Open Fifth Koha & Aspen Discovery Development Updates – April 2026
Last updated on: 5th May 2026| 21st April 2026 | Open Fifth | Software development
Koha development highlights
1. Supplier side interlibrary loans support (ISO 18626 compliant)
This development implements an ILL Supply-Side (Lending) workflow in Koha, allowing the library to receive and manage incoming requests from other institutions. By adopting the ISO 18626 standard, Koha can now communicate with external ILL systems using a globally recognised protocol.
External agencies are managed within the existing ILL_PARTNER patron category, streamlining how partners are configured. This new workflow hooks directly into the Circulation module: when an ILL item is checked out or a hold placed, the lending request is automatically updated and a message sent out to the requesting agency. A new ILL Dashboard has also been added, providing a new home page to the interlibrary-loans module with easy access to both the borrowing and lending side.
Primary developer: Pedro Amorim
Sponsoring library: NHS England
Release: 26.05 ongoing into 26.11
Bugzilla – Bug 37762
2. Action logs consolidation and improvements
Koha’s action logs are immensely powerful, but they’re also a little difficult to read and they can be inconsistent in the detail they store. This work intends to improve that situation by carefully working through all the existing logging calls and ensuring they all populate the ‘diff’ field so we can clearly output what changed with the action that took place. We’ve improved the UI to better highlight the changes and we’ll be considering how to improve consistency in records for other actions as a next step.
Primary developer: Martin Renvoize
Sponsoring library: ByWater Solutions
Release information: 26.05 ongoing into 26.11
3. Authentication protocols feature synchronisation
We are in the process of migrating all the supported authentication protocols that Koha supports to the Identity Providers administration UI and as part of that we’re synchronising the functionality that each protocol currently supports in Koha.
We’ve re-written the UI as a modern Vue application and started by migrating Shibboleth/SAML2 configurations from the server side configuration file to the new UI. As part of this work we’ve added support for Welcome emails, Extended Patron Attribute Mapping and Hostname specific IdP allocation to the Identity Providers system. This brings the necessary features from Shibboleth/SAML into the fold for OAuth and OIDC authentications. The plan is to continue this work into the next cycle by adding CAS and eventually LDAP configurations into the staff client UI.
Primary developer: Jacob O’Mara started the work and Martin Renvoize continues it
Sponsoring library: ByWater Solutions
Release information: Shibboleth/SAML2 for 26.05, CAS and LDAP in 26.11
4. Circulation triggers UI for overdues (in Bugzilla as “Overdue notice triggers based on item type”)
This will modernise circulation triggers management for overdue notice and status, providing a new Vue.js-based administration page. Rule set visibility is enhanced to provide an exhaustive list of applied rules with clear indications of fallbacks/defaults, and navigation has been improved with the introduction of tabs for each trigger, various filtering options (libraries, patron categories, items types), and more! Configuring new circulation triggers will use a new stepper component which breaks it down into clear and easy steps. We are also including the ability to edit or reset rulesets and to delete triggers, while maintaining the sequentiality.
Primary developer: Martin Renvoize – backend and ongoing fixes, Matt Blenkinsop – initial UI work, and Chloé Zermatten – UI/UX improvements (features changes / redesign, code refactor).
Sponsoring library: City of Glasgow College and Glasgow Kelvin College, with essential input from George Harkins, Library Systems Analyst. Further sponsorship for refinement from ByWater Solutions.
Release information: Targeting 26.05 (currently Signed Off -> in QA)
Aspen Discovery development highlights
1. Koha patron self-renewals in Aspen Discovery
Libraries wishing to use Aspen Discovery as the main interface their patrons interact with and who would like to allow account renewal without needing to redirect users to the Koha OPAC will be able to do so. This development will allow patrons to use the Koha patron account renewal features via Aspen. All it will take is for library administrators to enable the feature in the Koha LMS as they normally would, then set Aspen to use the ‘ILS Card Renewal’ option. Self-renewals requested from the Aspen site will then be processed by the Koha LMS normally.
Note: this development is fully compatible with Koha patron extended attributes.
Primary developer: Chloé Zermatten
Sponsoring library: Bi-Borough Libraries & Archives (Westminster City Council and Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea)
Bi-Borough Library & Archives’ sponsorship is supported by LibraryOn using public funding by Arts Council England.
Release: With the Koha piece in the 26.05 Koha release, the Aspen development will be targeting either 26.06 or 26.07, so that version compatibility can be guaranteed
2. Aspen Discovery native events
In addition to the features mentioned in January:
Minimal LMS self registration form for libraries using the Koha LMS
- This identifies mandatory registration fields and creates a shorter library registration form only capturing this data. Visitors to the site who do not yet have an LMS account but are interested in attending events will easily be able to register to the library if they so wish, and then start using the Events registration features.
Customisable ‘Event’ registration fields
- Administrators were already able to create custom fields to display information on Events. We’ve built on top of this existing system to allow staff members to create a custom event registration form, so that libraries can capture the data they need.
Attendee categories
- Administrators will be able to create attendee categories, and, for each event, to cap the number of attendees per category per registration. This will allow for configuration such as “each patron who registers to our book club event can have up to two adults and three children accompanying them”.
Primary developer: Chloé Zermatten
Sponsoring library: Sefton Libraries, with essential testing from Lizzie Todd, Daniel Tumilty, Georgia Barwise and Ben Kelly.
Sefton Libraries’ sponsorship is supported by LibraryOn using public funding by Arts Council England.
Release information: 26.07 (TBC)
Previous posts
Open Fifth Koha & Aspen Discovery Development Updates – January 2026
Open Fifth Koha & Aspen Discovery Development Updates – November 2025
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