ALA Connect FAQ

Community Notifications let you set emails from any group to Real Time, Daily Digest, Consolidated Weekly Digest (can include multiple groups' content), or No Email.

How can I control the frequency and format of emails I receive?

• By default, ALA Connect enables real-time notifications for all committees and daily digests from all communities, so you'll receive individual emails whenever there's a new post or reply to a committee you're on and a daily digest from any communities you've joined.

• You can change this in your profile at any time by adjusting your Community Notifications under My Account on your profile.

• ALA Connect does not send out emails when new events are added or when files are uploaded to a community's Library.

• Choose the frequency or opt-out for any of your Connect groups using these steps:

Finding your Community Notifications

• • Sign In to connect.ala.org and navigate to your profile

  • You can use the Avatar at the top right of any page in Connect once you log in

1. 1. 1. 1. Select Community Notifications from the My Account tab.

         2. Find the group(s) for which you want to change the frequency of notifications and select an option from the dropdown menu.

         3. Note that once you toggle the frequency for a community, the setting takes effect immediately.

         4. There is no Save button on this page.

Every group you're a member of can be set to

• 1. Real Time (you'll receive individual emails whenever there's a new post or reply in a group)

  2. Daily Digest

  3. Consolidated Weekly Digest (can include multiple groups' content)

  4. No Email

You can also set override or alternate email addresses to your account here if you want to receive notifications somewhere other than your primary email address.

To view a short video on this: https://connect.ala.org/viewdocument/ala-connect-how-to-video-series?CommunityKey=a94061cd-43ca-4229-85d3-1a926e6ea4ba&tab=librarydocuments

How do I reply to others’ posts and join the eForum?

• • Choose "Discussion" tab from the community home

  • Click the title of the "Thread Subject" you wish to comment on/reply to

  • Click “Reply” to send your message

    • Please enter a signature letting everyone know what institution you are joining from

How do I edit one of my own discussion posts?

• • Click the "down" arrow next to the Reply button in your post

  • Select "Edit" from the dropdown menu

  • Update your post as needed, then click "Save"

How do I start a new discussion thread?

• • Select the "Discussions" tab from the community home page

    • Select "Post New Message" blue button on the right

    • Fill in the "Subject field" with your question

    • Type into the Body field of the discussion

    • Click the "Send" button when finished to submit the post to the community.

      • This will generate an email notification to all of the members of the community.

How do I delete a post?

• • Only admins are able to delete discussion posts

  • Please fill out this form: https://connect.ala.org/faq/contactus

Prefer to use the ALA Connect eForum like the Sympa email discussion list we previously used (vrc-eforum@lists.ala.org)?

Steps to using ALA Connect like a listserv

• Find a message in your mailbox that is from the discussion happening as part of the eForum

• Using the links in this email, you will be able to perform functions in email as you would in ALA Connect.

  • "Email a reply to the discussion" Link

    • Click this button in the message you want to respond to

    • It will automatically post as a reply to the correct discussion thread on the platform

    • Note that this email address can't be saved; it's different for each topic

  • "Post New Message" Link

    • Save the email address in this link as a "Contact" record in your email client for the group you're part of

      • Click and then save to Contacts

      • Save this email address as a Contact

      • Give it a name like Virtual eForum, your choice

        1. Here is the email to save it now

        2. ALA-virtualreferenceemergingtechnologyeforum@ConnectedCommunity.org

    • Any email sent to this address will automatically post a new discussion thread

      • The email subject line will become the discussion subject and the email body becomes the post itself.

    • "Send a private message" link - Click this button in any message to send a private message via email to the member who posted.

See Diagram Below

To view a short video on this, click here: https://youtu.be/Z3lXmDtAMPY

Q. What does it mean when I "Recommend" a discussion?

• Answer: Give kudos, upvote, “like”

Like a discussion thread?

• • Click "Recommend"

What does it mean when I "Follow" a discussion?

How to “Follow” a discussion

• • In groups where you don't have real-time email alerts enabled

  • you will see the word "Follow" and a star icon near the top of content pages like discussion threads or library entries.

  • Clicking this icon enables real-time email alerts so that you'll be notified of future engagement with this content

I don’t have a “Follow” button

• • Do you have your Community Notifications for this group set to “real-time email alerts”?

    • You are automatically “following”

  • You have real-time email alerts already enabled

    • You are automatically following the discussion threads with “Real Time” alerts in “Community Notifications”

Need to see a list of all the content you're following?

• You can view it from your profile.

  • Navigate to My Connections->Following

• For each entry of followed content, you can click its links to

  • view its content page

  • view the content contributor's profile

  • access the content landing page where the content item is located

  • review the date and time you followed the particular content item

Need to unfollow content?

• • Click the star icon again

  • You will stop receiving real-time participation emails about it

How do I leave a community or unsubscribe from a discussion?

Start at your profile to manage communities

• Sign In to connect.ala.org, navigate to your profile. (You can use the avatar next to your name at the top).

  • Under My Account, select Community Notifications.

  • This will give you the full list of links to all of your communities in ALA Connect. (Scroll down on the screen to see the list).

Unsubscribe from Notifications of a Discussion

• • Change your setting for a community to “No Email” if you want to unsubscribe from that community’s email notifications while continuing to belong to it.

If you want to leave the community completely

• • Click the title of the Community you want to remove and you’ll be directed to that community’s home page.

  • Select the Settings button on the community home page to reveal and click the Leave Community button.

To Join the Virtual Reference & Emerging Technology Workspace Community

• Navigate to ALA Connect: https://connect.ala.org/

• Already an ALA member?

  • Log in

• Not an ALA member?

  • ALA membership is not required

  • Create your account

• Search for Virtual Reference & Emerging Technology

• Click the “Join Community” button

Trouble subscribing to the list?

• Contact Melissa Del Castillo (medelcas@fiu.edu) for help

• Troubleshooting ALA Connect: https://connect.ala.org/faq/home