Associations offer a wide array of benefits to their members, but education and facilitating the exchange of information between members is a common cornerstone. Many non-profits also use the income from publication sales to help support their service goals.
As associations strive to provide the best services for their members, KLAS helps them provide vital information resources to their community. Keystone works with associations to meet the information needs of their members and provide tools to build a thriving membership.
Nearly 20 years ago, our first association customer began using KLAS to serve their membership, manage and track the distribution of information, and integrate with their association management system so each system has the most up-to-date information for each member they serve. Enhancing your information services increases the relevance and importance of your organization to your members.
How Keystone and KLAS can help your association:
Curate Your Library
- Detailed access and usage statistics help you track ROI, identify trends so you can invest in your most-used subject areas, and evaluate the success of promotions and outreach.
- Control access based on log-in and resource type, adding value to different membership tiers or providing guests with sample content.
- Monetize resources with e-commerce features customized to your needs and your members.
- Make your library work for you!
Your Members
- Create individual member profiles including preferences, demographics, and contact info; track your membership and know who is using your resources.
- Enhance access to information by making it indexed, searchable, and browsable.
- Offer personal wishlists, access history, and order statuses to empower your members.
- Send customized alerts and notifications to keep your members informed and engaged.
Build Community
- In addition to providing institutional resources, allow members to submit information to share with one other.
- Engage members by asking them to contribute valuable sites, articles, and documents to help build the library you use KLAS to administer.
- Empower your members to improve the value of the knowledge center while they gain visibility as a thought leader within the community.
Right-Sized Solution
- Whether you are a small organization with only a few staff members or a major association with offices across the country, KLAS scales to your needs.
- Tiered pricing and modular approach ensure you don’t pay for more than you need.
- We handle the server, updates, backups, and disaster preparedness so you can stay focused on your organization, not your data.
Use KLAS to build a Library / Knowledge Center:
You have information. Your members need information. We can connect the dots.
Using KLAS to make your online resources easier to access adds value for your members and gives you a better return on your investment: it’s a win-win for any size organization.
You are never too small to deliver a valuable resource library, or too big to make your resources manageable.
KLAS’ powerful library management features make your information resources easier to search, find, access, and share. KLAS empowers you to connect your information resources with your members in a way that works for you and them.
KLAS is an ever-evolving product and Keystone Systems offers award winning customer support. We actively elicit user input as we develop new features and seek out new technologies to help you respond to future needs.
Examples of electronic documents users could find in your online knowledge center, built with KLAS:
- URLs - Link to sites that enhance rather than compete with the association's mission.
- Documents/articles - Allow members to share their own papers, research and histories with their colleagues.
- Images - Share pictures of local meetings or events, successful personal moments, etc.
- Video - Recorded training or conference sessions, interviews with members, industry relevant news clips.
- More - Music files? Epub documents? Specialized proprietary formats? No problem! We handle whatever formats your resources come in!
Collect, curate, & deliver all the resources your members need.
Whatever format your materials are in, KLAS can help you manage them. From recorded Webinar sessions to print journals, our robust cataloguing system handles it all. Even more importantly, our powerful search and filtering tools help your members find them.
Records Lifecycle Management
KLAS manages your information resources from conception to publication to withdrawal. Adding new versions or issues on the fly is simple and easy. If you want to remove obsolete items, you can do so without losing historical data or statistics.
Easily control which resources are publicly viewable, shown only to members, or accessible only to staff. Pay per download and partial or full subscription service can be available according to your organization and members’ needs.
When a resource becomes dated, mark it as “historical” so your members can see the evolution of information offered by your organization. Or, restrict withdrawn or obsolete materials to staff-only access so you can maintain all accumulated record data and comply with records management policies.
KLAS Modules for Associations
For associations, the appropriate KLAS modules depend greatly on the type of services being delivered to your members.
Online knowledge center
For organizations without staff members providing library services, simplified management and administrative controls are needed. The organization still maintains control over the content, but doesn't need the full power of the KLAS staff-side functions.
This is typically the case when the following hold true:
- There are no physical materials (books, magazines, equipment, etc) being tracked.
- The data for each title is relatively simple -- things like Title, Author, Publication Date, Subjects, Description.
- Subject cataloging scheme is relatively simple.
- There is no need to integrate with membership data in an AMS (association membership system).
- Simplified utilization reporting is adequate.
If additional capabilities are needed, individual full modules can be purchased to increase the capabilities of the 'lite' version of KLAS supplied as an online knowledge center.
Online Library
For organizations that have staff members providing library services, then full KLAS modules provide staff-side access to maintain, categorize, and organize the information on your collection, your members, and the services that they should receive.
This is typically the case when at least one of the following apply:
- Staff are organizing bibliographic records with substantial metadata.
