Flying Solo: GeniePlus, COVID, and the Power of One

The National Safety Council is a non-profit organization with the mission of eliminating preventable deaths through leadership, research, education and advocacy. They leverage GeniePlus to make their information easily accessible to members and the general public. 

Prior to the implementation of GeniePlus, challenges faced by their solo librarian, Alaina Kolosh, included the need for an OPAC, how to enable bi-directional information sharing that supports partnership with other organizations, “DIY and on-the-fly” reporting and business intelligence, and a move away from reliance on the IT department. GeniePlus successfully addressed these challenges, and more. 

We have a COVID-19 related update to our recently published NSC success story! Per Ms. Kolosh, the Council put together a coalition of employers who were addessing return-to-work safety issues. Coalition members submitted their manuals, playbooks, checklists, screening protocols, safety programs, and other information to the NSC. Ms. Kolosh was asked to organize the information—specifically, to create a spreadsheet. Instead, she suggested using GeniePlus to create a special portal so the information could be searched and retrieved. Clearly there was great time pressure, but with the assistance of Lucidea Client Services, she created a COVID portal using the library catalog as a base—controlling levels of access and permissions for NSC staff, NSC members, and Coalition partners. Moving from initial conversation (How about a spreadsheet?) to a live portal took just 10 days. 

COVID Coalition partners have been very supportive of the new portal, and other NSC staff members have decided they want their own portals too! Says Ms. Kolosh, “The message that GeniePlus can deliver more than the Library database has been successfully communicated throughout the organization.” 

In addition, Ms. Kolosh shared, “My main takeaway is that although I am a solo, I feel I am not totally on my own, thanks to Lucidea. Lucidea’s support has helped me succeed, including with our implementation of GeniePlus (which gets great feedback from our Members), and now with overcoming current COVID-19 challenges while expanding the library’s internal impact.

We invite you to learn more about the many ways the National Safety Council solo librarian uses GeniePlus to deliver large library impact. To read their full success story – please click here.