Author: Kathy Lussier

NOBLE staff update

Executive Director's Report, Jobs
I am sorry to share the news that Gabe Jayroe has left his position as NOBLE Member Services Support Associate as of January 1. I know many of you interacted with Gabe over support requests, which he always answered promptly and with good cheer. We wish Gabe the best of luck in his future endeavors.
NOBLE posted the Member Services Support Associate position today. More details are below:
The North of Boston Library Exchange Inc (NOBLE) has a job opening for a full time (37.5 hours per week) Member Services Support Associate.

Join a highly collaborative team to help support the needs of the NOBLE member libraries. NOBLE is an innovative, member-driven nonprofit organization founded to improve library service through automation. Our membership includes 17 public libraries, seven academic libraries, and one special library.

The Member Services Support Associate reports to the Member Services Manager and is a team-oriented individual providing high-quality customer support to NOBLE member library staff and assisting the NOBLE training program.

NOBLE is a hybrid office. After an initial onboarding period, the Member Services Support Associate will have the option to work remotely two days per week. Benefits include medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance; employer sponsored 403(b) retirement plan, optional tax-deferred annuity plan, and paid holidays, vacation, sick and personal time.

Please send a cover letter and resume to employment@noblenet.org by Friday, February 6.

View full job description.

Next Steps for Aspen

Uncategorized

It’s been nearly a month since the official “go live” date to Aspen. All but one NOBLE library is live on the platform, and we expect all libraries to be on Aspen in January.

We’ve received many support requests since “go live” to improve functionality and fix bugs. Please continue to report issues as they come up so that we can either address them right away, troubleshoot problems, or add them to the list of potential future development.

Below are some next steps we will be taking with the Aspen implementation.

Records for electronic resources

  • On November 3, 2025, we will start to remove some records for electronic resources from the Evergreen database.

    • All Hoopla MARC records will be removed. Aspen uses an improved method to retrieve those records using an API, ensuring that catalog search results will reflect real-time availability in Hoopla, even for titles that are new to Hoopla. With the previous method, libraries had to wait for our monthly Hoopla record load to see new titles and our monthly deletion process to remove old titles from search results.

    • Records for the following collections will also be removed. If you want the public to access them and they are not already being sideloaded directly into Aspen, please send an email to support@noblenet.org to ask that they be loaded.

      • A&AePortal MON, PAN

      • ABC Clio/Bloomsbury PAN

      • Comics Plus LFD

      • Credo Reference GOR, PAN

      • Ebook Central PAN

      • Films on Demand PAN

      • Gale PAN

      • History Makers WAK

      • Infobase DAN, RDG, LYN, PAN

      • Kanopy BEV, DAN, RDG, STO, WAK, MAR

      • Marshall Cavendish STO

      • Medici.TV LFD, WAK

      • Oxford GOR, PAN

      • Salem Press GOR, PAN, STO

    • NOBLE staff is working with EBSCO to identify the best method for getting MARC records for electronic resources, previously available in the Evergreen database, into EDS for those academic libraries that use EDS. When we are sure those libraries have a new method to get those records into EDS, we will also remove those MARC records from the Evergreen database.

    • We are aware that some academic libraries have encountered difficulty obtaining MARC records for their EBSCO eBook collections to be loaded into Aspen. NOBLE has reached out to our reps at EBSCO and hopes to have a solution to that problem soon.

    • NOBLE will hold off on removing OverDrive records from the Evergreen database until January when all NOBLE libraries have moved to Aspen. As is the case with Hoopla,  Aspen uses an improved method to retrieve those records using an API, ensuring that catalog search results will reflect real-time availability in OverDrive, even for titles that are newly added to the collection.

Classic Catalog

  • To ease the transition for reluctant adopters, most Aspen catalogs provide an option for users to continue to use the Classic Catalog. This option will bring users to the old Evergreen public catalog. Libraries may elect to remove this banner from their Aspen instance at any time.

  • We will remove access to the Classic Catalog on March 31, 2026 for all NOBLE libraries.

  • We have removed the ability to pay bills with a credit card from the Classic Catalog for all libraries that have adopted Aspen. This removal will mitigate occurrences of an occasional bug where a payment made from the Evergreen catalog was not properly applied to the patron’s bill. Online bill payment will continue to be available in Aspen and in the mobile app.

New Features

  • Starting in January, NOBLE will begin implementing Aspen functionality that was not available in the Evergreen catalog. We plan to begin with event calendar integration and the genealogy tool, which can be used to support the local obituary databases NOBLE has been hosting for a handful of libraries.

  • In January, we will also begin identifying enhancements and/or bug fixes that NOBLE should fund to best support the needs of our libraries.

