To enable Aspen LiDA for your library, head to the Aspen LiDA module within Aspen Administration and click Location Settings. Then, click Add New.

1. Give the app setting a name. This will not appear anywhere in the app and is only for internal use.
2. Check the box for Display location(s) in Aspen LiDA.
3. Switch the Release Channel from Beta (Testing) to Production (Public)
4. Check all locations you'd like to show within LiDA.
5. Save your changes.

Once enabled, your library locations will appear in Aspen LiDA shortly. 

Note: there is currently no way for libraries to use LiDA in a test environment.

For certain library barcode lengths, it may be necessary to enable automatic rotation on the library card screen to flip to landscape mode.

To enable this, go to Aspen Administration > Aspen LiDA > General Settings > check Automatically rotate the library card screen to landscape > apply to Libraries

Settings within these Aspen LiDA General Settings area apply at the Library System level.

Aspen LiDA pulls from your location information in Aspen Administration > Primary Configuration → Locations. 

Go there to edit the setting(s) for the location(s).

1. Make sure the location's address, phone number, and email address are filled out on this page.
2. Do not complete the latitude and longitude fields, save them as blank and the Google Maps API will load in the correct values for you. If for any reason you change the library’s address, please blank these values before you save the new address so they can be reset.

Aspen LiDA pulls from your location contact information in Aspen Administration > Primary Configuration → Library Systems. Go here to edit this information.

In Contact Links find General Email Address

You can either provide email addresses specific to the locations (as mentioned in the previous section) or you can specify a general contact email within the systems settings. If a location email is provided, LiDA will use that. If a location email is not provided, LiDA will use the general contact email. If a general contact email is not provided, LiDA will not display an email link on the contact screen.

Theme & Layout → Themes

The logo that shows in the "Find Your Library" menu will pull from the Favicon icon in the Theme since it is a smaller image file that will render much quicker.

For the logo that shows in the patron account drawer, it will check the "Logo for Aspen LiDA". If there is not a logo uploaded here, Aspen will look to see if there is a Favicon icon to use instead. The image should be square with a 512 x 512 pixel maximum. 

If the Favicon is loaded but the Logo for Aspen LiDA is not loaded, the Favicon will be used to display in both areas.

If a Favicon is not loaded, no image will show in "Find Your Library".

If neither a Favicon nor Aspen LiDA image is uploaded, for the patron account, Aspen will look to the logo uploaded in Aspen LiDA > Branded App Settings for the branded app. If no logo is loaded there either, it will default to the Aspen LiDA general logo. In the community app, it will also default to the Aspen LiDA general logo. 

The same rules apply for the logo on the digital library card.

For best practices, you can upload both the Favicon and the Logo for Aspen LiDA. Or, just the Favicon if they are going to be the same logo.

For Aspen LiDA logos, since they are a smaller size, it might be best to crop out words where possible and just use a recognizable image from the logo to clearly brand the library system/location.

About Quick Searches

Quick Searches are optional, but can be helpful for your patrons! These become suggested search buttons for users on the Search tab of the app. LiDA will use text entered in the "Search Term" field to conduct a keyword search in your collection.

Setting up Quick Searches

1. Aspen Administration → Aspen LiDA → Quick Search Settings
2. Click Add New.
3. Enter a name for the setting.
4. Click Add New to add new quick search fields.
5. The Label is what will appear to patrons on the search screen. The Search Term is what Aspen will use to conduct the search. Tip: first test out your search term in Aspen's keyword search to make sure you get the desired results!
6. Select the library these quick searches should apply to.
7. Save your changes.

To manage notifications:

1. Aspen Administration > Aspen LiDA > Notification Settings > Add New
2. Enter a name for the setting.
3. Send In-App Notifications To: by default, notifications are set to None (disabled). Switch to All Users to enable notifications for everyone. Selecting Only Staff Users will enable notifications only for users who have administrative permissions within Aspen. This is primarily to allow staff to see and test notifications before enabling them for all users.
4. Notification Types: Check to enable your desired notifications:
   • Saved Searches - When a new title (added within the last 7 days) is added to a user's saved search, they will receive a notification
   • Custom Alerts - Custom Alerts can be set in Aspen Administration > Aspen LiDA > LiDA Notifications and click Add New.
   • Account Alerts - Alerts related to Linked Accounts
5. Libraries: Check to enable for the desired library system(s).
6. Save your changes.

To begin, go to Aspen Administration > Aspen LiDA > LiDA Notifications and click Add New.

Add a Title. This will be the bolded part of the Notification.

Next, enter the body of the Message. Here you can even add emojis.

Note: the suggested character guidelines under the Message box.

Character limits before being truncated

• iOS: 178 characters (includes both title and message)
• Android (if collapsed, default): 43 characters for message, 39 characters for title
• Android (if expanded): 504 characters for message, 79 characters for title

Sends On - Here you set up the date and time the notice should go out. The time zone is set to the same time as your Aspen server. Aspen will check every 15 minutes for a notice and if it sees one that is past, then it will start the process of sending the notice if it finds one within that window that has not been sent yet.

Expires On - Here you set the length of time before the notice will disappear from a patron's notifications. If left blank, notifications will clear 7 days after the send time.

Exactly when will my notification be sent out?

We have a cron setup to look for notifications to send every 15 minutes. For example, if you create a notification at 1:20pm to go out right away, the cron will pick it up and send off the requests to APNs and FCM (the push notification services: Apple Push Notifications “APNs'' and Firebase Cloud Messaging “FCM”), which then relay to the devices. Please note, that depending on the current server load for push notification services, it might take several minutes to start receiving notifications on devices.

You also have access to a report for notifications that have been sent to APNs and FCM. Every hour, there’s a different cron that’s checking for a receipt from the push notification services to let us know when a notification was successfully received by a device, or not (and why). This report will tell you the date/time that Aspen sent the request to the push notification services, what type of notification (i.e. saved search or custom) it was, the recipient's name, card number, home library, and device model (i.e. Google Pixel 5 or iPhone 12). If a user has notifications setup on multiple devices, they will receive one for each device and will be seen as two separate notifications in the report.

If selecting "An external website" from the "On tap, send user to" dropdown menu, an External URL box will appear. In this text field, specify the URL for your event, list, or other page where the notification should direct your users.

If selecting "A specific screen in the app" from the "On tap, send user to" dropdown menu, a new dropdown menu will appear. This menu shows options for all areas within the Aspen LiDA app to which you can direct users upon tapping the notification -- for example, a specific author or browse category you may be highlighting.

Depending on which one of these in-app options you choose, another box may pop up asking for the specific corresponding term or ID. For example, if selecting Search: Specific term, you would fill in the Search Term keyword for the search to which the user should be directed.

Next, you can specify which Libraries and Locations this notification should go out to. This is helpful if the notice is related to a specific library system or location's program for example.

Another way to target specific groups of users with custom notices is by Patron Types. Aspen will pull in your patron types and you can specify which patron types should receive this notification. For example, a notice you'd want to only go to staff.

At the bottom there is Notification Sent checkbox. This will automatically check after the notice is sent.

Important: If you uncheck this box, the notice will be sent again.