SETLS runs as on a web server provided by Amazon (Amazon Web Services) hosted at the AWS data centre in Sydney, Australia. Your toy library is allocated a domain name - e.g. toylibraryname.setls.com.au where members and administrators can login and operate the service. Features which benefit administrators and members are described on this page.
SETLS is built using Ruby on Rails. It aims to be a great peice of software, where users operate the least clicks to get where they want to get easily and obtain the most functionality.
We are actively developing and updating SETLS frequently to improve usability and implement features requested by our user community.
Sample Toy Library has been set up for you to play with. Email admin@setls.com.au to get an administrator level password and login. It contains real (but de-identified) toy library data, so you can try all the functions as you would in your own toy library.
SETLS will save you precious time and will provide you with essential tools to successfully manage your toy library. Forget the dull, boring tasks you currently do, SETLS will take care of them for you.
SETLS will provide the basics for toy library administrators such as lists of members, a well catalogued inventory of toys, toy loan availability and reservations.
SETLS has customisable login levels - with more than 20 abilities which can be switched "on" or "off". For example, admins can create a login level where that member can loan and return toys, but can't add new members or new toys. Or, a login level where they can view statistics and add new toys only.
Anyone with internet access can view your toy library's catalogue (as well as other toy libraries who are using SETLS). Members can also renew loans, view a calendar of volunteering sessions and access their member data such as current loans and due dates at the click of a button - remotely.
SETLS is designed to be compatible with mobile internet access and hence can be used by members on any device including smartphones.
Software can be complicated! We try to be as supportive as possible and offer the following:
Good statistics require clean data. In SETLS, the admin user is encouraged to keep clean data by the way data entry occurs. For example, when adding a new member, their suburb must be added from a drop-down list, rather than typed in - this helps reduce the potential for duplication of, for example, "West Brunswick", "Brunswick West" and "Brunswik West" (sic). The suburb drop-down list data comes from a table, which can be easily updated by the admin user. This helps keep your data clean. Drop-down lists from separate tables are also available for age-ranges (reducing duplication of "0-3" and "0 - 3"), toy categories (reducing duplication of "Dress-ups" and "Dressups"), manufacturers, suppliers, and sponsors.
The integration of easy to use and access statistics in SETLS will help inform smart toy library decisions such as increasing your membership base, purchasing popular toys, predict busy periods for scheduling of volunteers.
Melissa and Rebecca both have quantitave backgrounds (physics/maths) and love data. Hence they are very excited about the statistics section of SETLS.
