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.

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

This release includes:

• Purchasing
  • Navigation
  • Invoice changes
  • Reservation alerts
  • Item Type on Order Items
  • Donations
  • Undo Receipt
  • Split subscription between multiple funds
  • Adjust Allocation
  • Purchasing fixes
• General
  • Re-styled footer: release notes, LDS version & report an incident
  • General fixes
• Circulation
  • Pick and Supply workflow
  • Borrower look-up in Issue and Reserve
  • Barcode validation in Create Borrower
  • Guarantor barcode check in Create Borrower
  • Borrower former barcode numbers
  • Borrower Interests and Analyses suppressed when no list of values
  • Renewals and renewing on Borrower Loans
  • Display the value of an Item
  • Circulation fixes

Purchasing

Navigation

If you move out of Purchasing to another area of Soprano, when you go back to Purchasing you will be taken to the sub-menu option you were previously in rather than to Orders by default.

Invoice changes

When you create an invoice there are additional fields for Net Amount (i.e. the amount payable minus tax) and VAT, which must be completed.

The amounts entered display in the totals section on the invoice page.

When you click the Add Invoice Line button, which requires Local Data Services (LDS) version 2.8.5 or higher, you see a reduced number of fields.

Data must be entered into each of the fields. Your Price should include discount, if any, and VAT should be entered as an amount or 0.00. There is an Add Invoice Charge button for adding charges. Net Amount is the invoice line total without tax and Amount Payable the total including any tax.

Please note: invoice lines for part orders (i.e. where the number of items invoiced is less than the number of items on the order) can be entered but they will produce an error when you try to pay the invoice.

When an invoice line displays, calculated values are in italics and a hyphen indicates that a value is not present in the database or cannot be calculated.

Soprano now warns you if there are cancelled or unreceipted items linked to an invoice.  When you display an existing invoice or add lines to a new invoice you will see the message ‘Checking invoice …’ next to the invoice totals, then an information box showing the results of the check.

Reservation alerts

You can now see if there are active or not yet effective reservations against the title on an order.

Clicking the button takes you to the Reservations tab for the work.

If the environment variable TAL_RES_ADD_ITEMS is set to YES, an item will be linked to existing reservations if appropriate when it is receipted. Please note that this is regardless of the status that the item is receipted to. If you receipt an item in Orders you can click the Item is reserved link to move to the Item page.

If the item is at Received status you will need to change its status to In Stock/Loanable to see the Process Reservation button.

Item Type on Order Items

There is a new Type column on the list of items on an order.

The column will be populated when you have LDS version 2.8.5 or higher.

Donations

When you add a new item there is now the option to record it as a donation.

This adds the message ‘Created as a donation’ to the item.

Undo Receipt

You can now unreceipt items at statuses other than Receipted provided they are not on loan or in transit and you are enabled to receipt items.  The Undo Receipt button displays on the Order and Item pages and when an item is receipted in Receipt Items.

Split subscription between multiple funds

You can now split the cost of an Open Order subscription between two or more funds.

Adjust Allocation

The Add Money and Transfer Money buttons on the fund page have been replaced by a single Adjust Allocation button

Clicking this brings up a new look Transfer page with the current fund in the Destination Fund field and a button for switching to the Add page.

Purchasing fixes

Display of funds on an order. Funds now display correctly when there are several copies on an order, each linked to a different fund the linked to different funds. Previously all the funds appeared against each copy with varying percentages.

Serials displaying as monographs. Some electronic resources previously displayed as monographs rather than serials with the result that the Orders tab displayed rather than Open Orders and the Add Item and Order Copies buttons appeared. These resources now display correctly.

Edit Order Supplier permission. The pencil control no longer displays on the Supplier page if you don’t have permission to edit a supplier.

Find a work to order. If you paste a standard identifier into the Search field, you no longer have to press Enter to initiate the search.

Official order number. When you click on the official order number in an order to retrieve all the orders with this number, the Order State filter is now set to All rather than Active and the search term is put in quotation marks.

Receipting in Resources. Previously an error message displayed when a user not enabled for Purchasing receipted an item in Resources, even though the receipt was successful. This has been fixed.

