"The 24.08 release contains some exciting code work that is laying the building blocks for big future features, such as ILS Notifications in Aspen LiDA and the ability to build web pages with grapes.js. We look forward to how this code will grow over the next few releases."
This month's Aspen Discovery release contains dozens of bug fixes and enhancements in areas of accessibility, integrations and API connections, searching and more.
One of the enhancements that libraries have been asking for is the way to always show hold and copy counts on records within the grouped work display. Libraries that catalog Express/Lucky Day and holdable items on one bib record, and consortiums with more complex cataloging records, will especially benefit from this.
Always Show Hold and Copy Counts
One of the main goals of Aspen Discovery is to make sure it is easy for Administrators to manage and maintain Aspen. In a recent Aspen Discovery release, a Diagnostics button was added to give staff insight into how Aspen is determining format. In this release, literary form was added to that tool and we expect to continue to see more troubleshooting features added to this tool.
Finally, this release has some exciting building block code in it. Libraries will start to see settings for future features. For Aspen LiDA, the initial work to begin ILS notifications has started. After the beta testing with the Koha ILS is finished, code for other ILS notifications will begin to roll out. In the Web Builder settings, grapes.js or Grapes Pages settings are available. Work and testing on this new web page builder will continue over the next few releases.
Be sure to check out the release notes to get the full scope of everything included in Aspen 24.08.
This release includes code contributions from:
- ByWater Solutions
- Nashville Public Library
- PTFS-Europe
- Theke Solutions
Thanks to all of the contributors and the Aspen Discovery community for another successful 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 about Aspen please visit https://bywatersolutions.com/projects/aspen-discovery.