The Aspen 24.05 release brings the number one community-requested feature: better grouping for graphic novels and ecomics, along with another event platform integration, and lots of accessibility updates!

by Jordan Fields on May 15, 2024

With the new grouping updates, it will be even easier for patrons to consistently identify graphic novels and ecomics from regular books and ebooks, ensuring that users get exactly the title they’re looking for. This continuous improvement in how Aspen groups resources, keeping up with all of the new formats that libraries offer and adjusting how those resources are presented, is what makes Aspen the best choice for libraries focused on patron needs."

- Jordan Fields, Aspen Product Librarian

The Aspen 24.05 release brings the number one community-requested feature: better grouping for graphic novels and ecomics, along with another event platform integration, and lots of accessibility updates!

Over the past few years, we’ve seen an increase in the number of graphic novel versions of popular titles. Classic titles like The Giver by Lois Lowry or And Then There Were None by Agatha Christy now have graphic novel editions. We’ve also seen an increase in the popularity of ecomics: graphic novels that you can read on your phone, tablet, or ebook reader. With Aspen’s Record Grouping, patrons will expect the graphic novel and comic to group together. However, they will not expect those titles to group with the original book and ebook, even when the title and author are the same. With the 24.05 Aspen Release, graphic novels and economics are now automatically separated and grouped with each other!

Better grouping is not the only new feature in this month’s Aspen release. 24.05 also includes Assabet Event integration, adding to the existing event integrations Aspen has with Attend from Communico, LibCal from Springshare, and Library Calendar from Library Market.

Aspen has also made some usability updates for patrons that use screen readers to go beyond accessibility compliance to make Aspen as good an experience for all users as possible. This is an ongoing effort and we look forward to offering more in this area in the future.

These are just a few of the over 100 enhancements in this release. Check out the complete release notes to learn about everything in Aspen 24.05.

This release includes code contributions from:

• ByWater Solutions

• PTFS-Europe

• Theke Solutions

Thanks to all of our contributors and our community for another successful release!

Read the Full Release Notes

You can find the full release notes here.

Watch a Preview of the Release

About Aspen Discovery

Aspen is a full-featured Discovery System that integrates with eContent and other third-party providers, giving your patrons comprehensive access to all of your materials in one place. Aspen combines your library catalog with e-content, digital archives, and enrichment from all major third-party providers. It also improves relevancy and ease of use, provides native reading recommendations, displays all formats of titles within one result (record grouping), and much more. With included features like web builder and mobile app (Aspen LiDA), Aspen was created to give users an improved experience over other Discovery systems, with less impact on library budgets.

For More Information

Jessica Zairo
Director of Library Sales and Outreach
ByWater Solutions
bywatersolutions.com
Phone:(888)900-8944