We signed a Scope of Work with Interpersonal Frequency (IF) on April 14, 2015, and work began shortly thereafter. We concluded grant activities with our launch of the new features and back end on June 22.  At launch, we were able to provide all of the features and completed the following:

• Horizon Web Services API ILS Driver for VuFind.  In addition to porting over all existing functionality running on an unsupported ILS interface, new features added include PIN reset, online fine payment, suspension of holds, and self-registration with address verification.  Power users of our digital branch expected to see these features on our site, and we increased user "completion of purpose of visit" rates for My Account users by 3%.  All of this functionality was shared on "SirsiDynix's Developers Wiki" on June 26.  (SirsiDynix licensing prohibits sharing code using their API anywhere else).

• Ebsco Novelist Select integration for recommendations, series, and "goodreads" reviews. Module files shared with original developer of VuFind on August 13 (hopefully a module will be packaged with a future VuFind release). Survey data shows patrons are happy with the new content, approximately 5% of visitors use them to eventually place a request. Example:  see series, similar, and reviews tab here: https://search.schlowlibrary.org/Record/353461

• Numerous high-priority event registration bug fixes, as well as general bug and UX (User Experience) improvements to our website.   Adult and Children's staff are reporting seamless operation and time savings.

• Continued running Voice of Patron Analysis to measure changes since the baseline survey ran in January (as a part of our matching contribution).  The survey segments users by primary purpose of visit, and main association type with the library and measures user satisfaction and completion of purpose of visit rate.  We have found this tool very valuable to identify priorities and glean what actions to take.

Laura, our Technical Services Library Technician completed a Lynda.com course on PHP programming.  In our proposal, we'd thought she'd pursue Java training, but our vendor steered her towards PHP for the kind of indexing improvements she hopes to make.

Interpersonal Frequency (IF) developed a fully functional Restful API-based "ILS Driver" for VuFind 2.4.  Every available feature in the API pertaining to patron account management was implemented within the constraints of the API.  Because of SirsiDynix licensing, this software project cannot be called "Open Source" but SirsiDynix staff was enthusiastic that we had shared our code on their authorized "Customer API Wiki" for other SD customers to have access to and use.

IF also developed full integration with EBSCO's Novelist Select content.  While the content is licensed, the code itself has been sent to the lead developer of the VuFind project, Demian Katz, who hopes to soon release the code as a part of the base VuFind project for other libraries to enjoy.

IF and Schlow worked very closely in project planning, design, debugging, testing and implementation of the software.  IF's project manager oversaw IF's responsiblities, and Schlow's Head of IT Services managed Schlow's 10-person web team.

The software using APIs and documentation was provided by SirsiDynix, the Open Source VuFind project, and Ebsco. 

Interpersonal Frequency continued running Voice of Patron Analysis to measure changes since the baseline survey ran in January (as a part of our matching contribution).  The survey segments users by primary purpose of visit, and main association type with the library and measures user satisfaction and completion of purpose of visit rate.  We have found this tool very valuable to identify priorities and glean what actions to take.

The survey showed marked increase in purpose of completion of visit for "My Account" oriented visits, from 89% to 92%--which represents the highest score in that area of any library IF collects survey data for (a very large data set).  The 3% increase is exciting, but short of our probably unrealistic 5% goal.  Gains of that magnitude are much easier when starting with a more moderate score--the last 5% is always the hardest to obtain.  Average user satisfaction for My Account users also went up a tick, from 8.7 to 8.75.

Across all purposes of visits,--the survey showed an increase of satisfaction from 8.3 to 8.63 and completion of purpose of visit held steady at 85%.