In mid-2024, Fort Worth Public Library faced a significant communication challenge: Their patrons were not receiving SMS notifications. Their patrons were reporting that they weren’t receiving SMS messages, but the library had no way to track their messages. Text messages updating patrons on things like books coming due, holds now available, and service bulletins were all failing to reach their intended audience. The breakdown in notifications was causing problems for the library and patrons alike, and something needed to be done.

After switching to a fine free library model, Louisville Free Public Library in Kentucky found that they still had issues surrounding materials and patrons returning to the library. The switch was largely a succes, but they faced these two issues:

• More patrons were overdue and blocked from access after the internal LFPL contact process.
• There was a large gap in material accessibility for other users with these items on hold.

The library decided to add Gentle Nudge from Unique, and their results have been remarkable.

When Natrona Public Library in Casper, Wyoming signed up for Patron Services from Unique, they were getting more than a partnership with a team that is dedicated to handling their phone traffic on behalf of the library.

The library found that their staff were more available for their patrons in the library, the distractions in the library were minimized, and their patrons calling the library experienced better service, too.

Kent District Library in Grand Rapids, Michigan is a library that embraces technology. However, even a library equipped with a dedicated team to address patron inquiries virtually faced challenges in responding to patrons across three different channels. Kent District’s team of 11 librarians was accustomed to handling phone and email inquiries, but they had to hide their chat feature because they simply couldn’t keep up with the demand.

This Montana library made the increasingly popular switch to fine free, but they still had blocked patrons. The library needed a material recovery partner to handle the legwork of getting patrons unblocked and materials back available. That is where Fine Free Gentle Nudge®  from Unique came in.

The 8-location Arlington Public Library serves the northern Virginia county of nearly 250,000 people yet had a single problem: no insight into the patron notifications they were sending. MessageBee from Unique shed light on their patron notifications that the library had never accessed before.

Sacramento Public Library understands that patron interests can change rapidly. Find out how Unique’s Call Handling and Chat Services removed the routine requests from staff workloads and lets them focus on current patron needs.