News

Niche Academy is used by 21 of our SWAN libraries, providing both patron and staff training. This webinar presented by the folks at Niche Academy will provide an opportunity to see the platform and give SWAN libraries a chance to share their experience with Niche Academy. from Niche Academy: There are currently over 1,400 organizations using Niche Academy. Work is ongoing on additional course content, new training series, and continuous review of existing content. Due to our desire to continue improving the user experience (as well as the highest inflation rates we’ve seen in years!), Niche...

The election concluded May 29th with the following election Results: 3-year term 2022-2025 Jesse Blazek, Palos Heights Public Library Colleen Waltman, Homewood Public Library Anna Wassenaar, Blue Island Public Library Special thanks to Dorothy Koll, Acorn Public Library District & Lisa Knasiak, Chicago Heights Public Library. Next board meeting: June 17th 9:30am at Bloomingdale Public Library

We have received a request from SWAN member library staff to help facilitate a shared passport/connection program in September. The purpose would be to highlight the resource sharing of our SWAN consortium, encourage visiting local libraries, promote library card sign-up month, and feature your library’s connection to community. The theme for National Library Week 2022 (April) was "Connect with your Library." And the ALA theme for library card signup month in September is "Libraries Empower." The brainstorming group felt coordination with this theme fits nicely. Our working theme is "Libraries...

The 2022 Public Web Browser license key is now available on the RAILS site (L2 login required). This new license key may be applied immediately, and is valid until June 6, 2023. Public Web Browser is provided free of charge by RAILS. For more information, visit the RAILS Deals & Discounts page.

Dear Libraries, Spring = cleanup up, so this year we decided to tackle the local records. They proliferate in the system, and I want to emphasize that some standards are required for these records. Library of Things records It is a requirement for the 245 title tag to begin with your library’s 3-letter code if the record will not be shared with other libraries. 245 00 WCD paper punch craft kit. Add as many 246 tags (variant titles) as needed: 246 3_ West Chicago Public Library District paper punch craft kit 246 3_ Paper punch craft kit Where to include the term “ Library of Things:” You can...

No action is required by our libraries. SWAN Libraries are all set for OverDrive changes in October. OverDrive customers were notified that on October 10, 2022, they will be updating their network configuration. Libraries were encouraged to share this information with your consortium. Many of you did and thank you! This gave us the heads-up and ability to add these changes immediate to our network configuration. We have made the modifications required for October 10, 2022 and are ready for OverDrive's announcement when their changes are complete in October. Feel free to share announcement...

We are receiving reports that the OCLC Renewal Agreement cover letters are indicating libraries will be invoiced directly from PrairieCat. You should disregard the sentence "[your library] will receive an invoice from PrairieCat that includes the FY2023 ILLINET/OCLC Group Services Membership Fee.” OCLC membership is included as part of your annual SWAN membership. Please sign and return the FY23 OCLC agreement per the instructions. We have notified the Illinois State Library about the mistatement on the cover letter.

The Aspen 22.05 release is now live. This development cycle focused on improving migration processes for libraries moving to Aspen and small bug fixes, in addition to performance improvements to the Aspen LiDA app which is still in beta. There are no new features in this release that require any action from your library, but you may consider opting into events integration, which was introduced in the last release. View the full release notes.

Please use this form to select the four optional databases for your library. The selection form is available until May 27, 2022. Refer to the SWAN EBSCO databases page on the SWAN support site to find pricing and additional information. If you have any questions or need assistance, please email help@swanlibraries.net.

The Aspen catalog is now live and the Enterprise catalog has been retired. If you still have any links or OPAC computers pointing to the Enterprise catalog, update those now. If you see a 404 page, update the link -- most links could be redirected, but some couldn't be redirected as smoothly as others, and updating the link will resolve any errors. SirsiDynix has temporarily retirected the swanlibs.ent.sirsi.net URL to the consortium Aspen catalog (with the SWAN logo at the top left) -- we don't have a timeline on how long this redirect will be available, so its best to update any links you...