Miscellaneous

  • Over the fall, we will start adding permissions for local admins to make small changes to Aspen, such as updating hours, changing navigation links and updating banners.

  • The ability to import lists from the Evergreen catalog will be removed on September 30, 2026. As a patron privacy safeguard, we will purge those lists from the Evergreen database on December 31, 2026.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to let us know by sending an email to support@noblenet.org.

E-rate Pilot Program

E-Rate, Executive Director's Report

NOBLE held an informational session on Tuesday, March 18 about an e-rate and filtering pilot program that we are kicking off this spring.

NOBLE members voted in 2001 to decline E-rate Internet funding if it means staying in compliance with the Children’s Internet Protection Act. A key component of the Act is that e-rate recipients must provide a content filter on all library-owned computers, including those used by staff, to block visual depictions that are “harmful to minors.”

NOBLE is implementing a pilot program with two or three libraries to test a filtering solution with the ultimate goal to 1) add a Cybersecurity measure against web sites with malware and 2) realize some cost savings in telecommunications services by supporting filtering at the CIPA level. Filtering technology has seen many changes over the past 20 years and the amount of money NOBLE could save has increased.

The session included presentations from e-rate consultant Aleck Johnson, who provided an overview of the e-rate program and its requirements; librarian Carrie Sherman of the Attleboro Public Library, who talked about her library’s implementation of filtering in preparation for e-rate participation, and NOBLE Systems Manager Martha Driscoll, who demonstrated the SafeDNS filter we are considering trying in pilot libraries.

For those who missed the informational session, the recording is now available.

Slides from Aleck Johnson’s e-rate presentation

Libraries interested in participating in the e-rate pilot should send an email to Kathy at klussier@noblenet.org by Wednesday, March 26.

NOBLE to move to Aspen Discovery System

Aspen, Catalog, Executive Director's Report

NOBLE patrons, students, and users will soon have a new way to access materials in NOBLE libraries and to manage their Evergreen accounts.

NOBLE members voted in January to approve a move to the Aspen Discovery System, which will replace the NOBLE public catalog to provide patron access to NOBLE libraries’ collections. The Evergreen staff client will continue to use the native Evergreen staff catalog.

NOBLE will join three other Massachusetts networks – CW MARS, CLAMS and Minuteman – that have already implemented Aspen. The discovery system will provide a more modern and dynamic entry point to our collections with a speedy search and tools to allow libraries to better highlight their collections.

We are still working out details with our support vendor, including a timeline, but we expect the implementation to happen this spring. We will be offering an introductory Aspen session in our upcoming workshop schedule and will schedule more in-depth workshops once a timeline is set.

In the meantime, if you want to take a peek at how Aspen works for other networks, I encourage you to visit the other Massachusetts Aspen implementations:

Much more information will be forthcoming. Feel free to let us know if you have questions.

Upcoming Evergreen 3.13 Upgrade – January 5

Evergreen, Executive Director's Report

NOBLE is pleased to announce the network is upgrading to Evergreen release 3.13 on Sunday, January 5.

Downtime Information

  • All libraries should expect to be down for the entire day Sunday, January 5. The system should be available by the time staff start working on Monday, January 6.
  • We will add messaging to the public catalog one week prior to the upgrade.
  • During the downtime window, the following will be unavailable:
    • Circulation and other staff functions
    • Web catalog
    • Mobile app
    • Patron self services like placing holds, renewals, signing up for ecards and self-check.
  • Authentication via SIP2 (Overdrive, Hoopla, museum pass, EZproxy etc.) will be available for a large portion of the downtime, but will be down for a brief period.
  • Libraries that are open Sunday can use offline circulation. The training system will also be available to look up call numbers, but the date will be one month old and will not include new titles.
  • When the system is back up on Monday, if staff notice any unusual screens, we first recommend that you clear cache and refresh your screen. The Clear Cache Chrome extension allows you to easily clear cache from the Chrome toolbar. If those steps don’t resolve the issue, please contact NOBLE support. 

Previewing 3.13

NOBLE library staff can log into the training system to get a first-hand look at release 3.13, which we will be using for training and testing the new release. Here’s how to login and set search preferences for the old and new versions of the staff catalog: Logging Into the Training System.

  • Please let us know if there are newer staff who can’t access the training system so we can add their accounts.
  • The training system contains a snapshot of NOBLE data so there are holds, overdue, bills, etc., with all patron information anonymized.
  • Feel free to test things, including adding, editing or removing patron, title or item information. Anything you add or change will be gone the next time we update the snapshot for the training system. Nothing will transfer to the production (live) system.

Recording of the December 17 upgrade session | Slides
Register for January 14 Problems and Questions (P’s and Q’s) session
Register for January 22 Problems and Questions (P’s and Q’s) session