General

Re-styled footer: release notes, LDS version & report an incident

The footer elements are now displayed with more space in a horizontal arrangement under a line.

A new Release notes link takes you to the Soprano blog where you can read the latest and earlier release notices, so you don’t need to remember or save the link anywhere else.

A Request ID is displayed with a different value (a string of numbers and letters) on each page. This may be useful to give to Support when raising a case about an issue with Soprano.

Additionally, if you have the Utilities enablements, typically as a system manager, you will see the LDS version number and a notice about whether or not it is up to date – this is instead of a link to see the same information on a separate page. You will also see a Report an incident link, which generates an email in your email client to Capita Libraries Support with a subject line giving the Soprano page request number and the URL, and the beginning of a message giving your user name and the date and time. This allows you to raise or add to support cases by sending us details of an example of the problem.

General fixes

Search targets. BDSAllM21, LCAllM21 and NLMAllM21 are now being searched correctly when they are included in your list of Base search targets (specified in Cat. Auto Search Order in SetConfig).

Viewing Soprano on large monitors. We have adjusted the scaling of Soprano on extra wide screens (it changes when the window is greater than 1600px wide) to make sure text is readable on larger monitors.

Faceting on terms with non-alphanumeric characters. This fixes a problem where faceting was only using part of the selected term when it included some non-alphanumeric characters such as ampersand.

Navigate to Work Holdings as default. When you navigate to a Work from a borrower’s reservation the Work Holdings tab is now open by default instead of the Information tab.

Add Item fixed. We’ve fixed a problem in Soprano that was preventing items from being created. However, the problem may persist due to an issue in some recent versions of the Local Data Services that will be fixed in the next release (LDS 2.8.6).

Work Format: Book, PaperBack, Hardback. Soprano now assigns the correct format out of Book, Paperback and Hardback, depending on format designations found in ISBN fields in the MARC record.

Serial Holdings Summary completeness. In the Work header for a serial, all of the summary holdings statements for the current or selected site are now shown when there are more than one, rather than just one of them.

Circulation

Pick and Supply workflow

We have extended the workflow for picking and supplying items for reservations or stock rotation to include a step to deal with items not found, and we have added elements to connect the stages of the workflow into a cohesive whole.

The pages for each of the three workflow steps has a workflow line at the top, showing the steps in the workflow. The first step is either Pick Reservations or Pick Stock Rotations. The other two steps are Process Items and Process Unfound. You can click/tap a step in the line to move to the page for the selected step. There are also buttons at the foot of each page allowing you to move forward or back one step.

Information from each step is passed along the workflow. The Process Items page now has a count of picked items, which decrements with each item processed. The items shown in the new Process Unfound page are selected by deduction from the activity performed in the preceding two steps. The Pick List and the activity information stored from it is retained until you generate a fresh one of the same type from the Home page.

In the Pick Reservations list the Last Seen date of each available copy is displayed in the Next Location column. If it is recent then the item may be in a returns bin if not on the shelf.

The Unfound Items page lists individual items that were deemed available in the Pick List when:

• A request (i.e. a row in the Pick List) has been ignored (no button pressed in the Pick List and no item supplied (transited or satisfied) in Process Reservations).
• A request has been skipped (the Skip button was pressed in Pick Reservations)
• The Found button in the Pick List has been pressed on a request, but fewer times than the Required and Available counts – then all locally available items attached to the work are listed
• The number of items supplied for a title in Process Reservations is fewer than the Required and Available counts in the Pick List.

The Pick reserved items task is now available in Offline mode, when you already have a pick list in progress. This means that if you leave the pick list and subsequently when without connectivity you want to return to it, you can.

Borrower look-up in Issue and Reserve

In addition to barcodes, the Borrower input box in the Issue and Reserve pages now accepts non-barcode input and gives a list of search results in context. This means that if you don’t have the borrower’s barcode to scan, you can look them up using any of the criteria available in borrower search, including name, date of birth, email address, postcode or institution ID. A single match populates the field immediately; multiple matches display in a drop down selection list showing up to the first eight results, with a link giving you the option to view all results in the dedicated borrower search results page.

Barcode validation in Create Borrower

In the Create Borrower form the barcode you enter is now validated against your local validation rules when you submit the form. If the barcode is invalid then you get an error message overlay.

