We’re pleased to announce that the version of Soprano that was in preview recently has been released to the live service this morning.

This release includes:

• General
  • Specify collections for search in Soprano
• Circulation
  • Circulation fixes

Details of the inclusions are given in the release notice.

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

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

This release includes:

• General
  • Specify collections for search in Soprano
• Circulation
  • Circulation fixes

General

Specify collections for search in Soprano

Now it is possible to specify collections to define the scope of the bibliographic data that is searched by Soprano.

Please raise a support case if you wish to specify collections for searching bibliographic data in Soprano.

 

Circulation

Circulation fixes

Scan not on loan items in Return items

When an item which is not on loan is scanned in ‘Return Items’, Soprano displays appropriate actions for the item.
e.g.

1. If the item is in transit to its home site, item will be taken out of transit.
2. If the item is in transit to satisfy a reservation, item will be taken out of transit and ‘Process Reservation’ button is displayed under Actions. 
3. If an item which is not on loan is scanned in at site other than its home site, provided Auto transit is set to True the item will be put into transit to its home site.
4. If an item has come off the reservation shelf it may belong elsewhere, you can scan the items in Return items to check for other reservations or if the item has to go back home.

Scan not on loan items in offline mode

When an item which is not on loan is scanned in during offline mode, Soprano treats it as a non-failure when synchronising after the connection is restored, and simply resumes the next transaction in queue.
Similarly, if an in-transit item is scanned in at its home site during offline mode, item is taken out of transit provided Auto transit is set.

 

Release Procedure

To preview this release

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

We’re pleased to announce that the version of Soprano that was in preview recently has been released to the live service this morning.

This release includes:

• Inter-Library Loans
  • Delivery Options for BLDSS requests
•  Purchasing
  • More information in Receipt Item
• Circulation
  • Circulation fixes

Details of the inclusions are given in the release notice.

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

 

 

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

This release includes:

• Inter-Library Loans
  • Delivery Options for BLDSS requests
•  Purchasing
  • More information in Receipt Item

• Circulation
  • Circulation fixes

 

Inter-Library Loans

Delivery options for BLDSS requests

When verifying a pending request where the supplier is the British Library Document Supply Service (BLDSS) configured with request method BLDSS Web, Soprano now allows you to specify three delivery options: Format, Speed and Quality.

 

Purchasing

More information in Receipt Item

When you receipt an item that was on order, the information displayed now includes Shelfmark and Item Type.

 

Circulation

Circulation fixes

Borrower lookup in Issue Items.  We’ve fixed problems with looking up borrowers in Issue Items by Institution ID, Date of Birth and Postcode, and in cases where there are multiple matches.

 

Return an item that has a message.  Soprano no longer requires you to have permission to set a manual return date in order to return an item from loan when it has a message.

Don’t pay a charge twice on double click.  When paying a charge against a borrower, if you keep clicking the Pay button Soprano will now register the payment only once.

Borrower contact publicity preference.  Under Borrower > Contact Details, in the Contact Preferences section, the check box formerly labelled as relating to marketing messages is now labelled: would like library publicity messages.

Count of reservations on an item.  The alert that displays on the item detail page when the item is reserved now shows the correct number of reservations even when it is greater than 10.

 

Release Procedure

 To preview this release

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

 

 

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

This release includes:

• Inter-Library Loans
  • Review and verify ILL requests
• General
  • Create Work with format Microform
  • Last copy warning
  • General fixes
•  Purchasing
  • Purchasing fixes

• Circulation
  • Circulation fixes

 

Inter-Library Loans

Review and verify ILL requests

The Home page already provides links to your inter-library loans records, subject to your operator permissions: Manage ILL Requests displays the full list of requests; Process unverified requests displays the list filtered to unverified requests.

The list tells you the status of each request and whether it is verified. Selecting an unverified request now takes you into the Verify Interloan workflow, at the first of two steps: Check Metadata. Here you can edit any of the bibliographic metadata fields and save your changes.

