Frequently Asked Questions*

LIXON Library is web-based, so it will work on any operating system that has access to the internet and a modern web browser.

Please see the getting started guide.

No, you don't need to do this unless you want to. You can let the system build a database of your books as you use it for borrowing. To do this just borrow as normal, LIXON Library connects with available book databases on the internet overnight and will automatically input that information into your library database.

The system searches for book information for you overnight by using available online sources such as Google Books and OpenLibrary.

This happens occasionally. In that case, the book can be looked up on the internet and the information can be input manually. When a book cannot be found it will appear in an unidentified list (top menu > Library > List Unidentified Books) for administrator users.

There have been some cases of the ISBN number barcode on the back of the book actually being the stock number, with the true ISBN displayed on the inside cover. (This is sometimes the case with authentic materials.)

Books originally sold as part of a set may not have an ISBN number barcode on the cover. In that case, it is possible to look up the ISBN number, generate a barcode, assign the ISBN to that barcode, and print it out to stick on the back of the book.

The system can track your students, books, what books a student has checked out and which books need to be returned. It can also provide a report of what books are checked out most frequently - this may help schools with curriculum and purchasing decisions. In addition to this, the system can track classes and attendances.

Generally for borrowing and returning by students, use the pages under the Landing menu item in the top menu. The landing pages for borrow and return will open in a new tab. From there you can switch between borrow and return using the Actions menu in the top right corner.

Most barcode scanners are setup to send a carriage return (i.e. return/enter key) after scanning a code by default. You can test your scanner on any of the landing pages (borrow or return) - scan a barcode and if the cursor moves to the next field or submits the form - your scanner is ready to go. If not, please consult your scanner's documentation for how to set it to send a carriage return (return/enter key) after scanning.

You will occasionally come across a book with no barcode or the barcode has been covered with a sticker because it was a sample. On these occasions we have entered the ISBN by hand - the system allows you to enter the code either way - by hand or scanner. The ISBN is usually typed somewhere on the first few pages. When the book is returned it is suggested to keep them out of circulation and generate barcodes for the relevant ISBN and stick them on.

You can generate bar codes using http://barcode.tec-it.com/en.

Occasionally older books like Magic Tree House have the ISBN barcode inside the front cover instead of on the back.

It is recommended to have an administrator account and a regular account setup for your school. When you register for LIXON Library your administrator account is created automatically. Please create a regular account also (top menu > Your Organisation's Name > Add New Users).

The administrator has higher level access, for example add, edit and delete students. The regular account has read-only access with the exception of borrowing and returning books. The regular account is recommended for everyday use by your students in the classroom (especially if unsupervised).

Code-128 is a common barcode standard that has a wide range of support. It is the recommended format to generate, but please first consult your barcode scanner's documentation. There are some barcode scanners that do not support Code-128.

To connect to the API (Application Programming Interface), generate API credentials for your school (top menu > Your Organisation's Name > Manage API Details). Please keep the key and secret private - it should be treated as a password that can access your data.

Next in the code of your system, access the following URL with a GET request and substitute in your own key and secret. This will return to you a JSON response with all the currently borrowed books for your school. You can limit the amount of data returned by adding student codes to the API URL. Please see the following example. Student codes should be separated by a comma. By default the dates in the response are GMT, but you can optionally specify a timezone. Please see the following example. The timezone should be specified as it appears in the TZ column in this list of valid timezones. An example of a successful API response is detailed below. An example of an API error response is detailed below.

Sometimes the forwarding on the main LIXON Education domain is slow or momentarily down. Please wait a few moments and try again. If the problem is continuing, please contact support.

Most DVDs do not have an ISBN number but you could assign your own number and affix it to the DVD case. You would need to enter the information about the DVD manually. If required, the same solution could be used for magazines. When creating your own ISBNs for these items, please follow the guidelines here.

Yes you can. When creating your own ISBNs for any items you want to make borrowable, please start them with an 'X' so that the system can handle them appropriately. As an example, a custom ISBN for a DVD could be X123456789 (with a length of 10) or X123456789123 (with a length of 13).

Please see the terms and conditions of use for more details.

Please see the privacy policy for more details.

A parent can subscribe to students for LINE messaging and this will allow them to ask questions about what books a student currently has borrowed and their latest class attendance. Also, if you have integrated the LINE messaging bot with your organisation's official LINE account, the parent or guardian can receieve notifications when the student has been marked present in class.

