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Softlink Information Centres

Liberty Library Management System

Liberty is an innovative, interactive and comprehensive library management system. It is one of the most advanced and customizable solutions available globally, allowing for the discovery and provision of both traditional and digital resources. Liberty is a cost-effective solution that allows library staff to reach greater levels of efficiency.

Features

  • Robust management interface
  • Powerful Analytics Interface
  • Full Text Search
  • Liberty Link App
  • Customisable Interface
  • RFID and Self Checkout
  • Dynamic Home Page
  • Library User Profiles
  • Integration Options

Benefits

  • Manage and track your physical, virtual or electronic resources
  • Import MARC21 records from libraries and databases with Z-Cataloguing
  • View graphical reports using real-time library data
  • Use APIs to integrate Liberty with Microsoft Sharepoint
  • Search within your catalogue, including the Word or PDF documents
  • Customise the layout and contents of any page in Liberty
  • Design your own access levels to match business policy
  • Faceted search and predictive text for quick retrieval of information
  • Targeted home page via featured lists, carousels, sliders, and videos
  • Scheduled reports and have them emailed regularly

Pricing

£1,250 a licence a year

  • Free trial available

Service documents

Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at matthew.coy@softlinkint.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

8 6 0 4 2 5 7 9 9 2 6 0 6 8 6

Contact

Softlink Information Centres Matt Coy
Telephone: 1.206.508.0450
Email: matthew.coy@softlinkint.com

Service scope

Software add-on or extension
No
Cloud deployment model
Private cloud
Service constraints
N/A
System requirements
  • For hosted, only supported web browser.
  • For local installation, Windows 2012, 2016, 2019

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Email or online ticketing
Support response times
Access to chat, email, or phone 24 hours a day
User can manage status and priority of support tickets
Yes
Online ticketing support accessibility
WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
Phone support
Yes
Phone support availability
24 hours, 7 days a week
Web chat support
Web chat
Web chat support availability
24 hours, 7 days a week
Web chat support accessibility standard
WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
Web chat accessibility testing
None
Onsite support
Yes, at extra cost
Support levels
The Annual Support and Maintenance program protects your investment by ensuring that you receive maximum benefit from your solution into the future. In addition to access to a wide range of help desk support services, your support and maintenance subscription includes major releases and regular minor updates to your software each year.
Softlink provide full support to their clients via a toll free phone number, email support and online support (FreshDesk) that can be accessed from any web browser. Softlink support team always provides a response to queries within 3 hours of receiving them, however responses are usually answered within 1 hour or less. Softlink also provide global Virtual User Group meetings, webinars with the latest features for new upgrade releases which are released as online videos for our clients to view at any time. Softlink also provide an annual National Liberty User Group meeting and Group training sessions free for our Liberty clients to attend. Softlink also provide a number of free one-hour phone training sessions each year. Technical Account Managers are on hand to answer questions or provide solutions.
Support available to third parties
No

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
Training is flexible and can be tailored to your needs; however below is a sample standard training program for your information. Each session runs for approximately for 1-1.5 hours, but this may vary depending on requirements. Training can be live remote online training or onsite training depending on requirements. Provide both YouTube videos and user documenation as well.

Day 1

Introduction: Navigation, Searching, Sorting, Reports, Search interface

Basic Circulation: Adding/modifying borrower records, Circulation Desk (Loans, returns, reservations)

Advanced Circulation: Overdue Notices, Reports, Exchange

Basic Cataloguing: Z-Cataloguing, Adding/editing records, Adding/editing copy information

Advanced Cataloguing: Authority Control, Stocktake, Merging records, Exchange, MARC

