Challenge
Essex County Library are a multi-branch library service, operating in the Essex County region of Southern Ontario. As well as a traditional library service, Essex County Library also offer a plethora of valuable, community-driven resources and initiatives that provide essential services to Essex County residents. These include advice on Careers and Employment, Food and Drink, Genealogy, Home Improvement, Parenting, Finances and Travel.
Essex county Library did not have an intranet system when they first contacted Vialect. What they did know, was that their old habits of printing off 20 copies of their manual as well as carrying bundles of paper policies and instructions wasn’t working any more. Information about procedure was impossible to find and hours of productivity were being lost. Something needed to change.
Vialect’s first impression of Essex County Library was that staff were unhappy with current systems and were desperate for a system to be put in place that would provide them with tools to enhance the service they can provide. This was a truly caring group that were passionate about how they were helping their members. We knew that this was going to be a fantastic chance for Vialect to help this wonderful organization provide the service that residents need. Library representatives Pat Knight and Janet Woodbridge had been liaising with Vialect regarding potentially using Noodle to solve the issues they were having.
“Long term, I would hope that we could reduce the amount of paperwork generated within our libraries,” explains Ms Woodbridge. “Communication – imparting information to all staff at the same time. Accessibility to work information and ease of finding information they need through the search tools.”
Solution
Essex County Library began looking for a solution that would allow them to provide all of the documentation required by their staff on-demand. It was also important that the solution would be friendly for their staff that are not so ‘tech- savvy’. Due to multiple branches it was also a requirement that anyone from any branch could access any information at any time. Library staff immediately began expressing their desire to build a ‘wiki- style’ manual for the library. This would need to hold information about library procedures and be fully searchable.
Noodle made this task easy with a combination of webpages and an advanced WYSIWYG editor. Demanding customers combined with a fast-paced workplace means that having the right information available immediately is paramount to ensure library staff can continue to offer good service to it’s members.
Following a successful deployment, Essex County Library is now enjoying a feature-rich, purpose-built intranet platform that actually solves the problems the library were facing when they came to Vialect. A wiki library manual, coupled with a whole host of informational resources have made Noodle an essential tool for library staff.
Moving Forward
Members at Essex county Library have expressed the desire to make Noodle a larger part of everyday life and explore the countless possibilities of making life easier with a powerful intranet from Vialect.