Legal Research

Library Elf, Library Account Notification Service, to Charge for Premium Service

I'm a heavy user of our local public library. I love that I can go online, put things on hold, and then pick them up at my leisure. Keeping track of when things come in and when they are due back again can be a hassle, however.

Enter Library Elf, a handy little service which tracks your account at the public library. Just enter your library card number and pin number, and Elf will send you an alert via email or RSS before your books are due. And if you place holds on library materials, Elf alert you when those are available, too. You can also sign up to receive alerts for other family members if they've given you their pin number. See my earlier blog post on Library Elf.

Due to rising costs, Library Elf has recently announced that they will start charging for some services. There will be two levels of service: a basic service which is free and a premium service which is subscription based. From their web site:

• Basic Service

  The basic service provides email reminders similar to those found in existing library email reminders: single card with just pre-dues and over dues. This free service is mainly for users whose libraries do not have a pre-due or overdue email reminder service. If your library does provide such a service then you should use theirs instead of ours. [FYI - The Madison area libraries offer such a service]

• Premium Service

  The premium service provides multiple ways of monitoring your library cards. This is mainly for users who frequent different libraries, have families with young children and users who frequent the library a lot.

A number of libraries have contracted with Library Elf to offer the premium service to their patrons at no charge. These libraries automatically show up when you add a card to your Elf account and will have the "subscribed" designation after their name.

Full post as published by WisBlawg - From the UW Law Library on January 28, 2009 (boomark / email).