This article is for LIBRARIANS. 


We’re always looking for ways to help you and your students get the most out of your e-learning experience, so we’ve designed the library to maximise engagement with quality content. Here is a summary of the helpful features for librarians.


  • When logged in to Engage, you can find the library by clicking ‘Library’ at the top of the page.
  • Share this helpful article for students on your school blog or in your school newsletter to help your library users navigate their new digital library with ease.



Understanding how to use the Browse Library section

In the spirit of sharing our love of books, Snapplify developed the ‘Favourites’, ‘Recommended’, 'Literacy Pro', and 'My Reading Level' sections to highlight specific content and help users to browse more effectively.


You will find the ‘Recommended’, ‘Favourites’, 'Literacy Pro' and 'My Reading Level' tabs in the Browse Library section of the Engage library.

Recommended features an automatically curated list of favourite books that come from all Snapplify Engage accounts (inside, as well as outside your institution). These are the 'world’s favourite books, according to Engage users'. Use this for inspiration, to see what others are reading, and to encourage your students to dive into a new recommended read.


Favourites’ features ebooks that your school librarian has favourited, helping students to find content you have suggested for them. As a librarian, you can use this feature to highlight content that you think your students may find useful.


'Literacy Pro' features books that match the Literacy Pro library and have corresponding quizzes in Literacy Pro. Buy books via the Literacy Pro tab to build a library catalogue that successfully supports Literacy Pro tools and guides students to books that have quizzes in Literacy Pro. You'll only see this tab if your school has signed up for Scholastic Literacy Pro.


'My Reading Level' features books that are recommended for a user by Literacy Pro, according to their Lexile level. The books on this tab are filtered by the user's Lexile level and have corresponding quizzes in Literacy Pro. You'll only see this tab if your school has signed up for Scholastic Literacy Pro.


  • To add a book to your library’s Favourites, hover over the jacket image (i.e. the book cover) of the library title you wish to favourite and click the star in the top left corner. When the star turns yellow, it has been favourited and will be listed under the ‘Favourites’ tab for all users in your digital library.
  • To find and review all the titles that have been favourited by your instit ution’s librarian, navigate to the ‘Favourites’ tab in your library or the Favourites section for Librarians in Engage. As a librarian, you can ‘unfavourite’ a title by clicking the star in the top left corner of the book image. When the yellow star is removed, the book will be removed from your library’s Favourites.
  • To purchase books from the 'Literacy Pro' tab, refer to this helpful article.
  • To determine your Lexile level, you need to take the LitPro Test. Students can also search for books by Lexile level in Engage using the advanced search feature.


Understanding other librarian admin features

Owned

The Owned section for Librarians in Engage will show you all of the books that have been added to your school’s library to loan out to users (both purchased and free ebooks), as well as titles with expired library licences.



Activity

In the Activity section for Librarians in Engage, you’ll be able to view all of the books in your library that are currently checked out (you can also return them manually, if necessary), as well as the books that library users are currently waiting (i.e. the wait list). 


If you want to review your hidden items, you can also do this from the tab called ‘Hidden content’. 


Learn more about the Activity section for Librarians in Engage.


Requests

If you are only using the free library or if your library purchase type is set to 'Librarian purchasing', your students can make requests for ebooks that your school would need to purchase. They can do this by clicking on the ‘Request book’ button under the book that they want. (They will only see the ‘Request book’ button if your institution has to buy the book. If the book is free or already owned by your library, the ‘Check Out’ button will be displayed underneath the image of the book.) 


You will be able to review all requests under ‘Requests’ in the Finance section of the Engage dashboard. This section is only available to users who have been assigned the Finance role.


Here are a few basics to consider before approving book purchases for the library:

  • Are a number of students interested in the book or has only one student shown interest and requested it?
  • Is the book extremely expensive?
  • What is the licence period of the book? (Is it 2 years or perpetual? A perpetual licence will justify a higher price.)
  • Is the same title available in the free books?
  • Never buy a collection as a single book – always buy each book separately.
It's a good idea to favourite each book you purchase and direct students to your favourite collection, so that they can view the books that are immediately available before requesting different books.


Learn more about managing library book requests.


Need help? Use the live chat in the bottom right corner of your screen or email us at help@snapplify.com.