News

The Aspen 24.03 release is live. This release includes indexing speed improvements and the ability to show events browse categories in the LiDA app. If you use LibCal, Library Calendar, or Communico, find what you need to integrate events into Aspen. If you have events integration already, learn how to create an events browse category. View full release notes

This is a reminder that we have scheduled two demo sessions for the MessageBee List Notifications tool at the end of this week. This optional add-on to our existing MessageBee subscription allows you to create e-mail communications to your patrons when they sign up for specific interest lists or based on user profile data such as age group, profile creation date, etc. The sessions will be brief and will give an overview of the tool’s features, show you the interface, and leave time for questions. This is an opt-in service and will incur a cost for interested libraries. The events are on L2 and...

The SWAN budget for the next fiscal year 2025 (July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025) was approved by membership vote today at the Quarterly meeting. These documents are now posted on the SWAN Support site under About > Budget & Fees.

SWAN has made changes to the Circulation Map in Symphony to block non-public library cards from checking out via self-checkout machines at public libraries. While patron library cards from SWAN Academic and Special libraries have always been blocked from checkout in Symphony WorkFlows, we have been unable to block them from checking out at self-check machines. This is because the connection between Symphony and the self-check software cannot see the setting that creates the block in WorkFlows. The software does, however, consult the Circulation Map in Symphony to assign the correct circulation...

We are excited to announce two new features on our support site that provide convenient ways to get in touch with us: the Book a Consultation tool and Submit a Ticket form. Book a Consultation While we are always available through our ticketing system, we know it can sometimes be easier to discuss a topic face-to-face. You can now use our Book a Consultation tool to schedule a time to talk to SWAN staff on any topic you wish. To access the form, navigate to Meetings & Trainings > Book a Consultation, or bookmark this link: Book a Consultation You will see a list of topic areas. Select the one...

The Aspen 24.02 release is live. This release includes performance improvements, new features for the library hours and location screens in Aspen Discovery and Aspen LiDA, and events integration in Aspen LiDA. Aspen Discovery Performance improvements for indexing When overnight indexes processes (that typically run Saturday nights) run long, libraries may notice that item availability does not update, sometimes taking several hours. This release has reduced the time needed for overnight indexing processes by half, so libraries should no longer see a delay in the daily imports that update item...

We have had some libraries reaching out to us regarding the need to switch to Records Manager mentioned in the recent RAILS newsletter. Our SWAN membership is not impacted by this switch. This switch pertains to libraries that are cataloging libraries who use Connexion Browser to do their cataloging. Our Cataloging Libraries use the desktop version of Connexion Client and this product is not impacted by the end of the Connexion Browser on April 30th. If you have further questions, please submit a ticket to our help desk.

Google and Yahoo implemented changes on how they identify emails as SPAM as of February 1. SWAN has made the necessary changes to ensure email sent through our bulk mail service (such as from MailChimp or MessageBee) will not be incorrectly flagged as SPAM. These updates do not require library involvement, however, libraries may wish to verify with their IT staff/contractors that your systems are compliant.

SWAN staff will be having our January in-service event on Friday, January 26th. Membership support and inquiries will be delayed until Monday, January 29th. Don't worry though, we will be monitoring for emergencies!

Each year we host a meeting presentation of next year’s SWAN budget and membership fees, and this year’s meeting will take place via Zoom on Tuesday, February 6th at 10 a.m. Below is information about the meeting. Meeting packet with budget & membership fees EBSCO year-5 renewal information is included in the above packet. Registration for the Zoom meeting is required in advance. If your library has made changes to its bond payment or debt service schedule in the past year, please know that the bond payment amount can impact your annual SWAN membership fee. We have a bond payment submission...

The January, 2024 (October- December, 2023) 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 workbook 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 the SWAN ticketing system. Feel free to email the SWAN ticketing system if you have any questions about your billing...

The Aspen 24.01 release is live, and it includes several updates for the Aspen LiDA app, including a link for fines payments, improvements to prompts, and the ability to display links to your library website. Aspen LiDA updates Link to fines payment The app now includes a link to fines payment page in Aspen Discovery. The user will stay logged into their account when linked from the app. Notifications prompts improvements The notifications prompt should no longer re-prompt after a user has interacted with it (either turned notifications on or closed the prompt if they don't want notifications)...

A majority of SWAN libraries closed due to inclement weather today, some through tomorrow as well. As a courtesy, we have extended holds that would have expired today through this weekend. Holds with "Pickup by" dates of January 12th-15th will now expire Tuesday, January 16th to avoid patrons receiving Hold Cancelation Notices for items they were not able to retrieve due to closure or weather.

As of yesterday, January 2nd, NCOA processing on patron records is complete. All updated addresses and geolocation data have been uploaded. Updating patron address information will once again trigger an update to the patron's Last Activity Date, a function that we disabled during this update. Please view our documentation for recommended steps to take for patron cleanup: National Change of Address (NCOA). One notable change is that we are no longer creating separate reports for each year of NCOA processing. The reports linked in the documentation page will display results for all patrons with...

SWAN will begin removing Fiscal Cycle 2021 from Symphony on January 15, 2024. Be sure to compile any order, vendor, or fund information you may need with this fiscal cycle before then. Please open a ticket if you need any assistance.

We have received the address change data from Unique and will be updating patron records starting today. The number of patron records sent for processing was 964,328. Of those, 32,581 were returned with address changes for a change rate of 3.3%. In preparation, today we have temporarily disabled the Symphony function to update Last Activity Date when a patron's address information is changed. Once processing begins over the next couple of days, manual address changes may be overridden by this update. During the processing of these records, the following updates will occur: Address changes will...

The Aspen 23.12 release is live, and this is our first release since going live on Aspen LiDA. From now on, our release updates will also include a section on updates for the app. Highlights for this release include: Relevancy updates This release includes some changes aimed at improving results for exact title searches. Some of the changes to relevancy include: Deprioritizing series matches and increasing relevancy when the first word matches the start of the search term. Capping the amount of the popularity boost for number of checkouts, holdings, and formats so that titles that have a very...

We have sent out a survey directly to all of our current library directors/administrators with the following introduction and link to the survey. This survey requires a login to complete and only one submission per library is requested. The survey is now closed.

The SWAN-branded instance of Aspen LiDA, the SWAN Libraries + app, is live and available to download in the iOS and Android/Google Play stores. Note: We're not yet seeing the app appear when searching the Google Play store, but you can access it through the direct link. SWAN recommends a public announcement date of December 26th for patrons. Prior to this, library staff can get acquainted with the app. Staff webinar dates SWAN is offering two dates for a demo and Q&A for the new app. The first session will be recorded and posted on the SWAN support site. Tuesday, December 19th at 10:00AM...

We presented at the Quarterly meeting for library directors and administrators our recommendation to move forward with Aspen Library Discovery App (LiDA). The SWAN Board met afterward and approved that recommendation with ByWater Solutions, the company supporting the LiDA app. We have a recording of the presentation about Aspen LiDA available. This recording is the SWAN Quarterly presentation that includes other updates: SWAN Quarterly Meeting (YouTube) Here is a basic timeline for the Aspen LiDA roll-out. December 7th Apple & Google App store submission App appears in app stores as soon as...