Getting Started with Aeon FAQ
What is Aeon?
Aeon is an automated request and workflow management software specifically designed for special collections libraries and archives.
Aeon improves patron service and maximizes efficiency while providing unparalleled item tracking, security, and statistics. Simply put, Aeon helps you track, manage, and fulfill requests of your valuable resources.
Who is using Aeon?
Institutions large and small with collections large and small comprise the Aeon community. The common denominator for Aeon users is the desire to improve service, ensure security, and gather meaningful statistics to demonstrate how their resources are being used.
Click here for a list of Aeon users.
Will our IT department have to do a lot of work to implement Aeon?
Aeon is a hosted solution. Our experienced implementation team will customize all your Aeon settings to meet your specific workflow needs, set up your researcher web interface, and handle all other system setup.
The only requirements for local IT support are to create links in local systems such as your ILS, archival management system, digital asset system, etc. Atlas has worked with most of the ILS and archives management systems and can provide your IT folks with examples from other Aeon sites to help smooth the way for them.
After implementation the only local IT help you will need on an ongoing basis is to support your local components, computers, and printers.
Users are discovering our special collections online. We might have restrictions on who can visit and for how long. How will Aeon help us serve users who plan to visit in person?
Aeon closes the typical gap between “discovery” and “delivery” by enabling users to place reading room paging requests automatically from library catalogs, archival finding aids, and other online collection management systems. That way they can use their onsite time most efficiently.
How will Aeon help us serve users who aren’t able to visit onsite?
Through their personalized web-based Aeon accounts, users can submit reproduction orders, receive invoices, and connect to a secure payment gateway. Staff can also deliver electronic files directly to users’ accounts to fulfill their orders.
Increased visibility of our collections has created greater usage and raised concerns about security. How can we accommodate a higher volume of requests while safeguarding our materials?
Maintaining consistent and complete user records and accurate request tracking histories is a key factor in maintaining collection security. Aeon enables libraries and archives to fulfill this important need in a far more detailed and efficient manner than any paper-based system or other means of circulation tracking, including attempts to use an ILS to perform some of the circulation functions that Aeon performs.
How can Aeon help us provide difficult-to-collect statistical analyses and assessments of library services and workflows?
Aeon replaces the hours staff spend tabulating statistics with robust reporting features. Aeon furthermore permits libraries to collect and analyze statistical data that would otherwise be impractical in a paper-based environment.