ATTENTION EVERYONE! We’ve finally done it. It’s been a long time under development… but preview access for Version 2 of Gimlet begins today!

We’ll be adding small groups of current clients to the preview until everone is on board. We’re aiming to have the preview available to all our clients before the start of the new year. If your organization wants to be part of an early group, please let us know. Just reach out to support@gimlet.us or our @gimletapp on Twitter.

Preview Access

Gimlet v2 has the best of old Gimlet and new: The classic data entry simplicity you enjoy and rely upon, and the robust search and reports you’ve always dreamed about. We’re calling this “preview access”, because you’ll be able to switch between old Gimlet v1 and new Gimlet v2 seamlessly.

It’s a considerable leap into the future for Gimlet, so we want everyone to have a long preview of the new features and reporting capabilities. Everyone will have preview access to Gimlet v2 for at least a full month. This should provide you all a good chance to see the future, but not be rushed to depend on the new interface just yet.

We’re rolling out access slowly and systematically to help ensure our new software can handle all of our clients. It’s also likely that we’ll find an issue or two worth fixing as people begin using the new version. Software is never really done. Early preview cohort members will be a big help by providing feedback that makes Gimlet better for all of us.

For clients previewing Gimlet v2 – a feature we’ll enable on your account, and notify you about – you’ll see a message in a ribbon along the bottom of your Gimlet interface. That ribbon is your key to viewing Gimlet v2: Just click the “Try Gimlet v2” link. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be using Gimlet v2. Once you’re in the preview, you can switch back any time you want.

New Search and Reporting Tools

Once you’ve accessed the preview, you’ll be able to do anything you need there. It’s fully featured: You can enter data, run reports, add new people, manage your question form, and anything else you can do in Gimlet v1.

You’ll want to spend a good deal of time exploring our new faceted search engine and reporting tools. Gimlet’s new search engine powers not only our great new search interface, but our reports as well. In Version 2 of Gimlet, our reports allow you to search the full text of results and focus in on particular statistics categories or times of day. This helps you see the great depth of trends and patterns for any search query you can imagine. It’s amazingly powerful, and we think you’ll love it.

New Pricing

We’re finalizing a new pricing structure for Gimlet v2. Since launching nearly ten years ago, we’ve acquired clientele of so many different shapes and sizes — from the largest of public and academic library systems, to the smallest of part-time, single-staffed service desks in rural outposts. It’s been evident for quite some time that not everyone needs all the bells and whistles we might offer, while larger clients and bigger datasets need advanced search capabilities and fine-toothed reporting mechanisms to see their data much more clearly.

To address this range of needs, we’ll be moving to a tiered pricing structure. Something that will let clients choose the amount of Gimlet and features they need. In the coming weeks, we’ll post more information about pricing.

One thing we can say now: We’ve always worked to provide an exceptional value to libraries, and that’ll stay true with Gimlet v2.

Questions? Feedback!

We hope you are all as excited as we are. If you have questions, please let us know. If you have feedback, we love that too.

Cheers!

• Eric & Nate