Ohio librarian customizes Surpass for her Jewish library

Isaac M. Wise Temple, Cincinnati, Ohio
Interview with Andrea Rapp, Librarian

What is your favorite feature of Surpass?
Visual Navigator is the highlight of our catalog. It’s the closest thing to actually being in the library and browsing the shelves. And the way it’s customizable for a specialty library like ours is amazing.   

Take a look at Andrea’s impressive customization at the Isaac M. Wise Temple Library.  Navigate to the library page, select the catalog, then from the Web Safari Welcome screen, select Visual Navigator.

What do you think of Surpass Web Safari, the on-line catalog?
Surpass Web Safari is more than “user friendly;” it’s inviting and appealing in a way that I haven’t seen in any other system. From the Welcome screen through the rest of a search, it's clean, uncluttered and more attractive than other programs. 

What do your patrons enjoy about Web Safari, the on-line catalog?
When patrons use Surpass Web Safari  the response is always the same: they can’t believe how attractive and easy it is. More and more people are asking for their passwords and wanting to reserve materials on-line.

What was your experience learning Surpass?
It was fun and interesting.  I’d never used all the modules of an automation system before, so I learned in Surpass. Surpass Support is very helpful.

Do you use many of the features Surpass offers?
We are using a lot of features. Besides the Visual Navigator, we post bestsellers, new books, and recommendations. You can access them right from the Welcome screen of Safari. I love using Safari Selections, which shows book jackets. We use Surpass Copycat to catalog, and we also use custom reporting.

Tell me about your experience creating custom reports.
I like the versatility of the reports that you can custom-design in Surpass. In a library you can’t always anticipate what information you’ll want some day.  With Surpass, when you need it you can get it with a custom report.

For example, our collection includes some old and rare historic books, some more than 150 years old.  I wondered “What is the oldest book in the library?”  We designed a report to list all the books with a copyright before 1880.  I will use the report to feature some of these rare items in our library publicity to our congregation.

What is Surpass’ biggest strength?
It is so inviting and appealing to the user and very versatile for the librarian.