News

The Aspen 23.10 release is now live. This release includes: Custom images for Explore More in search results Aspen administrators can add custom images for their Explore More section of search results. Note that some icons only appear if you have the integration in Aspen, e.g. events or digital archives. Updates to self registration Aspen has a self registration or online registration feature...

The Circulation Advisory election is now open. The Circulation Manager should make the selections, and there should be only one vote per library. Please follow the instructions on the form and vote for 5 people. The election will close on November 3rd at 5:00 PM, so please make all selections by then. Election Form

The October, 2023 (July- September, 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...

We are happy to announce we now have a weekly delivery option for the List ONLINE Users Report. This report is delivered to libraries that use the SWAN Online Patron Registration tool. The daily delivery of the report will remain the default option. Please send an email to the SWAN ticketing system to open a ticket if you would prefer to receive the report on a weekly basis.

We are excited to announce an automated non-SWAN Interlibrary Loan brief record cleanup process. Over time, we have found that brief ILL records remain in our database. Most member staff delete these records manually as ILL items are returned, but some fall through the cracks. This process will clean up those old, unused records. Candidates for deletion must have all of the following item...

All participating eRead Illinois libraries will switch to Boundless on either September 26 or 27th. Once the transition is complete, patrons will be prompted to download the Boundless app and redirects from Axis 360 to Boundless will be in place. Visit the Boundless Resource Center to access marketing materials, the library migration checklist, and FAQs.

The Aspen 23.09 release is now live. This release includes minor bug fixes and enhancements for super administrators (at the SWAN staff level). View the full release notes

Morningstar recently announced a change coming to their platform. This change will affect the URL your patrons currently use to access this product. For libraries that use Library Card authentication, the access URL should be updated September 7. Many of our libraries use OpenAthens to authenticate, these libraries should update the access URL by September 21. If you are a current Morningstar...

As of today, your MessageBee portal will provide access to phone notifications. Previously, only SMS and email notification statistics and failure reports were available to you. Reports on phone notifications were available only through a centralized SWAN account, and you'd need to contact SWAN to follow up on them. We have successfully integrated these reports into your MessageBee portals so...

Earlier this month, we announced the launch of the 2-Way SMS Messaging tool that appeared in your MessageBee portals, allowing library staff to initiate and respond to SMS messages from patrons. After further discussion with Unique Management and our discovery that savvy patrons can opt out of receiving SMS messages by responding to a notification, we have decided that relying on Unique's...

The Aspen 23.08 release is now live. This release includes the ability to create custom search facets and numerous bug fixes, most notably a fix to the issue that was preventing us from moving forward with displaying public item notes. Custom search facets This release comes with the ability to create custom search facets based on MARC data. These custom facets will search only our physical...

Unique has pushed a new feature to your MessageBee portal allowing for 2-way communication with patrons via SMS. If you signed into the portal today, you may have noticed this new icon: The SMS Messaging tool has two primary functions: Monitor and reply to SMS messages sent to your SMS phone number. These include any replies patrons send to a notification. (Patrons who respond to an SMS...

We need your feedback! It has been brought to our attention that the format facet of Phonograph is dated and confusing to patrons. Take this short survey by Monday, August 7th, 2023 to weigh in. We will share the results and make any changes in Aspen based on your feedback. Go to the survey

By popular demand, we have set up a second tier of access to the MessageBee portal for all of our members. The login and password we previously distributed provide access to the full set of MessageBee tools, including reports, template customization, and the image library. The new tier provides access only to the reporting tools and is intended for staff who respond to patron requests but do not...

The July, 2023 (April- June, 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...

The Aspen 23.07 release is now live. This release includes the ability to display public item notes. Public item notes Record detail displays in Aspen can now display an item record's local notes. Aspen will not display circulation or staff notes. This feature is available for use, but we have not activated it yet. There is a bug with our implementation where Aspen will also display custom item...

SirsiDynix will be performing scheduled maintenance on the BLUEcloud Search Service this Wednesday at 10PM. During this time, BLUEcloud Cataloging and Circulation will be down and searching within the SWAN Mobile App will not work. This maintenance window is expected to last approximately one hour. Our Aspen Catalog will not be impacted during this time.

We have received the access URLs for year 4 of the SWAN EBSCO group subscription. If you made changes to your subscriptions, please update the URLs on your library website by July 1st. All libraries can view current EBSCO links on the SWAN patron site, or you can download the EBSCO links spreadsheet (XLSX) and select the tab for your library. The following libraries updated subscriptions this year...

Act, 50 ILCS 70/1 et seq. 50 ILCS 70/1 et seq. requires public library districts and other units of local government to form a committee to study local efficiencies The new law requires library districts to issue a report within the guidelines set by the Act. It is recommended that as part of the report that district libraries list intergovernmental agreements and outline efficiencies and cost...

This is a reminder that we will be going live on the MessageBee notification platform for e-mail on June 27th. SMS notifications went live in late April. Preparations Many of you have already made changes to your e-mail and SMS templates. Others have retained the default configurations. No action is required, but if you do wish to change your outgoing templates, we encourage you to do so by the...