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

This release includes:

• Circulation
  • Borrower contact preferences
  • Borrower Institution ID create and edit
  • Borrower Profile and Recommendations combined page
  • Print the offline transaction queue log
  • Overdue alert potential fine
  • Print transit slip in Return Items
  • Reservation rules
  • Borrower name display when satisfying a reservation
  • Borrower last edit information
  • ILL quotas
  • Circulation fixes
•  Purchasing
  • Multiple funds on an order
• General
  • General fixes

 

Circulation

Borrower contact preferences

You can now view and edit a borrower’s preferences for how and why they would like to be contacted, and you can record preferences as you register new users in the Create Borrower form.

The Borrower page has a new tab, Contact Details, for all contact details including preferences. The contact details have moved from the Information tab, which has a link below the Membership section to the new Contact Details tab.

The Contact Preferences section displays:

• contact methods that are in use (as configured in LMS configuration settings Parameter Management > Names > Notifications > Delivery methods)
• reasons for contact (routine, marketing and ad hoc).

Methods and reasons that cannot be changed are displayed faded. The post method and ad hoc reason can never be changed; others reflect configuration settings in Parameter Management > Rules >  Notifications.  All are displayed with check boxes, so each method and reason is either ticked or not, showing the borrower’s current preference or the default for those that cannot be changed.

The Create Borrower form has a new Contact Preferences section at the end.

This includes the methods and reasons that are generally amendable and by default are treated as not wanted by the user.

 

Borrower Institution ID create and edit

When Show Borrower Institution ID is enabled in the Admin Console (in the Interface section), you can now add an institution ID in a new field on the Create Borrower form.

Similarly, you can add or edit an institution ID on an existing borrower in a new field in the Borrower header edit form.

 

Borrower Profile and Recommendations combined page

We’ve removed the Borrower Profile tab and put its contents under the Recommendations tab, to bring together related information.

 

Print the offline transaction queue log

If you have a queue of unsynchronised offline transactions due to one or more that cannot update, you now have the option to print the queue. With the Synchronise modal open, your browser print button or Ctrl+P will give you a formatted print of the complete list of transactions.

 

Overdue alert potential fine

The borrower card in Issue, Renew and Return includes a red alert label when the borrower has overdue loans. This now includes the potential fine in parentheses, enabling you at a glance to give more specific advice to the user.

 

Print transit slip in Return Items

When a returned item is automatically put in transit to its home site, you now have a Print Slip button in the action column to print a transit slip.

 

Reservation rules

When you have LDS version 2.8.12 or higher, Soprano now uses newer web services in the LDS, which use your configured Circulation > Reservation rules rather than OPAC > Borrower Reservations. LDS 2.8.12 is now available. To request an upgrade to your LDS, please open a Support case.

 

Borrower name display when satisfying a reservation

In Process Items when you scan an item and press the Satisfy button, the success outcome notice now includes the name of the borrower after their barcode number. This may be useful when you need to write a reservation slip rather than print one.

 

Borrower last edit information

At the top of the borrower page a label tells you by whom and when the borrower was last edited.

 

ILL quotas

The ILLs tab on a borrower record now shows how many requests the borrower is entitled to.

The Active filter shows the number of active requests and the active limit. The All filter shows the borrower’s total number of requests to date and the total they are allowed.

 

Circulation fixes

Edit Borrower Contact point – Label list filtered. When you edit a contact point for a borrower such as a phone number, the list of labels that you can assign is now filtered to exclude any that are already used in contact points of the same type for this borrower, ensuring that you cannot duplicate them.

Limited access sites and borrowers from another site. When you are signed in to a Limited Access Site, if you enter a borrower whose Home site is elsewhere in the borrower search box on either the Home page or the Borrower page, you now get a message telling you that you cannot access that information, rather than getting the offline options.

Ad hoc notification content preview. The content preview now displays when you select an ad hoc notification under Borrower > Notifications, as it already does for other types of notification.

Borrower name search. You can now search with borrower names that contain an apostrophe without enclosing them in double quotes; for example, o’sullivan.

We’ve added some tips on searching for names below the search box on the Borrowers start page.

We’ve also added postcode to the list that displays in the search box as a hint about the data types you can use in borrower search. It can be useful to combine post code with the name of the borrower to find the right one with a common name.

Borrower search by NEC card on the Home page. When using the Soprano Wrapper for windows, the Find Borrowers box on the Home page now reisters the borrower number when you scan a borrower’s NEC smartcard, bringing behaviour in line with the search box on the Borrowers page.

Reservation display where copies on order. The label copy ordered rather than copy available at branch is now displayed under Work > Reservations for an active reservation where the only items whose home site is the reservation collection site are on order.

Pick reserved items list build performance. We have made some performance improvements which should mean that lists are generated more quickly.

Return Item not on loan: alerts & actions. In Return Items when the item is not on loan you now get appropriate notices, and options in the Actions column, such as the Process Reservation button when the item is reserved.

Borrower address update. We’ve fixed a problem where, for some borrowers’ addresses, an attempt to update was getting an error message.

Closing pop ups in IE11. We’ve fixed a problem where, in Internet Explorer 11, sometimes the X to close a pop up box did not work, such as to Pay a borrower’s charges.

 

Purchasing

Multiple funds on an order

The Create Order form now allows you to specify a fund for each copy ordered.

 

General

General fixes

Inter-Library Loans filters re-organised. We’ve re-organised the filter and search options at the top of the Inter Library Loans list page to improve their usability. When you select a status filter or press one of the Show Only buttons it is applied immediately.

 

Release Procedure

 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.