SMS Alerts@VU

omg lol

Lesley Nelson

Library Systems CoordinatorVictoria UniversityLesley.Nelson@vu.edu.au

III’s SMS Alerts product

• Patrons must opt in

• Patrons still receive email/print circ notices

• 160 character limit

• Types of alerts:– Courtesy – Hold Pickup – Hourly Overdue – Overdue – Recall

• Sent when the corresponding notice is sent, except for hold pickup (sent when item checked in)

• Overdue alerts sent when overdue notices are sent, not when item becomes overdue

The Library specifies • Text of alerts

• Text of opt in confirmation message

• Hours that alerts are sent

Sending the messages

• The Library must set up an account with OpenMarket to send the alerts

• Accounts can be pre-pay or post-pay

• Cost is roughly A$0.09 per SMS

• OpenMarket can provide a free test account

Implementation at VU : a history

• Nov 2011: Paid for 6 month trial• Dec 2011: Upgrade to Release 2011 and new server required

so delayed to midyear 2012• July 2012: More delays due to installation issues at another

Australian library• Feb 2013: SMS Alerts finally installed!• Mar 2013: Tested but not receiving alerts• May 2013: Issue resolved by setting up delivery report URL. At

last able to receive alerts!• June 2013: III kindly agreed to extend our original 6 month

trial period to 12 months from August 2013 to August 2014

Implementation at last

• June-July 2013: Library staff test service in staging WebPAC

• 24 July 2013: We go live! Big promotion effort– signage – global emails– info on library home page

Opting in

Opt in confirmation

Welcome to the VU Library SMS Alerts service. We’ll send you a text when you have holds to pick up, loans that are nearly due or overdue loans. DO NOT REPLY

Sender/From display

• Showed as 12345678. Can ask III to customise• Can be phone number up to 16 digits or text up to 11 characters• Ours is VU Library

Our text messages

Courtesy

The item you requested is available for pickup at VU Library.

DO NOT REPLY. For more info go to: http://library.vu.edu.au/patroninfo or call 9919 4266

This is a reminder that your VU Library loan is due back soon.

DO NOT REPLY. For more info go to: http://library.vu.edu.au/patroninfo or call 9919 4266

Your VU Library loan is overdue. DO NOT REPLY. For more info go to:

http://library.vu.edu.au/patroninfo or call 9919 4266

Hold Pickup

Overdue/Hourly overdue

Jul Aug Sep Oct

330

8991105

1213Total opted in at end of month

Opt in statistics

PTYPEs opted in as of 11 Nov No. opted in Total in PTYPE % of PTYPEVU Library Staff 36 125 28.80%Patrons from other unis (CAVAL, ULANZ) 47 544 8.64%VU Masters Students 165 1937 8.52%VU PhD Students 74 912 8.11%VU Undergrad Students 688 19738 3.49%VU Grad Dip Students 38 1354 2.81%VU External Borrowers 3 132 2.27%VU Alumni 14 1070 1.31%VU TAFE Staff 11 926 1.19%VU Higher Ed Staff 22 1926 1.14%VU General Staff (non-Library) 22 2451 0.90%VU TAFE Students 101 16779 0.60%VU Offshore Students 10 7239 0.14%TOTAL 1231

Opt in Statistics by Patron Type

Message delivery statistics

• 7176 messages sent between 24 July and 11 November 2013• 6980 delivered (failure rate 2.73%)• Roughly 65 message sent per day, 455 per week

Month Messages sent

July 330

August 2103

September 2179

October 1828

Lessons Learnt and Future Plans

• More promotion needed to increase opt in rates, particularly for TAFE students and undergraduates. More promotion planned for start of semester 1 2014

• If pre-paying make sure you don’t run out of credits!

• Will review before trial expires in August 2014

• May poll our patrons to see if they want the service to continue