Aspen Discovery

Aspen Discovery 22.09.00 Release Notes

by Mark Noble on Sep 14, 2022

Aspen Discovery announced this week that the 22.09.00 release is now available.

See the Release Summary here.

In 2022, patrons expect an app for their phones and part of the app experience is push notifications. We’ve been talking with our library partners on how notifications should work for libraries and we’re thrilled to launch the first iteration of push notifications with the 22.09 release of Aspen and LiDA."

- Jordan Fields, Aspen Product Librarian

22.09.00 Release Notes

Account Updates

  • Add the ability to specify that a format must be picked up at a branch of the owning library in addition to the previous ability to force a title to be picked up at the owning branch.

    New Settings

    • ILS Integration > Indexing Profiles > Format Information > Pickup At
    • If cancelling a hold fails, properly display the failure message.

Evergreen Updates

  • Add additional logging for Evergreen API calls
  • Use override variant when placing hold requests

Evolve Updates

  • Add additional error checking when loading newly changed items.

Indexing Updates

  • Allow Koha libraries to source formats in Aspen from bib records
  • Add the ability to suppress subjects from MARC Records and eContent collections from the search index.

    New Settings

    • Catalog / Grouped Works > Hidden Subjects
  • When loading format from item information, make sure the format category is consistent with the items used to load format
  • Allow titles with an iType of ebk to be treated as eContent within the ILS.
  • Add additional indexes to improve indexing speed
  • Updates to delete grouped works with spaces in their id.

Interlibrary Loan Updates

  • Add an integration with VDX from OCLC
    • Allow configuration of which VDX system to connect to.

      New Settings

      • Interlibrary Loan > VDX Settings
    • Allow configuration of which branches within a consortium will lend directly to each other.

      New Settings

      • Interlibrary Loan > VDX Hold Groups
    • Allow configuration of forms to be displayed to the user during the request process.

      New Settings

      • Interlibrary Loan > VDX Forms
    • Based on which library within a consortium owns items and the user's home library, show either a Request or Place Hold Button within search results and full record view.
    • Prompt the patron for the proper request information and submit to VDX
    • Show a list of requests within MyAccount
    • Allow patrons to cancel VDX requests from Aspen

Koha Updates

  • Properly handle cases where borrower number is not numeric.
  • Additional error handling in cases where a user does not have a home library assigned.

OverDrive Updates

  • Improve the speed of loading changes from OverDrive by multi threading checking availability via the APIs.
  • When checking for titles added to a collection using daysSinceAdded, limit to the last 90 days to match what OverDrive allows.

Single Sign On (SSO)

  • Set up the infrastructure for Single Sign On to connect to several types of identity providers.
  • Add configuration information for Single Sign On to Library Settings.
  • When a patron elects to sign on with Single Sign On, redirect them to the identity provider for authorization.
  • Read information from the identify provider to connect the patron with their account within the ILS.

    New Settings

    • Primary Configuration > Library Systems > Single Sign On section

Search Updates

  • Add the ability to sort editions that have at least one copy owned by the active library/location before all other editions.

    New Settings

    • Catalog / Grouped Works > Grouped Work Display > Sort Owned Editions First

Symphony Updates

  • Add the ability to define the user profile used when a patron self registers within library settings.

New Settings

  • Primary Configuration > Library Systems > ILS/Account Integration > Self Registration > Self Registration Profile

Other Updates

  • Fixed an issue where Hide Unknown/Not Coded lit forms was not working correctly
  • Updated getPatronFines method in User API to look for whether to return linked account fines or not.
  • Fixed an issue with the View More link for tabbed spotlights not redirecting to the correct list
  • When showing the View More link on a Collection Spotlight with multiple tabs, show the name of the list as part of the link.
  • Fixed an issue to allow the edit list modal to open when editing a list entry in a list.
  • Correct behavior of log me out after placing a hold.
  • Make "Payment Completed" message translatable
  • Make Delete List button and action more descriptive.
  • Fix sorting of EBSCOhost databases.
  • Remove the delete button when editing administrators. To remove Administration privileges, simply deselect all roles and save the user.
  • Don't allow EBSCOhost Databases to be deleted in the Admin interface, just make them non-searchable to hide.
  • Setup log rotation on the server for some logs that were not being rotated previously.
  • Allow User Lists to be Enabled or Disabled at the location level.

    New Settings

    • Primary Configuration > Locations > Catalog Enrichment > Enable User Lists
  • Increase timeout when updating reading history to better handle patrons with very large reading histories.
  • Blocking of page views when host name is not valid for a given server.


Aspen LiDA Updates


  • Created a new Admin section for Aspen LiDA to put all the settings in one place for easier management.
    • Added configuration for notifications and which patron types should receive them.
    • Added a report for verifying that notifications were sent and completed.
    • Configuration for displaying or hiding locations and the release channel are now in Aspen LiDA > App Settings.
    • Configuration for quick searches are now in Aspen LiDA > Quick Search Settings.
    • Configuration for branded apps are now in Aspen LiDA > Branded App Settings.

    New Settings

    • Aspen LiDA > App Settings
    • Aspen LiDA > Quick Search Settings
    • Aspen LiDA > Branded App Settings
  • Fixed an issue where hiding list browse categories was not working correctly.
  • Users can now enable notifications for saved search updates.

    New Settings

    • Aspen LiDA > Notification Settings
  • Added a new option in Preferences to manage notifications.

Watch the 22.09.00 Aspen Updates in an Instant Recording

Watch a short highlight video of the some of the new features available in 22.09.00

Read more by Mark Noble

Tags release notes, Release