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Meet the Customer Community Manager EMEA!


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Sarah Billany

As an extension of Softlink’s commitment to providing outstanding service and value to our school library community, Sarah Billany was recently appointed to the role of Customer Community Manager, EMEA. 

Sarah brings a wealth of library industry experience to the role, graduating with an MA in Library and Information Studies from UCL in 2005 and having worked in a variety of libraries in the higher education and school library sector.

Formally a Softlink Educational Consultant, Sarah’s extensive knowledge of (and enthusiasm for!) Oliver v5 made her the perfect choice for this position.

Prior to starting with Softlink, Sarah managed a secondary school library in East Yorkshire where she was partial to setting up book tasting menus and crafty displays to inspire and engage students!

Sarah hopes to bring a listening ear to the role of Customer Community Manager and aims to ensure that our customers know how to access training and support as well as helping them to gain the most value from their library software. 

Oliver v5 customer communications

EMEA customers who haven’t had the pleasure of speaking to Sarah yet, may recognise her from the Softlink Times. These newsletters feature links to a range of resources including tips for using Oliver, videos, webinars, and upcoming events, with Sarah’s bubbly voice to guide the journey through our processes. 

In the most recent Softlink Times, Sarah included her return to school hints and tips countdown, which was full of fantastic resources. Here are our favourite items from this list: 

  • These past 12 months have been a roller-coaster. So give yourself a hug, take a deep breath, make a cuppa, write a list, then plan your welcome back display. Some oldy but goody display favourites of ours include: ‘Welcome back the books have missed you’, ‘believe in your shelf’, ‘Hey, I just met you and this is crazy but here’s my cover, so read me maybe?’
     
  • Perhaps you could tie your welcome back display in with an Oliver reading list that you can share with staff and students in a welcome back email (whilst inviting them to come and take a peek at your brilliant new display). We have some really short recordings that can guide you through setting up a reading list if this process is new to you. Take a look at creating reading lists from the management section of Oliver. 
     
  • Are you quarantining? If so why not try the quarantine parameter. Parameter 3214 allows you to set a time period for quarantining books once they have been returned. After the number of days set in parameter 3214, the status of the item will automatically revert back to available. Remember to tick the ‘Exchange’ option under System-Housekeeping too.
     
  • Overdues… you’ve probably got quite a few right now. Don’t worry, everyone has! We’ve got you covered with our bulk renew or extend option (circulation-home-click on the little blue number next to your overdues and then use the drop-down menu, top right, to extend or renew).  
     
  • SHOUT… about your library, about Oliver, about your new display, about information literacy, about research skills, about reservations, about your new stock, about your old stock, about how great you are, because you are, and your students need you and their library!

If you would like to subscribe to receive the Softlink Times, email communications@softlinkint.com.

Free webinars for Oliver v5 users

Sarah also runs regular free webinars to help users get the most out of Oliver v5 on a range of topics, for example:

  • Reservations
  • The Community Portal
  • Reading lists and LearnPath
  • Overdues
  • Search strategies
  • Getting the most out of your News Page
  • New users and back to basics
  • Orbit
  • Reporting
  • End of year/start of year processes

To register for one of these webinars, and to see what’s coming up, visit our support webinars page. You can also view training videos from previous sessions via the Customer Portal. 

Want to chat with Sarah? 

Sarah loves nothing more than engaging with our customers over a cuppa. To arrange a chat, you can email sarahbillany@softlink.co.uk, or contact support@softlink.co.uk.


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