Alma
Your feedback matters to us. Help us improve Alma by telling us what you’d like to see using the message areas below. You can also can support something already posted.
We would love to be able to respond to every idea that is submitted, but this is not feasible. We are, however, committed to responding to the most popular ideas—those that have received the most points.
For more information please review our FAQ and guidelines. Thank you.
63 results found
-
Short Loan Reminder - overdue notice doesn't display due time
The Short Loan Reminder uses the Full Overdue and Lost Loan Notification letter for the overdue reminder (sent x minutes after due time). This letter does not display the due time of loans however, and is not configurable.
91 votes -
Claimed returned option for Lost items
In our previous system, with one click we were able to change items to Claimed Returned status, no matter what their current status was. one click and it was done.
But in Alma, for some reason, this is not possible once the item has been declared Lost. One has to go through a long and convoluted process creating a file and saving it then creating a set and saving it then running a job on the set. This involves three pages of instructional documentation and about 15 minutes of staff time every day.
We often have items claimed returned when…168 votesThe 'Claimed Returned' action will be available for lost loans. It will change the loan status to 'claimed returned'.
A customer parameter will determine whether the change to claimed returned should trigger a 'Find Item' action (and refund the lost item fees) + change to 'claim return', or only change to 'claim return'.
-
"Fulfilment Configuration Utility"- include specific loan date for closed days
When setting up the Closed Library Due Date Management for short loan items, it would be useful to be able to test it in the Fulfilment Configuration Utility by specifying the loan date and time rather than the only option being 'if the item was borrowed now'.
For example, in order to test the rule for our 24 hour loans when taking the weekend closed days into consideration, this can only be done on a Friday, which can mean having to wait 5 days to test the parameter.
If it were possible to select Friday 08:00 as the loan date…
48 votes -
Set an "end of term" due date, by patron group, that would be prioritized over TOU due date
We would like the ability to set a set an end-of-term due date that would outweigh the due date calculated based by the TOU on a transactions.
And, we would like to be able to apply the due date to particular user groups.
The related functionality currently available includes using fixed due dates in the TOU, or relying on patron expiration dates.
Our use case includes:
1) requiring all materials be returned at the end of each quarter.
2) student loan periods that are not fixed date due dates, but instead are short duration.
3) expiration of student records in…
24 votes -
Send overdue notifications only on library's open days
Since we would prefer to avoid to send overdue and lost loan notifications to our patrons on Sundays and holidays, it would be great to have a further option for when to automatically run the “overdue and lost loan job”, that is, to run it only “on the library’s open days”, based on the opening hours set in the “Calendar management”.
18 votes -
Automatic Loan Renewals-needs more options
Could you add the ability to configure automatic loan renewals by physical location within a library? We have some locations we would like to have auto renewals for and some that we do not.
29 votes -
Short Term Loans - Courtesy and Overdue Notices
The new shortloancourtesyreminder & shortloanoverduereminder cannot be configured for multiple locations. For institutions with several hourly loan locations (for example Boston College maintains 2 and 3 hour loan periods for Course Reserves and a 4 hour loan period for some technology items) this dictates that the reminder notice has to be set based on the location with the shortest loan period. The overdue notice must be timed to make sense for for the longest loan period.
In our test configuration we used the following time parameters:
shortloancourtesyreminder - 105 minutes
short…289 votes -
Let every institution to configure due dates according loaning library (no only owning library).
We often loan items not in the owning library but in another one. In these cases, Alma assigns the due date according to the calendar of the owning library.
This causes that sometimes the due date is a closed day in the library where item will be returned (not owning library).
It would be good for us to configure Alma in order to assign due dates according to the calendar of the loaning library, not the owning library.22 votes -
Add preferred pronoun field that displays in Fulfillment Manage Patron Services display
We will be asked to provide a place to store preferred pronoun for our users (e.g. he/his/him) at some point in not too distant future.
We cannot use Note field for this information because we have been told by Ex Libris that if we import notes the entire note section in a user record is overwritten.
We need a configurable field (i.e. we can add the categories of preferred pronoun) that displays in the patron info section of the Fulfillment Manage Patron Services display
222 votesThe core user record will have a field for selecting a preferred pronoun. The options will be from a configurable drop down such as:
- he, him, his
- she,her,hers
The field will be updatable from:
- Alma form
- SIS
- API
- Primo (VE)
The preferred pronoun will in the Manage Fulfillment Options screen.
