Glasgow, UK -- January 27th, 2023. SOLUS is pleased to announce that it has launched a brand new Library App.

The App will be rolled out to all it's customers and reseller partners over the course of February.

Featuring a brand new, cleaner and more engaging home screen, the UI hints at major changes to incorporate some much requested new functionality.

Neil Wishart, CEO of SOLUS states, "We're excited to get the new App into the hands of our customers and their end users. We know they're going to love the new functionality as the feedback from end user testing has been really positive."

Some key features of the new Library App are:

• Brand new User Interface
• Enhanced Push Notifications – for hold and checkout alerts & changes, library alerts, marketing and events & room bookings
• Deeper 3rd party eContent integrations and seamless handoff, from discovery to content
• Events & Room Bookings (for SOLUS's eb#1) integration
• Reading and Wish Lists
• Right-2-Left language support – to support Arabic, Hebrew, Urdu and other right to left languages
• Reading Tracker – like fitness tracking for reading, where users track their reading activity and unlock virtual rewards
• Format Rollup – FRBRized display of available formats under a single search return
• Enhanced Multi-Part RFID Tag Support – for checking out items such as box sets with multiple RFID tags
• Additional Consortia Support – including reporting by individual member library templates and user selection to jump between consortia libraries
• Chromebook version
• Support for Azure Active Directory Single Sign-On
• General Useability Improvements – e.g. accessibility enhancements, improved library site display, improved title displays, item copies by distance display, account summary alerts on home screen, priority ordering in account display….

In addition to the new App and functionality, SOLUS has announced that every customer that subscribes to The Library App will also get access to their unique Children's App "Planet Library" completely free of charge. This App will help drive children into the library by rewarding them for visiting and reading using Augmented Reality Rewards and Games and it's hoped that this will benefit libraries still trying to recover visitor figures post-Covid.

Andrew Daye, CTO of SOLUS states, "There is some game changing functionality in the App that should really help libraries maximize their return on investment. For instance, the deep integration of Events & Bookings in the App will make it easy for library users to discover and book events and rooms from within the App. They can book, pay for and manage those bookings. They'll be alerted to their forthcoming attendance via notification and if for whatever reason they can't attend, they can tap to cancel, freeing up space for someone on the wait list. This simple addition, making it easy and instant to cancel, will ensure libraries don't run events with empty spaces.

Wishart added, "For the first time we'll be opening up the App platform to our customers' other key vendor partners, with the library's authorization. We're making APIs available in Q2 to enable 3rd parties to utilize the App to communicate with library users. This could be something like a push notification, or even to add content within the App. Whilst 2023.1 is adding a lot, 2023.2 is hot on the heels and it's going to be a big year for The Library App!"

About SOLUS

SOLUS is the world's #1 Library App provider for public libraries and growing in academics; with SOLUS built Library Apps now in use in almost 8,000 locations globally and growing rapidly. The Library App supports 15 different ILS platforms using APIs and web services and is available in 40 languages. SOLUS has expanded its product suite to include Events & Room Bookings with its eb#1 product and to Library Web Discovery with the LUCi Discovery platform. Based in Glasgow, Scotland, SOLUS has offices in Australia and the US and provides white labelled solutions to a number of ILS partners, as well as direct sales & support.