Ares Ideas
224 results found
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Page Count should understand en dashes as well as hyphens in the Pages field.
According to several style guides (APA, Chicago, etc.), the proper way to write page ranges is to use an en dash, not a hyphen (so 251–75, not 251-75). While most people use a hyphen, there is a significant population of faculty and PhD students who enter citations the "correct" way with an en dash, and Ares doesn't understand it. In order for the page count to work in that case, staff must delete the en dash and replace it with a hyphen. This shouldn't be necessary; Ares should understand both ways of writing a page range and automatically use that…
1 vote -
API calls for item information using CourseID and CourseID(s) using item information
The New School would like to be able to lookup a courseID and get the item status/info of items sharing the same course ID. I would ALSO like to be able to look up the item info (title/bibID) and see what courses are associated with it.
1 vote -
Allow removal of ID column in web tables without disabling custom sorting.
The custom sort option appears to work but will not actually save if the ItemID field is removed from tables. Custom sorting should be retained while still allowing the removal of the ItemID column.
1 vote -
Allow customers to determine which status/queue batch scanning lands in
We would like to enable a quality control check before scans go out for consumption by patrons. Frequently, scanners are also faster than copyright holders for getting items attached, so we would like to send to a 'Scan - QC' queue to let all of the parallel processes catch up before releasing.. Unfortunately, the status rule for batch processing is hard-coded to 'Available in Electronic Reserves', so we have to publich, then unpublish the items. This feels inefficient.
1 vote -
Make permanent URLs for web links stay consistent after a link breaks.
Currently, if the underlying web link breaks, the permanent link will also break as the link is embeded in the permanent link. This causes extra work for staff, as they have to correct the link in Ares, and also ensure that the permanent link is changed in course shells and/or sylabi. If the permanent urls were tied to something other than the url (like the item number), it would be of significant value to our online courses.
11 votes -
Add a status bar for instructor uploads
When instructors upload PDFs for their classes, there is no indication on the web page that their material is being uploaded. The screen just stays as it is until the upload is complete. Instructors with a slow internet connection must wait several minutes with no certainty that the system is responding to their input.
2 votes -
Option for email Reply To field
Our institution is changing how emails are sent and we need to change Our email settings from Ares. We need to find out if there is a way to have both a “email from field” and a “reply to field.” I believe with both settings our security team would be satisfied. The from address would need to be @smtp.yourschool.edu and the reply to address would be set to the actual mail box.
1 vote -
Provide automatic OCR for posted PDFs
It would be wonderful if Atlas could provide a way to automatically convert PDFs to a more accessible format by performing automatic OCR on the documents uploaded or scanned. Many of these PDFs are re-used when the courses are taught again, so it would be great if OCR could be done on all PDFs in the Ares folders.
30 votes -
Disable Import Items Button After Clicking or Adjust Placement of Message
Several times a semester, faculty will duplicate (sometimes 3 or more times) items which they are importing from a prior semester. Depending on the length of their list, you may not see the "Please wait as items are imported into Library Reserves" message once you click the Import Items button; if they don't see the message, they click the button multiple times, resulting in duplication of imported items. One solution would be to grey out the import items button as it was submitted; another option would be to make the placement of the please wait message dynamic, so it appeared…
1 vote -
Allow searching of Course ID in Course Info Item Search
The item Course Information Search criteria should include the Ares Course ID and retrieve the list of items on that course. This would address a common need to batch route a set of items associated with a course. Alternately, allow the batch edit to change a current status.
My current workaround is to visit the queue where the majority of items are held, filter to the course number, and batch route.
1 vote -
Give access to students to view status of requested materials
We wish there was a feature for students to see what's requested for their courses. They can see the status on the web and not just what's available.
1 vote -
Option to remove active "semesters" (like permanent reserves) from the Choose a Semester option from the LTI course creation page.
All active and upcoming semesters are available for instructors to choose, including internal "semesters" like permanent reserves. In other cases we might need to create a semester that's pretty far out into the future, but we don't want to give instructors the choice to use it until a later date. It would be beneficial to be able to choose which semesters display as options when instructors are creating their courses via LTI.
3 votes -
Separate Queues for Workflow - Physical Items vs Digital Items
In ARES, we currently have 3 staff assigned to manage workflow for Book Chapters/Articles and Print Materials. Currently, all items move into the "Awaiting Stacks Searching" tab without a way to control what items are chosen/sent to the printer so all items are printed and moved which can make it difficult to track (if items aren't moved back, or having to manually note/record which item numbers need to be moved away into a different queue then back).
It would be useful if there were separate tabs. One tab for "Awaiting Physical Items - In Stacks Searching" and another tab for…
2 votes -
Need to have more than one copyright permission template available
There needs to be the option of selecting from multiple copyright permission templates when initiating a permission request to a rightsholder. Currently you have to modify the request template any time you send a request for material in a different format (e.g. audio or video files or images). We need to be able to set up multiple templates for different purposes, then select the appropriate template to use at the point where you are sending the request. This should work in the same way as other Ares email templates, where you can select from a list of possible options/pre-formatted emails,…
2 votes -
Allow changes to HTML for LoanPeriod on request forms.
The LoanPeriod field in request forms is automatically set to display Choose an Option. There is no way to indicate a default loan period selection in the dropdown list or change the "Choose an Option" verbiage. Hobart and William Smith Colleges would like to be able to designate a preferred loan period as the automatic selection in the dropdown, instead of Choose an Option.
3 votes -
Staff alert for setting upcoming semesters in Customization Manager
Atlas has handled support requests that are the result of loads being run and courses being entered into the courses table for a semester that has not yet been entered into the Customization Manager's Semesters table. This forces the new courses to associate with the most current course that is available and it overwrites the actual dates and semesters of the courses, causing quite a bit of trouble (enhancement request already exists in UV). As courses aren't updated by new loads (another enhancement that exists in UV) the identification and update of these entries is difficult and must be done…
3 votes -
Prevent courses and users from being created when match not found in load files.
Wake Forest University has experienced issues with instructors merging courses and passing different unique identifiers through the LTI link. We support the enhancement request to improve how Ares deals with this scenario, but we would also like to see an option that prevents new users and courses from being created when a matching unique identifier is not found in the corresponding load files. This should have a customizable error message that would notify the instructor to contact the library.
1 vote -
Prevent the Switch to Student Mode and Switch to Instructor links from appearing when not applicable
Instructors and proxies should not see the Switch to Student Mode link on pages that students are eligible to view (eg IRF, Shared Lists, Course Usage, Course Edit, etc).
When a user is set as a general instructor, but not a course instructor for a particular course (ie only a student), the user should not see the option for Switch to Instructor Mode within that course. The link does not do anything and is confusing.
5 votes -
Add tracking and history entries for items edited by instructors that have no supply method change
When items are edited through the web pages there is no reference to the change in the Tracking or History tables. Grinnell College would like this to change, particularly so that when items edited by instructors are re-submitted, they would be subject to checks for routing rule matches. (submitted by Kerry on behalf of customers)
2 votes -
Upload Video Files to Ares - allow for streaming
This has being coming up a lot of us recently where faculty are actively asking for streaming versions of things. The problem we face is that we don’t have a great place to host streaming files at the moment. We are mostly using licensed streaming content from Swank or Kanopy, but we have run into issues with things we need to host locally. We have used Avalon and Panopto as solutions for hosting streamable content, but neither solution are ideal for us at the moment. It would be great if we could upload streaming content to Ares directly, much like…
13 votes
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