Delight Patrons and Empower Staff

With Niche Academy, The Learning System Made for Public Libraries 

Share eResource training, deliver staff learning on essential topics, and promote a positive community and workplace culture with your own private online academies. 

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Trusted by 1700+ Library Systems

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Facing These Challenges?
Here's How Niche Academy Can Help
 

flash No Time for Training

With an endless to-do list, it’s hard to find time to sit down for long trainings that don’t reflect your reality.

Find practical, digestible library staff training and development programs on the Niche Academy marketplace.

flash Uncomfortable Topics

Topics around race, gender, and sexuality can be difficult, but are essential to delivering great patron experiences.

Deliver digestible training in essential areas through the Niche Academy platform.

flash Short Staffed

You’re understaffed and overwhelmed.

Recruit and retain the best people with training that helps you create a powerfully inclusive workplace culture.

flash Declining Visits and Circulations

You’re tasked with keeping library visits up and circulation up, but struggling to identify how to do so.

Create exceptional customer experiences and drive e-Resource circulation up without struggling to find the time and methods by training your staff to serve patrons in the best way.

Create Impactful Experiences for Librarians and Patrons 

Empower staff, reduce churn, and increase library usage (without creating extra legwork) with your own private online academy. Niche Academy’s customizable and expertly crafted tutorials, learner reports, and online instruction tools will positively impact your library workplace and your community. 

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Flexible & Easy Training for Your Entire Library 

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Self-Paced Online Training 

Create a thriving workplace culture with expertly crafted professional development and leadership training that they can access anytime and anywhere. No scheduling required. 

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Self-Service eResource Tutorials for Patrons 

Help more people discover and learn to use your e-Resources with automatically updated tutorials right on your website. On-demand, interactive tutorials Increase awareness and circulation. 

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Interactive Online Versions of Programs 

Remove participation barriers for patrons who can’t make it to library programs offering online versions of storytime, lectures, classes, and more. 

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High-Impact Training for Public-Facing Staff 

Use Niche Academy’s proven curriculum and platform to train all public-facing staff in essential skills like trauma-informed services, de-escalation techniques, professionalism, and work ethic.  

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Powerful Reports & Integrations 

Automatically and effortlessly track virtual visits, and learner progress. Seamlessly integrate Niche Academy into your existing online presence so you can ensure maximum impact. 

Get Started in 3 Steps!

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Set up a free trial of the Niche Academy platform.

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Pick the training that’s best for you and customize it as you choose.

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Let Niche Academy go to work for you, building staff confidence and improving customer outcomes.

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Our stats are going strong on the patron side. Patrons seem to love it and I’m seeing some increase in usage on the products in our academy. We have finally found a product that will help both staff and patrons learn about what we have to offer them. Niche Academy is the best piece of software we have purchased in years!

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Eileen Kontrovitz, Head of IT, Ouachita Parish Public Library

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Niche Academy was really easy to install. I mean, we've had zero problems technology wise. So, that side has been a relief. We use Niche when we add a new resource.  So, it's like we're a team, Niche Academy and me with the patrons, a team up.

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Bethany Ronnberg, eResource Librarian,  Scottsdale Public Library

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Try Niche Academy
For Yourself 

Start a free 30-day trial to access a full-featured academy, including the tutorial marketplace, custom tutorial creation, and more. You'll be able to invite colleagues to review the academy and play around with our high-impact interface and see how it can work for you. 
No payment necessary
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Create Community Experiences Everyone Will Talk About 

Fill out the form to book your free demo and discover how you can energize your staff and enhance their impact in your community. 
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FAQ

Are we limited to a certain number of training and support hours?

No. A Niche Academy subscription includes unlimited professional support. See the answer above on what’s included in the price.

What if I can’t afford this?

Each library needs to determine for itself the value of increasing circulation numbers and program participation rates relative to other priorities for limited library funds. We do make an effort to keep the cost of Niche Academy very low relative to the value we provide.

Over the last 6 years, we have increased pricing for new customers commensurate with the increasing value of the service we provide.

It is our policy, however, not to raise prices for our existing customers. Libraries are renewed at their original subscription price. Libraries who subscribe at our current pricing will pay less than libraries who start later on. This policy is one factor contributing to a renewal rate of over 95%.

What’s the process for reaching Niche Academy support?

Niche Academy support specialists can be reached by phone, by email, or through questions submitted within the platform itself. In addition to the live support, Niche Academy provides a searchable knowledge base and a collection of self-paced help tutorials covering basic administrative tasks and the process for tutorial creation.

What maintenance and support is included with a Niche Academy subscription?

Niche Academy provides live technical support during business hours. There is no additional charge levied for Niche Academy support and there are no support tiers. Small customers get the same thoughtful attention as everyone else.  

All aspects of initial onboarding are included in the Niche Academy support offering including:

  • The creation of customer academies and initial population of appropriate tutorials from the Niche Academy marketplace.
  • Basic configuration of tutorials within each customer academy including invitation of learners, the addition of custom links, and showing or hiding available tutorial elements appropriately for the intended audience.
  • The creation of website widgets and their integration into a customer’s website. When a customer doesn’t have administrative access to their website, we work directly with the third party who does to ensure efficient communication. In many cases, our customers provide temporary administrative access to Niche Academy support staff in order to maximize the efficiency of widget implementation.
  • Live training calls with all customer staff that need to learn how to use Niche Academy.

Will this work for a library like mine?

We serve libraries of every known shape, size, location, and budget. We serve small libraries with just a few staff as well as the largest systems with many hundreds of employees. We serve libraries that are almost entirely staffed by part timers and volunteers as well as libraries with highly specialized professionals. We serve libraries located on inner city streets as well as on rural routes. We serve libraries with thriving and secure budgets as well as those facing serious cuts.

We have built the platform to add value for libraries that can create unique and extensive in-house training, but also get results as a plug-in solution that can work with near zero administrative overhead.

How long does it take for Niche Academy to update tutorials when resources change?

Depending on the scope of the change, Niche Academy can turn around an update within a few days to a few weeks. Because we actively watch for new and upcoming changes, we’re often able to make the updates before most of our customers are even aware of the change. In some notable cases, we’ve made updates even before the vendor sales staff knew the changes were coming.

If my state library or consortium subscribes to Niche Academy, why does my local library need it?

If your state library’s or your consortium's subscription includes a subscription for each local library, you won’t need a separate subscription. If your state library’s subscription does not include a subscription for each local library, you’ll be able to access training that the state library provides, but you won’t have the ability to do any of following:

  • Add widgets to your own website.
  • Create your own local academies.
  • Assign and track training at the local level.
  • Create your own tutorials.

The most significant gains in program participation and eResource usage come when widgets are available within your local library’s website and patrons are connecting to programs created by local librarians.

Are accessibility features available?

Yes. Niche Academy is compliant with the WCAG 2.1 standard at the AA level. This is something we work hard to maintain as we continuously update the platform. If you spot anything that’s slipped through our testing, please let us know. A thorough enumeration of our compliance level is available in the Niche Academy Accessibility Conformance Report.

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Latest Blogs and Webinars 

From our community to yours! Check out blogs & webinars crafted by librarians and experts in mission-driven organizations.