Add New Accounts for Your Library

Since the Library Directory & Learning Calendar (L2) website was launched almost two years ago, one of the most regular suggestions we’ve received is to provide a better way for library directors and other designated administrative personnel to add accounts for new employees and board members.

We are happy to announce two very important changes toward this end:

  1. Library directors/administrators can now create new user accounts for people affiliated with their libraries, which bypasses the normal email address verification process for new accounts.
  2. Beginning September 1, when an employee or trustee creates their own new affiliation with a public library location, the library director/administrators will receive an email with a link to take approval action on that new affiliation. Affiliations that are awaiting approval are also listed in each library location's "Affiliations" tab.

Details and instructions

L2 Permissions Required to Manage Library Personnel

Library directors and other personnel who have administrative permissions in L2 for the library agency can create new user accounts for staff and board members at their own library locations. Administrative permissions are granted on a “need to have” basis at the library director’s discretion and might be given to employees with a certain degree of responsibility, such as the assistant director, executive assistant, and department heads.

To check whether your L2 account has the correct access level:

  1. Log into the L2 website, https://librarylearning.org
  2. In the “Account” menu tab, go to “My Dashboard”
  3. In your affiliations, look for a box with Agency in the header; the role/access group in that box will need to be “Admin”

To add additional administrators, the library director or another existing agency admin for the library can follow the procedures in the Managing Staff Lists instruction sheet (beginning about halfway down p. 3), which is available on the L2 Help webpage, https://librarylearning.org/help . Note: We will be revising this instruction sheet soon.

Adding a New Account/Affiliation for a Staff or Board Member

To add a new employee or trustee for your library (for library directors and other agency administrators):

  1. Log into the L2 website, https://librarylearning.org
  2. It’s a good idea to first check whether the person has an existing L2 account. See the Managing Staff Lists instruction sheet on the L2 Help webpage, https://librarylearning.org/help
  3. To begin adding an affiliation with your library, click the “Directory” tab on the main L2 menu bar, and use the Libraries search to find the location for the employee/trustee
  4. Click the library location’s name in the first column of the Libraries search results, to go to that location’s profile page
  5. On the location’s profile page, click the “Affiliations” tab
  6. If the person is already affiliated with this library location, they will be listed in the Affiliations
  7. To add a new affiliation, click the “Add an Affiliation” button; this will open a form
  8. On the new affiliation form, you can once more check for an existing L2 account by typing the person’s name into the User field. If there is a match, you can select it from the list of suggested users (beware of other people with the same name!)
  9. If the new employee/trustee does not already have an L2 account, use the link below the User field to add a new user account
  10. On the new user form, enter the employee’s/trustee’s email address, first name, and last name; then click the “Save” button
  11. You will be returned to the affiliation form, with the new user already added; complete the rest of the form and click the “Save” button
  12. The employee/trustee will receive an email that the new account and affiliation have been created, but they will not need to verify their email address. They will need to use L2’s password-reset function (https://librarylearning.org/user/password) to add a password to their account in order to log in

Approving Affiliations Added by New Personnel

When a library employee or trustee creates their own new user account on L2, their affiliation with a library needs to be published before the account is fully active. Regional library system staff have thus far been publishing new affiliations, in consultation with the library directors.

Library directors/administrators at all types of libraries (academic, public, school, specialized) can check for and act on any unpublished pending affiliations at their own library locations:

  1. Log into the L2 website, https://librarylearning.org
  2. Click the “Directory” tab on the main L2 menu bar, and use the Libraries search to find your library location(s)
  3. Click the library location’s name in the first column of the Libraries search results, to go to that location’s profile page
  4. On the location’s profile page, click the “Affiliations” tab
  5. If there are any unpublished staff/board affiliations for the location, they will be listed at the top; each will have links to Edit/Publish and to Remove the affiliation

Additionally, beginning 2022-09-01, library directors and other personnel at public libraries only who have administrative permissions in L2 for the library agency will be sent an email message whenever an L2 user self-adds an affiliation with that public library. The email message will include a link and instructions that the director/admin can use to review and publish the affiliation.

Here is an example of that message text:

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Subject: ACTION REQUIRED: New L2 affiliation for Example Public Library

This email has been sent to all Example Public Library personnel who have administrative permissions in L2 for the library agency. This is an automated message from L2. Please do not reply.

A new unpublished library location affiliation has been added to the Library Directory & Learning Calendar (L2) website:

Jane Doe – janedoe@example.com – Reference Librarian

Note: If Jane Doe’s affiliation was added as part of creating a new L2 account, Jane also needs to complete email verification through the message sent to janedoe@example.com. Failure to verify within 24 hours will automatically cancel the account and delete this affiliation.

Please review and either publish or delete this affiliation at:

[link]

To publish/approve:

1. Check the “Published” box at the top of the affiliation form

2. Make any edits needed to the Job Title, position/responsibility checkboxes, and other fields

3. Click “Save” at the bottom of the form

To delete:

1. Click “Delete” at the bottom of the affiliation form

2. Click “Delete” again on the confirmation page

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For More Information

If you have any questions about these new L2 features, please contact your regional library system’s L2 Help Desk through the form at https://librarylearning.org/help (logging in first is recommended).