Aspen Discovery 21.06.00 Release Notes

by Mark Noble on May 14, 2021

Aspen Discovery announced this week that the 21.06.00 release is now available. See the Release Summary here.

Mark Noble, Aspen Discovery Developer, recently commented on the release:

"We’re excited to see more libraries use Aspen’s Web Builder functionality to create their library websites."

Account Updates

• Allow libraries to define specific formats as needing to be picked up from the owning library. This is useful for collections like Seed Libraries, Wi-Fi Hotspots, and other collections where you do not want the materials to be transited via a courier. The option can be selected in the Format Section of an Indexing Profile. After selection, the text on the hold popup changes slightly to indicate that the title must be picked up at the owning library.

Indexing Performance Updates

• Only index scope information for locations that have more than one location defined for a library.
• Cache information to avoid repeated lookups of data.
• Optimize determining scope information when including all records.

Koha Updates

• If item can't be renewed, the patron will receive the error that Koha is sending back.
• Properly identify status of not for loan materials when the default Not for loan status (Library Use Only) has been renamed.
• Make status for materials request from Koha translatable within Aspen.
• Add additional error handling for errors connecting to the Koha database.

Polaris Updates

• Automatically load Material Types from Polaris into Aspen.
• Automatically load Patron Codes into Aspen.
• Fix for loading Locations from Polaris into Aspen to not create duplicate locations.
• Updates to continuous indexing to load records changed based on time of change in addition to date of change.

Search Updates

• Make it easier to search for records with numbers in the title regardless of if the number is entered as digits or words.
• Fix so that searching both a format and top availability buttons will return the correct results.
• Fix display of facets within advanced search so they can be different from the results page.
• Make facets displayed when viewing an Author page consistent with facets displayed for normal search results.

Symphony Updates

• Show items with a grouped status of On Shelf as Available. Also show titles where the status is a shelf location as checked out if the status does not match the shelf location.
• Track the index of the last change indexed from Symphony so that indexing operations that are interrupted can be resumed.
• When indexing full marc exports, first verify that a bib record greater than or equal to the maximum bib number from the previous full index is included in the export to protect against truncated exports.

User List Updates

• Added functionality to sort lists by title, date created and last updated.
• On My Lists page, show which lists are public, private, and searchable.

• Add the ability to create a new list from the My Lists page.
• Added the display of creation date and last updated dates to My Lists.
• Added pagination to the list of My Lists for more than 20 lists.
• Fixed drag-and-drop sort to properly reorder items in the 0 position.
• Deleted lists will no longer show up as options in Collection Spotlights or Browse Categories.
• When printing, remove the Edit & Delete buttons and make the display wider.
• Update indexing of lists to accommodate indexing New York Times Lists for libraries that only want lists from the local library included.

Web Builder Updates

• Added Library Hours and Locations as cell source type in Web Builder custom pages

• Added check for web indexing within getIndexStatus to confirm 1 Basic/Custom Page or Web Resource exists.
• Added ability to link image Web Builder cell types to a page.
• Update error message when uploading images to return more specific information.
• Correct the permission needed to show the Upload Image form.

Other Updates

• Properly load descriptions when a library has Syndetics Unbound rather than Syndetics Classic.
• Updated Side Load Format Boost options to reflect the Normal / Medium / High / Very High options.
• Display large cover image when clicking on grouped work cover image.

• When loading grouped work covers, use ISSNs when fetching from Syndetics and Content Cafe.
• Also check ISBN, UPC, and ISSN for the Grouped work cover if a cover is not found in the MARC record for sideloads and other special content.
• Make the location label translatable independently of other locations where the term location is used within the Quick Copy popup.
• Increase the length of call number fields within circulation caches.
• Return While You Wait covers as absolute URLs for better display within apps.
• Update APIs for getPatronHolds and getPatronCheckouts to return covers as absolute URLs.
• Update the display of subjects within a grouped work when display settings are set to only show LC Subjects or BISAC subjects.
• Extended the max length of the link field for placards to 500.
• Added TikTok to available social media options in library contact links.
• Updated contact link icons in footer to use Font Awesome.
• Correct case sensitivity issue that was preventing titles in reading history from updating properly.
• Fixed showing the status of Hoopla and RBdigital Indexing.
• Allow libraries to prevent patrons from deleting materials requests that are placed in the ILS.
• Corrected indexing of websites and web builder content when location code match the code of the library.
• Ensure PHP SOAP is installed to support Content Cafe.
• Update translation interface to show the term as well as the URL of the page where it was first found.
• Properly utilize themes that have been set per location in addition to themes set at the library level.
• Add functionality to import ratings, lists, and shelves from BiblioCommons for migrating libraries.
• Make the Aspen Materials Request Form translatable.
• Added "Web Builder" to list of components on Submit Support Ticket form
• When applying multi-select facets, reset results to the first page.
• Add additional checking when creating list covers to verify that the list entry is valid before processing it.
• Add a new upgrade script to streamline upgrading Aspen to the most recent version.

Watch the 21.06 Lunch and Learn about the Release!