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Talis Engage FAQs
For the latest information about Talis Engage, access the Talis Engage forum via www.talis.com/forums. Alternatively, call 0870 400 5000 and ask to speak to a member of the Talis Engage team, or send an email to engage@talis.com.
What is Talis Engage
Talis Engage is an online, community information solution that allows you to organise, create and publish details of events, organisations and groups. Talis Engage delivers online collaboration on an unprecedented scale by encouraging communities to manage their own resources.
How will Talis Engage benefit my organisation?
- Unifies disparate databases and information sources into a single location making searches quicker and easier
- Increased visibility of local community information, historical collections and data
- Encourages citizens to participate, freeing up staff time for other valuable activities
- Structured keyword management (including the IPSV taxonomy) ensures terms are standardised across all information sources
How will Talis Engage benefit my customers?
- Provides a single source of information that's accessible to all members of the community
- Empowers citizens to manage their own information, working in partnership with the library and local authority
- Full DDA compliance ensures there are no disability barriers to participation
- Encourages community cohesion, connecting citizens, community groups and organizations together through the library
How does Talis Engage encourage resource discovery?
Search: A simple, Google-like search box delivers powerful retrieval of relevant results, whilst more experienced users can exploit and configure the advanced search tools. Searches can be saved as an RSS feed, which will automatically alert users when new resources are discovered
Browse: Drill down into resources using both structured subject categories (such as the IPSV taxonomy) and unstructured folksonomies.
Discover: Explore 'Hotspots' in the data by browsing cloud views of the most popular subjects and tags. Encourage content owners to tag and associate their records with other records and subjects, thus encouraging serendipitous discovery.
Contribute: Talis Engage provides tools to assist record maintenance, including the ability for public users to submit changes to information (which content owners can then review and action accordingly).
Optimise: Libraries and local authorities can index multiple, diverse collections and databases of content. Administrators can customise the index weighting of data sources to refine the relevance ranking within search results.
What do I need to run Talis Engage?
The Talis Engage application is delivered via the internet and accessed by your Web browser. This 'Software as a Service' model - Centrally hosted by Talis - lowers the cost of ownership (as there are no installation, hardware maintenance or licence costs) and delivers improved connectivity and security. And as a subscription based solution, you will receive continuous product updates with no service disruption.
Is Talis Engage DDA compliant?
Yes. Talis Engage is fully DDA compliant and has been tested amongst disability users.
I have an existing Community Information System. Will I have to re-create my records in Talis Engage?
No. Regardless of the format of your exiting data, Talis can migrate your community information into Talis Engage, so any records already in place do not need to be re-created. This includes data held in MS Access, SQL, or existing Web sites.
I have an existing structured keyword list (taxonomy). Can I use this with Talis Engage?
Yes. You can preload your existing taxonomy, amend and change the Integrated Public Sector Vocabulary (IPSV), or create a new one. Talis Engage provides great flexibility in data structure and subject hierarchy, supporting both taxonomies and folksonomies.
Can I customise Talis Engage?
Yes. Talis Engage has been developed using industry Web standards such as XHTML and CSS, so you can easily modify Talis Engage to reflect your existing web sites without having to learn new skills, and without expensive consultancy. Using Talis Engage APIs, you can reuse your data to enrich other portals and Web sites to deliver a connected, joined-up experience.
Can I see Talis Engage in action?
Yes. There are a range of videos available to view online from the Talis Engage home page.
Do I need the Talis Library Management System to run Talis Engage?
No. Talis Engage is available to all libraries and local authorities, regardless of any LMS in use.
When is Talis Engage available?
Talis Engage is currently in limited release to our beta test customers. Talis Engage is scheduled to reach general availability in early November 2007. Please check the Talis Engage blog for updates.
How much does Talis Engage cost?
For pricing information, please contact sales@talis.com.
How do I find out more about Talis Engage?
For more information about Talis Engage, contact us directly at engage@talis.com. Alternatively, you can download the Talis Engage Product Brief.
