KLASUsers Group

Mark your calendar and start making your plans for March 17-20, 2025 to join us as Keystone and the Indiana State Library, Talking Book and Braille Library come together to bring the KLAS Users' Conference to Indianapolis, IN!! More info will be coming soon, so be on the lookout.

As we’re getting close to a number of positions on our KLAS Users’ Group committees and Board of Officers, I wanted to take some time to say, “thank you.”

(Yes, we’ve done this before—but it’s important.)

I’ve been there! I was on the Officers Board and the Conference Programming Committee for several years while I was working for the Illinois Talking Book Outreach Center, and I remember what an inconvenience it could be to have committee work or board meetings on top of my regular Reader Advisor duties. Now that I’ve been on both sides, though, I can really see how important it was that I made time for it.

To all of our current (and exiting, and incoming) officers and committee members: I see you showing up for meetings even when it feels like your patrons are crawling out of the woodwork with requests. I hear you asking thoughtful questions and sharing your ideas even when you’re tired and not sure you’re on the right track. And I thank you for it, because I know how much you are bringing to the Users’ Conference, and through it, to your fellow users’ understanding of KLAS, their ability to serve their patrons, and their relationship with Keystone.

Even beyond the conference, our active community of users guides Keystone—including future development, where we allocate our time and resources, and how we communicate. That happens in planning and at the conference, but also when users take their questions and concerns to the Officers Board to share with us, in our discussions with KDAC, in survey responses, and more. We rely on you to make all of that happen, and you make us better and better, every year.

So one last, heartfelt, Thank You.

And to anyone out there who is considering getting involved: Your voice matters! We’d love to hear from you.

With the KLAS.com revamp successfully launched, we’ve started planning and looking ahead to reorganizing and redesigning KLASusers.com as well.

It’s important to us that this site can serve as a valuable resource for you, as well as a place where the user’s group can come together and collaborate on common issues. The appearance of the site isn’t as important... but we do want it to be pleasant to look at. A much higher priority is that the revamped KLASusers be easy-to-navigate and convenient to use (for all of our users—accessibility will be absolutely required in the revamp). Finally, if we’re able to add in some new features to facilitate user interaction, that’s a big plus!

We have our ideas about how to achieve all of this, but we want your feedback. Drop by Drea’s recent forum post to let us know what you’d like to see in a revamp, if there’s anything you don’t want us to change, or if you have any thoughts or feedback on our ideas below. We hope to hear from you!

A couple of examples of what we’re hoping for in the revamp:

Our current plan is to fold the current Documents and Recordings sections together into a Knowledge Repository (maybe just called "Resources"), so you can find all of the how-to information, downloads, and other "good stuff" without needing to know what format the resource is in. Of course, this section especially will need good indexing and searching.

Another change we’re aiming for is for users to be able to log in from any page and stay on that page rather than being redirected to their profile. This should make it a lot more convenient to access restricted content.

We’d also like to be able to include comments sections on articles, so it’s easy for you to ask questions or provide feedback on blog posts and resource articles without needing to switch to a forum post or email.

A lesser (but still high) priority is for the new version to be easier for Drea and I to administer. That won’t be as apparent to you, but it will help us get new content up on the site quickly. Right now, handling recordings can be especially tricky, so we hope the new site will allow us to more easily post new recordings in a way that will allow you to view them on the site itself and maintain a proper level of security for library-specific recordings that may include patron data.

So how does all that sound? Anything else you want us to be thinking about or try to address in the revamp? Please drop by the forums (since we don’t have that comments section yet) and let us know!

From Merriam-Webster.com:

Definition of FOMO
plural FOMOs
informal : fear of missing out : fear of not being included in something (such as an interesting or enjoyable activity) that others are experiencing

Do you have klasusers.com FOMO?

Well, here are some tips to make sure you see all the latest articles and posts...

All the latest Key Notes

To see all the latest Key Notes blog articles click on "Key Notes" under the Main Menu. The page sorts the newest post to the top.

