News

We realize some of the SWAN libraries are dealing with staff shortages due to the pandemic and may need to close temporarily. We can assist you with updating your banner to indicate your closing, extending due dates, and indicating your status on the Library Services Status page. Please submit a Library Status Update Form if: Your library is temporarily closing You want your due dates extended due to closing You want your Aspen or Enterprise banner updated to indicate your closing Your library is reopening

We have received the address change data from Unique and will be updating patron records in January, 2022. The number of patron records sent for processing was 970,826. Of those, 107,427 were returned with address changes for a change rate of 11%. In addition to the new addresses for our patrons, we received geographic/census information on all records sent for processing. This data will be incorporated into all patron records through creation and updating of extended information fields. County Longitude Latitude Census Tract Census Block During processing of these records the following...

Aspen and OverDrive changed the checkout process in My Account. Patrons are now redirected to an OverDrive fulfillment screen to select a downloadable format or to read online. Please submit a ticket if you have questions or find issues with the new process to help@swanlibraries.net.

ProQuest has not extended the remote access for Ancestry Library Edition. The access URL on your website should be reverted back to http://ancestrylibrary.proquest.com

We have identified approximately 6,000 checked out items with due dates of 1/1/2022; we've updated these to 1/3/2022. This issue occurred because many libraries had not updated their Days Closed Calendars with 2022 closed dates. Documentation for updating your Days Closed calendar is available on the SWAN Support Site. Please be sure to check these dates periodically to ensure all of your library's holidays are properly reflected. If you would prefer SWAN to update your calendar, just send a list of the dates you will be closed to help@swanlibraries.net.

The 21.15 release of Aspen will go live in production overnight on December 7th. This release includes several priority requests from SWAN as well as changes to browse categories. To-Dos If you have customized your browse categories and use sub-categories, you may need to update your parent categories. If you use the default SWAN created categories, you do not need to do anything. Browse category changes There are several changes to browse categories with this release you should be aware of. Parent browse categories changes Browse categories with subcategories will no longer default to the...

Do you have archives that you would like to digitize? Do any historical societies in your area have archives to digitize? Are you interested in starting any community driven archives programs? Do you already have digital archives that you would like to make more widely available through Aspen, the Illinois Digital Heritage Hub, and the Digital Public Library of America? If you answered yes to any of these questions, please complete our Digital Archives Landscape Survey by February 1st. SWAN will use the information we gather to pursue digitization grants and help you make your archives and...

Your Aspen Administration logins are now available! Directors Directors should make sure you can access these through the accounts and logins for your library. SWAN will cover the different logins and what they do in the Aspen Cohort 2 Kickoff meeting on January 10th. Be sure at least one person from your library is registered for that meeting. If you want to distribute the administration logins before the kickoff, take a look at our documentation on Aspen Administration & Permissions for guidance on how to assign the four different administration roles. Library Staff All staff can start using...

We are ready to submit patron records for National Change of Address (NCOA) processing in December 2021. Any remaining records from NCOA 2018 that have not been updated (NCOA 2018 note removed) will be excluded from the NCOA 2021 processing. Throughout SWAN, we have approximately 2,500 patron records remaining. Review the following report which is paged by library to see a list of these patrons. Select your library to review patron records remaining with NCOA 2018 notes that require manual review. SWAN Reports > Users > List User Reports > ATTENTION: List Uesrs with NCOA Note 2018, paged by...

SirsiDynix and Overdrive have made changes to the checkout process in Enterprise and BLUEcloud Mobile for Overdrive downloads. Patrons are now redirected to an Overdrive screen to complete the checkout. Aspen is not affected. We're aware of issues with the checkout process that include: "Open Content" popups do not consistently work. Clicking "Download" too many times from My Account will result in an error. If you see any other issues, please submit a ticket to help@swanlibraries.net.

