WhoFi Announces Launch of New Community Calendar Service To Help Libraries Streamline Program Management
WhoFi announces the launch of its new service, Community Calendar, to help libraries streamline the many aspects of programming. Community Calendar is an all-in-one library program planner that makes it easy to plan, track, and report on programs for the Public Library Survey. It also simplifies the promotional aspects of notifying patrons of future events. This is done by publishing programs directly from the Community Calendar to the libraries’ websites. There is no longer a need for libraries to manage multiple calendars and spreadsheets related to programming. Community Calendar will be available to all customers beginning March 9th, 2022.
Since the onset of COVID-19, many libraries have migrated their in-person programming to online. Now that many have reopened, they are offering a mix of online and in-person programs, but don’t have a streamlined and effective tool to keep track of it all. Community Calendar makes it easy to schedule, manage, and track programs and attendance at all library-hosted events ― a task currently done by hand tallying and over several spreadsheets.
“The Community Calendar feature is wonderful for tracking library programs! Before this, I spent a full 40-hour week doing the PLS reports. Now, it only takes a day.” said Lisa Johnson, Orange City Public Library Director.
Library staff can easily create one-time or recurring events from within their Community Calendar dashboard. With a few clicks, they can plan their week, month, or year. Attendance is counted for each event and populated into an easy-to-read report with comparisons available for various categories. Library staff can enter the program’s targeted age group, site, type, category, platform, and other relevant information directly into the calendar tool to be used for future reporting. Since many libraries are posting online events to their social media accounts for patron viewing, we added a feature that allows libraries to account for views to recorded programs as well.
Libraries can also integrate their Community Calendar directly onto their website which eliminates the need for double entry (to the website and community calendar), while separately keeping track of those same programs in a spreadsheet for reporting purposes. Librarians these days do more with less people, and having everything in one place saves time and stress.
The Community Calendar feature has been piloted by public libraries that previously made WhoFi aware of the administrative burden throughout the programming process. Their feedback was used to ensure this new service offering met the specific needs of public libraries. Now, the Community Calendar is ready for launch for all public libraries.
WhoFi offers services to help real-word spaces understand and engage with their patrons within the building and beyond. For more information about WhoFi or the Community Calendar, visit whofi.com