Pressing Save takes you to the last step, Confirm Fulfilment. Here you can amend the details of the request such as the supplier, the delivery type  and the delivery site, selecting values for each from drop-down menus. You can also add a note to the supplier.

Pressing Save takes you back to the list. Your request is now verified, at status Pending, and it will be automatically sent to the supplier according to the Request Method you have set for the supplier. You can view your ILL supplier records under Purchasing > Suppliers, using the scope filter.

In the Request Detail page the Create date and Last Useful date of the request are now displayed in the header instead of under the Fulfilment tab, together with the date requested when it reaches that status, and the date and number of the last report. The borrower information in the header now includes their Type and their  active interloans tally and limit. More of the requested title is displayed, with line wrapping where needed. On verified requests whilst the status is Pending an Un-Verify button is now provided.

Request History and Supplier Reports are now shown in a single time-line under the Fulfilment tab on a Request; the History tab has been removed. The various fulfilment data elements are now grouped in Supplier,  Delivery and Loan Information sections rather than in multiple other sections.

 

General

Create Work with format Microform

In Create Work the Format drop down menu now includes Microform as an option.

 

Last copy warning

When you change the status of an item in the Item header from In stock to an inactive status such as Withdrawn, and there are no other active status items attached to the Work, an amber message displays at the top of the Item description panel in the header when you save the change, telling you: Item was last copy for this work and was moved to an inactive status.

The same occurs in Update Item Status when you scan the barcode of the last active item for a work to change it to an inactive status.

 

General fixes

Sequence and Size lists in name order. The menus of Sequence and Size in the Item header as part of the shelfmark are now listed in name order rather than code order.

Pick Reserved Items – Process Unfound. It is no longer necessary to tick items as found on the pick list to prevent them from appearing in the Process Unfound list. This will mean a more accurate list in Process Unfound for those who print the list to take to the shelves, then scan picked items to transit or satisfy.

 

Purchasing

Purchasing fixes

Copy Order with multiple items and funds. Copying an order that has multiple items with different funds now correctly preserves the item-fund relationship.

Create Supplier. Soprano no longer goes offline when you create a new supplier.

Transfer all money out of a fund. You can now transfer all of the money out of a fund, rather than only up to one penny less – you are no longer stopped by an erroneous warning that the transfer would set the allocation under 0.

 

Circulation

Ciculation fixes

Borrower Search results – Borrower Type. A Type column no longer displays in Borrower search results. The Borrower Type is displayed under the borrower’s name.

Transit item for reservation when multiple reservations. When an item is in transit for a reservation and there are other active reservations against the item, the list under the Item Reservations tab now displays the In Transit label only against the correct reservation rather than all the reservations.

 

Release Procedure

 To preview this release

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

 

 

 

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.

We’re pleased to announce that the version of Soprano that was in preview recently has been released to the live service on Thursday 30th November.

Details of the inclusions are given in the release notice and the supplementary notice.

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

This post supplements the release notice of 23rd November to tell you about more features that are included in the version of Soprano that is currently available in preview.

Deferred reservation. The Reserve a Work page now includes the option to set an Effective date (the date on which the reservation will become Active). An ‘Effective’ off/on toggle at the top of the Reserve a Work page allows you to switch on the option and set a deferred effective date. This requires a recent LDS version – if you do not see it, please request an LDS upgrade.

Reservation rules. With this release Soprano uses newer web services in the LDS, which use your configured Circulation > Reservation rules rather than OPAC > Borrower Reservations.

Order Summary changes. The Order Summary now includes Order Method and Price per Copy, and no longer shows Priority. When the priority is one of the two highest then it is displayed in a label at the top of the header.

The Release Procedure described in the release notice of 23rd November continues to apply, giving details of how to access the preview and when the new version will be released to the live service.

