Frequently Asked Questions

1. How Much Does LibAnswers Cost?

The pricing is based on the size of your institution (FTE for academic, or # of card holders for public), and ranges between $599/year and $1,099/year. All price tiers include an unlimited number of concurrent logons and an unlimited number of accounts in the system. Most libraries would be in the lower price range - email us for an exact quote.

The Analytics module is optional, it costs between $299/year and $699/year, depending on your library's size.

2. Will we have our own system, with just our content in it?

Yes, each institution gets their own customized system and only your library's questions and answers will be in it. We have many community features but these are just on the admin side and do not impact the content your patrons see.

3. How do you handle Patron Privacy issues?

When patrons submit their question to the system we require they enter their email address so that you, the librarian, can respond to their query. The email is never displayed on any public page, and we never do anything with that email (i.e. resell it, publish it, or ... do anything to it).

The same is true for patrons' mobile phone numbers in the SMS module - we never show the number on any public pages, and we never do anything with the numbers (resell, publish, misuse, etc) - it is stored in the database only so that you can respond to the patron's query. In addition, the phone number is never associated with any name or patron information.

At your option, you can periodically purge your database off any private info (emails, phone #s)

4. What happens to our data if we cancel the service?

If you ever decide to cancel LibAnswers we will give you all of your data back in an XML format within 30 days of canceling. Then you can repurpose it and reuse it in any way you see fit.

5. Can we try before we buy?

Certainly! We have a real, fully functioning demo at http://demo.libanswers.com. Getting a free account on it is a great way to learn the ins and outs of the system first hand, and see for yourself the features and the benefits of LibAnswers. Get your trial account today!