News

The SWAN service area is under a winter storm watch. We want to remind libraries of the following in case your library makes a decision to close due to the storm. Catalog Alerts You can create System Message page banners to inform patrons of news and alerts in the Aspen Catalog. See our how to page Reporting closings SWAN does not need to be notified of temporary weather closures. You can view and...

SWAN Support is limited over the holidays with on-call staff available for emergencies. Friday, December 23rd CLOSED Monday, December 26th CLOSED Friday, December 30th CLOSED Monday, January 2nd CLOSED When to Call 844-792-6542 (844-SWAN-LIB): A service is down Circulation is impacted Unable to perform key job functions When to Open a Ticket: Questions and troubleshooting Report request Enterprise...

The Courses on the Learning Management System have now been updated. This update is part of our annual review, to ensure that we have accurate information in our courses. If you are enrolled in a course and have not yet finished, you will be prompted to start the course from the beginning. This process included the following: Updating content, as needed (e.g., references to our online catalog, now...

The SWAN Membership on December 1st approved the addition of a new service that will be provided to all member libraries, and that service is to enhance all notifications sent via SWAN to library users with the MessageBee service provided through Unique Management. The service we envision for libraries would be to provide access to each library to have the ability to customize areas of the HTML...

The Aspen 22.12 release is now live. Highlights for this release include: Preferred name settings Users can now set their preferred name settings under My Account > Contact Information. The preferred name will appear in Aspen, as well as in the Preferred Name field in Symphony. Currently, Aspen does not yet update the setting in Symphony Workflows to display the preferred name in the Name field...

SirsiDynix has completed the BLUEcloud Analytics URL changes for North American clusters (noam). This basically means that our login page for BLUEcloud Analytics has changed to: https://noam-bca-2.bc.sirsidynix.net/bcanalytics/asp/Main.aspx If you have saved links or shared links to reports, the URL to access those has also changed. There will be no automatic redirect to the new URL. However, the...

Baker & Taylor is experiencing an outage that is impacting services. SWAN has responded by disabling and disconnecting library services for the following: Axis 360 - down & Aspen circulation unavailable eResource Central integration with BLUEcloud Mobile - disabled by SirsiDynix Support SIP2 & Z39.50 access - disabled by SWAN B&T support portal - down TitleSource 360 - down EDI File Retrieval -...

The Aspen 22.11 release is now live. Highlights for this release include: Export to Excel improvements You can now export lists to Excel, which several SWAN member libraries have requested. The export to Excel features for search results and purchase suggestions have also been enhanced, including previously missing fields. Search result interface change Call number now displays in a column with...

Kanopy PLUS (Public Library Unlimited Subscriptions) provides unlimited, simultaneous viewing of curated titles per pack. Current and new Kanopy subscribers can take advantage of 20% when buying 2 or more subscription packs. The PLUS packs work differently than the Pay Per Use program. There is an upfront fee and does not use credits. If you currently do not have Kanopy, and are interested, the...

As we prepare for 2022 National Change of Address record submission we will be removing any patron records remaining from the 2018 NCOA run which have not been updated. Since 2018 these patrons have been blocked from check-outs, so the accounts have been inactive for nearly 4 years at this point. Removal of these inactive records (status = BADADDRES) will occur on November 17, 2022. The parameters...

SWAN will begin removing Fiscal Cycle 2020 from Symphony on November 17, 2022. 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.

Dear Libraries, Happy Fall! It’s hard to believe this is the last newsletter of the year. I would like to point out a few housecleaning things that have caught our attention lately, this way we transition smoothly into 2023. 1) Vendor records missing the 590 tag: This usually happens when items are ordered using a regular book cart, rather than large print or audiobook, for example, so the wrong...

The Aspen 22.10 release is now live. This release includes the following: Additional formats This release added several new formats that had been on the SWAN priority list and enhanced the detection of others. These formats will display in search results and search filters. 4k Blu-ray Playaway Launchpad Playaway Bookpack Playaway Wonderbook Playaway View Vox Book Nintendo Switch GameCube Pop-Up...

The October 2022 (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...

SWAN created BLUEcloud Analytics accounts for each member library to help manage subscriptions, reports, and collaboration in your library. We asked library staff using a personal account to add saved reports and subscriptions to the shared library account. The deadline for this is December 31, 2022; all personal logins will be removed after that date. We added the following Sunsetting BLUEcloud...

SWAN is exploring interest in additional user groups for library members for 2023. SWAN user groups are member-led networking opportunities for you to share ideas and solutions. Each user group requires a chair or co-chairs from member libraries. Chairs are responsible for soliciting discussion items from your group, preparing meeting agenda, and facilitating meetings. SWAN staff will help support...

Update 10/31/2022: OverDrive has completed the conversion of the MediaOnDemand collection. We will be verifying everyone's parameters and addressing any outliers. Update 10/6/2022: Our representative from Hoopla has confirmed that they have migrated all Hoopla subscribers to the new encrypted port. OverDrive is currently working on the Media on Demand libraries as well. Library Market had also...

The Aspen 22.09 release is now live. This release includes the following: Indexing speed improvements for Overdrive Indexes for Overdrive are significantly faster, which means you will see updates to Overdrive content and availability more immediately. Bug fix for spotlights Previously, the "View More" link in tabbed spotlights linked to the list or search used in the first tab only. Now, it will...

The Weeklies 2023 list has been posted to the support site. The serial controls can be transferred to the new records once 2022 issues are no longer expected, or new controls can be created in the 2023 records. See Transferring a Control Record. Quick reminders: Do not attach the Consumer Reports Buying Guide to the Consumer Reports serial record. The Buying Guide gets a new monographic record...

The BLUEcloud Central 22.05.00 release is now live. This release included an update for BLUEcloud Circulation as well as a shortcut to easily search for a page by name. MobileStaff is also considered part of the BLUEcloud staff suite. Mark Claimed Returned Circulation staff can now use the mark and item Claimed Returned for a patron in BLUEcloud Circulation. Withing the patron checkouts the 3...