This page has been moved over to https://support.goalexandria.com/release-notes/23-4-release-notes/
23 September 2023
Merge titles
Have you ever ended up with two titles that you realize are for the same item? Alexandria has long had ‘move copies’ where you can at least consolidate copies, but now we have an even better solution for you—look at the actions menu and choose “Merge titles” to merge not only copies but all title information, including statistics!
For library users, note that if you have, say, the same genre on both titles, you’ll end up with both tags in the resulting record (because it’s a repeatable tag). You can remove these manually or run the Remove Duplicate MARC Tags utility.
Maps Makeover
Maps joins the new look! Take a look at Builder > Maps to see it. What’s new? You can preview your maps (look in the actions menu), and Alexandria detects and shows you if you have maps with overlapping call number ranges.
(Alexandria Librarian only)
Important
If you have recently switched to our hosting services, and are attempting to set up a new email service such as Gmail, you may need to contact Support at 1.800.347.4942 so they can switch an internal setting and help get this working!
New and Improved
Researcher
Depending on how your account is set up, Overdrive items will now appear as either ‘Sora’ or ‘Libby’ in Scout.
(Alexandria Librarian only)
Circulation
Maps from Circulation (or Items > Copies) now show the call number range of the map. So if you are wondering why it’s showing that map, now you’ll know!
(Alexandria Librarian only)- We’ve improved sorting for copies in the Copy List.
- The Site Information dialog respects carriage returns in the Site Notice text (set in Sites Management).
Utilities
EnhanceMARC has two new options from Mitinet for record repair: Change 440 To 490 (which, as you might imagine, will change 440 fields to 490)
Remove Duplicate Fields (which will remove exact 510 & 521 duplicate fields)
(Alexandria Librarian only)- The Renew Patron Account utility is now available in Textbook Tracker. You can run this utility if your patrons are getting close to or have passed their account expiration and you’d like to renew some or all of them!
Fixed
Circulation
- When there were a lot of items out, or charges, or holds, etc. you sometimes couldn’t completely see the last item in that tab. We’ve made this better.
- Under some circumstances, the ‘Refund Credit’ button was disabled when…it shouldn’t have been…so now you can refund credits on lost books :)
Login
- Some users were getting confused by the password reset link because it showed an unfamiliar URL. This should be more sensical now.
Patrons
- The fields at the bottom of the Personal tab (date fields) were not behaving on smaller screens. Now they are better.
Reports
- The Textbook Tracker Loaned Items Notice & Overdue Items Notice were missing Replacement Cost. We found it and made it stay on the report this time.
This page has been moved over to https://support.goalexandria.com/release-notes/
All release notes 23.9 and onward are on the new Support Center.
Cloud-Hosted Updates
When you host with us, we take care of all updates! During these updates—the second to last or last weekend every month (Saturday and Sunday)—please plan for possible downtimes with Alexandria. And if you need to contact Customer Support over the weekend, please call us (emails are only responded to during regular business hours Monday–Friday).
Self-Hosted Updates
Once all of the Cloud-Hosted servers have been updated, we will make the update available to Self-Hosted servers.
We highly recommend you consider Cloud Hosting.
Not every version is able to update to the newest version, so the Available Updates window will only include those versions that meet your machine and version requirements.
Self-Hosted Notice - Mac
If you self-host on a Mac, hold off updating your servers to macOS 10.15 Catalina until you can update to Alexandria 22.8 or later (64-bit compatible releases).
If you self-host on a Mac, here's how to install the update on your Self-Hosted server:
- Log in to Alexandria.
- Append /admin to the end of your Alexandria URL.
- Click the Actions menu, then select Check For Updates.
- Select the update version from the list, then click Update. Your update will now download.
- The update screen will close automatically and you will be redirected to the login window.
Self-Hosted Notice - Windows
As of 2023 our self-hosted update process has changed.
If you self-host on a Windows machine and are on Alexandria 22.6 or earlier: Contact us for instructions and assistance updating to the latest version.
If you self-host on a Windows machine and are on Alexandria 22.12 or later, here's how to install the update on your Self-Hosted server:
- Log in to Alexandria.
- Append /admin to the end of your Alexandria URL.
- Click the Actions menu, then select Check For Updates.
- Select the update version from the list, then click Update. Your update will download to the Updates folder in your Alexandria Support folder.
- The download may take several minutes.
- The update screen will close automatically and you will be redirected to the login window.
- Once the installer has downloaded, and not before, quit Alexandria.
- Remove your existing Alexandria application using Add or Remove Programs in System Settings.
- Run the newly-downloaded Alexandria Installer.
Important Information
Version Numbering Change
As of 20.1, we've simplified our versioning scheme by dropping the series version. We now use the following:
- xx = academic year, beginning in June; yy = month
For example, 20.1 means:
- 20 = 2020 academic year
- 1 = The first monthly update (June)
Centralized Catalogs
If you have more sites than you are licensed for, contact our Sales team immediately at 1-800-347-6439. You can check this in Sites Management; the number of total sites plus the Union Site shows at the top, and the number you have licensed is at the bottom. The Union Site does not require an additional license.
Data Conversion
These Data Conversion notes are for Self Hosted users updating from v7 and switching from v6. If you are cloud-hosted or moving to cloud-hosted, we do everything for you!
Data conversions from older versions may not be supported. Before updating, please check the version you're currently running.
Updating from v7
If you're already running 7.17.12 or newer, you can update to the latest version. But if you're running an older version, you'll need to update a few times.
- Running 7.16.3? Update to 7.17.12 before updating to the latest version.
- Running 7.16.2? Update to 7.16.3, then to 7.17.12, before updating to the latest version.
- Running an even older version? Contact COMPanion Support for assistance. Depending on your current version, your upgrade path may go through one or more of the following: 7.15.3 → 7.16.2.6 → 7.16.3 → 7.17.12 → Current Version
Upgrading from v6
The process to update from 6.23.1 to v7 is quite a bit different than updating from a more recent version. Check out our v6 to v7 Conversion Guide for more information.
Running 6.22.9 or older? Update to 6.23.1, then to 7.17.12, before updating to the latest version.
Data conversion can take up to 10 minutes for a single database of average size or longer for larger collections and Centralized Catalogs, during which time the program will be inaccessible in your browser. Do not fear; it's still working. If you're concerned, check your server logs for a progress update.