Release date: April 2024

Summary: This release introduces 7 new features, 4 enhancements/improvements and 8 bug fixes.

New features

Ability to configure the maximum number of active requests a patron can have

• A new setting in Settings>Resource Sharing>Request Defaults titled ‘Maximum active requests per patron' allows a tenant to specify the maximum number of active requests their patrons can have at a given time, regardless of patron type. Active requests include any requests up until they are marked returned by patron in ReShare. If a patron exceeds their maximum amount of active requests, tenants can configure a notification policy and template to let patrons know that their request was automatically cancelled for this reason.

• The default setting will be “no current value,” indicating that no maximum is set.

NCIP Request Item / Cancel Request Item message has been added to the list of supported NCIP messages in ReShare

• The Request Item message has been added to the list of NCIP messages supported by ReShare. If enabled, ReShare will check to see if the item being requested is checked in and on the shelf at the current lender being checked and if so will send the Request Item message to the lenders ILS system. This creates a title level page/hold for the institutional patron id configured for the borrowing library (the same institutional patron id used to do NCIP Check Out Item against).

• If the Request Item message is successful, the request is moved directly to the ‘Searching’ state in ReShare instead of ‘Awaiting pull slip printing’ as the pull list for requests will be generated from the ILS’s hold pull list instead.

• For Horizon, if a request is marked ‘Cannot supply' by the lender or ‘Cancelled’ by the borrowing library before the request is filled, a Cancel Request Item message will be sent to remove the hold/page from the holds pull list in Horizon.

• A new setting in Settings>Resource Sharing>Local NCIP settings called NCIP Request Item Pickup Location Code has been added for Sierra libraries to allow them to specify the specific ILL pickup location code to be assigned to title level pages.

• The Request Item message has been tested with Symphony, Horizon, Sierra, Koha, Polaris and Evergreen. If your library uses Alma, TLC or WMS for your ILS, testing will need to be conducted to ensure the message works.

• At present, FOLIO does not support the Request Item message.

Ability for patrons to submit a request through a blank request form in VuFind

• Consortia can now have VuFind configured to allow patrons to submit a request into ReShare for an item they are unable to find in VuFind but wish to request. When the request is submitted into ReShare it will go into a state of ‘Requires review - blank form’. Staff from the borrowing library will need to review these requests. Staff can (1) update the request with a valid record from VuFind and resubmit the request to ReShare, (2) cancel the request, or (3) approve the request as is.

• As the initial request is submitted without a cluster ID from the shared inventory / VuFind, if staff choose the ‘approve request as is’ option, the request can only be sent to a lender of last resort. If the lender of last resort is a tenant within the consortium, the tenant must have autoresponder disabled to accept these requests otherwise they will go to the end of rota.

• This feature will not be installed by default; this will only be added by request as it has to be configured in VuFind for each consortium.

Ability to assign lenders of last resort

• The setting in Settings>Resource Sharing>Request defaults titled ‘Lenders of last resort' allows a tenant to specify one or more lenders of last resort to send requests to. If a lender of last resort is configured in a library’s tenant, the lender(s) will be added to the end of the rota for any request submitted by their patrons into ReShare. Note: symbol(s) must be entered with the ‘ISIL:’ prefix, e.g. ‘ISIL:US-MNMPUMNX’. If more than one symbol is entered, they must be separated with commas.

• In release 1.15 this setting works best for requests submitted through a blank request form if the autoresponder in the lender of last resort’s tenant is turned off.

• In future versions of ReShare with cross network / cross system support, lenders of last resort could be any external lender that a request could be sent to via ISO18626.

New Host LMS adapter for Evergreen

• A new ‘Host LMS integration’ adapter has been created for the Evergreen integrated library system and supports Z39.50 calls for the autoresponder as well as all NCIP messages (Lookup User, Request Item, Check Out Item, Accept Item and Check In Item).

New Host LMS adapter for Polaris

• A new ‘Host LMS integration’ adapter has been created for the Polaris integrated library system and supports Z39.50 calls for the autoresponder as well as all NCIP messages (Lookup User, Request Item, Check Out Item, Accept Item and Check In Item).

NCIP Lookup User message now supports sending of barcode and PIN

• The NCIP Lookup User message has been enhanced to support the sending of barcode and PIN for patron validation in VuFind.

• To invoke this type of Lookup User validation, a new plug-in will need to be configured for the consortium in VuFind. To that end you will not see a new type of Lookup User setting in Settings>Resource Sharing>Host LMS integration settings.

• Once configured, when a patron clicks the Login link to log into VuFind, or clicks Request Item while still searching as a guest user, they will be prompted to identify the library they are from and then enter their barcode and PIN to access VuFind to place a request or see their Your Account info. If the Lookup User message fails, the user will not be logged into VuFind until corrected.

