The Caledon Public Library developed an Automated Mailer system to advertise new materials to patrons with minimal effort. The system delivers weekly email lists of new items directly to patrons who can then place holds without assistance. It was developed using free and open source technologies like ASP.NET, SQL Server Express, and leverages existing library systems. Over 28,000 emails are now sent annually to 240 subscribers, resulting in a marked increase in holds placed since the system was introduced.

1. Caledon Public LibraryAutomated Mailer Mojgan Schmalenberg Paul Sanchez

2. Overview The Automated Mailer is our solution for delivering the latest material to our patrons with minimal effort and cost while giving us the maximum coverage.

4. Make it easy for users to access information. (methods and technologies?)

5. Allow them to place holds without jumping through hoops. (how to make it easy?)

6. Deliver lists to users with minimal effort every week.(how to make it easy on us!?)

8. Allow for extensibility as new opportunities are found.

9. Stability and security. (how?)

11. ASP.NET (.NET 2.0 migrated to .NET 3.5 SP1) and some AJAX controls.

12. SQL Server (SQL 2005). Database space usage < 7MB excluding backups.

14. ASP.NET is already free.

15. SQL 2008 Express is free and has many of the features of full featured product.

17. What we started with (part2) Sirsi reports in raw text format with some formatting. .end 2009 100: Henderson, Veronique. 245: Color me younger : with Colour Me Beautiful / Veronique Henderson, Pat Henshaw. -- 2009 100: Bertinelli, Valerie, 1960- 245: Finding it : and satisfying my hunger for life without opening the fridge / Valerie Bertinelli. -- 2009 100: Kingwell, Mark, 1963- 245: Glenn Gould / by Mark Kingwell ; with an introduction by John Ralston Saul. -- 2009 245: The great Christmas cookie swap cookbook : 60 large-batch recipes to bake and share / [Rosemary Ellis, editor-in-chief]. -- 2009 100: Albom, Mitch, 1958- 245: Have a little faith : a true story / Mitch Albom. -- 2009 100: Urquhart, Jane, 1949- 245: L.M. Montgomery / by Jane Urquhart ; with an introduction by John Ralston Saul. -- . . .

18. How does it work? Application is divided into standard tiers: Data (SQL server database), Data Access (.NET Web Service), Business logic (.NET Web Service) and UI presentation layers (Admin and Public). No access is available to protected layers and only Public Site is published on the ISA firewall. Code fairly well refactored and fully split into logic layers. Ex: Presentation layer code does not access data tier.

20. New Lists

22. Process Lists

23. Send Lists

24. Most Popular

26. 80495 Holds since January 2007

27. Holds Per Month

30. . Very positive feedback from internal and external.

31. . 240 active users subscribed to lists as of Oct 27th.

32. . As of Oct 10th, annualized Email volume of 28,000 Vs 7,384 a year earlier.

33. . Marked improvement in Holds since start

34. . Very interesting technology project.

36. . Not fully automated.

38. Links, info and other.. Caledon Public Library www.caledon.library.on.ca Twitter www.twitter.com/CaledonLibrary Mojgan Schmalenberg mschmale@caledon.library.on.ca Paul Sanchez psanchez@caledon.library.on.ca Free Tools Visual Studio and SQL Server Express http://www.microsoft.com/express/ Thank you!