If your library participated in Cohort 1 of the Aspen rollout, we'd like to hear how it went for you. Fill out the survey by December 7th. Your feedback will help SWAN staff prepare and improve the rollout for Cohort 2. Thank you in advance for your insights, they will help make the process even smoother for your colleagues. Fill out the survey

SirsiDynix will be performing planned maintenance of the Enterprise catalog server on Wednesday, November 10th 2021 at 11:15 p.m., which will require downtime throughout the process. The maintenance is expected to take no longer than an hour, so the impact will be minimal. Unless complications arise, no further communication will be issued for this outage.

Last Cataloging Corner of 2021! Here are just a few reminders on local practices, and what’s coming, so we start the new year with a clean catalog: Consumer Reports Buying Guide & Crain’s Book of Lists These two titles get their own monographic records every year; they do not get attached to the serials records. We noticed that some libraries had attached the Buying Guide to the Consumer Reports serial record, so those call numbers and items have been moved to the monographic record: a3036266. Among the reasons the Buying Guide and the Book of Lists get their own records is that patrons come...

As a part of SWAN's ongoing security initiative, we're pushing new, more secure passwords for the library-generic BLUEcloud Analytics accounts. Beginning next Wednesday, November 10th, you'll need to login to your library-generic BLUEcloud Analytics account using the new password provided by SWAN. Your current default password for BLUEcloud will no longer function. These new passwords are available now on the WorkFlows, SIP2, and Aspen Logins page assigned to your library, however they can only be accessed and distributed by your library director and designated library staff. If you are unable...

We are happy to announce that for 2022, the Acquisitions Users group and Cataloging Users group will become one group that meets 4 times a year: Feb 10th, May 12th, Sep 8th, and Dec 8th. This decision was based on different factors, such as topics that crossover both modules, fewer meetings for you to attend, and an opportunity to learn more about one area or the other. With this being said, we are looking for two people to co-chair this new group. SWAN staff will be there to support you along the way and to provide help with anything you need. We will continue to host and record the meetings...

SirsiDynix will be performing planned maintenance of the eResource Central server on Tuesday, October 26th at 11:00 p.m., which will require downtime of eRC services throughout the process. The maintenance is expected to take no longer than an hour. During that time, the resources listed below will be unavailable via Enterprise and the SWAN BLUEcloud Mobile app. This issue does not affect the Aspen catalog. Additionally, Enterprise and the mobile app will remain UP and operational for all other services. Affected eRC services via Enterprise: Hoopla OverDrive Axis 360 Cloud Library Unless...

The October 2021 (July-September) Quarterly Billing is complete, and the invoices and checks will be mailed shortly. Documentation is available to help guide member library staff through the Billing Summary sheet as well as the detail statement reports folder accessible in BlueCloud Analytics Shared Reports. Library Directors have been provided with BCA login credentials. If you are a Director and do not have access to the BCA reports, please open a ticket at help@swanlibraries.net Please wait until you receive your statement before making payments or requesting a credit.

Kanopy billed libraries incorrectly for the first month of the SWAN discount. The 5% discount wasn't applied for September. Kanopy states: "They are working through a technical issue and libraries will be notified directly from our customer support team by the end of the month, hopefully in the next week or two, about either credits or revised invoices." If you have questions about your bill please contact Paula Roman at Kanopy, paula.roman@kanopy.com

The Aspen Discovery 21.13 release goes live on Tuesday, October 12th. This is a smaller release that includes bug fixes and improvements to indexing speeds. Notable enhancements include: Improvements to how copies and holds counts are displayed for Overdrive titles Ability to add alt text for placard images Updates for handling unknown and missing languages and audiences while indexing grouped works View the full 21.13 release notes.

Unfortunately, fines payment will not be available in the Aspen catalog for the Cohort 1 libraries' go-live dates. Though the ProPay integration development for Aspen is complete, unexpected delays from ProPay are preventing implementation. SWAN is working hard to investigate every option to make fines payment available as soon as possible, including alternate online e-commerce solutions. At this point, SWAN recommends that the Cohort 1 libraries continue as planned with the scheduled go-live dates, but with a few modifications to rollout plans. SWAN will add a link to the fines pages in Aspen...