The Illume (SHAREit) software was successfully updated the evening of Sunday November 16th, 2025 by the vendor Auto-Graphics including bug fixes [1] and enhancement/improvement requests!

Improvements/enhancements include:

• New Patron Message Field: A new generic "Patron Message" field has been added, which replaces the "For Patron: Why request was not filled" field on both Returnable (Loan) and Non-returnable (Copy) displays.
  
  Staff can use this generic message field to update Patrons with special notes (eg. Delays or Fees) or continue to use it for only Cancellation reasons. This field can be used with or without Patron-initiated requesting [2]:
   
  • Patron Tracking Messages: When ILL Staff enter info into this field, it will display in the "Status" note on patron-initiated requests [2] via "Guest ILL Tracking" or on all requests for permanent [3] patrons in "Items from other Libraries" (eg. for NCIP libraries [4]). Check-out our updated Patron Tracking messages [5] guide for more info/screenshots or contact us [6] if you'd like assistance updating your tracking.
    
    Please Note: The new patron message does not currently display on some statuses like "Awaiting Approval", and we've submitted an enhancement request to Auto-Graphics requesting it display for all statuses.
     
  • Automatic Email of Patron Message Field: Libraries can also now activate an Email notice that automatically emails a patron if/when the "Patron Message" note is updated by ILL Staff! This email message is sent on both patron-initiated and staff-created requests if an email address is included in the request.
    
    This email notice is NOT enabled by default and administrators can enable it within your ILL Admin > Participant Record > Patron Notices. Or instead add the new wildcard [7] for #Patron Message# to include this note on any already set-up Patron Email Notices (eg. Unfilled or Cancelled). Please contact us if you'd like any assistance adding or updating your Patron Notices in SHAREit.
     
• Form Fields for Mobile: At the request of many customers, the vendor Auto-Graphics continues to make Form field updates to improve SHAREit for Mobile users, as many patrons now submit ILL requests primarily via their cellphones. This includes updating fields such as Publisher (Place, Name, Date), Article Information (Volume, Issue, Page) and Article Date to now be "stacked" instead of "side-by-side".
  
  Unfortunately this can cause confusion for patrons and staff submitting requests via desktop? So we're continuing to ask A-G for further improvements! And in the meantime, please contact us if you'd like any assistance updating the "tooltips" in any form fields under ILL Admin > Configuration > Configure Request Forms (video guide here [8]). For example post-secondary libraries may wish to update "Article Date" to say "Article Year" or "Article Date (yyyy-mm-dd)" instead to encourage staff or students to only use the first form field.
   
• Configure Shipping Forms: The "Revert All" option in the ILL Admin > Configuration > Configure Shipping Labels section currently impacts all 3 tabs (Borrower, Lender, & Avery). This option has now been updated to "Reset Tab to Default" to allow libraries to make more granular changes when configuring their Shipping Labels and reset individual tabs only. Please let us know if you'd like assistance configuring or using shipping labels.
   
• Statistics Reports Updates: An option to export "raw" CSV files from many reports found under Statistics > Reports (new) has now been added to export data only. To select this option choose the "Raw Data" format rather than PDF or Excel. And please contact us if you encounter any issues or would like to suggest additional improvements to the new statistics module.

Bug or issue fixes include the following:

• Form Field Length Issues: The allowable character limit for the Patron's Library Card Number and Patron's Contact 1 or Patron's Contact 2 fields used for Email Addresses has been increased to 64 characters. Previously Patrons or Staff entering information only had 32 characters and longer text entered would cause a System Error message when Borrower/Lender staff tried to update the status of a request.
• Locate Lenders Button: On Blank ILL Requests, the Locate Lenders search button was applying stricter search matching than intended. This has been corrected so searches now behave more like keyword-based matching, returning broader and more expected results for Staff that wish to quickly search and manually add a lender (eg. if only 1 lender is available) on a blank request.
• WMS UDB Records: For libraries submitting records from the WMS ILS, SHAREit was not correctly interpreting the MARC Leader element, which sometimes resulted in incorrect material format assignments (for example, books displaying as audiobooks). This has been corrected. The system now properly interprets the condensed eight-byte Leader values returned by the WMS Availability API using the OPACXML schema, ensuring accurate material format identification.
• Please also check-out our updated V6 Known Bugs or Issues page [1] for further information on reported ongoing issues.

Please let us know if you have any questions/concerns or encounter any re-occurring or new issues after this software update.. or if there's anything Illume we can help you with! Best Regards, ~Illume Support