Bulletin Board Management

Access Alexandria's Bulletin Board Management window anywhere in the world by typing the IP address (or server domain name), (optional) port number, and (optional) serial number (if you're Distributed Catalog) of your Data Station followed by “/managebulletins” into your browser's Address field (usually located in the upper-left corner of the window).

The Bulletin Board Management window allows you to create virtual boards where you may post and share public bulletins. Both boards and bulletins can be created from any Alexandria Librarian—just as long as you have the proper Security credentials.

You may create notices for your library, student-based clubs, and upcoming school events; these bulletins can contain both text and images. Bulletins may also contain links to outside reading lists or anything with an associated URL; these optional URLs will open in a new browser window when bulletin content is clicked. You can even attach links to Alexandria reports generated from Operations Management; instead of posting a Patron Overdue List to your library wall, you could provide a link in a special bulletin.

Both the boards and the bulletins they contain may be configured, individually, to only appear visible during specified date ranges; they can be assigned an automatic expiration date or remain posted for an indefinite length of time. If you find that some of your bulletins / boards
aren't visible to the public and appear as red in the Bulletin Boards list, check to see that they've been assigned an appropriate date range

Your patrons can view public bulletins from the Alexandria Researcher or by typing the IP address (or domain name), port number, and (optional) serial number of your Data Station followed by “/bulletins” in their browser's Address field; also, individual boards may be bookmarked or linked to directly.

Bulletin Board Management Window

The Bulletin Board Management window consists of two distinct areas:

• The left-hand side of the Bulletin Board Management window belongs to the Bulletin Boards pane—which is essentially a list containing the names of your current boards and their associated bulletins. Selecting (highlighting) a bulletin or a board from this list will display the contents of the record in the right-hand side of the window.
• The larger, right-hand portion of the Bulletin Board Management window consists of the Boards/Bulletins pane where the contents of the selected bulletin or board record are displayed—in full—allowing you to modify their information or remove them completely.

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Centralized Catalog Bulletin Board Management

If you are Centralized Catalog, the Select A Site window appears each time you access the Bulletin Board Management module. This allows you to select the site for the bulletins you would like to manage; however, the choices offered depend on the sites that you, as an operator, have permission to access (review Site Access for more information). Therefore, you may have access to multiple sites, but not all the sites defined in the Sites Management interface interface. Unlike other Alexandria modules and interfaces, the union site record does appear in the Select A Site list; this allows you to access any converted bulletins (bulletins that existed pre-v6.22.5) that need to be assigned a site.

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Boards

Boards contain bulletins; they are used to organize related messages into manageable groups. Boards that are not currently visible to the public appear as red in the Bulletin Boards list.

Boards Settings

• Site Name. This non-editable field displays the name of the site where your board (and associated bulletins) will be placed. Clicking on the Site Name will show the Site Information dialog.
  
  
• Board Name. Provide a unique name for your new board. Duplicate board names are not allowed due to how Alexandria allows you to link to bulletins via URL.
  
  
• Show Board From/Until. Provide the date range for which this board will be available. Determine whether individual boards—and their associated bulletins—will shown for days, weeks, months, or indefinitely. If today's date falls outside of the specified time frame, the board will not appear to the public or be available via direct URL. For example, if the date range is 01/01/2016 to 01/05/2016, the board will be available from January 1st through the 5th. The start date is automatically populated with today's date when you Save the record; if the end date is left blank, the board will carry on indefinitely. If the end date you provide comes before the start date, the board will not be saved.

If desired, you can provide optional, private notes for operators and librarians that are shown here, but nowhere else. For example, you can leave a note describing the duration of a particular board or its appropriate usage.

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Board Management

The following links contain step-by-step Board management information:

• Creating a Board
• Duplicating a Board
• Editing a Board
• Removing a Board

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Bulletins

Like boards, bulletins can also be configured to only appear during specified timeframes; bulletins that are not currently visible to the public appear as red in the Bulletin Boards list. If you include an optional Bulletin URL, it will open the target destination in a new browser window when clicked. A bulletin is required to have either a Bulletin Image and/or Text.

Bulletins Settings

• Bulletin Name. Provide the title of the individual bulletin you want posted to the board; for example: “Student Assembly”, “Planetarium Field Trip”, or “Parent Teacher Conferences”. Unlike board names, bulletin names are not required to be unique.
  
  
• Show Bulletin at the Top of the Board. Any bulletin with this box checked will appear before other bulletins in the board.
  
  
• Show Bulletin From/Until. Provide the date range for which this bulletin will appear on the board. Keep in mind that the board’s Show Board From/Until date will always take precedence; this means, if the main board expires before the bulletins contained within, the bulletins will expire concurrently. Determine whether individual bulletins will appear for days, weeks, months, or indefinitely. If today's date falls outside of the specified time frame, the bulletin will not appear to the public or be available via direct URL. For example, if the date range is 01/01/2016 to 01/05/2016, the board will be available from January 1st through the 5th. The start date is automatically populated with today's date when you Save the record; if the end date is left blank, the bulletin will carry on indefinitely. If the end date you provide comes before the start date, the bulletin will not be saved.
  
  
• Bulletin URL. If desired, you may provide a supplementary URL to an outside web address. If provided, it will appear as a hyperlink entitled More at the bottom of the bulletin. Hyperlinks are optional and must be complete URLs (e.g. http://www...) in order to function properly.
  
  

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Customize your bulletins with HTML5

You have the ability to customize or quickly adjust some of the visual aspects of your bulletins using basic HTML5. However, the <font> tag is obsolete in HTML5; therefore, to modify font properties, refer to common cascading style sheets (CSS) classes instead. You can use the <span> tag to group individual inline-elements (described below) within a bulletin. The ability to embed HTML5 within bulletins means you can use <iframe> and embed Adobe Flash (“.swf”) files—although COMPanion doesn't recommend anyone doing so without the proper experience. Below are some examples of custom HTML5 that can be embedded in bulletins.

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Accessing Public Bulletins

To access public patron Bulletin interface, type the IP address (or domain name), port number, and (optional) serial number of your Data Station followed by “/bulletins” in your browser's Address field (usually located in the upper-left corner of the window).

• https://yourlibrary.goalexandria.com/bulletins

Individual bulletin boards may also be linked to directly; for example, if you have a board named After School Program, you could link to it directly with the following URL: http://123.456.78.910:80/bulletins#board=After%20School%20Program.

• Spaces in board names will be replaced with "%20" (the ASCII-encoded value for a space) in your bulletin board URL.

To view posted bulletins from the Alexandria Researcher:

1. Launch the Researcher module. To do this, type the IP address (or server domain name), (optional) port number, and (optional) serial number (if you're Distributed Catalog) of your Data Station followed by “/researcher” into your browser's Address field (usually located in the upper-left corner of the window).
2. Unless its been changed in Explore Builder, select Bulletins icon from the default Researcher pane. This pane is shown when patrons first access the Alexandria Researcher interface.
3. Your site's public Bulletins interface will open in a new browser window.
   
   1. If you are a Centralized Catalog, the Select a Data Station window will appear each time you access public Bulletins. This allows you to select the site whose bulletins you would like to view. The union site record does not appear in the Select a Data Station list.
4. If the selected (or union) site has multiple boards, you will be asked to Select a Bulletin Board to View. If the selected site doesn't have any bulletin boards, you will see Site Information instead.
5. After selecting a board, you may return to the Select a Bulletin Board to View list at any time by clicking the back arrow icon located to the left of the board name. To the right of the Site name is a magnifying glass icon that will return you to the Researcher interface selection window.
   
   

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