Polaris Community Profiles Overview
With Polaris Community Profiles, libraries can link, centralize, and promote resources by making community information easily accessible from Polaris PowerPAC or Mobile PAC. When combined with ContentXChange, Community Profiles can further extend the library's services by distributing targeted relevant information from the library to community websites.
Public libraries can use Community Profiles to distribute community information, promote and share resources, and advance local economic and educational initiatives. Academic libraries can use Community Profiles to provide a network for disseminating academic expertise within the university itself–encouraging communications among faculty in diverse fields–and linking that expertise with the greater community. The academic community can also benefit from an increased awareness of the resources, programs, and organizations in the greater community.
Polaris Community Profiles and ContentXChange are licensed separately from the Polaris ILS. Only one instance of Polaris is required because community records are stored in the same database as bibliographic records. Community records are stored in MARC Community Information (CI) Record format in separate tables from MARC bibliographic records. In addition to the fields defined in the MARC CI format, Polaris uses other fields for organizations and events. For more information about the MARC CI format, see: http://www.loc.gov/marc/community/
Library staff members create community records using the Community Record workform in the Polaris Staff Client. Once a library staff member creates the community record with a minimum of three required fields, and designates an organizational representative, either the librarian or the organizational representative (or both) can take on the responsibility for modifying the record. See Creating or Editing a Community Record in the Staff Client.
Staff members or community representatives specify the type of community record (organization or club etc.), and enter information about the organization, such as the address, target group, languages spoken, programs, and events. In addition, a visual “content carousel” of titles relevant to the community organization can be displayed in the Polaris PAC. This content carousel is derived from the first 50 titles in a title list or saved search that the organization representative shares, or from a record set that the staff member selects on the Community Record workform. With Feature it, a separately licensed product, organizations can promote a set of resources relevant to a specific search.
With the optional ContentXChange feature, community organizations can incorporate features from their community record (content carousel, calendar of events, content drawers, library catalog search box, Ask-a-Librarian button, and a map) into their organization’s web page. If the organization does not have a web presence, a librarian can help the organization create a personalized web page using ContentXChange. The organization can submit the URL to Google™, Yahoo!®, and Bing™ for indexing so that it is searchable and accessible through the web.
ContentXChange Installation
ContentXChange is an optional web component of Polaris server software and must be selected when Polaris web server software is installed. After installation, select the appropriate server in Polaris Administration and, in the server’s PAC parameter URL of the ContentXChange root, specify the URL of the server where ContentXChange is installed:
http://<servername>/ContentXChange/
The location is typically your PAC server, and if so, you can simply copy the servername portion of the URL from the parameter URL of the PAC’s root.
For more information on the features and functions for Polaris Community Profiles, see the following topics:
Community Records in the Staff Client
Creating and editing organization and event records in the staff client; printing community records and reports.
Importing Events for Community Profiles
Importing library events information from Evanced Solutions or Plymouth Rocket - EventKeeper to create event records in Polaris.
Campaigns for Community Promotions
With Polaris Campaigns, libraries can automatically create promotions for existing community or event records, based on terms in the keyword indexed fields in these records.
Community Setup for PAC Display
Setting community information search options for PAC; configuring the PAC search results display; editing organization and event records in Polaris PowerPAC.
Editing Community Records in PAC
Editing Community Profiles in the PAC. Designated community representatives use these instructions to edit their organizations’ Community Profiles. (These instructions may need to be revised depending on the library’s PAC customization.)
Incorporating features from the library or the organization’s library record into the organization’s own web page; creating a simple organization page for web searches.
CQL Access Points for Community Information
Reference list of the CQL (Common Query Language) access points you can use to construct custom search filters for Polaris PowerPAC community information searches.
Reference list of Polaris Administration profiles affecting Community Profiles.