Guarantor barcode check in Create Borrower

In Create Borrower, if you enter a barcode in the Guarantor field that does not match a borrower, rather than getting a general error when you submit the form you now get an overlay error message telling you that ‘The guarantor barcode provided is not registered in the database’.

Borrower former barcode numbers

When you change a borrower’s number (by editing it in the borrower header form) the old number is now kept in the database and it remains searchable. When you search using a former number it finds the borrower and displays an amber alert banner at the top of the borrower page saying ‘This borrower was accessed using an out of date barcode {number}’.

In the borrower input field in Reserve Work and Issue Item you can enter a former number and the correct borrower (showing their current number) is displayed.

Borrower Interests and Analyses suppressed when no list of values

If your library has no values configured for Borrower Interest or Analysis then, in Borrower > Information, the corresponding Interests or Analyses field is not displayed.

Renewals and renewing on Borrower Loans

In order to display accurately labelled information we’ve changed the way seen and unseen renewals are presented and actioned in the Borrower Loans page. We’ve removed the Renew As Seen check box, which determined both the type of renewal performed by the Renew Selected button and the tally and limit displayed, because the tally and limit for the Seen setting actually relate to the total renewals. Now, you have buttons to Renew or Renew As Unseen, which apply to any loans marked as selected, and two columns for renewal information, Total and Unseen, each giving the tally and limit. When a tally equals or exceeds its limit then an amber label stating Max. reached is displayed.

Display the value of an Item

When the value of an Item’s Value field is greater than zero it now displays in the Item Header, helping you with charging a customer when they lose an item.

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 was released to the live service yesterday, 29th August.

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.

If you were unable to attend the Soprano Development Update webinar on Thursday 17th August or would like to review what we covered then you can catch up on the latest developments by watching the video of the webinar, below, or by downloading it.

The webinar demonstrates and discusses some of the developments included in the release that is now available for preview.

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

• Purchasing
  • Searching for a work to order
  • Searching for orders on the Orders page
  • Order State filter
  • Order notes and instructions
  • Open Order improvements
  • Aggregate funds
  • Funds summary
  • Other fund improvements
  • Supplier improvements
  • Purchasing fixes
• General
  • Item state information
  • Edit item barcode and shelfmark
  • Home site and shelfmark together in item header
  • Work and Item action buttons re-organised
  • Retaining your last search
  • Serial holdings summary
  • Name only in menus
  • ‘Update in progress’ indicator
  • LDS up-to-date check
• Circulation
  • Quick navigation between circulation tasks
  • Remove item from reservation shelf
  • Borrower search prompt text
  • Borrower email address validation
  • Create Borrower with no Department
  • Borrower reservation in transit
  • Circulation fixes

Purchasing

Searching for a work to order

When you click the Create Order button on the Orders page you have the option to search the local database and Base for a work to order or to create a work.  Improvements have been made to the search function so you can now search using keywords as an alternative to a standard identifier and in both cases get a set of records to choose from. Up to five records from the local database and ten records from Base will be displayed.

A keyword search needs to be as specific as possible for the best results.

Clicking the Select button on a local record or the Import button on a Base record brings up the Create Order form.

Searching for orders on the Orders page

Searching for orders has been improved so you can now

• Search for an official order number without having to use the ‘official’ qualifier
• Search by ISBN or other standard identifier
• Enter a partial order number or other reference number

• Carry out a keyword search.This retrieves the same records as a search in Resources, then displays the orders linked to the first record found so may be useful for exact title searches.

Order State filter

Complete has been added to the Filter by Order State list in Orders.

Order notes and instructions

You can now edit the Notes and Supplier Instructions fields on the Notes tab of an order.

Open Order improvements

There is a new Create Open Order button next to the search box on the Open Orders page.

Clicking this takes you to the Begin ordering page where you can search for a work or create one.

Aggregate funds

Base and Aggregate buttons have been added to the Create Fund form so that an aggregate fund can be created.

Clicking the Aggregate button brings up a field that enables member funds to be selected from a list. Currently only base funds can be added as members.

Member funds can be added and removed on the Members tab of an existing fund.