The SWAN Board election will have three seats opening for representation, starting July 1st. The names submitted for the upcoming board election are as follows: Anna Wassenaar Executive Director Blue Island Public Library Colleen Waltman Library Director Homewood Public Library District Dorothy Koll Director Acorn Public Library District Jesse Blazek Director Palos Heights Public Library Lisa Knasiak Director Chicago Heights Public Library The ballot will be shared on Monday, May 9th per the timetable provided and be available from the Board Election page on this site.

Join SWAN and EBSCO on Wednesday, May 4th, from 1-2 PM to learn about the new EBSCO Discovery Service interface. SWAN will move to the new interface on May 9th. Register on L2

SWAN has begun the monthly process of removing expired ONLINE patron records. All records expired for at least 90 days with a last activity date prior to the expiration date have been removed, since these records have been inactive. Moving forward we will continue the removal process on the 15th of every month. We have not yet removed records with a last activity date after the expiration date to allow libraries to reach out to those patrons before their records are removed. These are patrons that are likely actively using the electronic resources from your library, so you'll want to follow-up...

SWAN will redirect the https://catalog.swanlibraries.net URLs to your library's Aspen catalog home page on Tuesday, April 26th. You should see the redirects working by 2 p.m. If your OPAC or website points to a URL at https://catalog.swanlibraries.net, your patrons will now see your Aspen catalog home page when they visit that URL. If you are using "classic catalog" link to Enterprise from your website, this will now take your patrons to Aspen. If you're linking to specific records or searches in Enterprise, these will go to your Aspen catalog home page -- it is not possible to redirect to...

The April 2022 (January- March) 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. Feel free to email help@swanlibraries.net if you have any questions about your billing. Please wait until you...

---------------Update at 7:00 a.m.--------------- The server is open and accessible to library staff. We'll continue to see delayed reports throughout the morning, but Offline mode is no longer necessary. Please resume work online. ---------------Original Posting at 6:30 a.m.--------------- Following the database rebuild on 4/17, we're experiencing a long-running overnight maintenance cycle on the Symphony WorkFlows server. At this time, the server remains inaccessible to library staff, but it will be back online within the hour. Please watch this news post for additional updates.

The Aspen 22.04 release is now live. Highlights include: Hoopla settings to exclude Hoopla records with copies from other eContent Vendors LibCal integration Updates to the "bad words list" that can exclude staff comments in lists Bug fix for drag-and-drop list ordering issues In addition, this release includes several administrative enhancements to help SWAN staff better manage Aspen, including better scheduling for the Accelerated Reader indexes and a fix for a sideloads permissions bug. Hoopla scoping settings For a while, Aspen has offered a feature to exclude Hoopla records with copies...

There will be three seats open July 1, 2022 and the process to elect representatives begins with individuals self-nominating. Library directors and administrators should use the self-nomination form on the link below to submit your name and written statement of interest. The self-nomination form can be found on the Board Election page. The timetable for the election is provided on that webpage as well. The deadline to submit a self-nomination is Friday, April 29th.

We received notice late last night, March 31st, that OCLC has begun processing our data files for the OCLC Holdings Reset. This project is outlined in this news post from March 14th: Upcoming OCLC WorldCat Holdings Reset. We are unsure how long it will take to process our data files, but it should be complete by Monday morning. In the meantime, you may see discrepancies between your SWAN and OCLC holdings until the process is complete. Since this process runs in the background, ILL operations may continue uninterrupted throughout the weekend.

SWAN will soon begin the process of having our members' OCLC holdings reset. Earlier this year, OCLC offered members an opportunity to reset their WorldCat holdings free of charge. Because SWAN uses a local software solution to manage this process on behalf of our membership, we asked that members refrain from accepting this offer because it could upset our regular updates. After meeting with representatives from OCLC and other Illinois consortia, we have devised a plan to take advantage of the reset offer as a group. The WorldCat holdings reset is a four-step process that OCLC will perform...