Aspen Discovery

Aspen Discovery 22.02.00 Release Notes

by Mark Noble on Feb 9, 2022

Aspen Discovery announced this week that the 22.02.00 release is now available. See the Release Summary here.

Jordan Fields, Aspen Product Librarian, recently commented on the release:

With the Aspen 22.02 release, we really focused on our partners as we tackled some of their top requests including many search enhancements. We also made improvements to all of our ILS integrations with a focus on Evergreen. For Aspen LiDA, we released the groundwork to make it available to individual libraries and consortia, allowing them to create their own branded app specific to their library."

Aspen LiDA Updates

  • Increased the amount of time allowed to fetch and render browse categories and the items within them.
  • Updated the Manage Browse Categories screen to show the parent category name.
  • After updating the hidden/shown browse categories from the Manage Browse Categories screen, the Discover screen will force an update the next time it is loaded.
  • Quick Searches can now be customized per library.
  • Added an error and crash reporting module to better diagnose and fix errors in production apps.
  • Added the ability to send over-the-air updates to production apps, reducing the time necessary to push fixes and updates to production apps.
  • Added the ability to create additional independent instances of Aspen LiDA, i.e. for library branded apps.
  • Added the option for dark mode.
  • Added support for both portrait and landscape orientation.
  • Theme colors are now inherited from Aspen Discovery.
  • Libraries now have an Aspen LiDA Settings in Primary Configuration that handles some customization for library branded versions of Aspen LiDA.

    • New Settings

      • Primary Configuration > Library Systems > Aspen LiDA > Quick Searches
      • Primary Configuration > Aspen LiDA Settings

Evergreen Updates

  • Allow Evergreen Patrons to login.
  • Display Account Summary for Evergreen patrons.
  • Display fines for Evergreen patrons.
  • Display holds for Evergreen patrons.

FOLIO Updates

  • Create initial project so indexing of FOLIO data can be started.

ILL Updates

  • Enable showing links to INN-Reach with optional sample results from INN-Reach at the end of search results.

Indexing Updates

  • When loading formats from the 007 field, properly handle cases where the indexing had previously determined the format was a Book to avoid conflicts.
  • Handle NR movie ratings for Hoopla.

Open Archives Updates

  • Allow multiple regular expressions to be used for finding images for Open Archives.

OverDrive Updates

  • When OverDrive titles are On Order, show a status of On Order within search results and full record views.
  • For OverDrive checkouts, show the record format to fix an issue with the new OverDrive API sending incorrect formats.

Search Updates

  • Improved handling of search terms that end with a question mark. i.e. Do androids dream of electric sheep? or Are you my mother?
  • Removed stemming while searching for authors.
  • Improve searches where stemming can cause confusing results. I.e. subject searches for production vs. product.
  • When indexing and displaying titles for MARC records, include subfields f and g of the 245 field for archival materials.

Sierra Updates

  • Correct workflow when paying fines so the correct response is returned and ensure fine totals update after payment in the account menu.
  • Update the display of contact information to use the Sierra APIs rather than the PATRONAPI

Symphony Updates

  • Optionally allow system notes for holds to be added within library settings that are then sent to Symphony when placing a hold.

    New Settings

    • Primary Configuration > Library Systems > ILS/Account Integration > Holds > System Hold Note (Symphony Only)
    • Primary Configuration > Library Systems > ILS/Account Integration > Holds > System Hold Note Masquerade (Symphony Only)

Web Builder Updates

  • Update so recaptcha blocks are properly shown for custom forms that have been embedded on custom pages when the patron is not required to be logged in to submit the form.

Other Updates

  • When showing lists of PTypes add the description to improve usability when working with ILSs that have numeric PTypes
  • Update AnodeAPIs to use item information from the database rather than from Solr.
  • Fix Anode title lists from being converted to objects rather than arrays.
  • Display titles of archival materials with inclusive and bulk dates
  • When logging in from pages where the PIN is being reset, redirect to the account home page.
  • When saving a theme ensure that any themes that are extended from it are also updated.
  • When masquerading as a user who has two-factor authentication enabled, bypass the two-factor login process.
  • When loading reading history, handle cases where the user does not have access to OverDrive.
  • Restore viewing instance information within the Usage Dashboard.
  • Update so Google is not checked for book covers unless a Google Books API key is provided.
  • Increase the length of the locations to exclude fields for records owned and records to include in library and location settings.
  • Updates for displaying placards when a search term is auto corrected.
  • Added a new API within SystemAPI to retrieve translations from the database.
  • Allow memory cache to be bypassed for a single page load.
  • Remove unused Symphony Payment Policy from Library settings.
  • Added translation capabilities to some of the emails sent through Aspen.

Watch the 22.02 Aspen Updates in an Instant Recording

Watch a short highlight video of the some of the new features available in 22.02.00

Read more by Mark Noble

Tags release notes, Release