Day 2

Journals: Setting up components and subscriptions, Receiving issues

Acquisitions: Setting up budgets, Adding/receiving orders, Budget reports

Interlibrary Loans: Supplies, Requests

System / Customisations Setup: Page layout, translations, parameters, reporting
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
PDF
End-of-contract data extraction
Admin users are able to run reports to gather their data and export to CSV or Excel. Softlink can also provide a paid service for providing a full single MS SQL .BAK File.
End-of-contract process
Annual support includes:
1 x Professional Services Assistance. Each year choose 1 of the following:
▪ Assistance to apply a customization such as CSS modifications or banners
▪ Basic Custom Report
▪ 1 hour phone walkthrough Q&A session / mini training session
▪ System Health Check.
✓ Virtual Group Training. 4 per year, repeated across time zones so that you can participate at a
convenient time.
✓ Customer Care call. Annual check-in call from a member of the Softlink support team. You can also of course call Softlink whenever you wish
✓ A customer support portal. A user-friendly support portal for getting help and support resources.
✓ Technical support including access to Support Self Service portal, log and access and monitor Support
requests 24x7, contact the support team by email or phone, talk to product experts in your geographic
region.
✓ Extended hours support. If support is required outside normal business hours, can contact any
Softlink support office around the world in the UK, USA and Australia.
✓ Beyond technical support - assistance with minor training issues, altering data in the system where a
simple script is required, and cannot be done through global changes interface.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Supported browsers
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
Application to install
No
Designed for use on mobile devices
Yes
Differences between the mobile and desktop service
Softlink build a phone APP that provides service for both Library Staff and End Users.
Service interface
Yes
User support accessibility
WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
Description of service interface
None
Accessibility standards
WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
Accessibility testing
None
API
Yes
What users can and can't do using the API
There are different levels of API for Liberty depending on what data needs to be included. Liberty's API can be used to integrate with all other systems that accept APIs. There is an additional cost of a Liberty API as Softlink will need to create the API, depending on data requirements.
API documentation
Yes
API documentation formats
PDF
API sandbox or test environment
No
Customisation available
Yes
Description of customisation
Liberty is extremely customisable. Colors, logos, content, taxonomy, reports and wording can all by customised by Library Staff who have a admin license. Admin roles can also be set by the lead admin to limit what can and can not be changed.

Scaling

Independence of resources
Softlink will use commercial best efforts to provide customers with 99.99% uptime

Analytics

Service usage metrics
Yes
Metrics types
Liberty has standard reports, custom reports, and an analytical reporting module that all come standard.
Reporting types
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Regular reports
  • Reports on request

Resellers

Supplier type
Not a reseller

Staff security

Staff security clearance
Conforms to BS7858:2019
Government security clearance
Up to Developed Vetting (DV)

Asset protection

Knowledge of data storage and processing locations
Yes
Data storage and processing locations
European Economic Area (EEA)
User control over data storage and processing locations
Yes
Datacentre security standards
Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 3.0)
Penetration testing frequency
At least once a year
Penetration testing approach
In-house
Protecting data at rest
Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Data sanitisation process
Yes
Data sanitisation type
Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
Equipment disposal approach
Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v.30, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001

Data importing and exporting

Data export approach
Admin users are able to export data to Word, Excel, and PDFs by running either standard reports, custom reports, and through the analytical reporting module.
Data export formats
CSV
Data import formats
CSV

Data-in-transit protection

Data protection between buyer and supplier networks
  • Private network or public sector network
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
Data protection within supplier network
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability
Softlink will use commercial best efforts to provide customers with 99.99% uptime. This does not include periods scheduled for upgrades and maintenance. Downtime is measured from the time an unscheduled service interruption is reported by the Customer.
Approach to resilience
Softlink employs industry standard methods, including but not limited to:
 Role based access
 Password security policies
 Network egress and ingress controls
 Detailed Logging and Monitoring
All Amazon Web Services Data Centres are housed in nondescript facilities with strictly controlled physical access at the perimeter and ingress points, monitored by professional Security Staff.
Softlink Systems are hosted on regularly updated and maintained Windows servers, protected by the Amazon Web Services Network infrastructure.
Hosted servers are protected by local Anti-Virus and Firewall configurations, which are audited and updated regularly.
AWS Shield is a managed Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection service which protects all web services running out of any AWS Data Centre.
Client databases are backed up nightly and stored as follows:
 Daily backups are kept for 7 days on a rolling schedule
 Weekly backups are kept for up to 90 days on a rolling schedule
 All backups are available offsite and are designed to deliver 99.999999999% durability.
Outage reporting
Multiple levels of monitoring to ensure maximum uptime for all systems.
A tiered alarm system is configured to pick up and automatically escalate any system performance issues which may be experienced.

