Solutions · Public libraries and systems
The department every recreation vendor forgets.
Library room booking usually runs on a catalog add-on that finance cannot see and IT did not choose. When the city consolidates, the library is the department left out, because recreation vendors have never built for it. We have a business area for it.
Single-branch libraries, county systems and library districts with their own boards.
What the library gets
- Spaces
- Study rooms, meeting rooms, program rooms, makerspaces, staff space
- Identity
- Library card number and PIN, per branch, separate from staff identity
- Rules
- Per-room and per-branch hours, caps, buffers, no-show policy
- Reporting
- Utilization by room and hour, demand by branch, program space usage
- Patron identity
- Library card number and PIN, per branch
- Approval
- Instant for study rooms, review for meeting rooms
- Limits
- Daily and weekly caps per patron, no-show tracking
- Accessibility
- WCAG 2.1 AA, ADA Title II ready
Why the library is a separate conversation
Its identity model is not the city's.
A patron is not a resident account. Eligibility runs off a library card and a PIN, limits are per patron per branch, and no-shows are a policy matter rather than a revenue one. That is why bolting a library onto a recreation product does not work.
- 01
Patrons book against their card
Study and meeting rooms reserved with a library card number and PIN, so eligibility, branch rules and per-patron limits are enforced without staff involvement.
- 02
Rules per room, per branch
Auto-approve a two-hour study room. Route a meeting room to staff review. Close a program room on story-time mornings. Each branch sets its own hours, caps and buffer times.
- 03
No-shows stop hurting availability
Unclaimed rooms release after a grace period, no-shows are recorded against the patron, and repeat no-shows can lose booking privileges under your policy.
- 04
The director gets real reports
Utilization by room and hour, demand by branch, no-show rates and program space usage, in the same reporting layer the recreation and finance directors use.
And the part the city cares about
One patron record, one ledger, one report.
A resident who books a study room on Monday and a picnic pavilion on Saturday is one household in OptimoGov, not two accounts in two systems. Meeting-room fees post to the same ledger as facility rentals.
- Single sign-on for library staff. Through Microsoft Entra ID, Azure AD, ADFS or SAML 2.0, with permissions that keep branch staff to their branch.
- Patron data stays in your country. Microsoft Azure regions in the United States or Canada, selected at contract and not moved without your written instruction.
- Payments where rooms carry a fee. Card, ACH and e-check in the US, Interac and pre-authorized debit in Canada, reconciled with the rest of the city.
- Accessibility your board can file. A conformance report for the patron-facing portal, on request. Library systems serving 50,000 or more are on the April 26, 2027 date.
- Your own board, if you have one. A library district with its own board can hold its own subscription, or sit inside the city's. Both work.
Questions
Asked on most calls.
If your panel needs an answer that is not here, send the question and we will publish it.
Does this replace our ILS?
No. It books rooms and spaces. Your integrated library system keeps the catalog and the circulation record. Card verification is the integration point, and we will scope it against your ILS on the demo.
Can patrons book without staff involvement?
For study rooms, usually yes, and that is the point. Meeting rooms and program spaces route to staff review where your policy requires it.
What about internal staff room booking?
Staff rooms and back-of-house space book internally with single sign-on, on the same calendar patrons see the public side of. Internal bookings.
See it against your own facilities.
Bring the list of every space you rent out and your adopted fee schedule. Forty-five minutes, no slides.