We’re pleased to announce that the latest release of Prism is available for you to preview.

This release includes:

• Take the Tour
• Options that enable users to update their contact details and view their communications
• Accelerated Reading information
• Integrated form to Join the library

Take the Tour
This provides a guided tour of the features of Prism. A new button enables you to begin the tour, which comprises a sequence of text bubbles overlaying your catalogue and pointing out the features and how to use them. Each bubble has a ‘Previous’ and ‘Next’ button allowing the user to move at their own pace. A bar at the top of the page tells you where you are in the tour and allows you to restart or close it.  You can try it in our demonstration tenancy.

To enable Take the Tour in your catalogue, edit or create a file called config.ini in the Theme section of your tenancy settings in the Admin Console. It goes in the base of the theme so you can update it as a single file without re-uploading the entire theme. It is also used for configuring the mobile interface. You can create and edit this file in Notepad or any other text editor; simply make sure it is saved with the .ini extension. For Take the Tour, include the following parameters, where {keyword} is the term to be used to show a search, and {bibID} is the bibID of the first result for that search.

[Tour]
tour_en-gb = /js/tour.en-gb.js
tour_item = {bibID}
tour_search = {keyword}

More advice on configuring and adapting Take the Tour is in preparation.

Contact Details
The previous release introduced the Contact Options tab in the user’s account area, switched on in the Admin Console by the ‘Enable contact preferences and history’ setting in the Overview section (you must also have ‘Enable borrower PINs’ set). This allows users to specify which notification methods they permit the library to use (Email, Voice message, Text message).

Now, under the same tab you can enable the display of an additional section, ‘Contact Details’. This is enabled via the Admin Console Overview section with the ‘Enable contact details editing’ setting. It allows the user to add, change or remove their email address (this is their default email address), their ‘Phone number for voice messages’ and their ‘Phone number for text messages’. These are the phone numbers that are set in Alto as ‘Use for Voice’ or ‘Use for Text’. In order to permit the library to actually use them, the user needs to tick the relevant contact method(s) and click the ‘Set options’ button in the top part of the page. When the user adds a new phone number it appears in Alto under an address name of either ‘Voice’ or ‘Text’ as appropriate. The user’s default postal address is displayed, but it cannot be edited – an option to edit this will be in a future release.

Communications
In the user’s account area a new tab, Communications, displays when enabled via the Admin Console Overview section with the ‘Enable contact preferences and history’ setting (you must also have ‘Enable borrower PINs’ set). Under the Communications tab the user sees a list of the communications that have been sent to them using the new Notifications system (in Alto 5.5 and the Admin Console). For each communication there is a description indicating the content, such as ‘Reservation waiting’ or ‘Items nearly due’, the method used to send the communication, such as ‘Email’, the date it was sent, and a ‘Download’ button allowing them to view and save the communication locally.

Charges: Amount Outstanding
Under the Charges tab in the user’s account area the column formerly headed ‘Amount’ is now headed ‘Amount Outstanding’. The value shown in each row is now the outstanding amount rather than the total amount. When part of a charge has been paid or waived, the user now knows how much they still owe the library.

Accelerated Reading
This option provides accelerated reading indicators, such as book and interest levels, as devised by Renaissance Learning and used in some schools. For more details please ask your Account Manager or email libraries-sales@capita.co.uk.

Join the Library
This Prism Pro feature provides an integrated form enabling people to register to join the library. A ‘Join’ link is added to the header links, taking the user to the form. For more details please ask your Account Manager or email libraries-sales@capita.co.uk.

Other inclusions

• Improved compatibility with screen reader software such as pre-ARIA versions of JAWS
• Fixed a bug where the Inter-library Loan request box displayed when no results from an advanced search and ILL is not enabled
• Fixed a bug where the Community Contributions panel was not displaying on Item Detail pages when Lists but not Tags are enabled

Making the most of your preview
This release is now available for you to preview. Please do make the most of this opportunity to gain familiarity with the new features and ensure that your tenancy still behaves as expected.

If you identify any issues with your styling please raise a Support case.

As with every release, please also ensure that your extensions continue to work correctly.

To preview this release, please precede your tenancy URL at the new domain name with ‘demo.’, like this: demo.capitadiscovery.co.uk/{your tenancy name}. If you have your own host name, you’ll need to use demo.capitadiscovery.co.uk instead.

Release to the live service
The release to the live service will be on Tuesday 26th November.

Comments and contact
If you have any comments, questions or suggestions please get in touch. You can comment here on the Prism blog, on the Prism forum and Prism Ideas or contact your Account Manager or the Prism team directly.