2025-07-06 Updates to Manage menu and Event Templates

Two major changes were implemented on July 6, 2025; they affect only L2 managers and administrators at the Illinois State Library, regional library systems, catalog consortia, and networking groups/associations:

  1. The "Manage" menu has been restructured
  2. Event templates now function more completely as templates, and are not calendar events

Continue reading for important details.

"Manage" Menu Changes

The "Manage" menu has been re-organized around the types of content with which you interact, so that items are collapsed under a submenu heading for the content type. For example, everything related to managing events – creation and reports – is now listed under Manage > Events. This change was made in consultation with the L2 Governing Group.

Event Template Changes

This improvement has been requested by quite a few event sponsors and has been long in the making: Event templates now function as true templates, and are no longer just calendar events that can be used to generate additional events. This means that an event template can be updated (e.g. if the regular location of a periodic meeting has been changed) without affecting anything on the L2 calendar.

Here’s what you need to know now about using event templates:

You need to convert any old templates that you want to continue using

At the top of the Manage > Events > Add Event From Template page, you’ll see a temporary link that says "JULY 2025 – IMPORTANT! CONVERT OLD TEMPLATES!"

That link takes you to a form that lists all the existing, old-format event templates that belong to the sponsor with which you are affiliated. For each old template, you have the following options:

  • Keep – Convert this template to the new template structure. A new template will be created, and the calendar event that had functioned as a template under the old structure will be re-saved with its “use as template” box unchecked.
  • Remove -- The calendar event that had functioned as a template under the old structure will be re-saved with its “use as template” box unchecked, but no new template will be created.
  • Skip – If someone else at your organization needs to review the template, leave the default Skip option selected, and no action will be taken when you submit the form.

After making your selections, submit the form. If you skip any of the old templates for your sponsor organization, ask your colleagues to review them.

There is a new form for creating brand-new templates

The form for adding a template is now separate from the form for creating a calendar event. To add a template, use Manage > Events > Add New Template.

The event template form does not include fields for dates, because they are not applicable to a template. You can set the Sponsor Location room(s) for a template, but room reservations are not created.

Only new templates are available through "Add Event From Template"

The list of templates from which you can select via Manage > Events > Add Event From Template includes only new templates (either added through the Add New Template form or converted from an old template). Be sure to convert your old templates.

The list of templates available for you to use now is limited to templates that list your organization as event sponsor.

Group admins can use templates

Although they can be event sponsors in L2, networking groups/associations don’t have access to the Manage menu and haven’t been able to use or manage event templates.

But now group administrators can create, manage, and use templates with the "Add Event from a Template" button that has been added to the Account > My Groups page.

New templates can be edited

If you need to edit a template (e.g. to update the Intro Text), you may do so via Manage > Events > Add Event From Template page. For each of your organization’s templates, an “Edit” link has been added to the previously available “Preview” and “Use” actions.

Because in the old template system, event templates were actual calendar events, after you "Keep" and convert an old template, you may want to edit the converted template to change the title, remove registration links and other information specific to the original event, update the event contact person, etc.

Events created from templates are unpublished by default

As soon as you click the “Use” link for an event template, a new event is created and saved. This creates the risk of an incomplete event item appearing on the calendar if, say, the person creating the event decides that the wrong template was selected and exits the form.

To help keep bad events from happening, an event created from a template is unpublished by default, and you’ll need to check the "Published" box at the bottom of the form (or schedule the event to be published) for the new event to show up on the calendar.

If you forget to check "Published", you’ll see the words NOT PUBLISHED prominently displayed at the top of your new event’s page. You can then edit the event and publish it.

The template changes do not fix events that were created from the old-style templates

Unfortunately, the room reservation issues that we’ve experienced (conflicts when editing an event, wrong dates in the reservation record) in events created from the original template system are not retroactively corrected. You shouldn’t have these issues with events created from a new template, though.

Report errors and suggestions for improvement

If you encounter any issues while creating templates or events, report them to the L2 Help Desk, using the form at https://librarylearning.org/help

Also, we anticipate that tweaks will still be needed, to make the experience of creating and managing events better. I very much appreciate your continued patience. As always, send suggestions to the L2 Help Desk.