Checked Out Titles

The most common way for a user to see their checked out titles in Aspen is within My Account > Checked Out. Users will be taken to this screen by default when they log into Aspen. Users can use the side navigation to find out more information about their checked out and/or overdue titles or they can click into the boxes in the center to get more information.

While navigating through Aspen, users can get back to My Account > Checked Out Titles by directly via the Checked Out Titles option under their name or though My Account in the hamburger menu.

Users have several options to customize the view of their checkouts.

Format Tabs

Users can choose to view their checkouts via multiple tabs:

• All - Physical Materials and eContent
• Physical Materials - Only physical items from the library
• Individual eContent Providers - Each econtent provider the library has enabled that use APIs (OverDrive, CloudLibrary, Hoopla, and Axis360) will have its own individual tab.

Sort By

Users can choose to Sort by Title, Author, Due Date Asc, Due Date Desc, Format, Library Account, and Times Renewed to reorder their checkouts.

Hide Covers

If users want to hide all covers on their checkouts, they can click "Hide Covers".

Depending on your ILS and configurations (example: if you allow automatic renewals on all or selected item types), a default renewal message or a Renew box will show if the item is eligible for renewals. The default automatic renewal message is, "If eligible, this item will renew on %date%"

For items available for renewal, users can choose to renewal individual selected items or renew all.

In My Account > Titles Checked Out users will see a button under their Renew button or default renewal message entitled You Might Also Like. This will provide recommendations similar (similiar author, subject, etc.) to the title checked out. 

When the user clicks on You Might Also Like, they will be presented with three recommendations. These recommendations are based on your library's collections and will only show users available items. 

By clicking on More Info, the user will be taken to the grouped work record to see more about the item, the formats the item comes in and its availability.

Messages in My Account > Checked Out Titles

Holidays and Hours

Within My Account > Checked Out Titles users will see a banner message letting them know the current day's hours of their home location and/or if the library is closed for a regular closing, special closing, or holiday. This also shows on My Account > Holds page for easy account management. 

This banner message will show automatically once these settings are configured:

Aspen Administration > Primary Configuration > Library Systems > Pick Library System > Holidays

Note: If you are using Koha, set these up in Koha first under Tools > Additional Tools > Calendar first and then this will automatically be updated in Aspen.

Aspen Administration > Primary Configuration > Locations > Pick Library Location > Hours

ILS Messages

If you use the Koha ILS you have three options for messages that could appear in My Account. These can be configured under Aspen Administration > Primary Configuration > Library Systems > Messages

• OPAC note - In Koha, scroll to Opac Note under Library Setup after clicking "edit" on user profile
• Borrower Notes - In Koha, click "Add Message" then select OPAC
• Debarment - In Koha, at the tabs at bottom in the patron account, click "add manual restriction". If "show debarment notes" is off in Aspen, it will still show a generic message, but not the specific comment from Koha. The generic message is: “Please note: Your account has been frozen. Usually the reason for freezing an account is overdues or damage fees. If your account shows to be clear, please contact the library.” Usually this is long overdue/lost item.

System Messages

Libraries can choose to set custom messages to display within the Checked Out Titles portion of My Account in Aspen Administration > Local Catalog Enrichment > System Messages.

Here is a sample message. To place this message only on My Account > Checked Out Titles, select Show On: Checkouts Page from the dropdown. You can also choose a message style, a time frame for the message to display, if the message is dismissable (not shown in screenshot) and apply the message to certain libraries and locations (not shown in screenshot). 

Here is how this message displays on the My Account > Checked Out Titles Page:

Titles that a user has checked out will show while they are browsing the search results within Aspen:

Titles that a user has checked out will show while they are browsing lists that the title shows up on in Aspen:

Note: When the user clicks on Checked Out to You they will be taken to the Titles Checked Out information in My Account.

Once you have added a Linked Account (see My Account documentation on how to add a Linked Account), you will now start to see the users checkouts interfiled with your checkouts.

Checkouts

You will now see the checked out items for accounts you linked to specified by the field "Checked Out To" in My Account > Checked Out.

You can sort by Library Account to group and sort these checkouts.

Users can export a list of checked out titles by clicking Export to CSV at the bottom of the checked out titles list.

The csv file can be coverted to a spreadsheet that will look like this with information on title, author, format, due date, how many times it was renewed, and who the item was checked out to (helpful if you have linked acounts). This sheet can easily be printed. 

Libraries can choose to show item barcodes for checked out titles in My Account > Checked Out Titles

To enable go to Aspen Administration > Primary Configuration > Library Systems > ILS/Account Integration > Display item barcodes in patron checkouts

Note: This is available for CarlX, Evergreen, Koha and Polaris

If you want to see real time changes to items/statuses in patron accounts, you may need to click the Reload button to force an update.

Aspen uses the account caching to reduce the load times, which can be helpful if the user has a lot of items checked out.

Users can either manually refresh or Aspen will update these changes automatically at the 5 minute interval.

If you want to show a user how many renewals have been used in Aspen, go to Aspen Administration > Primary Configuration > Library Systems > ILS Account Integration > check Always display the number of renewals for a checkout

This will add a Renewed line to the checkout 

In Aspen

If you want to show a user that an item they have checked out has holds on, you can turn this feature on in Aspen Administration > Primary Configuration > Library Systems > ILS Account Integration > check Display if patron checkouts have holds on them (Koha). 

Once enabled, users will see a "On hold for another patron" message where the Renew button would be.

In Koha, libraries can turn on the System Preference AllowPatronToControlAutorenewal to Allow patrons to control if they want to allow/disallow auto-renewal for the account.

Once enabled, in Aspen Discovery, patrons will be able to naviage Your Account > Your Preferences > Allow Auto Renewal > toggle Off if they would rather manually control the process.