Grove announces several new features coming to Aspen with the 24.10 release, including Cost Savings for Patrons, automated holds for Materials Requests, and updates to allow administrators to manage any combination of library locations.
The County of San Luis Obispo Public Libraries (SLO) uses Aspen extensively to fulfill patron purchase requests, and they wanted a less labor-intensive way to place holds for patrons once their requests had been purchased. Grove worked with the SLO librarians to develop an automated way for Aspen to monitor when the purchased titles had been added to the catalog so librarians could place those holds and notify patrons that the library now owned them with one click.
The Colorado Library Consortium (CLiC) worked with Grove on a feature that allows libraries to display to patrons how much they’ve saved using the library, both with what a patron currently has checked out and over time. This kind of feature has been popular as a calculator on library websites and checkout receipts for a few years, but the Aspen iteration extends the functionality by allowing libraries to set a default cost per material type (for use when records do not include a replacement cost) and by providing visuals within the patron account that show savings over time based on a patron’s borrowing history. The Cost Savings for Patrons feature also includes econtent in addition to physical materials checked out from the library.
Patrons with Reading History enabled can see how much they're saving by using the library each month and year over year.
Grove also developed a new permissions model for consortia based on feedback from multiple Aspen libraries. Previously, library administrators had permission to manage either only their home library or all libraries. Now, library administrators can be given permissions to manage multiple libraries without needing permissions for all libraries.
These updates are in addition to dozens of other updates in Aspen 24.10. Thank you to our sponsoring libraries as well as the other libraries and organizations that contributed to the success of this release.
