Libraries Leap onto the Webtop with Conduit-powered Community Toolbars
Over 300 libraries see increased patronage, community interaction, and brand visibility with free service
February 13, 2007 — Redwood Shores, CA
Conduit, a breakthrough marketing platform for creating community toolbars that drive traffic and loyalty, today announced the availability of Conduit for libraries. Libraries can launch a free community toolbar that delivers constant browser access to resources and services, and connects patrons to create vibrant online communities. Conduit is the first free, branded solution available to help libraries promote their services and resources all via users’ browsers. Now patrons, including research professionals, students and enthusiasts, are interacting with libraries in a whole new way.
Since it’s completely free, hosted and does not require technical skills, Conduit is an ideal solution for libraries often faced with complex budget and funding infrastructures. More and more libraries are offering their own community toolbar powered by Conduit as an innovative tool to promote their unique resources – from research support and tools to exclusive services. Several Conduit customers are seeing definitive results.
Unprecedented patron access and convenience– The community toolbar for libraries offers a new level of expediency, with instant and remote online access to library collections and services via the browser. The CSU Libraries at Colorado State University introduced its community toolbar in 2006.
According to Gregory J. Vogl, IT Web Coordinator, "Rave reviews from students continue to multiply. For example, several students indicate that the toolbar is much more useful than having their browsers set to the CSU Libraries homepage. Now they have quick access to complete searches of CSU Libraries and a full menu of CSU and non-CSU research resources, services and tools. Since the Conduit toolbar is always visible, it’s easy to repeat the same search in different search engines."
Their community toolbar is available at http://lib.colostate.edu/help/toolbar.html.
Experience more powerful single search – Patrons can search the Web and myriad library resources simultaneously via the Conduit community toolbar. The Clemens Library at the College of Saint Benedict and Alcuin Library at Saint John's University in St. Joseph, Minnesota – discovered Conduit via a recommendation from another library.
"Conduit is simply fabulous," remarks Miranda Novak, Library Technology Support Specialist. "Now we have a way for our patrons to search our library catalog and databases without having to go to our web site. This is especially advantageous, because our catalog isn't always easy to use. The search features in the Conduit toolbar are supremely simple, yielding great results within the catalog and providing an efficient means to check citations and other references within an article."
Their community toolbar is available at http://www.csbsju.edu/library/help/toolbar.htm.
Create a community – A community toolbar enables libraries to keep users up-to-date on library news and events, and drives patron interaction beyond the boundaries of library walls, creating vibrant online library communities. In addition to the RSS feeds, community chat capabilities and custom library search fields, many libraries include a link to their Ask a Librarian page, so students can instantly get the help they need.
"With live chat our librarians can be there to help library users, whenever and wherever they are," says Hal Kirkwood, Associate Head of the Management and Economics Library at Purdue University, and Publisher of the MyMEL Toolbar. "Our community toolbar is helping us forge an online connection with students, and it’s helping them connect to each other."
Their community toolbar is available at http://mymel.mylibrarytoolbar.com/.
"As highly respected conduits of free education, libraries provide a tremendous benefit to communities. Conduit is proud to offer a free way to extend this noble service to users’ browsers and drive deeper user engagement," said Ronen Shilo, CEO of Conduit. "Furthermore, the strong benefits delivered by Conduit are epitomized by the many libraries offering community toolbars."
Creating a community toolbar for libraries is quick, easy and free. In only three simple steps, anyone can create a community toolbar with library-specific content and customized research tools, multimedia and community components. With a few more clicks they can promote their library toolbar to patrons. Packaged components include RSS, news ticker, chat, radio, weather, and email notifier. Over 300 libraries worldwide are offering community toolbars powered by Conduit, some of which are featured here.
About Conduit
Conduit is a breakthrough marketing platform for creating community toolbars that drive traffic and loyalty by enabling publishers to persistently connect and engage with their user community via the browser. Conduit delivers unprecedented community loyalty and site traffic for over 130,000 publishers, including major brands such as Major League Baseball, Fox Carolina TV, Greenpeace, REMAX, Blogdigger and small and medium publishers in 112 countries around the globe. Conduit’s innovative search monetization model allows the service to be completely free and without adware, malware and spyware. The company is privately-held with headquarters in Israel and Redwood Shores, CA. For more information about Conduit, visit www.conduit.com or email info@conduit.com.
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