In your upgrade to Aspen 26_Q1
Last updated on: 13th April 2026| 25th March 2026 | Aude Charillon | Aspen Discovery
What’s new since version 25.Q4
Here are our highlights from the new features to look out for after your upgrade. We tend to include the new features we think will be most useful for library teams while leaving aside the bug fixes!
- To view everything that’s new, check out the full release notes for each version on the old Aspen Help Centre site. Use the “Select a release” dropdown to view notes for each version.
- To watch demonstrations of some of these new features, we recommend checking the Aspen Community Gathering agendas for Octover, November and December 2025 for links to videos, usually under the first agenda item. You can also check our own What’s On Our Mind.
- In these notes, click on the DIS number to view the original enhancement report on the Aspen community Jira site.
Contents
Administration
Permissions by role [DIS-1561, 25.11]
This new page provides an “at-a-glance” view of permissions within each role, displayed in a table.
New setting: System Administration > Permissions by Role
How it works: see Aspen Help Centre
Display location on map using library address [DIS-1338, 25.11]
Developed by Open Fifth
In the Library hours and locations, it is possible to display the location of the library on a map. Previously, this could only be done by using the Address Latitude and Address Longitude fields. Now, you can instead rely on the Address field by ticking “Use Library Name for Google Maps”.
New setting: Primary Configuration > Locations > Use Library Name for Google Maps
Lock elements for editing [DIS-1665, 25.12]
Aspen already allows you to lock fields within settings, to block users without full permissions from editing them. Now, you can lock a whole Aspen element or “record”.
- Elements that can be locked are: Audiences, Basic Pages, Browse Categories, Browse Category Groups, Categories, Custom Forms, Custom Pages, Custom Web Resources Pages, Email Templates, Grapes Pages, Images, JavaScript Snippets, Layout Settings, PDFs, Placards, Quick Polls, System Messages, Themes, Web Resources and Year In Review.
- For users with permission to lock records, a Lock/Unlock button will display at the top of all Edit pages. For users without permission, a message will be displayed at the top of all locked elements stating that the record cannot be edited; all fields will be read-only and the element cannot be deleted.
New Permission: Lock Administration Records – Allows the user to lock administration records and change locked records.
Look and feel
Enhancements for dark mode themes [DIS-1230, 25.10]
When creating a new dark mode theme, you can enable base CSS enhancements to improve the way the dark colours are applied across the site.
New setting: Theme & Layout > Themes > [edit or add new] > Dark Mode Theme
Allow soft-deletion of themes [DIS-1463, 25.11]
Themes can now be soft-deleted; and restored through System Administration > Object Restorations.
Accessibility updates [DIS-1445 and DIS-325, 25.11]
Added missing top-level headings, fixed heading order and ARIA issues, improved keyboard navigation.
Make sub-menus more obvious [DIS-1431, 25.11]
In the header menu, if a link has a sub-menu an “arrow down” icon is now displayed as a visual cue.
Translate with Google Translate API [DIS-1502, 25.11]
For libraries that offer languages other than English, there is now an option to use the Google Translate API to provide default translations for terms that have not yet been translated by library staff.
- If a term has been translated by Google, it will display in yellow in Translation mode.
- Terms that are marked as metadata will not be translated using the Google Translate API.
New setting: Third Party Settings > Google API Settings > Google Translate Key
How it works: see Aspen Help Centre
Promoting collections and services
Event reports [DIS-1336 and DIS-1331, 25.10]
The Events > Event Reports page now offers the option to group by total hours for each event type and/or event location.
If some events should appear in the events calendar but not be included in Event reports (e.g. library closures) untick “Include In Reports” for that event type.
New setting: Events > Event types > [edit] > Include in Reports?
How it works: see Aspen Help Centre
Event calendar [DIS-1343, 25.10; DIS-1532 and DIS-1449, 25.11]
A new “Print options” button on the calendar allows you to print a list of your events either in calendar view (landscape) or agenda view (portrait).
In Events > Calendar Display Settings, new options allow you to choose which information to display on the online calendar and the print versions. This information can include: event location, room, description, custom event fields.
Calendar Display Settings can be defined per library system.
How it works: see Calendar Display Settings and Print event calendars on the Aspen Help Centre
Events to include [DIS-1448, 25.11]
If you have more than one library system, you can now define which Events should be searched for each library system. Options are: “All events at all locations” and “Events that occur at one of this library’s locations”.
New Setting: Library Systems > Events > Aspen Events to Include
How it works: see Aspen Help Centre
Rename section in Events module [DIS-1448, 25.11]
In the Events module, “Aspen Events Settings” has been renamed “Indexing Settings”.
Search experience
Choose edition when placing a reservation [DIS-1312, 25.10]
Currently, to place a reservation on a specific edition of a title from the grouped work record, you first need to click “Show edition”. This opens the list of individual records, each with their own “Place hold” button. The new Prompt for Edition when Placing Holds setting will be useful for users who are not using “Show edition” and only use “Place hold” on the grouped work record. They will be prompted to choose a specific edition after clicking “Place hold” from the grouped work record.
