New releases and fixes for Lean Library
Release Update - January 2025
Allow multiple Assist Messages on the same URL
Improvement
Release Update - December 2024
Prevent Alternatives pop-ups from showing on search results pages
Improvement
Harvest more metadata for title-level ILL/DDS
Improvement
Article Retraction data through scite.ai
Improvement
Lean Library deepened its integration with scite.ai to incorporate article retraction data into the browser extension. This new functionality flags retracted articles as users access them, helping users assess reliability of resources they use in their research to support their research integrity.
Release Update - November 2024
Wildcards for e-resource domains
Improvement
*
) when configuring e-resource domains. This was especially challenging for platforms like EBSCOhost, where URLs often include dynamic subdomains (e.g., web.*.ebscohost.com
). Admins had to manually input each subdomain without wildcard support, creating unnecessary complexity and inefficiency.web.*.ebscohost.com
, allowing for more streamlined and efficient domain management.Release Update - September 2024
HAN Proxy with Lean Library
New Feature
Lean Library now supports the HAN proxy system for authentication, as well as EZProxy and RemoteXs.
Configuring your HAN Proxy is straightforward, simply select the HAN Proxy setting from the proxy type dropdown menu within the Lean Library dashboard, and enter your HAN Base URL and Proxy ID.
This release is part of our ongoing commitment to amplify access to and discoverability of your library's licensed content, ensuring that your users can seamlessly conduct their research and studies remotely, right from the open web.
Allow editing of Twitter/X messages on branded download pages
Improvement
Our librarian users are now able to use our toggle option that will turn the /x sidebar on/off allowing them to choose whether they want to have the sidebar content visible on the branded downloads page.
Release Update - August 2024
Featured badge on the Chrome Store
Improvement
We’re delighted to announce that we have received a ‘Featured’ badge from Google, which appears next to the Lean Library extension in locations where your users will see Lean Library as an option to download.
The featured badge enhances our visibility in the Chrome store, making it easier for your students, researchers, and faculty to discover and trust the Lean Library extension.
Google's ‘Featured’ endorsement serves as an assurance of the extension's robustness and security features, giving your users confidence to download and use it.
This increase in visibility and trust translates to more downloads, higher patron engagement, and ultimately, greater utilisation of your library's resources through the Lean Library extension.
Pin browser icon to the toolbar: new onboarding tab
New Feature
We have recently introduced a new onboarding prompt to guide your end users in pinning the Lean Library extension to their browser toolbar. Pinning the extension provides one-click access to the tool enhancing overall convenience. With the extension readily visible, users are more likely to utilise it regularly, leading to greater interaction with Lean Library's features making the extension an integral part of their research routine. This will, in turn, lead to increased usage of your library’s resources.
Release Update - July 2024
Assist Message Templates
Improvement
Assist Messages are a core feature of Lean Library, loved by librarians for delivering timely and targeted communication and guidance to patrons at points of need. Assist Message Templates are ready-to-use templates of the most popular and effective Assist Messages for you to choose from – making the set-up of Assist Messages effortless.
The templates are now available on your Librarian Dashboard, categorised to help you select the most suitable ones for your library’s needs. These templates can be toggled on instantly and you can still edit the templates to personalise the message to your library. Click here to read more about how to use Assist Message templates
Active User Stats Improvements
We have improved the statistics on Active Users on how we calculate and display Active User statistics within the librarian dashboard.
These improvements introduce a new Engaged Users metric that better reflects user interaction with our extension, improved clarity with hover-over definitions, enhanced differentiation in data visualisation, and adjustments to account for tracking issues during specific periods.
These improvements are designed to offer a more precise measurement of user engagement and provide librarians with a comprehensive understanding of how users interact with the extension, which helps make more informed decisions.
Click here to read more about the "Engaged Users" statistics.
Assist Messages Performance Upgrades: We now support proxied URLs and Query Parameters
Improvement
We have expanded the support of Assist Message to also now be configured on proxied URLs. This upgrade will allow librarians to not have to worry about domains that are proxied and be able to set up Assist Messages anywhere they like. To take it a step further we have also upgraded the support to allow configurations to support query parameters in the URLs used to set up Assist Messages, thus making it even easier to get your messages to the right point of need for your patrons
Release Update - April 2024
Sage Campus integration
New Feature
Lean Library introduced a new integration with Sage Campus: an online course platform that supports the teaching and learning of skills and research methods. The integration surfaces a brand new online course, The Art of Chat GPT Interactions, to patrons on the OpenAI or ChatGPT sites via the extension pop-up. This delivers point-of-need guidance on using generative AI tools for students and researchers and is available for all Workflow for LibGuides or Futures customers.
Cite
Improvement
Initially launched in February,Cite enables your patrons to effortlessly generate and copy references for articles to use with their reference manager of choice – whether Zotero, EndNote, Mendeley, Sciwheel, or others.
With the latest updates to Cite, we’ve incorporated some highly requested functionalities to further streamline the citation process for your patrons.
What’s new with Cite?
-
Expanded citation capabilities on further content types, including eBooks.
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The ability for librarians to choose their preferred citation styles. When configured, this will appear at the top of the citation style dropdown.
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Provide a list of any missing metadata, ensuring users don’t copy incomplete citations.
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Cite tool extended to all Alternatives and Access pop-ups, where metadata is available
Active/Inactivate Assist Message Toggle
Improvement
This feature improvement is designed to enhance your experience with Assist Messages. With the quick enable/disable toggles, you can activate or deactivate your customised messages with just a click. This functionality works seamlessly, whether or not you have an expiry date or time set.
Release Update - February 2024
Cite
New Feature
Cite has been developed as a direct response to the need for a simpler way for students and researchers to cite references at their point of need. Cite will enable your patrons to effortlessly obtain citations for articles they’re accessing within their workflow, via a ‘Get Citation’ button in the pop-up.
Please click here to read more about Cite feature.