Austin, Texas -- June 2, 2020 . Biblionix today announced the completion of its Mobile Checkout capability for the Apollo ILS/LSP. This brings the number of closure and partial-closure tools that are now available to all Apollo customers to eighteen.

All are free of charge.

Mobile Checkout allows patrons to check items out on their own, minimizing staff interaction and maximizing convenience. Patrons log in to their Apollo library catalog account on their mobile device. No app is required. The Apollo catalog is responsive, so it will adapt to phones or tablets automatically. When the device's camera scans the barcode, the item is checked out.

"You continue to amaze me!", said Lynn Piotrowicz, director of the Tucker Free Library in Henniker, New Hampshire.

Other available tools include

• Staff quarantine check-in: Four quarantine modes are available. Here is how Apollo libraries have set their quarantine durations.
• Self-service
  • Instant check in to quarantine: This is touchless.
  • Mobile checkout: Mentioned above.
  • Express checkout: Uses a kiosk PC arrangement with only a screen, a scanner, and a printer.
  • Online self-signup: Fill out an application form from anywhere.
  • In-library self-signup: Uses a kiosk PC arrangement and minimizes paper and staff involvement.
• E-titles and enhancing access
  • Extend account expiration dates en masse: This ensures that remote users won't be denied access to e-items if going to the library to renew is not an option.
  • Boost e-titles in catalog search results.
  • Move item due dates: This allows for extending existing due dates, en masse, when additional closed days are configured.
• Holds:
  • Adjust pick-up-by dates: For ready-to-pick-up holds that have been waiting for weeks, this tool allows libraries to change the pick-up-by dates en masse.
  • Pending "send" dates for reserve notices are automatically adjusted by Apollo when closed dates are changed.
  • Add a note on all hold wrappers/slips: This is frequently used for return instructions.
  • Pickup location option: Allows patrons to select "curbside" or "drive-up window" or the like.
  • Holds placed on items on the shelf: Two immediate indicators are available to staff so that the holds need not wait for a report to be run.
  • Prevent reserve assignments: This is useful when you cannot fulfill reserves and you do not want them piling up on a shelf.
  • Prevent reserve notifications: In case you want to call each patron individually to discuss pickup procedures, this option is available.
• Gabbie two-way SMS texting:
  • Customize the "library is closed" auto-response: This is used to indicate that even though you are closed, you are still replying to Gabbie text inquiries.
  • Suppress the "library is closed" message.

For more information on Biblionix and its intuitive, imaginative solutions solely for public libraries with fewer than 300,000 holdings, visit the website at biblionix.com or contact Dick Moeller at dick@biblionix.com.

About Biblionix, LLC:

Biblionix is located in Austin, Texas, and was founded in 2003. The family-owned company's Apollo ILS/LSP is devoted solely to public libraries. Providing Apollo with this singular focus, Biblionix excels at delighting just that one type of customer. The result is an Apollo retention rate of over 99% over all 13 years. Further, Apollo has won Product of the Year or Platinum in the Modern Library Awards is each of the last six years. And the annual Perceptions survey by Marshall Breeding has shown Apollo topping the charts for many consecutive years. Most Biblionix staff members have worked or volunteered at a public library.