The Story So Far:
In 2019, my middle school’s library was converted into science labs; the middle school teachers were expected to use the connected high school’s library. In January 2023, the powers that be realized that the middle school would benefit from having a librarian to support them. In January 2024, a space was found in the middle school for a small library space. This is another in an indefinite, sporadic series of posts about what’s worked – and what hasn’t – as I’ve started to re-introduce a school library program to the middle school where I’ve been an educator since 1999.
The Long Walk
Since our middle and high schools are connected, the collective is sometimes called the “middle school-high school complex”. When I started serving my middle school as a librarian in January of 2023, I was operating out of the “Complex Media Center”.
From most points in the middle school, the complex library is about a 4 minute walk with a gaggle of students. That means an 8-minute round trip, or roughly twenty percent of a class – and not too many teachers were taking that walk. Also, the middle school students weren’t allowed to go to the high school without a teacher escort. So since the mid-point of the 2018-2019 school year, the middle school essentially didn’t have access to physical library services.
Digital Disappointment
Adding insult to injury, our digital library catalog system was only accessible when students were in school and on one of the district’s computers. So not only could staff and students not easily access the physical space, they also weren’t able to easily see what was even available.
On top of THAT, our digital catalog didn’t integrate with our digital holdings. So there were at least two different systems that staff and students had to go into to even know what we might have available. As we all know from Human Information Behavior, humans tend to conserve energy (they are lazy), so basically, middle school staff and students weren’t really using ANY of our resources.
Shopping Around
When I was added as the “middle school library liaison” in January 2023, I quickly discovered how cumbersome our library software was. It wasn’t long before I was looking for a new library management system.
After looking at a few different options, I found myself really taken with AccessIt, which we ended up piloting at the complex in the 2023-2024 school year, and which rolled out to all our schools this year.
AccessIt is a company (and software) based in New Zealand. At the time I came across it, AccessIt was working with Mackin as partners, which interested me because we use MackinVIA for our digital holdings, and AccessIt integrated with MackinVIA in a few great ways. After we started using AccessIt, it was bought by Follett. In the year since, Follett has not made any changes; I’m still loving AccessIt.
Let me tell you about my favorite feature.
My Favorite Feature: Access Anywhere
My favorite feature of AccessIt is that our students and staff can access our collection from any browser. It was truly a game-changer at a time when our students weren’t able to get into the physical space. That’s why my favorite feature in AccessIt is how easy it is to access and use online.
I realize this is a pretty low bar; but at the time, it was a revelation for our students and staff. And it’s still incredibly handy!
Middle school dashboard
My Favorite Feature: User-Customizable Visibility & Landing Pages
Because of the unusual nature of our complex library set-up, the middle school and high school share a collection of books. Obviously, there are titles in the high school collection that are not developmentally relevant to middle schoolers. But AccessIt has an excellent feature that really sold me.
AccessIt lets you create different Patron types. You can then set different “permissions” for various groups of patrons. And you can also create different types of resource Collections – for example, “Middle school books” and “High school books”. I can then set the system to only let the middle school students see “Middle school books”, while high school students can see both the middle school books and the high school books.
It’s also possible to create different Dashboards, or landing pages, that different groups will see when they log in. So the middle school students see a Dashboard specifically created for them (see above), while the high schoolers see a Dashboard more tailored to their needs and interests (see below). It also makes it very easy for me to quickly see if students are where they’re supposed to be, as different dashboards have different colored themes.
High School dashboard
These patron group-based customizations have made it possible for two different populations to share some elements of the collection, while still maintaining appropriate separations between the groups. It’s like being able to have a library inside the library! That’s why my favorite feature in AccessIt is the user-customization options.
My Favorite Feature: OneSearch
As wonderful as any library system is, it’s impossible to cover every topic completely. Students and staff will, at some point, need to search for information beyond the school library.
Librarians curate all kinds of great online resources and databases to help our students find accurate, reliable information. But those curated resources are only valuable if they are actually used.
One Search
That’s why my favorite feature in AccessIt is OneSearch. This is an area in the search limiter pane that I can customize with high-quality, curated online sources. When students do a search in AccessIt, it shows what’s in our collection. When they click on OneSearch and choose one of the curated resources there, Accessit conducts a search in that curated resource for the student’s search term, and pops it open in a new browser tab.
Search done with one click on “Dr. T’s Reliable Sources CSE”
I now tell my students and staff: Don’t use Google – use AccessIt!
My Favorite Feature: Holds
When I first started librarian-ing for the middle school, students couldn’t go to the library space on their own. Once we got AccessIt, students could see what we had – but they still couldn’t actually put their hands on it.
Except they kind of could, because AccessIt makes placing holds on books super-easy. So students could put books on hold, then I could take the book from the high school library and deliver it to the student. Suddenly, there was a way for students to interact with the actual library materials again! That’s why my favorite feature in AccessIt is holds.
Even with our newly opened library space, students still use holds. They can place a request, I can pull that title and have AccessIt send an email letting students know their item is ready for pick-up. I check the book out to the student and place it on a “Holds” rack, wrapped in a privacy cover and labeled with the student’s name. Now students can walk through the library and pick up their held item without even having to stop their trip to their next class!
My Favorite Feature: Digital Holdings Integration
Our previous online catalog did not integrate with our MackinVIA digital collection. If students wanted to know if we had a particular title in an ebook or audiobook format, they had to leave the library catalog and log in to MackinVIA and search there.
AccessIt certainly streamlined that process by integrating our MackinVIA holdings as a searchable collection. Search filters make it possible for students to find items by format – physical book, ebook, or audiobook. Even better, AccessIt allowed students to click directly into a MackinVIA item right from the catalog – no application switching needed! That’s why my favorite feature in AccessIt is how well it integrates our digital resources.
