Ratings, Reviews, & Sharing

Users can rate titles on a scale of 1 to 5 stars. Where 1 is a low rating and 5 is a high rating.

Users must log into Aspen before rating a title.

Users can hover and drag or click to give an item a star rating.

Users can leave reviews in a couple of different ways.

Leave a Review After a Star Rating

If Ratings are TURNED ON and Reviews are TURNED ON, users will be prompted after they leave a star rating to leave a review OR they can click on Add a Review in the Grouped Work Display.

Note: If the user clicks on "Don't ask me this any more," then this box will not show again after leaving a star rating. However, they can still leave a review in the grouped work display by clicking on "Add a Review."

Leave a Review Via the Grouped Work Display

If ratings are TURNED OFF and Reviews are TURNED ON, users can leave a review via the grouped work display view.

View Ratings in the Catalog

Users will see their ratings as they browse the catalog while logged in. These ratings are tied to the user account and the grouped work ID so the user will see the ratings all through the catalog as they browse, search, in checkouts, holds, reading history, and lists.

View Ratings in My Account

Users can access a list of their ratings at any time by going to My Account > Titles You Rated

Users can find this in the dropdown menu under their account name or by clicking My Account in the hamburger menu and navigating to Titles You Rated.

Once the user clicks into Titles You Rated, they will see the date they left the review, the title, author, and rating they left. They can click on the hyperlinked title to jump to the item in the catalog. They can also change or clear the rating they left.

View Not Interested In Titles

In your Recommended for you titles, there is a Don't Recommend button if you don't want Aspen to recommend that title again.

Once you click on the Don't Recommend button, that title will be added to My Account > Not Interested in Titles

View Reviews in the Catalog

Once a user leaves a review on an item, it will be available for other users to see within the item record. A section called Borrower Reviews will automatically be created once the first review for that item is left. From them on, other reviews will be automatically added to this section. The user's name, data of review, star rating (if turned on), and review will show.

Note: If a user with staff review permissions in Aspen is logged in, they will see a Delete button next to each review and they can remove any reviews that they do not want to show.

View Reviews in My Account

Users can access a list of their review at any time by going to My Account > Titles You Rated

Users can find this in the dropdown under their name or by clicking My Account in the hamburger menu and navigating to Titles Your Rated

Once the user clicks into Titles You Rated, they will see the date they left the review, the title, author, and rating they left. They can click on the hyperlinked title to jump to the item in the catalog. They can also change or clear the rating they left.

Users can delete or modify their ratings or reviews at any time.

Change a Star Rating

As they browse the catalog, a user can adjust an item they previously left a star rating on by clicking on a new rating.

Delete a Star Rating

To delete a star rating, a user will need to go to My Account > Titles You Rated > Clear

Note: If a user has left both a Rating AND a Review, if they click "Clear," both will be deleted.

Change a Review

There is no way for a user to change a review once they have submitted the review.

Delete a Review

To delete a review, a user will need to go to My Account > Titles You Rated > Clear

Note: If a user has left both a Rating AND a Review, if they click "Clear," both will be deleted.

Depending on what sharing functionality libraries have turned on, users can share via email, Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest.

Users can find sharing options in the Grouped Work Display. Once they click on one of the options, they will be prompted to log into their third-party account (or logged in automatically if they on their own device and already logged in).

Here is an example of the window that pops up when a user clicks on the Facebook icon.

Note: The information shown - URL, title, and description - are generated automatically and cannot be modified.

Share an Item via ISBN

Use this format to share a record from an ISBN:

{AspenCatalogURL}/Search/Results?lookfor={ISBN}

Example: https://aspen-test.bywatersolutions.com/Search/Results?lookfor=9780307588364 

Libraries can choose to turn on ratings by going to Aspen Administration > Primary Configuration > Catalog/Grouped Works > Grouped Work Display > Catalog Enrichment > Enable User Ratings

If ratings are turned on, then recommendations will start populating based on user ratings.

Libraries can choose to turn on ratings by going to Aspen Administration > Primary Configuration > Catalog/Grouped Works > Grouped Work Display > Catalog Enrichment > Enable User Reviews

Things to Consider Before Turning on Reviews

There is currently no moderation queue for user reviews. Once a user leaves a review, it will be posted immediately, and staff will not be notified. However, you can check the box for "Hide User Content with Bad Words" to automatically filter out the words with asterisks, or delete any objectionable reviews you come across. See the Moderation of Reviews section below for more details.

Libraries can choose to use a (free) GoodReads API connection with Aspen.

To turn on, go to Aspen Administration > Primary Configuration > Catalog/Grouped Works > Grouped Work Display > Catalog Enrichment > Show GoodReads Reviews

Once enabled, users will be able to see a section called Reviews from GoodReads in the record. Reviews are pulled in from GoodReads by ISBN.

Users can add a GoodReads review by logging into their GoodReads account.

Libraries cannot control or modify GoodReads reviews.

To turn ON/OFF the ability for a user to share on social media, go to Aspen Administration > Primary Configuration > Library Systems > Full Record Display

Libraries can choose to show the Email button AND/OR the social media external site icons.

Note: There is no way to decide which social media icons appear for this sharing option. Some libraries choose to to hide certain buttons using CSS in their Theme settings. 

Aspen will automatically put asterisks in place of words found on the Bad Words List.

To view and modify the Bad Words List go to Aspen Administration > Local Catalog Enrichment > Bad Words List

To automatically hide all user reviews with "bad" words, go to Aspen Administration > Primary Configuration > Catalog/Grouped Works > Grouped Work Display > Catalog Enrichment > Hide User Content with Bad Words

If checked, any User Lists or User Reviews with "bad" words are completely removed from the user interface for everyone except the original poster.

Libraries can view and modify what Aspen considers a "bad" word by going to Aspen Administration > Local Catalog Enrichment > Bad Words List

Note: this does not moderate GoodReads or other third party reviews.

To assist libraries in the moderation of user reviews, Aspen utilizes a Bad Words List. This list is preloaded with common "bad" words but libraries can choose to delete and add any words they would not want to appear in library reviews. To view and modify, go to Aspen Administration > Local Catalog Enrichment > Bad Words List. 

Users with Moderate User Reviews permissions in Aspen can delete reviews they come across that do not meet library policies and procedures.

There is no list or queue of user reviews, but an admin will see a Delete button next to user reviews.

Once your library has been on Aspen for a while, you may want to give users the option to search by User Rating. To turn this on, go to Aspen Administration > Primary Configuration > Catalog/Grouped Works > Grouped Work Facets to add the Rating facet.

Once added, the facet will appear with your other facets.

The more ratings there are, the better results the library will have. Libraries may want to encourage staff and other users to rate titles if they are using this facet.

For the first 5 titles a user rates Aspen will suggest:

• 1 like title if they rated an item a 3
• 2 like titles if they rated it a 4
• 3 like titles in they rated it a 5

This gives users a list of about 10-15 item recommendations from the get-go.

From that point on, Aspen will begin to look at all the titles the user has rated to populate future ratings, so that it is continually updating/changing recommendations as interests change.