A link to "More / Older Articles" is available at the bottom of the page. You can also navigate through older posts using the page navigation links (Page 1, Next, End, etc.) also located at the bottom of the page.

Keeping up with Discussion Forum posts

Subscribing to Specific Discussion Forum Threads

At the top and the bottom of every discussion forum thread, you will find the 'Subscribe' button. Pressing this button subscribes you to that topic so that any responses to that topic will generate an email notification to your email address stating that a new post has been made along with a link directly to said post for your convenience. You will notice the button now reads 'Unsubscribe' indicating that you are subscribed and pressing the button again will remove your subscription to that thread. Remember that you can also manage your subscriptions in your profile.

Favouring a Discussion Forum Thread

Another way of gaining visibility of threads you want to keep an eye on is set them as your 'Favorite'. This will place an obvious indicator, such as a star, beside the topic name of the thread so that it will stand out in the forum list of topics. After you "Favorite" a post, you will notice the button now reads 'Unfavorite' indicating that the post is already one of your favorites and pressing the button again will remove it from your favorites. This is a great way to get visibility on multiple topics that you wish to watch without getting spammed by email subscriptions. Remember that you can also manage your favorites in your profile.

Finding all the most Recent Discussion Forum Topics

If you quickly want to find ALL the latest discussion forum posts, you can navigate to the "Recent Topics Tab". This is the second available tab on the forums whether you are logged in or not. Here, you will see all of the most recently posted topics with the newest available first.

Subscribe to a Discussion Forum Category via RSS Feed

From Lifewire:

Instead of checking back every day to any particular site to see if it's been updated, RSS feeds give users the ability to simply subscribe to the RSS feed, much like you would subscribe to a newspaper, and then read the updates from the site, delivered via RSS feeds, in what's called a "feed reader."

Check out their "What Everyone Should Know about RSS Feeds" article to learn more about what an RSS feed it, how to subscribe to one, and suggestions for different RSS readers.

Now, use the RSS Feed button to subscribe to the Discussion Forum Index Page to have ALL the newest posts sent to you in your RSS Reader.

OR, use the RSS Feed button at the bottom of a community, category, or thread to subscribe to those that interest you most.

 So, there's no reason suffer from klasusers.com FOMO by employing just a few of the above tools.

Hello, KLASusers! Although we are in an off-year between full KLAS Users’ Conferences, we still want provide opportunities for you to keep up-to-date on KLAS New Features, provide feedback and development requests, and network with each other. With that in mind, just like our last non-conference year, we are working with the Programming Committee to facilitate monthly webinars and will be hosting a “bite-sized” mini-conference this summer.

This began with last month’s Keystone-presented webinar on Cataloging for Duplication, and will continue following a pattern of one LBPD user-presented, one IRC user-presented, and one Keystone-presented webinar per quarter.

APH Roundtable Webinar

For this quarter’s IRC webinar, we have a Roundtable on the APH Census, with discussion on how you go about the census process and how KLAS can better support that work. That roundtable is scheduled for Tuesday, February 22^nd, at 3pm Eastern Time, and will be moderated by Jared Leslie, Director of Media and Development at the Foundation for Blind Children in AZ, along with Sally Shreck, Specialized Media Coordinator at the Maryland School for the Blind IRC, and Allen Huang, Director of Accessible Instructional Materials and Outreach Services, and Kathy Segers, Educational Consultant, at Tennessee Resource Center for the Visually Impaired. We hope you’ll be able to join in, learn from their approaches, and provide your own perspective!

Connection details will be posted about one week before the webinar.

Save the Date: KLAS Mini-Conference

Like 2020’s mini-conference, we plan to take an afternoon in early May to share Keystone Updates and KLAS New Features. This year, we are also adding a second afternoon, which will include a Users’ Group Meeting to review and vote on a bylaws change, and a few user-led Birds-of-a-Feather sessions.