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

This release includes:

• Circulation
  • Scheduled down time
  • Item Sets developments
  • Borrower number update validation
  • Circulation fixes
•  Purchasing
  • Editing an Order
• General
  • General fixes

 

Circulation

Scheduled down time

Sometimes a library needs to operate in offline mode when extended work is being done on the local database, typically during the data migration phase for a library implementing Soprano as a new system.

Each instance (i.e. tenancy) of Soprano now has a switch to make it operate in offline mode. When this switch is on, if you have connectivity to your local database, you can sign in as normal and then Soprano will offer you the offline options. The 48 hour limit on the offline application does not apply when this switch is on.

 

Item Sets developments

This release includes a number of developments for the management of item sets, which can be used for managing schools project boxes.

In Create Work you can now add intended audience information expressed as minimum and maximum age and National Curriculum Key Stage. These are stored in the created MARC record in instances of field 521. These are chiefly to support project boxes for schools.

The information displayed under the Contents tab on the Item for the set is now more relevant to the item set context. For each content item the following elements are displayed: a cover image and bibliographic description together with the item number, any age range and key stage information from the item’s work record, the shelfmark of the item, and a button to remove the item from the set.

When you return a set content item and press the Confirm button to acknowledge that it will also return the set item, Soprano no longer returns all of the set items. Now, any other items in the set remain on loan. The return transaction row gives a button enabling navigation to the set item.

On the set item a red state label alerts you that some items are on loan and those items are highlighted in the Contents list.

The new Remove from Set button allows you to remove content items:

• when the set is not on loan, for example items remaining on loan, so that you can issue the set again
• when the set is on loan, for example to exclude items from return when you return the set.

A confirmation of removal is displayed at the top of the set item page.

The removed item is also automatically given a message stating the name of the set of which it was formerly a member. When you visit that item’s page, the header shows that message and a concomitant button enabling you to add the item back to the set, which you might do when it is returned from loan.

You can no longer add an item to a set when the set is on loan – the Add Item To Set box is suppressed.

 

Borrower number update validation

Your local barcode validation rules are now applied when you change a borrower’s library ID number. If you enter the new number in an invalid format Soprano displays an alert disallowing the change.

After a successful update to a borrower’s number you can access the borrower record using either new or old number – searching by former borrower number was introduced in the last release.

 

Circulation fixes

Borrower Contact form close buttons. The tick and cross controls to save or cancel changes in the Borrower Contacts form are now displayed together as buttons, making it easier to see them and to tap on a touch-screen device.

Opening notification documents. We’ve fixed a problem where some borrower notification documents could not be opened to be viewed in full. This is under Borrower > Notifications where you have selected an item from the list to view the details and a content preview: the Open Full Document button now works in cases where it wasn’t working previously, to display the full formatted document.

Query Type Missing in Process Unfound. Process Unfound was introduced in the last release, allowing you to mark as missing items that were not found at the end of the pick and supply workflow – a button allows you to add a Query with Type Missing. The Query Type code that is assigned is now the standard code for the Missing type (‘MISS’) by default, and it can be changed, if required, as a configuration setting in your Soprano tenancy.

IE9 Issue Item borrower look-up. This fixes a problem in Internet Explorer version 9 when looking up a borrower in Issue Item after a failed borrower look-up.

 

Purchasing

Editing an Order

It is now possible to edit Price, Currency, Official Order Number and Item Details on a non-EDI order that is at Order Pending status (state Waiting to be processed). There is also an Add New Order Item button for adding extra copies.

The item(s) on a non-EDI order that has been sent can be edited but not any other information.

 

General

General fixes

Treating a work as a serial. Soprano no longer gives serial display treatment to some non-serials, such as monographs where the format is only the general ‘Electronic resource’.

Adding an Item Note. When you add or change an Item Note your new note displays as soon as you save the form.

 

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.

 

We’re pleased to announce that the version of Soprano that has been in preview recently has been released to the live service this morning.

Details of the inclusions are given in the release notice on the Soprano blog.

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