Library Technology Guides

Grove adds push notifications for account notices to LiDA for Sierra and Koha libraries, plus more than 70 additional enhancements to the Aspen 25.07 release.. Grove is pleased to announce contributions to the Aspen 25.07 release, featuring push notifications in Aspen LiDA for Koha and Sierra libraries, along with more than 70 additional enhancements across the Aspen Discovery platform. [Full Announcement].

ByWater Solutions strengthens Aspen Discovery contributions and opens the door for new development projects. Over the past 6 months, the ByWater Solutions development team has been hard at work enhancing Aspen Discovery, focusing on fixing bugs, improving performance, and contributing meaningfully to the open source community. As part of this effort, the company has been reviewing tickets related to the Aspen Discovery bugs and development requests, implementing fixes to partner-reported bugs that benefit the entire community. With a strong foundation now in place, our developers are expanding their focus, looking to collaborate with partners to enhance Aspen by adding new features and functionality. [Full Announcement].

Equinox welcomes Southeastern Libraries Cooperating to Evergreen ILS. Equinox Open Library Initiative, a trusted leader in open source technology development and support for libraries, announced that Southeastern Libraries Cooperating, a nonprofit library consortium in Minnesota, is live on Evergreen ILS and Aspen Discovery with Equinox support. SELCO is also supported by Equinox's partnerships with Unique Management Services for MessageBee SMS and Backstage Library Works' authority control services. [Full Announcement].

Grove adds Sideload functionality for consortia, improvements to LiDA Scan and Go, and more than 50 additional updates to the Aspen 25.06 release. Sideloads in Aspen give libraries the flexibility to manage eContent and other materials outside of their ILS while still displaying them in Aspen. Previously, any administrator with sideload permissions could access and manage all sideloads system-wide. This posed challenges for consortia aiming to delegate control of sideloads to individual member libraries. With Aspen 25.06, sideloads can now be managed at the library level within a consortium, empowering member libraries with greater autonomy and control over their own catalog content. [Full Announcement].

Walla Walla County Rural Library District is live on Koha and Aspen Discovery with ByWater Support. ByWater Solutions, America's forefront provider of Open Source library technology support, announced that the Walla Walla County Rural Library District in Washington is now live on the Koha ILS and Aspen Discovery with ByWater Support. ByWater Solutions completed the migration of over 31,500 bibliographic records providing the library with customized implementation and training for their open source solutions. [Full Announcement].

Grove adds improved user experience and performance for the Aspen LiDA App as part of more than fifty Grove contributions to Aspen 25.05. Responding to one of the most requested features from libraries, Grove has introduced a user-friendly interface in Aspen that allows librarians to easily customize LiDA's loading messages. This enhancement enables libraries to tailor messages to their specific needs or update them regularly, keeping the app fresh and engaging for patrons. In addition to this feature, Grove has implemented several quality-of-life improvements, including enhanced location search and sorting during patron login, along with performance upgrades informed by a recent performance study sponsored by the Minuteman Library Network. [Full Announcement].

Corona Public Library is Live on Aspen Discovery with ByWater Support. ByWater Solutions, an open-source community contributor and America's forefront provider of Open Source library technology support, announced today that the Corona Public Library in California is now live on Aspen Discovery with ByWater Support. The Corona Public Library is an existing ByWater partner using Koha and Libki. ByWater Solutions completed the implementation providing the library with customized implementation and training for their open-source solutions. [Full Announcement].

Grove announces the release of Aspen 25.04 with 75 improvements and enhancements for libraries. The Aspen 25.04 monthly release was truly a community achievement with 75 contributions from 17 developers from six different organizations. Enhancements covered more than two dozen different areas of Aspen. Among Grove's two dozen contributions are additional branding options for the LiDA app, updates on how records are searched and displayed, and working with the team at LibraryThing on an Aspen Talpa integration. [Full Announcement].

SWAN Library Services partners with Grove for hosting Aspen Discovery and Aspen LiDA. SWAN Library Services, which serves 100 public libraries in the Chicagoland area, is now hosting Aspen Discovery and Aspen LiDA with Grove for Libraries. With Grove's founders having over 25 years of collective experience developing and hosting with the Aspen codebase, they are the best positioned to provide both a stable and performant environment for Aspen, as well as continue the innovative development that SWAN and libraries like SWAN know is necessary to ensure patrons have the best experience possible using their library. [Full Announcement].

Cuyahoga Falls Library is live on Aspen Discovery with ByWater Support. ByWater Solutions, America's forefront provider of Open Source library technology support, announced that the Cuyahoga Falls Library in Ohio is now live on Aspen Discovery and ByWater Support. [Full Announcement].