New setting: Primary Configuration > Library Systems > ILS/Account Integration > Holds > Prompt for Edition when Placing Holds?
Lists sorting and filtering options [DIS-1161, 25.10]
New format filtering option: when a format is chosen, only record manifestations corresponding to that format display in the list.
New sorting options:
- Publication date (oldest first) and Publication date (newest first). Entries with invalid years are listed at the end.
- Call Number: sorts records by call number then shelf location and places other record types at the bottom.
- Availability (available first) and Availability (unavailable first): sorts by total number of available or unavailable copies, respectively.
- Number of copies (most first) and Number of copies (least first): sorts by total number of copies across all items within a grouped work.
Automatically interpret searches to see if facets should be applied [DIS-1474, 25.11]
This may be useful to your users if they tend to include in their keyword searches formats or other record elements usually dealt with by facet filtering, e.g. “harry potter film”, “children books about science”, “new audiobooks”… The new Search interpreter will match terms to facet filters – e.g. the search “keyword = children books about space” becomes “keyword = science; format = children book” – in order to show relevant results quicker.
The Search interpreter settings include: terms and elements to skip; formats; format categories; audiences; form (fiction / non-fiction); availability; new publications.
New settings: Catalog / Grouped Works > Search Interpreter; Primary Configuration > Library Systems > Searching > Enable Search Interpreter
How it works: see Aspen Help Centre
Placards: give priority to specific trigger over broader term [DIS-1644, 25.12]
Updates the placard matching algorithm to ensure the most relevant placard is selected when multiple trigger words could apply. For example, a search on “union lead” will now cause the placard with trigger “union leader” to display over another placard with trigger “lead”.
Publication date in Summon search results [DIS-1704, 26.01]
Developed by Open Fifth
For libraries using the Summon integration, the publication date now displays in the results. The search results list can also be sorted by publication date.
Record display
MARC fields 100$d and 246 displayed on record [DIS-1617 and DIS-1618, 25.12]
The dates associated with a name – from MARC subfield 100$d – will now appear as part of the author information. Varying forms of the title – from MARC field 246 – will be displayed under the More details block.
Show item barcodes [DIS-299, 25.11]
You can now display item barcodes in the Copies block of the record.
New setting: Catalog / Grouped Works > Grouped Work Display > Full Record Display > Show Item Barcodes
Show all formats’ options on smaller screens [DIS-1470, 25.11]
On smaller screens like mobile phones, the list of formats on grouped records is collapsed by default. To show all formats with their “Place hold” buttons, untick the new setting “Hide Manifestations in Mobile View”.
New setting: Catalog / Grouped Works > Grouped Work Display > Format and Edition Display > Hide Manifestations in Mobile View
How it works: see Aspen Help Centre
Display OverDrive accessibility statements for EPUBs (DIS-1085, 25.10]
OverDrive provides publishers’ accessibility statements for EPUB content on their website. These can be made visible in Aspen using a block in the Full record options with Source “Accessibility Statements (OverDrive)” .
New Setting: Grouped Work Display Settings > Full Record Display > Accessibility Statements (OverDrive)
Display copies with specified shelving locations at the top [DIS-1662, 25.12]
Shelving locations can be prioritized so items at those locations appear at the top of the list of copies.
New setting: Catalog / Grouped Works > Grouped Work Display > [edit] > Full Record Display > Prioritized Shelf Locations
How it works: see Aspen Help Centre
Sort eContent sources within a grouped work [DIS-1380, 25.10]
If you have several sources of eContent, the order they are listed on the records can now be customised. There is also an option for sources with an available item to be listed first.
If some eContent sources are not listed in the eContent sorting setting, they will be listed alphabetically after sources that are explicitly specified.
New settings: Catalog / Grouped Works > eContent Sorting; Catalog / Grouped Works > Grouped Work Display > Format and Edition Display > eContent Sorting
How it works: see Aspen Help Centre
Record grouping
Create custom grouped works ([DIS-843, 25.11]
Use this feature to create your own groups of records: give the new group a title and select which records should be part of it. Once the catalogue indexer has run, you will be able to find your new grouped record in the search. From the new record, adjust your grouped work’s title, author, and description using “Set Display Info”.
New settings: Catalog/Grouped Works > Manual Grouped Works; Record Staff View > Set Display Info
How it works: see Aspen Help Centre
Override automatic record grouping [DIS-1503, 25.11]
You can now manually override the automatic record grouping algorithm and force specific records to remain in specific grouped works, regardless of how the title, author, or other metadata would normally group them.
New settings: Record Staff View > Grouping Options > Move Record; Catalog/Grouped Works > Record Grouping Overrides
How it works: see Aspen Help Centre
Aspen LiDA
Usage statistics: count number of app launches [DIS-1550 and DIS-1508, 25.12]
Sponsored by East Dunbartonshire Libraries, developed by Open Fifth
Aspen now counts the number of times the LiDA app is launched and brought back to the foreground by a user already logged in at your library.
This gives more detailed insights into LiDA use than the existing loginToLiDA count, which only updates when users login.
New statistics: System Reports > API Usage Dashboard > trackAppLaunches; System Reports > API Usage Dashboard > trackAppResume