To subscribe to a student, follow the steps on the subscribers page (top menu > Students > List Students > Actions > Subscribers). On this page, the subscription steps and information on how to use the messaging bot can be emailed to a parent or guardian in either English or Japanese.

A parent can ask the LINE messaging bot a number of things described below.

A parent can ask the bot to subscribe them to a student. However, the parent must know a key and secret to be able to subscribe. Each student has a unqiue, randomly generated, secret that only an organisation's administrator has access to, therefore adminstrators should only send this to a bona-fide parent or guardian of a student. The unique information for a student can be found on their subscribers page (top menu > Students > List Students > Actions > Subscribers). On this page, the instructions on how to use the bot and subscribe to a particular student can be emailed to a parent or guardian in either English or Japanese. A parent can ask the bot to set their preferred language to English or Japanese. Once set, the bot will always respond in the preferred language where possible. By default, the preferred language will be initially set based on the language of the first command a user sends to the bot. A parent can ask the bot to tell them all the currently borrowed books for students that they are subscribed to. A parent can ask the bot to tell them the latest (up to 5) returned books for students that they are subscribed to. A parent can ask the bot to tell them the last attendance records for each student they are subscribed to. A parent can unsubscribe to remove all subscriptions. A parent can see who they are subscribed to. Anyone that is a friend of the bot can send a greeting, like 'hello' or 'good morning' and the bot will respond. To see a list of supported commands.

Yes, you can integrate a channel in your own organisation's LINE account to the LINE messaging bot. This will allow your users to communicate through your own channel with the LINE messaging bot and allows the sending of notification messages when a student is marked present in class. Please see the information and setup instructions on LINE Bot Integration (top menu > Your Organisation's Name > Manage LINE Bot Integration). Please contact support if you require assistance setting up this integration or you have any questions.

Please note that a LINE channel in the free monthly plan can reply an unlimited number of times and also allows 500 free push messages a month. For most small to medium-sized schools, this should be enough to send attendance notifications every month. For larger schools, the LINE 'Light' monthly plan will be more than adequate in most cases. Please see LINE Official Account Subscription Plans for more details.

When this integration is enabled, the subscription steps and information you can send to parents / guardians from the top menu > Students > List Students > Actions > Subscribers page will be based on your organisation's channel and include its QR code instead of the standard LIXON Library channel. If you have parents / guardians that have already added the standard LIXON Library channel as a friend in LINE, it is best that they unsubscribe using the LIXON Library channel, then add your organisation's channel as a friend and subscribe again to their child using that channel. They should communicate with the LINE messaging bot only using your organisation's channel from that point on. To unsubscribe and subscribe, please see the LINE messaging bot commands.

To send attendance notifications you will need to have integrated a channel in your own organisation's LINE official account to the LINE messaging bot. Please see here for details on how to do that. Also, the parent needs to have subscribed to the student to receieve notifications. To subscribe to a student, follow the steps on the subscribers page (top menu > Students > List Students > Actions > Subscribers).

Once these prerequisites are done, when marking the attendance for a class press the 'Notify' button after you have saved the attendance. This will send notifications to any subscribers of the students marked present. If later you change the attendance, if for example a student arrives late, you can save the attendance and press the 'Notify' button again. Notifications will only be sent to any student's subscribers that have been newly marked present. You can press the 'Notify' button multiple times safely as it will only ever send a notification to a parent once per class attendance.

To avoid confusion when borrowing and returning the book, it is a good idea to cross out or cover the barcode that is not the ISBN. This is especially important when the other barcode on the book is a code with a length of 10 or 13 characters, as the system may interpret this as an ISBN.

To cancel your PayPal subscription, go to the menu item that has your school's name in the top navigation menu and then choose Manage PayPal Billing. If you are currently subscribed via PayPal there will be a 'Cancel Billing Agreement' button. Clicking this button will guide you through the short process.

Yes, you can resubscribe to use LIXON Library again after previosuly cancelling your subscription for a time. To do this log in to LIXON Library with your username and password, then go to the menu item that has your school's name in the top navigation menu and then choose Manage PayPal Billing. There will be a 'Resubscribe' button there and clicking that will guide you through the process. After resubscribing you will be able to use LIXON Library as you did before and your existing data will all be available. If the break has been too long (such as several years), your account's username and password may no longer work. Please contact support to have your account and data re-enabled.

