Libraries Subscribing to Library Elf

Library Elf has been helping patrons keep tabs on their library materials for the past five years. We hope your patrons are getting value out of this service. Many families have told us how indispensible Elf is to them. We also hope that your library has also gains some benefits through higher circulation and happier patrons.

Recently we relocated Elf to a more robust server as we outgrew the previous one. Up to now Library Elf has survived on Google and Amazon ads. But costs have gone up quite a bit with this new server. Email support has also gone up as more library patrons are signing up. We need to better handle maintenance, enhancements and support to keep up with the demand.

In March of 2008, we sent out a library survey to get ideas on how we might fund the growth of Library Elf. Our results indicated that we should try to keep this service free for patrons because libraries are unable to promote paid services. So we concluded that we should move forward by funding Elf through library subscriptions.

If your library subscribes to Elf then your patrons can use Elf's multi-card premium service at no cost. Your patrons will not see any mentioning of subscribing to Elf. They still have the ability to individually subscribe to libraries that have not subscribed to Elf. And they still have free email reminders - at the basic service level.

Their library accounts will be monitored daily, all the current Elf features will be available (email, RSS, text messaging, Daily Snapshot etc) and they will receive 24-48 hour email support. Any ads on their Elf notice can be optionally turned off by them.

Your library may already have a pre-notification email. Library Elf is a good complement to any pre-notification system. What makes Library Elf unique is that multiple library accounts can be monitored, summarized and emailed to the library patron. Families with young children as well as home schooled families find this to be invaluable. In addition, Library Elf is able to deliver the notifications by RSS, and for holds, a notice by text message. Coming in the future, Elf will be able to show the patron's circulation information directly in any iCalendar calendar such as Google Calendar, Outlook etc.

Subscriptions are on a yearly basis and priced according to how many active library cards are in Elf at the time of the quote. The price does not change for the entire year - no matter how many patrons have sign up during that time. Upon renewal, the subscription price is again based on the current number of active cards in Elf. Cost per card goes down as more cards are entered into Elf.

If you would like a quote, please contact Jeff Chow (jchow@libraryelf.com). Thank you.