It will be possible to locally override this field without overriding from the SIS, like other fields allow (such as user group).
-
Use Pieces field from item record to trigger a confirmation pop-up at checkout or return
Use the Pieces field from item records to trigger a confirmation pop-up at item checkout or return when that item has two or more pieces. Taking measures for prompting staff to add notes manually item-by-item or creating sets and running jobs to populate fulfillment notes for items that have 2,3,...9,10,...39,40,... pieces are both impractical. Not having a pieces confirmation at checkout feature is a frequent complaint on the Alma Listserv.
24 votes -
Move list of "loans of this session" up higher.
When checking books out, it helps to be able to see the title pop up. Depending on the monitor, the list sometimes doesn't show up at all because it's too far down. We need to be able to see each title pop up so we can verify that we are actually checking the item out.
15 votes -
Extra column in "Return items" with "Fine per patron"
We would like to have an extra column in return items, a column for fine per patron. Because at every return we immediately want to see if the patron has a fine in general, not for the returned item. We would like to see this in Return items and not via "Manage patron services / Returns". Is this possible or something similar?
35 votes -
Display Loan HOUR in Patron Services and Manage Item Returns
Currently the Patron Services and Manage Item Returns screens display the DATE an item was loaned only. It would be helpful if they also displayed the HOUR. On the Patron Services screen, it takes extra clicks to review the Loan History in the Actions menu. On the Manage Item Returns screen, it is impossible to view the hour -- you must go to the item's history, which isn't accessible directly. The hour is already displayed in the Patron Services Due Date and Manage Item Returns Returned Date fields. I hope it is easy to add the hour to the Loan…
19 votes -
check-out from user account
I don't see a direct link on the User/Patron account page to be able to check out an item. It seems that you have to go back to the main menu and select "Manage Patron Services". In Voyager, you can easily get to the Charge window from the Patron window or vice versa.
There is the "Manage Fulfillment Activities" link. I think it would be helpful if you could add the Check-out function on that page.20 votes -
Display override message consistently
Based on Block preferences, override messages can be configured. But these messages are shown only once in a session (as confirmed by Ex Libris, ticket 380696). We need this message to be displayed consistently each time that an action requires an override.
We would like to be able to configure for each Block preference whether the override message is to be shown only once per session or at each action triggering an override.24 votes -
Drop-down options for loan notes
Loan notes are currently free-text, which makes it difficult to extract meaningful data from the notes. The option to configure a drop-down menu for loan notes would improve standardization and analytics.
21 votes -
Enable bulk due date changes based on a set of items listed by barcode
We've had occasions where it would have been useful to be able to create a set of items, for example, in Alma Analytics. Then to take that set of items, e.g. a CSV or Excel file listing the barcodes, and then to update the due dates of all those items, to a new fixed value.
This is similar to the current Bulk Due Date Change functionality, but with the addition of uploading a list of items to change.
Regards,
Ciaran
The University of Manchester Library
172 votes -
Re-loan should not cause automatic renewal of items already on loan
When loaning an item to a patron, who has this item already on loan, the system automatically renews the loan (if possible). An option in configuration is needed to suppress this automatic renewal for the following reason: too many errors occur, when the item is automatically renewed. If the patron intends to return the item and the circulation desk operator by accident scans the item for loan, then the item is back in the library stacks but by accident renewed for the patron (who will get claimed!).
30 votes -
Option to set return time to 15 minutes before closing
We issue equipment such as laptops to students. These must be returned before the library closes.
In the current TOUs it is only possible to set the due time to closing time. However, we really need to check all equipment is back, and therefore would like to set the due time to 15 mins (or 30mins) before closing.We would also do this for short loans, as these require being returned before the library shuts. Otherwise the student will receive fines.
Changing the closing time of the library would be too confusing for everyone
51 votes -
option to "Send Return Receipt" from "Return items"
When I'm returning books from the drop box, using "Return Items", I would really appreciate the option to "Send Return Receipt" in cases where the patron has accrued fines. It makes sense from a customer service standpoint - rather than the fine eventually going to billing (and adding the billing fee) without ever letting the patron know that they owe a fine. This is similar to the last idea posted, but subtly different, so I thought I'd go ahead and suggest this.
Thanks, Marian52 votes
- Don't see your idea?