News

Our annual event detailed sessions are now available. This year we have expanded the size and scope of the event with sessions taking place in first and second floor rooms at the Business & Conference Center at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Heights. The keynote speaker for the event will be Troy Siewert from the National Alliance on Mental Illiness (NAMI). Troy has been training and...

The 24.06 release of Aspen is live. This release includes the following updates. Aspen Discovery You can now choose an alternate carousel display option for browse categories, which is also easier to use for users navigating your browse categories using a keyboard or assistive technology. The default display complies with accessibility standards, but the new display improves user experience. To...

The 2023 PWB license key expired earlier this month. RAILS has made the 2024 license key available for download on the RAILS website. (L2 login required) This license key is valid until June 8, 2025. Please open a support ticket if you require assistance.

UPDATE 06/18/2024 7:02 PM Thank you all for your patience. SirsiDynix has finished the BLUEcloud Analytics harvest and is running all reports that were scheduled to run today a second time. If you received your reports via email earlier today they may not include transactions that took place yesterday. You should use the reports being delivered now for accurate information. SirsiDynix has not yet...

Unfortunately, we did not get the number of libraries necessary to make the SWAN all-inclusive package work. Instead, we’re moving forward with the RAILS EBSCO Flagship package or individual databases if your library prefers. The RAILS EBSCO Flagship Package includes ConsumerReports.org, NoveList Plus/NoveList K-8 Plus, and your choice of 6 additional databases. Pricing for the Flagship package is...

As a reminder, our Symphony Production server will be upgraded to 4.1 this evening. During the upgrade, My Account features, SIP2/WebServices, and other related systems will be unavailable. Our upgrade is scheduled to begin shortly after 11PM and will conclude early morning Tuesday, June 18. While we do not anticipate the required use of Offline Mode or downtime during business hours, please wait...

Last week at the SWAN Quarterly meeting we met to discuss the Illinois State Library e-Resource Program and its selection of EBSCO to be the provider of research databases for all libraries in Illinois. Pricing We now have pricing for the SWAN all-inclusive package posted for you. It has a high and low estimate for the deal, which is a price range at this point since we do not know how many...

SWAN Member Libraries & Information Technology Staff: The SWAN WorkFlows 4.1 installer is now available for download on the SWAN support site along with installation documentation. Please be advised, there is no imperative to install this new client before our scheduled Symphony 4.1 server upgrade on the evening of Monday, June 17th. Upgrading early will result in a client/server mismatch message...

The election for two seats on 7 member SWAN governing board has concluded with 60 participating voters. Dawn Bussey, Library Director Glen Ellyn Public Library: 38 votes (elected) Zach Musil, Library Director Tinley Park Public Library: 31 votes (elected) Ridgeway Burns, Library Director Itasca Community Library: 25 Natalie Starosta, Library Director North Riverside Public Library: 19

Registration for SWAN's annual summer event on August 23rd is now open! Libraries will be invoiced $35 per attendee after the event. Register View Attendees Session preview The full session schedule will include roundtables, workshops, and presentations - we will announce the full schedule soon! Workshops and presentations Aspen for library staff BLUEcloud Analytics Circulation best practices...

SWAN is closed Monday, May 27th for the Memorial Day holiday. On-call staff will monitor system up-time during the weekend. Routine support tickets will be responded to on Tuesday, May 28th.

The 24.05 release of Aspen is live. This release includes the following bug fixes and enhancements. Aspen Discovery Updates to record grouping Video games and other materials should now group better. In addition, graphic novels, manga, and comics will group separately from books. There is a new format group of "Other" to handle video games and miscellaneous other materials such as kits, board...

The SWAN Board election e-ballot is now open. We are going to use the SWAN Support site for this election, which will require you to log onto the site to access the ballot. Ballot Here is the ballot: https://swanlibraries.net/form/94619 Candidate names and statements are listed, with the voting selection below the statements. Only library directors/administrators will be able to access the e...

The self-nomination period has ended and the slate of candidates for the two seats on the SWAN Board will be the following. Ridgeway Burns, Itasca Community Library Dawn Bussey, Glen Ellyn Public Library Natalie Starosta, North Riverside Public Library District Zach Musil, Tinley Park Public Library The SWAN Board election will run from Monday, May 6, 2024 through May 24, 2024. Individual emails...

SWAN plans to make an update to the hold map configuration that will allow your library's items to fulfill holds for your patrons that place holds at a different station library (or library catalog). This update will occur July 24. Specifically, we will update hold permissions from OWN_LIB to ALL LIBS. This means that where your patron places the hold will not affect how it is filled. Limits by...

The 24.04 release of Aspen is live. This release includes the following bug fixes and enhancements. Aspen Discovery Format assignments for blu-rays and DVDs Blu-rays and DVDs that were split from combo packs were being assigned a format of combo pack. These should now be properly assigned formats of DVD, blu-ray, or 4K blu-ray. Springshare LibCal integration Events from LibCal were missing the...

SWAN staff will be having our annual in-service event on Friday, April 12th. Membership support and inquiries will be delayed until Monday, April 15th. Don't worry though, we will be monitoring for emergencies! When to call 844-792-6542 (844-SWAN-LIB) A service is down Circulation is impacted Unable to perform key job functions

The SWAN Board is calling for representation from all member library directors/administrators for two at-large positions, with terms beginning on July 1, 2024. The online form to submit the self-nomination statement is open on the SWAN Support site (login required): Submit your self-nomination Information about the SWAN Board election and the timetable are available from the SWAN Support site...

The Aspen 24.03 release is live. This release includes indexing speed improvements and the ability to show events browse categories in the LiDA app. If you use LibCal, Library Calendar, or Communico, find what you need to integrate events into Aspen. If you have events integration already, learn how to create an events browse category. View full release notes

This is a reminder that we have scheduled two demo sessions for the MessageBee List Notifications tool at the end of this week. This optional add-on to our existing MessageBee subscription allows you to create e-mail communications to your patrons when they sign up for specific interest lists or based on user profile data such as age group, profile creation date, etc. The sessions will be brief...