Multi-factor authentication gives users the option of securing their account even further using an authenticator app like Google Authenticator, Authy or Microsoft Authenticator. It is a combination of something you know (username and password) and something you have (your phone with an authenticator app). Once enabled, during login you will be asked for your username and password as normal - in addition to this you will also be asked for a code from an authenticator app on your device.

To setup multi-factor authentication, log in to LIXON Library as normal with your username and password and then click on the Multi-factor Authentication item in the menu (top menu > Application > Multi-factor authentication). Click on Configure MFA to start the process, you will be taken through the following steps.

1. If you don't already have one, download an authenticator app of your choice;
   • Google Authenticator for Android or iOS.
   • Authy for Android or iOS.
   • Microsoft Authenticator for Android or iOS.
2. You will be shown a QR code, please scan the QR Code into your authenticator app.
3. Once you have scanned the QR code, your authenticator app will provide you with a unique code. Please enter the code in the verification field as directed.

Log in to LIXON Library as normal with your username and password. You will then be asked to enter a verification code. To do this, open the authenticator app on your device and enter the code for LIXON Library into the verification code field. If you have trouble logging in with MFA, please contact support for assistance.

If you are still currently logged in or have access to your old device and can log in to LIXON Library you can re-configure MFA with a new device (top menu > Application > Multi-factor authentication).

If you are not logged in, you can

• contact support for assistance.
• Log in as an administrator user for your organisation and set MFA to disabled (top menu > Your Organisation's Name > List Users) for the user in question. This will allow you to login as the user in question with just a username and password, from there you can re-configure MFA for your new device (top menu > Application > Multi-factor authentication).

If you are still currently logged in to LIXON Library you can disable MFA or re-configure MFA with a new device (top menu > Application > Multi-factor authentication).

If you are not logged in, you can

• contact support for assistance.
• Log in as an administrator user for your organisation and set MFA to disabled (top menu > Your Organisation's Name > List Users) for the user in question. This will allow you to login as the user in question with just a username and password, from there you can re-configure MFA for your new device (top menu > Application > Multi-factor authentication).

If you have an account for LIXON Library that is used by multiple people, you can still use multi-factor authentication to secure that account further. The best way to do this is to setup an authenticator app on each person's device for that account. This can be accomplished by one of the following ways.

• If everyone that uses the account is present and has a device, go through the MFA setup process (top menu > Application > Multi-factor authentication) and allow everyone to scan the QR code.
• If not everyone that uses the account is present or not everyone has their device, go through the MFA setup process (top menu > Application > Multi-factor authentication) and take a photo or a screenshot of the QR code. The others can use the QR code to setup their authenticator apps at a later date. Please keep in mind, the QR code should be treated as a password and not shown to anyone that should not have access to the account. Please destroy any printouts and delete any images of the QR code after you have finished.

Yes, you can go to Library in the top menu and then go to Return Books, by default it will show you in order of oldest borrowed book that hasn't been returned. You can change the number of books showing and also go through pages. You can also sort by clicking on the headers of columns or you can search. An example here, you can search by a student code to see all books a particular student hasn't returned, or you could search by ISBN to see all copies of a book that haven't been returned yet.

Yes there is, you can go to Students in the top menu, then to List Students. Find the student required, you can use the search with a name or code. Once you have found the student in the list, click on the Actions button in their row and choose List Student's Borrows.

Yes, you can do this for currently borrowed books or all currently borrowed and historically borrowed books. Please see below.

Currently Borrowed
Go to Library in the top menu and then choose Return Books. Use the search to find the currently borrowed book(s) by entering the ISBN 13 or 10.

Currently Borrowed and Historically Borrowed
Go to Library in the top menu and then choose List Borrowed Books. Use the search by entering the ISBN 13 or 10.

Yes, you can make changes to your classes using the upload functionality. You can either make changes to the original file you uploaded your classes with or download your classes from LIXON Library and make changes to that file. To download your classes go to Classes in the top navigation menu and choose Download Classes as CSV. Once you have made the changes, you can upload the modified file into LIXON Library and where the class codes match an existing class, the new details in the file will update that existing class. If the class code does not match an existing class, it will be created as a new class. You can do this at any time, not just across school years. Any historical attendance data will not be affected when you upload a file with changes for existing classes.