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed
No
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
SSO can be implemented or username/password requirement to access
Access restriction testing frequency
At least once a year
Management access authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)

Audit information for users

Access to user activity audit information
Users have access to real-time audit information
How long user audit data is stored for
User-defined
Access to supplier activity audit information
Users have access to real-time audit information
How long supplier audit data is stored for
User-defined
How long system logs are stored for
Between 1 month and 6 months

Standards and certifications

ISO/IEC 27001 certification
No
ISO 28000:2007 certification
No
CSA STAR certification
No
PCI certification
No
Cyber essentials
Yes
Cyber essentials plus
Yes
Other security certifications
No

Security governance

Named board-level person responsible for service security
Yes
Security governance certified
Yes
Security governance standards
Other
Other security governance standards
Softlink audits against a large number of controls derived from security standards including ISO-27002, NIST 800-53, OWASP, CSA COM, GDPR and others. The audit schedule is determined based on risk according to industry, service, and the type of information processed.
Information security policies and processes
Resolution of Queries and Problems within Target Resolution
Times. All support tasks related to reported error conditions are
prioritized according to defined criteria, assigned a target resolution date based on priority and scheduled for action by relevant personnel. This scheduling process is carried out on a daily basis, and progress is reviewed regularly. Softlink will use reasonable endeavors to resolve support tasks within the target period. Each priority has a target period for resolving the support task. For details of the target support task resolution period. Support tasks related to functional modifications to the software (i.e. where the Customer has requested that the functionality be modified), or third party products are handled separately from this procedure.

Operational security

Configuration and change management standard
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Configuration and change management approach
Change Request Procedures: Any change to systems go through a formal change request process. This involves creating a documented request which includes the rationale for the change, the expected benefits, and an analysis of potential risks.

Impact Assessment: Before any change is approved, a thorough impact assessment is conducted. This includes analyzing potential security impacts, compatibility with existing systems, and effects on overall system performance. .

Security Review: Changes are reviewed with a focus on security, ensuring that no new vulnerabilities are introduced.

Testing: All changes are tested in a controlled environment before being deployed to the production system.
Vulnerability management type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Vulnerability management approach
Patch Management Policy: We have a stringent patch management policy in place that dictates how patches are prioritized, tested, and deployed.

Testing Before Deployment: All patches undergo thorough testing in a controlled environment before implemented.

Rapid Deployment: Critical patches can be deployed within 24 hours, while less critical updates follow a scheduled deployment plan that minimizes disruption to services.

Vendor Bulletins and Updates: We closely monitor updates and security bulletins from our software vendors and third-party service providers. This ensures that we are aware of any known vulnerabilities that may affect components we use.
Protective monitoring type
Supplier-defined controls
Protective monitoring approach
Our systems are monitored continuously using a combination of automated tools and manual oversight. This monitoring covers network traffic, system performance, and logs of user activities, allowing us to detect anomalies that could indicate a compromise.

Incident Response Plan: Our incident response plan includes predefined procedures for various types of security incidents. This plan outlines steps for containment, eradication, recovery, and post-incident analysis to prevent future occurrences.
Incident management type
Supplier-defined controls
Incident management approach
Incident Response Plan: Our incident response plan includes predefined procedures for various types of security incidents. This plan outlines steps for containment, eradication, recovery, and post-incident analysis to prevent future occurrences.

Secure development

Approach to secure software development best practice
Conforms to a recognised standard, but self-assessed

Public sector networks

Connection to public sector networks
No

Social Value

Social Value

Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Equal opportunity

Fighting climate change

Softlink uses data centres committed to increasing renewable energy in supply of cloud hosting.

Equal opportunity

Library software to support organisations with freedom of access of information.

Pricing

Price
£1,250 a licence a year
Discount for educational organisations
No
Free trial available
Yes
Description of free trial
1 week free trial for sandbox version of Liberty

Service documents

Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at matthew.coy@softlinkint.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.