Grove adds event functionality, series records, updates to web resources, and more to the Aspen 25.03 release. Aspen has always been about providing choice to libraries, and the 25.03 release includes multiple features that give libraries more options on what technologies they use and how information is presented to patrons. Grove will be presenting on all of these enhancements at the upcoming April 10th webinar, What's New in Aspen. [Full Announcement].

East Dunbartonshire Leisure and Culture partners with PTFS Europe to give residents better access to books and e-content. East Dunbartonshire Leisure and Culture has partnered with PTFS Europe to launch Aspen Discovery as its new library catalogue. Aspen Discovery is a web-based system that works on any device and provides easy access for library users to discover books, e-books, magazines, board games and more. Patrons can also renew items on loan, reserve items and find new content from library sources and external websites. PTFS Europe has implemented the new system and will provide ongoing hosting and support services to EDLC to ensure its success in supporting these collections into the future. [Full Announcement].

Grove adds local administrators to Aspen, increasing security options for all libraries using Aspen Discovery and Aspen LiDA. Grove for Libraries, Aspen's premier development, support, and hosting organization, announced the Aspen 25.02 release, which includes nearly 100 updates for Aspen libraries. [Full Announcement].

Equinox welcomes the Missouri Evergreen Consortium to Aspen Discovery. Equinox Open Library Initiative, a trusted leader in open source technology development and support for libraries, is pleased to announce that the Missouri Evergreen Consortium has selected Equinox to provide implementation, hosting, and support for Aspen Discovery. Equinox also provided project management, system configuration, and training for consortium members. [Full Announcement].

Grove adds new formats, support for multiple pickup locations at a branch, LiDA Updates, and more to the Aspen 25.01 Release. Libraries are constantly evolving in both the materials and services they offer to patrons, and it is crucial that library discovery software keeps up with these changes. Grove was pleased to partner with Aspen libraries to add several new formats to Aspen Discovery as well as support for Polaris Pickup Locations and display of volume information for holds in Aspen's app, LiDA. New formats for Aspen Discovery include support for Yoto Players, Toniebox Audio Players, and WhaZoodles from PlayAway. Support for these formats was developed with input and expertise from the Aspen Cataloger's Group. [Full Announcement].

Equinox designs children's theme for Aspen Discovery for Central Skagit Library District. Equinox Open Library Initiative, a trusted leader in open source technology development and support for libraries, is pleased to announce the release of a children's theme for Aspen Discovery designed for the Central Skagit Library District, a member of the Skagit Evergreen Libraries. [Full Announcement].

Grove adds a Year-In-Review feature (Spotify Wrapped for the Library!) and nearly 50 enhancements to the Aspen 24.12 Release. With the growing popularity of Year-In-Review features such as Spotify Wrapped, Grove organized a volunteer community initiative to develop Aspen's own Year-In-Review feature for libraries called 2024 Shelved! This year's stats include a patron's total number of checkouts, the money they saved by using the library, their top genres, top series, top author, and more. [Full Announcement].

Cooperative Information Network (CIN) is live on Aspen Discovery with ByWater Support. ByWater Solutions, an open-source community contributor and America's forefront provider of Open Source library technology support, announced that the Cooperative Information Network, a consortium of public, school, and special libraries in Eastern Washington and Idaho, is now live on Aspen Discovery with ByWater Support. ByWater Solutions completed the implementation providing the library with customized implementation for over 25 libraries and training for their open-source solutions. CIN is an existing ByWater Solutions Koha partner. [Full Announcement].

ByWater Solutions prioritizes Improving stability, scalability, and efficiency in Aspen Discovery. ByWater Solutions, an open-source community contributor and America's leading provider of Open-Source library technology announces their plans for upcoming contributions to the Aspen community code. For the past 5 years, ByWater has heavily invested in Aspen Discovery, enabling our team to focus on developing new features and ensuring that Aspen is the preeminent Discovery platform for libraries worldwide. As the Aspen community expands, ByWater will continue to work with partner libraries on developments and prioritize improving stability, scalability, and efficiency for our library and vendor partners utilizing and supporting this already amazing product. Our efforts will focus on increasing indexing speed, optimizing Aspen's use of the SOLR search engine, optimizing facets within the system regarding page loads, and much more. We are very excited to see so many new contributors to the community. We look forward to working with more libraries looking for a top-tier discovery platform at a price that fits any library budget. At ByWater, we believe transparency is the key to success. This is why we submit all the custom developments, tools, and documentation we create back to the Aspen community with no strings attached. [Full Announcement].

Grove adds access to even more library resources in Aspen Discovery and LiDA with the 24.11 Release. One of Aspen's primary goals is to be the single place to discover all of a library's resources and services. Grove furthered this goal in the 24.11 release by providing a way for libraries to offer access to more than one OverDrive collection for a single library, access to search CloudSource OA directly from Aspen, and support for the ILL platform SHAREit from Auto-Graphics. [Full Announcement].