We’re pleased to announce that the next release of Soprano is now available for preview.

This release includes:

• Item Query
• Search for borrower by institution ID
• Inter-library loans lists most recent first
• Reservations Pick List sort order
• Funds fixes
• Performance improvements

 

Item Query

This feature becomes available with LDS version 2.4 and higher. LDS version 2.4 is now available – please open a Support case to request your upgrade.

You can now open, view, edit and close queries on items, subject to appropriate enablements.

To open a new query on an item a new button OPEN QUERY is provided in the Item header. It opens a form enabling you to select the query type and optionally enter a note.

When the query is saved the item status is automatically changed to Query.  The query is displayed as the item state in the item header, with the option (pencil control) to edit it. If you have the environment variable (in Alto SetConfig) TAL_QUERY_FINESTOP=YES then any potential fine is fixed by storing it with the query details.

In the work holdings list the STATUS and AVAILABILITY columns indicate the presence of the query.

When an Item with a query is not on loan you can close the query with a CLOSE QUERY button.

In Return Items when you return an item with a query the transaction outcome displays an action button CLOSE QUERY, indicating the presence of the query and taking you to the Item Detail page where you can view more detail about the query and close it. The message in the return item transaction outcome tells you of any fine due, including a fine that has been stored with the query.

 

Search for borrower by institution ID

You can now retrieve a borrower’s details by searching with their institution ID. This is in addition to the existing ways of searching  for a borrower, by name, barcode, postcode, date of birth and email address.

 

Inter-library loans lists most recent first

In the Inter-library loans module, accessed via Tasks, lists of ILLs (all, or filtered) are now sorted with the most recent first.

 

Reservations Pick List sort order

We’ve overhauled the sorting of items by shelfmark in the Reservations Pick List and this fixes an issue with the sorting of a shelfmark with a class number that has no decimal places relative to those with the same number with decimal places.

 

Funds fixes

Some issues with funds are fixed in this release:

• Action buttons (Add Money, Transfer Money, View Orders, View Open Orders) now display when the Transfers tab is selected on a fund
  
• When transferring money between funds the Allocation amounts now always show two decimal places.

• When you press the button to Add Money to a fund, the fund you were viewing is now automatically selected from the drop down list of funds.

 

Performance improvements

We’ve made some performance improvements in loading the Orders page under Purchasing, and in the Tills area.

 

Local Data Services (LDS)

To benefit from the features in this and the previous release you will need the latest version of the Local Data Services (LDS), which is now 2.4. That, in turn, requires that you have Alto 5.8. If you need to upgrade, please open a Support case. Please note that Soprano will cease support for LDS 1.x soon.

 

To preview this release

You can preview this release by inserting ‘-demo’ into your tenancy URL after the word ‘soprano’: https://soprano-demo.librarymanagementcloud.co.uk/{your tenancy name}. Please remember that it accesses your live data.

 

Release to the live service

This version of Soprano will be released to the live service on Thursday 21st July 2016.

 

Comments and contact

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions please get in touch. You can comment here on the blog, in the Soprano Forum, or contact your Account Manager. To suggest and discuss additional features there is the Soprano Ideas Forum.