view, making it easy for staff to stay organized. For each reservation, staff can track pickup, return status, notes, and access ePass PDFs to help patrons reprint or resend.

Optional ILS Verification

If your WhoFi account includes an ILS integration, you can require patrons to verify with their library card number (and PIN when applicable) before booking.

At launch, verification is available for SirsiDynix, Koha, and SIP2, with more integrations coming soon.

Reporting You Can Actually Use

Passes includes reporting designed around real library questions. Monthly reports show:

• Physical vs electronic pass usage

• Month-by-month totals

• Historical comparisons, including year-to-date and prior-year trends

These reports help libraries demonstrate impact to boards and city leadership, identify seasonal demand, and make confident renewal decisions.

Pricing and How to Try Passes

Passes is available as an add-on to your WhoFi subscription:

• $550 annually for a single location

• $350 annually for each additional branch

Libraries can also start with a 30-day free trial to explore the patron experience, staff workflow, and reporting tools before committing. Our service team is happy to help with setup, policies, images, and configuration so your reservation page is ready to share.

Watch the Video Overview

You can also see more of Passes in action by watching this Passes Webinar.

• Watch the Full Passes Webinar Video

A Better Pass Experience for Everyone

Pass lending is one of the most generous services libraries offer. WhoFi Passes was built to protect that generosity.  WhoFi Passes helps make the process fairer for patrons, easier for staff, and clearer for everyone involved.

If your library is ready to move beyond binders, spreadsheets, and phone tag, we’re here to help you make pass lending simple again.

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by John Kerber

Library Accessibility Deadlines and WhoFi is now WCAG 2.2 AA Compliant

Accessibility has always been a core library value. As more services move online, that commitment now includes websites, calendars, room booking tools, and digital forms that patrons rely on every day. Recent updates from the Americans with Disabilities Act have made those expectations clearer and more concrete for libraries of all sizes.

In April 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice finalized a rule under ADA Title II that sets specific requirements for digital accessibility for state and local government entities, including public libraries. For the first time, there is a defined technical standard and clear deadlines tied to it.

The legal standard: WCAG 2.1 AA

While many people are currently talking about WCAG 2.2, the legal mandate itself requires compliance with WCAG 2.1 Level AA. This is the version written directly into the ADA rule and the standard libraries are legally expected to meet within the required timeframe.

Source: ADA Website showing WCAG 2.1 AA:  https://www.ada.gov/resources/2024-03-08-web-rule/

That said, you may still hear frequent references to WCAG 2.2 AA. WCAG 2.2 is the most recent update to the guidelines, released in late 2023. It builds on 2.1 by adding nine additional success criteria that improve mobile usability and cognitive accessibility. Many libraries and vendors are aiming for WCAG 2.2 as a way to future-proof their digital services and go beyond the minimum requirements.  Many libraries and other public institutions are starting to require WCAG 2.2 AA as the minimum standard.

ADA compliance deadlines by entity size

The ADA rule sets different timelines based on the size of the population a public entity serves. For libraries, this often aligns with the size of the city, county, or governing jurisdiction.

These deadlines give libraries time to assess their websites, work with vendors, and make thoughtful updates that support all patrons, including those using assistive technologies.

Where WhoFi fits in

We’re happy to share that WhoFi is now WCAG 2.2 AA compliant following our most recent VPAT assessment. WhoFi has been WCAG 2.1 compliant for a while, and with the latest update to 2.2 AA reflects our ongoing commitment to accessibility, inclusion, and continuous improvement.  For libraries, this means greater confidence that tools like community calendars, program registrations, and room reservations are designed with accessibility in mind.

You can keep up to date with WhoFi's accessibility Standards on our accessibility page:  https://whofi.com/accessibility/

A helpful resource for library staff

If you’re starting to plan next steps or looking for practical guidance, this short video is a helpful place to begin, and also has additional links in the description of the video for additional information.

Library Marketing WCAG 2.2 Prep - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkKzAC_UNww

This video offers a clear overview of why accessibility matters in library marketing and how to prepare thoughtfully without feeling overwhelmed.

As standards evolve, we’ll continue listening, testing, and improving alongside the libraries and community hubs that we love to serve. If you have questions about accessibility, compliance, or how WhoFi supports your library’s goals, we’re always here to help.

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by John Kerber

Q4 2025 Webinar and Product Updates

Thank you to all the library partners who joined our recent webinar.  Here's a quick recap of our Q4 2025 Webinar, which includes an overview of changes and product updates of the WhoFi service.  Here is also a link to the full webinar, if you'd like to watch the recording, just click on the image or the link below.

Q4 2025 WhoFi Webinar and Product Updates

A More Streamlined Community Calendar

Libraries asked for a cleaner editing experience, and you’ll now see reorganized fields, easier date and time entry, and simple “Add” buttons for building audiences, organizers, or categories on the fly. A brand-new Draft Mode also gives teams the ability to create, review, and schedule events before anything is visible to the public. You can even preview registration pages privately and publish events exactly when you’re ready.

Other improvements, like clearer multi-day event handling, an all-day option, and a more print-friendly calendar, help staff communicate programs in whatever format works best for your community.

More Flexible Registration Tools

Time slot programs now allow extended hours without disrupting existing registrations, and libraries have more control over what information is collected for each attendee. A new “full capacity” option also prevents time slots from closing too early, giving staff better management of popular programs.

Simpler Integrations and Better Reporting

Libraries can now customize calendar styling with CSS, adjust integration link behavior, and take advantage of a new iCal feed to share events with outside calendars. Question Sets gained easier import tools, clearer year indicators, and new weekly and quarterly reporting options.

Improved Wi-Fi and Space Management

System-level Wi-Fi reports now provide branch-by-branch breakdowns at a glance, while Spaces offers clearer booking menus, new rules for patron reservations, and support for combining divisible rooms.

These updates reflect your ideas and requests. We’re grateful for your partnership and always here to help if you’d like support exploring any of these features.

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by John Kerber