We are pleased to announce that Alto 5.9 is now available on general release to all customers.

You will find the release notices and supporting documentation for this release on the MySupport portal.

Please ensure that you download and read the relevant documentation for your operating system prior to downloading the installation package.

Key features within Alto 5.9 are:

• Allow a specific British Library account to be added to an Interloan request
• Marc description file updates for updates 22 and 23
• Borrower Notifications improvements
• Defect fixes throughout the application.

A new version of Local Data Services (LDS), version 2.8, is also available which supports the new multiple supplier account codes functionality for interloans in LMS 5.9. Please raise a support request to arrange your LDS upgrade.

We are pleased to announce that Alto 5.8 is now available on general release to all customers.

You will find the release notices and supporting documentation for this release on the MySupport portal.

Please ensure that you download and read the relevant documentation for your operating system prior to downloading the installation package.

Key features within Alto 5.8 are:

• Interloan requests to the British Library’s BLDSS system can now be sent using Web Services, rather than ARTEmail.
• There is a new Borrower Notification rule type for informing borrowers that their reservation has been cancelled.
• A number of defects have been fixed throughout Alto.
• Authority and bibliographic MARC description files have been amended to include the latest MARC format updates.
• There are improved warnings in Circulation around issuing and renewing to borrowers whose registration has expired, and issuing to dates in the past.
• Obsolete ILL report codes can now be suppressed.

New versions of Assure and MarcService are included in this release and a new version of Local Data Services (LDS), version 2.1, is also available, which supports the new Borrower Notifications rule and the use of the new Inter-library loan functionality.  Please raise a support request to arrange your LDS upgrade.

We are pleased to announce that Alto 5.7 is now available on general release to all customers.

You will find the release notices and supporting documentation for this release on the MySupport portal.

Please ensure that you download and read the relevant documentation for your operating system prior to downloading the installation package.

Key features within Alto 5.7 are:

•     Sybase 16 is now supported
•     Scottish libraries no longer require a separate version of Alto in order to use the NEC smartcard
•     The Status field on item forms and lists now shows ‘On Loan’ or ‘In Transit’ when appropriate
•     It is now possible to set more than 255 location profiles and other values held in the TYPE_STATUS table
•    A new script allows the item ‘last seen’ date to be populated
•     Additional parameters have been added to Borrower Notifications for auto-renewal and borrower information notifications
•     A number of defects have been fixed
•     Authority and bibliographic MARC description files have been amended to include the latest MARC format updates.

New versions of Assure and MarcService are included in this release and a new version of Local Data Services (LDS), version 1.9, is also available.  Although Alto 5.7 will still work with LDS 1.8, the new version supports the new auto-renewal features in Borrower Notifications and many features within Soprano. Please raise a support request to arrange your LDS upgrade.

We are pleased to announce that Alto 5.6.1 is now available on general release to all customers.

You will find the Release Notices and supporting documentation for this release on the Customer Support Portal.

Please ensure that you download and read the relevant documentation for your operating system prior to downloading the installation wraps.

Key features within Alto 5.6.1 are:

• Borrower names and addresses containing Unicode characters can now be imported and displayed in Alto
• Alto user passwords are now subject to a more secure form of encryption
• Users can be prevented from reusing previous passwords
• You can configure the automatic renewal of loans about to become overdue, and inform the borrower
• A number of defects have been fixed
• Authority and bibliographic MARC description files have been amended to include the latest MARC format updates.

A new version of LDS (1.8) is required for this release.  When raising your support case for the LDS upgrade, please include the date when you are planning to upgrade your LMS, as this will allow us to schedule your LDS upgrade.