- More complex indexing and searching needs.
- Managing both physical and digital materials.
- Materials are being loaned out, and expected back.
- Complete user/member/patron interest profiles need to be maintained.
- User/Member/Patron data should be integrated with another system, such as an AMS (association membership system).
- Management of magazine and other serial subscriptions needed.
List of KLAS modules for Associations:
Patron Services Module
- Manage member Information
- Track identification and demographic information
- Manage member's address information
- Keep track of member's preferred contact method
- Access to Member Info for all staff at all computer stations
- Record can be updated from any location in the network
- Reporting functions
- Helps manage workflow
- Can check service status info for patrons
- Customize book selection searches according to member's preferences so books can be automatically selected by KLAS or selected by library staff
- Keeps track of what media member wishes to receive and how
- Can set exclusions on unwanted subjects, authors, narrators, etc.
- Block automatic selections
- If dictated by library policy, keeps a history of everything a member has received so a member does not receive a materials more than once
- Manage Member's Requests/Reserves
- Maintain relationships between members
Circulation Module
- Manage circulation of materials (check-in/check-out, reserves, recalls, renewals)
- Supports different workflows
- Partial shipment of multi-volume materials
- Specify policies of automatic nightly routines to select materials for members
- Interactive Check-in function
Front Desk Module
- Walk-in services
- Check-in, check-out
- Pay fees/fines
- Change member address
- Search for books
- Check status of Member's Items
- Maintain Member's Request List
Catalogue / Holdings Module
- Maintain and Manage Titles and their inventory
- Maintain Holdings Records
- Batch Update function allows update of a group of holdings records at one time
- MARC record download/import
- Modify MARC records
- Series Maintenance
- Authority File features
- Digital File Tracking
- Title-Bib tab allows for non-MARC cataloguing of records but is mapped back into the title's MARC record
- Track information for each item associated with a title (such as barcode, circulation status, and due date)
Branch Module
- Allows branches to maintain separate inventory, statistics, membership records, and run reports for their location
- The Branch module allows each different location to maintain separate inventory and statistics.
- It also tracks the collection as it shifts between locations and/or the main library.
- Each location can generate their own reports and create and maintain their own patron records.
Serials Control Module
- Manage Serials Operations
- Automatic Assignment of Next issue
- Assign Old Issues
- Generate Mail Cards
- Migrate Subscribers
- Purge Issues
Acquisitions Module
- Update and maintain both requisitions and purchase orders
- Maintains information on the general purchase: who is the vendor, where are the items being shipped and where should the bill go
- The Receive screen allows you to indicate the receipt of. You can also add materials to your collection from this screen
- The Purchase Requests screen allows the library to include a review step in the purchasing process.
- The Vendors screen allows you to maintain information about the companies you order materials from.
- Accounts screen to add, update and maintain the accounts used to pay for materials ordered.
WebOPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue)
- Allows public to conduct catalogue searches remotely
- Allows members to self serve
- Organizations choose how their OPAC looks and what services are available
- Used by individuals who use AT daily
- Browse the catalogue and perform simple and advanced searches.
- Save search results to the desktop or print to an available printer.
- Choose the way information is displayed allowing you to get more information on a title or copy.
- Check the availability of a copy.
- Real-time link to the database.
- Request materials.
- View and / or update member account.
- Useable with any standard web browser.
Electronic Document Delivery (EDocs)
- Catalogue and Link Electronic Docs to their Title Records
- Set whether electronic docs are publicly accessible or restricted
- Allow catalogued electronic references to be viewable in OPAC for download
Administration
- Control system security
- Manage user permissions
- Customize how KLAS behaves with the use of Code Files, Control Files and Cross-Reference settings.
- Run data exports for use with Crystal Reports.
- Your System Administrator(s) have access to the Administration Menu which provides access to a number of powerful systems management tools in KLAS. The Reports Menu offers three standard system reports, five standard WebOPAC reports, and the Extracts for Crystal Reports utility. Authorized users who do not have prior automation experience can perform most of these functions.
- The numerous code tables, cross reference files, and control tables allow you to customize how KLAS behaves in your organization. These features offer you the operational versatility to adjust procedures or methodologies as your needs change.
- The Administration menu provides access to the control settings which tailor KLAS to the requirements of your operations - Block Maintenance, Code Maintenance, Control Maintenance, Cross Ref Maintenance, Filter Maintenance, Heading Maintenance, Library Maintenance, Sequence Maintenance, Shelf Maintenance, Period Maintenance, and Stopwords Maintenance. Policy settings such as Check-in Policy Maintenance and Circulation Policy Maintenance are accessed from here as are automatic process settings for Nightly Configuration and Batch Manager. System security and user permissions controls also open from this menu.
