News

Registration for SWAN's annual summer event on August 23rd is now open! Libraries will be invoiced $35 per attendee after the event. Register View Attendees Session preview The full session schedule will include roundtables, workshops, and presentations - we will announce the full schedule soon! Workshops and presentations Aspen for library staff BLUEcloud Analytics Circulation best practices...

SWAN is closed Monday, May 27th for the Memorial Day holiday. On-call staff will monitor system up-time during the weekend. Routine support tickets will be responded to on Tuesday, May 28th.

The 24.05 release of Aspen is live. This release includes the following bug fixes and enhancements. Aspen Discovery Updates to record grouping Video games and other materials should now group better. In addition, graphic novels, manga, and comics will group separately from books. There is a new format group of "Other" to handle video games and miscellaneous other materials such as kits, board...

The SWAN Board election e-ballot is now open. We are going to use the SWAN Support site for this election, which will require you to log onto the site to access the ballot. Ballot Here is the ballot: https://support.swanlibraries.net/form/94619 Candidate names and statements are listed, with the voting selection below the statements. Only library directors/administrators will be able to access the...

The self-nomination period has ended and the slate of candidates for the two seats on the SWAN Board will be the following. Ridgeway Burns, Itasca Community Library Dawn Bussey, Glen Ellyn Public Library Natalie Starosta, North Riverside Public Library District Zach Musil, Tinley Park Public Library The SWAN Board election will run from Monday, May 6, 2024 through May 24, 2024. Individual emails...

SWAN plans to make an update to the hold map configuration that will allow your library's items to fulfill holds for your patrons that place holds at a different station library (or library catalog). This update will occur July 24. Specifically, we will update hold permissions from OWN_LIB to ALL LIBS. This means that where your patron places the hold will not affect how it is filled. Limits by...

The 24.04 release of Aspen is live. This release includes the following bug fixes and enhancements. Aspen Discovery Format assignments for blu-rays and DVDs Blu-rays and DVDs that were split from combo packs were being assigned a format of combo pack. These should now be properly assigned formats of DVD, blu-ray, or 4K blu-ray. Springshare LibCal integration Events from LibCal were missing the...

SWAN staff will be having our annual in-service event on Friday, April 12th. Membership support and inquiries will be delayed until Monday, April 15th. Don't worry though, we will be monitoring for emergencies! When to call 844-792-6542 (844-SWAN-LIB) A service is down Circulation is impacted Unable to perform key job functions

The SWAN Board is calling for representation from all member library directors/administrators for two at-large positions, with terms beginning on July 1, 2024. The online form to submit the self-nomination statement is open on the SWAN Support site (login required): Submit your self-nomination Information about the SWAN Board election and the timetable are available from the SWAN Support site...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...