The Add Money and Transfer Money buttons no longer display on an aggregate fund and the list of funds you see when you click Add Money on a base fund no longer includes aggregates.

Funds summary

The new Funds Summary tab brings up a dashboard of fund information for the current financial year.

Charts on the left of the screen give overviews of spending and usage. On the right there are lists of funds based on levels of expenditure and options for selecting funds.

If funds are selected, they display in a list on the left of the screen, which can be sorted and searched.

Clicking on a fund in the list takes you to the fund record.

Other fund improvements

A fund’s name, expenditure code and notes can now be edited. Select the pencil control in the record header to bring up the edit form.

When money is transferred into or out of a fund, the commitment and expenditure limits are now adjusted automatically.

A Financial Year filter has been added to Funds. This displays the three most recent financial years specified in the database and defaults to the latest year.

Supplier improvements

The status of a supplier is now changed using a button rather than by editing the record.  This screenshot shows the buttons for making a closed supplier Active or Inactive.

The account code used by finance integration now displays on the Supplier page and is editable.

Purchasing fixes

Permission to cancel an order. The Cancel button no longer displays if you don’t have permission to edit orders.

Error on confirming an order. An error message now displays if required when you confirm an order on the list of orders. Previously the Confirm button disappeared without giving a message.

Receipting an order for an inactive supplier. This now displays a meaningful error message.

General

Item state information

More use is now made of the area in the item header between the description panel and the action buttons to give information about the state of the item, so that you can see at a glance anything that might affect what you do with the item. Exceptions are given in red or amber, replacing icons on the top left corner of the item cover image; other conditions are given in blue, as already seen for cases such as in transit. Item state information covers conditions such as: on loan, overdue, reserved, on the reservation shelf, has message/s (with a count of messages and a link to view them), Has Query (now amber rather than blue), in transit, rotation due, and has inter-library loan.

Where it’s helpful and feasible, some detail is included in the label indicating a particular condition. Cases include: a single reservation – the collection site name is given; the item is on the reservation shelf – the expiry date is given; a query – the reason is given; in transit – the destination site name is given. The full text of one forced message is displayed.

Item state alert icons are also given in the Item Description column in outcome rows for Issue, Renew and Return, where appropriate.

Edit item barcode and shelfmark

The barcode and the four elements of the shelfmark (Sequence, Size, Class and Suffix) are now included on the item edit form. The shelfmark fields require a forthcoming version of the Local Data Services (LDS).

This allows you to change the barcode number, for example when you’ve had to replace an unreadable barcode, and to change the shelfmark, for example to add one, to change a default, to correct an error or to reflect a move.

In the shelfmark you can select values (or leave no value) for Sequence and Size from menus of your defined values. In the Class number field when you type three or more characters an autocomplete list appears showing existing classification numbers beginning with your string, to help with consistent application of class numbers and so that you know when you add a new classification number to your library.

Home site and shelfmark together in item header

The shelfmark is now displayed following the home site in the item header.

Work and Item action buttons re-organised

The action buttons on the right of the header of entities such as works, items, funds and suppliers are now organised into groups with labels describing the areas they relate to. Button colour now serves to indicate main and other actions.

Retaining your last search

When your resources search query retrieves more than one result, Soprano now retains the query. When you select the Resources tab, instead of getting the Resources front page with Recent Activity, it re-plays your last search query giving you the first page of results with the query in the search box. This supports use cases where you want to act on more than one result from the same query, such as reserving similar works.

A new X button at the end of the search box allows you to clear the box and results, giving you the Recent Activity page with the cursor in the search box ready for your next query. The same can be done by selecting the Resources tab again. Alternatively you can remove the old query ‘manually’ and type a new query in the search box.

Serial holdings summary

Borrower email address validation

Email address input is now validated in Create Borrower and in Borrower > Information > Contacts. In the Borrower Create form if you enter an invalid email address then, on leaving the field, you are advised in red to ‘Please enter a valid email address’:

In Borrower > Information > Contacts when you add or update an email address if you enter an invalid address then when you save the change you get a lightbox overlay advising you to ‘Please enter a valid email address’:

Borrower reservation in transit

Borrower photo disappearing. Borrower photos now display correctly at all screen or browser window widths.