Aspen Discovery announced this week that the 20.07 release is available. This major release includes 46 improvements and 7 performance & reliability fixes.

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

Aspen Discovery version 20.07 makes it easier for librarians to promote special collections within Aspen. By allowing archival materials and lists to be added to lists, librarians can more easily promote these items on both the Aspen home page and within collection spotlights on their website. There are also several enhancements to make Aspen easier to administer.

Administration Updates
Add tracking of when settings change within the Administration interface and add a display of the history for administrators.
Update creation of default libraries
Set default theme to responsive
Allow default grouped work display settings to be defined (defaults to public)
Set more appropriate default lists to include
Turn off Genealogy by default

API Updates
Allow the source of materials to be specified when calling getPatronCheckouts and getPatronHolds from User API

CARL.X Integration Updates
Correct loading holds from CARL.X

Cloud Library Updates
Correct loading of MARC records to properly handle special characters
Add first detected and last change dates to staff view for Cloud Library Records

Grouped Work Updates
Alternate titles for grouped works can be deleted from staff view by users with appropriate permissions
Users with Cataloging or OPAC Admin permissions can specify title, author, and series information for a grouped work from staff view
Information specified is shown within staff view
Specified display information can be deleted within staff view
The provided information will replace information from MARC records or eContent within the index

Help Manual
Add additional content to the manual

Indexing Updates
Update to ignore subfield 9 when indexing subject fields
Add a nightly index mode to full reindex which runs based on a setting in the System Variables table
Automatically force a nightly index to run when relevant settings are changed in Aspen
Add the ability to check if nightly index is running
If nightly indexing is running, pause continuous indexing until it is done.
Add the ability to get the format of items by collection code for Koha
Updating Accelerated Reader Data now happens as part of the nightly index on a weekly basis
Log additional errors to indexing logs
When adding notes to logs, always record the time the note was added.
Remove regrouping records from the command line since it is no longer used
Move Reindex Log to system reports and rename to Nightly Index Log
Add errors to nightly reindex log
Remove unused maxWorksToProcess option from config files
Additional error trapping when loading Hoopla scopes
Remove irrelevant code

Koha Integration Updates
Allow display of opac notes entered in Koha to be displayed within Aspen
Update to allow a single work to be manually exported from Koha
Load volume information for checked out titles if available
Update extract of changed bibs to include bibs where only metadata has changed
Update translation maps from Koha based on settings within the indexing profile
Update Novelist settings in Aspen based on settings within Koha

New York Times List Updates
Add the date that the New York Times List last updated a list as well as copyright to the description.

Novelist Integration
Improve performance when loading Novelist information for titles with many ISBNs
Upgrade to newest API version
Performance & Reliability Fixes
Update Index Status API to return more information about each check which it performs
Add checking for available memory and system load during status checks
Add checking of a nightly index for errors during status checks
When loading More Like This for a record validate that the record exists.
Redirect additional URLs that are improperly formatted or that contain spammy searches to the 404 page
Fix cron to automatically restart Aspen services on reboot
Error trapping when OverDrive product does not have formats

Record updates
Allow Supplemental Files (XLS, DOC, etc) to be attached to MARC records for download by patrons to provide additional information for a record.

User List Updates
Automatically remember the last list a user was using
Lists that a title is on are shown within search results
Allow adding lists and open archive titles to lists
Allow collection spotlights and browse categories to Open Archive and List entries that are part of a list shown

Other
Update default site creation for Koha to use current location rather than owning location
Wrap button text for You Might Also Like and While You Wait
Make collection spotlight title bars use secondary colors
Fix color of collapsible panels when they are expanded in the default theme
Updates to session handling
Automatically enable the Koha module when setting up a new Koha site
Return fatal errors that occur during AJAX operations as JSON for a display to users
Cleanup of redundant information in staff view

EBSCO Information Services Supports
Google’s Campus Activated Subscriber Access (CASA)
~ Enhancement Provides Seamless Off-Campus Authentication
to EBSCO Content Through Google Scholar ~

IPSWICH, Mass. — May 27, 2020 — EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) announces a partnership with Campus Activated Subscriber Access (CASA) through Google Scholar. Those who start their research in Google Scholar can now access EBSCO content with a seamless user experience while conducting research off-campus.

CASA enables those doing research to access their institution’s scholarly content remotely by providing seamless linking and authentication. Through partnering with Google Scholar, users will be able to authenticate to the EBSCO articles and journals to which they have access. Users can now access this information while working off-campus, making it easier to conduct studies anytime, anywhere. Links to EBSCO content will also be available in Google Scholar, enhancing the user experience.

EBSCO Senior Vice President of Product Management Tim Lull reinforces the importance of accessing EBSCO content whenever and wherever users conduct their research, especially as they work remotely. “As EBSCO continues to improve the user experience, it’s exciting to better enable the research process via Google Scholar by enabling trusted full-text links to scholarly content at EBSCO, and effectively removing barriers to access.”

Anurag Acharya, co-creator of Google Scholar, says, “CASA builds on Google Scholar’s Subscriber Links program which provides direct links in the search interface to subscribed collections for on-campus users. With CASA, a researcher can start a literature survey on campus and resume where she left off once she is home, or travelling, with no hoops to jump through. Her subscribed collections are highlighted in Google Scholar searches, and she is able to access articles in exactly the same way as on campus.”

Learn more about EBSCO and Google Scholar CASA at EBSCO Connect.

About EBSCO Information Services
EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is the leading discovery service provider for libraries worldwide with more than 11,000 discovery customers in over 100 countries. EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) provides each institution with a comprehensive, single search box for its entire collection, offering unparalleled relevance ranking quality and extensive customization. EBSCO is also the preeminent provider of online research content for libraries, including hundreds of research databases, historical archives, and clinical decisions tools serving millions of end users at tens of thousands of institutions. EBSCO is the leading provider of electronic journals & books for libraries, with subscription management for more than 360,000 serials, including more than 57,000 e-journals, as well as online access to more than 1,500,000 e-books. For more information, visit the EBSCO website at: www.ebsco.com. EBSCO Information Services is a division of EBSCO Industries, Inc., a family owned company since 1944.
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For more information, please contact:
Kathleen McEvoy
Vice President of Communications
(800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebsco.com