We plan to stagger IRC, General, and LBPD content as much as possible to ensure you get as much out of this as possible with the least time investment. While the exact schedule is still to be determined, we currently have the week of May 9^th(the week before the NLS Conference) earmarked for our two-day, bite-sized, online mini-con.

Admin Training

While broader webinars and networking events are great, sometimes you need a more specific, hands-on, deep dive into KLAS and how to make it work best for your specific situation.

A fantastic way to do that is to join us for Administrator’s Training! 

This year’s dates for Admins at LBPD libraries are:

• June 6-9, 2022
• September 12-15, 2022

We want to host a session for IRC Admins as well, but we need you to help us set the dates! If you can commit to a session, please let us know so we can work with you to set up dates.

Our Online Administrator's Training article has more info about training structure, pricing, and a link to register. Because of the significant time investment needed from Keystone staff to host Admin Training, we will need at least two confirmed attendees for any session to proceed.

Hoping to learn something new or touch base with Keystone staff? We've got some great training and networking opportunities on the calendar, with more in the works! Let's take a look at what we have coming up:

Online KLAS LBPD Administrator Training - March 27-30

The next online session of KLAS Administrator training for staff of Libraries for the Blind and Print Disabled will be held the afternoons of March 27-30. If you act as the KLAS Admin for your library and have never taken (or it's been a long while since you've attended) KLAS Admin Training, we encourage you to join us!

This training is done via Zoom, sessions are recorded and provided to attendees for later review, and allows you to get down and dirty in parts of KLAS aimed to help you improve service for your patrons and give you the knowledge to better support your staff and library as they use KLAS. Cost is $600 / attendee and each must have the authority to change records and policies for their KLAS system.

Find out more and then register for a session via these articles:

• Online Administrator's Training
• Administrator’s Training – What to Expect

E-Braille Circulation Roundtable - Date TBD

During the year of a KLAS Users' Conference, the Program Committee focuses their efforts on eliciting sessions for and building the agenda for the conference, instead of offering an online program every month. However, we still aim to host one webinar each quarter (other than the one in which the conference takes place) to address more timely concerns and help keep everyone in-touch and up-to-date. 

For our first quarter offering this year, we're seeking panelists for a Roundtable discussing the best ways to prepare for the NLS refreshable braille devices and manage E-Braille circulation. The session will be scheduled based on panelist availability.

If you want to participate, please contact our session organizers, James Gleason at Perkins Library and Katy Patrick at Keystone Systems. We'd also love to hear what questions you might have, topics you want to see discussed, or tips you have to share!

National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled Regional Conferences

We're excited to have the opportunity to again attend NLS conferences in person to see and connect with you. Keystone will send two staff members to each of the three regional conferences this year. In addition to hosting the KLAS Users' Meetings, we hope to attend conference sessions, be available for informal discussions, and learn about your challenges, new initiatives, and more!

Dates / times of each KLAS User meeting:

• WesternRegional NLS Conference - Wednesday, April 26, at 5 PM
• Northern / SouthernRegional NLS Conference - Wednesday, May 3, at 11:30 AM
• Midlands Regional NLS Conference - Tuesday, May 16, at 2 PM (tentative; final schedule pending)

2023 KLAS Users' Conference - July 17-20

This one's a no-brainer, but you know we can't help it. This is the biggest opportunity we've had for in-person training and networking since our 2019 conference and it will offer even more ways to connect with other KLAS Users' since it's our first HYBRID conference! The KLAS Users' Program Committee and Keystone staff are working hard to plan learning experiences for all types and levels of KLAS Users.

We hope you will help us make it excellent by joining us in-person or online, submitting an in-person or virtual session proposal, or sharing a session topic suggestion! 

More conference info:

• KLAS UC2023: Preliminary Conference Info
• KLAS UC2023: Call for Session Proposals
• 2023 Conference Session Ideas Forum Post - reply with your suggestions or requests for session topics!

We hope to see you soon at one of these training & networking opportunities!