Enhancements/Improvements

Horizon Host LMS adapter updated to search by attribute 1=12 for Z39.50 searches

• The Horizon Host LMS adapter previously used @attr 1=100 for Z39.50 autoresponder searches. The adapter has been updated to use @attr 1=12 (local number) which is better supported by Horizon and returns better results.

The selected item barcode is now included in the item barcode search option in the Search & Filter feature in the Request and Supply apps

• When searching for requests in the Request and Supply apps using the item barcode search under the Search & Filter options, only item barcodes that had been used to fill requests were indexed. Now the selected item barcode returned by the Z39.50 search when a request is first placed has also been included in this index. Note: selected item barcodes are only searchable if your Host LMS adapter returns the item barcode as part of the Z39.50 response.

Two new actions ‘Approve request as is’ and ‘Update and resubmit request’ added for certain states that require review

• In Release 1.14, if a request was in a state of ‘Invalid patron’ the two actions associated with it (other than Cancel request) were ‘Redo borrower check’ and ‘Override borrower check’.

  • In 1.14, 'Redo borrower check' required staff to first edit the request to update the patron id in the Requesting user field, then save the change, and then click ‘Redo borrower check’ in order for the request to be submitted back into the request flow to be validated.

  • 'Override borrower check' just allowed the request to move forward in the request flow without validating the patron.

• Release 1.14 also introduced a new state, ‘Requires review - Possible duplicate’. Staff processing these requests had the ability to review and either approve the duplicate request or cancel it.

• Release 1.15 introduces another new state: ‘Requires review - Blank form’, which require staff to update and resubmit a request, as the original ‘Redo borrower check’action was meant to do.

  • To simplify the action and wording for all of these states that require staff review before being sent to a supplier, a new action ‘Update and resubmit request’ was created to replace the ‘Redo borrow check’ action. When clicked, staff are taken directly into the request to edit it and once they have updated the request, clicking ‘Resubmit request’ will submit the request back into the request flow for validation.

  • ‘Override borrower check’ was renamed 'Approve request as is' to indicate that the request will be approved as is, regardless of the condition that was flagged for review (invalid patron, duplicate, etc.).

The mod-rs API has been enhanced to include all needed request info by state

• The mod-rs API has been enhanced to include all needed request info by state to allow external systems to interact with and manage requests in ReShare more fully.

Bug Fixes

NCIP Check In Item for Alma, Sierra and WMS improved to handle ‘Item already checked in’ error messages

• ReShare was not properly handling the checking in of items if the item was already checked in in Alma, Sierra and WMS causes the NCIP Check In Item to error. This have been corrected to properly handle these cases so the check in can occur without error.

TLC Host LMS adapter now populates call number in Z39.50 response

• The TLC adapter initially looked for 982 $1 y for availability and pulled in location ($b) and shelving location ($c) for a request but no call number. Now, the call number ($m) is also being included for the request.

Corrected odd behavior when changing tabs while PDF viewer is open

• If a user didn’t close the PDF viewer before moving to another tab, when they return to the original tab, the PDF viewer is still open, and the “x” will not close it. This has been corrected to no longer do this and return the user to tab properly.

Corrected issue where titles including quotation marks at the beginning would cause the title field to be empty when a request was submitted

• Requesting an item whose title starts with a double quotation mark resulted in the title field of the request being empty. This has been fixed to properly encode the double quotation marks when the request is submitted allowing the title to be written correctly to the patron request record.

When supplier adds a loan condition to a request, confirmation and error message fly-ins are displayed in the correct style but have the wrong text

• Previously, when a loan condition was successfully added to a request, an error message was displayed instead of a confirmation message, and vice versa. This has now been corrected.

Error sending ISO18626 ‘status changed’ message to requesting library after filling a multi-part request

• In previous releases, filling a multi-volume request sometimes caused the request to be stuck at “Expects to supply” status. This has been corrected; the request status should be updated to “Shipped” so the requesting library will be able to mark the request “received”. Note: a new issue has been found subsequently if a large number of items are being filled for a multi-part request causing the same issue as above. This is being investigated and will be addressed.

Custom properties not deleted from mod-rs when deleted from mod-directory

• When a custom property such as an institutional user account is created in a directory entry, it gets synced to the corresponding mod-rs database. However, if it is then deleted in mod-directory, the account information remained in the mod-rs custom properties table. This has now been corrected.

No option to select a reason when cancelling a duplicate request

• When duplicate request detection was introduced in ReShare 1.14, cancelling a duplicate request did not display a pop-up allowing staff to select a reason for cancellation. This has now been corrected.

Some UI translations were missing

• A few recently-added text strings were displaying raw element names (e.g. ‘stripes-reshare.actions.requesterBypassValidation') instead of the appropriate language-specific translation

Non-functional changes

• Improved logging in AWS to see what actual NCIP xml message is sent and returned to track issue with Lookup User barcode and PIN.