Students can enter directly into digital holding from the AccessIt catalog.
My Favorite Feature: Phone App
Since students couldn’t go to the library, I did what I could to bring the library to the students. English teachers run a strong independent reading program in my middle school, and I took advantage. I asked them to poll their students, and I’d assemble a cart of books designed to entice particular classes that I’d bring in and book talk.
Students were interested and would ask to borrow books. Having to schlep around a laptop, get it connected to the network, log in to the library system, and bring a scan gun proved to be possible but slow. I definitely lost some “sales” when it took too long to get a portable circulation desk up and running in a classroom.
But AccessIt has a phone app. It allows me (and users or groups we want to assign) to not only check the catalog from my phone, but also allows for easy circulation. It lets me scan barcodes right from my phone’s camera, so I have a mobile circulation desk in my pocket! That’s why my favorite feature in AccessIt is the phone app.
My Favorite Feature: “My Borrowing Details”
Once users log in to AccessIt (which they can do with Single Sign-On), they not only have access to the catalog itself, but also their own library data. They can view the current loans, as well as their loan history.
In this area, students can self-renew books (once) with a single click. They can also go into their loan history and, with one click, start writing a review of books they’ve borrowed! This puts a lot of control in students’ hands. That’s why my favorite feature in AccessIt is “My Borrowing Details”.
Screen capture of Steve’s “My Borrowing Details” window in AccessIt; includes a filter pane on the left, buttons for “Current Loans”, “Bookings”, “Loan History”, “Interlibrary Requests”, “My Interests”; and lists several books from Steve’s loan history; also shows the “Write a Review” button for the title “Hands”, which is currently selected.
My Favorite Feature: Reviews & Ratings
Although reading is often considered a solitary pursuit, it also has social elements. Students love to talk about what they like – and what they don’t like – about books they’ve read.
AccessIt allows students to write reviews and rate resources right in the catalog. These are sent to the library for review; once approved, they are visible to others in our system. When students click on a resource, they can see how it has been rated, and read reviews posted by peers.
And AccessIt recently added the option for students to post anonymously, for those who have something to say about a title but who might be shy about sharing their opinions. (The anonymous reviews are still moderated, of course.)
And the Advanced Search allows students to search by rating, or by review key words! This feature has added some fun social elements to students’ engagement with the online catalog. And some of the teachers have started allowing AccessIt reviews as a task option for students’ monthly Independent Reading.
Everyone wins! Students get to share, teachers get to see what students think of what they’re reading, and classmates get to learn what their peers think about various titles. That’s why my favorite feature in AccessIt is users’ ratings and reviews.
My Favorite Feature: “My Interests”
Once students log in to AccessIt, they can go into their account settings and set up “My Interests”. This allows students to select as many genres, subject, authors, or series as they’d like from those listed in the catalog; when any new items arrive that match any of their interests, students receive an automated email!
I love book talking titles that bring students to the library – now the library can bring titles to my students all on its own! That’s why my favorite feature in AccessIt is “My Interests”.
My Favorite Feature: Visual Search
The quantity of resources available intimidates some students. Even when their class comes down to browse, it can be difficult to find that just-right read.
AccessIt makes online browsing super-simple with Visual Search. In the web app, I set up customizable tiles that students click to browse a particular genre or subject. AccessIt lets me set parameters for what kinds of materials to include with each Visual Search tile, so as more items are added to the collection, Visual Search automatically captures relevant resources.
And tiles can be nested – clicking the Genres tile reveals some different categories of content, while clicking the Formats tile offers readers different types of texts.
Screen capture of Steve’s AccessIt Visual Search titles – “Genres”, “Formats”, “eBooks & Audiobooks”, and core subjects
“Genres” Visual Search options
Since Visual Search is a feature in the online catalog, students can browse to their hearts’ content whenever they feel like – even if they’re not in the physical library space! That’s why my favorite feature in AccessIt is Visual Search.
My Favorite Feature: Library Map
I am only just starting to explore this option within AccessIt, but from the moment I heard about it, it captured my imagination. AccessIt allows librarians to essentially upload floor plans of the library. Items or genres within the library can be assigned to particular portions of this map. When users click on an item to learn more, mapped items offer an additional click that pops open the map, pointing users to the location of the item within the library!
During a recent webinar, I learned that it’s possible to insert photos of shelves, and to assign a set of call numbers to a shelf. Then AccessIt will locate an individual title within the shelf! It can also literally point out “read-alikes” for books that are currently checked out.
How cool is that?! And what a great resource to help students and staff locate resources on their own. I love this option for putting that much more agency in our students’ hands. That’s why my favorite feature in AccessIt is library mapping.
…You Get the Point
Whenever I get asked about my favorite feature of AccessIt, I find myself unable to choose just one. I could keep going with the list above, but I think you get the point.
Now that we have a physical library space in the middle school again, I thought I would rely on AccessIt less; but if anything, it’s actually become more useful. Students seem to enjoy having the option to wander through the physical space and flip through books. But because our physical resources are shared between our school and the high school, they also often find themselves searching out titles for me to ferry over for them.
Finding Good Tools
Although having a digital library management system can help a school library program, it’s only useful if it’s actually getting used. Whatever system you use, it has to meet the needs of your students and staff. Your situation might not need tons of bells and whistles. I know the lower grade librarians in my district simply aren’t able to utilize some of the features I love, because their students don’t have the ability to interact with the catalog the same way older students can.
If you are shopping for a new library management system, be sure to check out lots of options. Ask school librarians on social media what they like and dislike about their software – they will love telling you! As good as a demo looks, it’s really about how well the software functions on a day-to-day basis.
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