Spydus library management system

Spydus offers both responsive interfaces and mobile apps. For library staff, interfaces are accessible through web browsers, including tablets, extending library services beyond library walls.

For library patrons, our fully customizable OPAC is fully responsive so they can access their favourite library content on-the-go.

The Spydus discovery OPAC draws both digital and physical items across core components into one seamless and unified search. It provides the library user with a personalised experience once they are logged in, providing loan and account details, alerts, title recommendations based on borrower profile and their borrowing history, as well as the ability to add reviews, link out to social media, update their details etc. Each library can customise the functionality and apply their branding to the OPAC. With modern libraries extending beyond physical spaces, the requirement for libraries to have the best tools to reach out to the wider community has become a necessity.

Spydus includes a responsive web design for the staff interface. This aims to provide an optimal viewing experience with easy reading and navigation, with a minimum of resizing and scrolling. This enables staff to have full access to all the functionality on the web clients from any device. The solution is one application, and one database, that manages a range of library functions, library content and various metadata standards. This ensures real time, single points of metadata entry, with internal linked data enabling staff quick links to browse the system.

Spydus provides a single web entry point to all modules, that can be accessed on any page. User access to modules and functionality within each module can be controlled via privileges to ensure secure access.

Spydus Home streamlines the administration burden by making tasks simpler to complete. Spydus Home also acts as a communication tool, delivering updates and announcements in a timely and efficient manner and reducing the need to send multiple emails. It also streamlines workflows for ongoing library tasks such as approvals.

Event programming plays an important role in the service offering of the modern library. The Spydus Events module lets libraries manage and promote all types of events. Libraries can manage one-off events, recurring events, and a series of events such as for a festival. Events can be held in both physical spaces and online, and payments can be made for ticketed events. Events can be promoted via social media sharing tools such as Facebook, Twitter and email, and you can promote your events to the community or to specific library borrowers, e.g. through calendar invites.

Digital Assets is a core component of the Spydus suite for both ordinary library collections and local history collections. Digital Assets catalogues and supports digital resources (including ebooks, journals, unpublished manuscripts, images, music, audiobooks, sound recordings and video content). For digital files held within the library or archive, Digital Assets provides its own comprehensive digital repository. Digital Asset resources can be linked to bibliographic MARC records or Archive and Artefact records and can be searched and accessed through the Spydus Integrated Discovery OPAC. Digital Assets does not require any predefined object taxonomy; Digital Assets creates its own virtual taxonomies using metadata associated with each digital object.

Management of Book Groups and Clubs is made easy using Spydus Book Groups. Both registered library members and their guests can join and attend Book Groups, and staff can curate kits of Book Group materials for booking and loan by groups and clubs. As groups and clubs are handled differently within different libraries, the team at Civica worked with a group of Spydus users to create functionality flexible enough to handle different types of Book Groups.

Gamify reading using Spydus Reading Challenges. Spydus Reading Challenges allows libraries to incentivise reading through the creation of trackable challenges available through the OPAC. Challenges can be based on lists of resources, topics or volume, and patrons can update their progress as they move through the challenge.

SpydusBI is an interactive Business Intelligence tool utilising dashboards and charts to take the guess work out of library decision making. There are three modules within the SpydusBI suite that can be purchased by libraries:

SpydusManager - Uses the key elements within Spydus to create reports around borrowers, loans, reservations, charges, bookings, acquisitions, locations, items, notices, requests and events.

SpydusCollections - Provides an in-depth look at a library’s collection focusing on collection profiling, performance and maintenance tasks.

SpydusAnalytics - Aims to bring in range of data sources such as PC usage, Wi-Fi, door counts, OPAC searches, data from council systems etc. into a single interface to streamline reporting alongside Spydus data.

Reports can easily be visually represented via graphs and charts. All reports can be exported manually, or scheduled, to PDF, MS Excel, MS Word and other formats for easy sharing and dissemination.

Aside from having great data analytics capabilities, one of the product’s strengths is the availability of numerous options in presenting information. There are over 50 chart types and interactive options such as filter, drag and drop functionality as well as the ability to drill down and through different reports. Libraries can also enter their own KPIs and targets into reports.

Spydus e-content integration enables users to search, view availability, reserve and borrow e-resources in a single platform search. For streamlined reporting, loans statistics for these resources are captured within Spydus, and users can view their digital and physical loans in a single library account.

The Electronic Resource Management (ERM) module allows users to record and manage information about electronic and digital services such as access to third party databases and websites. Examples of what can be managed include licenses, terms and conditions, subscription period, vendor and order references, price etc.

This app is available for Android and iOS users.

• Search and reserve items 
• View loans, reservations, and payments
• Update personal details 
• Manage multiple library memberships
• Download e-books, e-audio books, and magazines 
• Save lists of favourite items for later 
• “Discover” – reading lists, featured items, recommendations 
• Use the camera to scan an ISBN in a bookstore to check if your library has copies 
• Issue items within the library by scanning the library barcode – (if the library allows)

The SpydusGO mobile application for iOS and Android has been developed to facilitate flexibility in the delivery of a number of core library services and functions.

Features such as borrower registration, borrower validation, and loan issues and returns, allow roaming staff to perform general Circulation duties from the floor of the library, or from mobile library locations. Stocktake and Bulk Item Deletion functions allow staff to perform collection maintenance from the floor. The Events functions facilitate the marking of attendance for ticketed and non-ticketed Events, and review of upcoming Events.

The SpydusAPI is a RESTful HTTP Web, LCF compliant, API service that allows third party vendors to create both circulation-based staff applications and patron driven self-service software for interoperating with Spydus. Functionality includes patron authentication, retrieving patron information, check-out and check-in of items, renewal, reservations and charges.