Alma
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74 results found
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Fulfillment: User receives an email when an item that has requests on it is issued to them and the loan period is shorter than normal
In our loan Terms of Use the Recall Period and Requested Item Due Date are set to 3 days. If a user requests an item, but then another request is placed on the item before they collect it from the library and it is issued to them, when the item is issued to them they are not informed that there is another request on the item so the loan period is only 3 days. The first the user knows about this is when they receive the overdue notice on the day after the item was due. Most of our libraries…
10 votes -
Enhancing Security in Alma: Restricting Return without scanning the item, Claim Return, Found Functions to High-Level Roles
The new Alma Manage Patron Services, implemented in February 2025, allows any role to "Return" an item without scanning it. This function should be restricted to high-level roles only. Similarly, the "Found" and "Claimed Return" functions should also be limited to high-level roles.
Currently, WS students can access these functions with the Circulation Operator – Limited role. While we are in the process of removing the Actions Customizations from the Settings wheel, our preferred solution is to restrict access to these functions to higher-level roles.
7 votes -
Choose users affiliated to a particular library - Bulk Change Due Date
Our situation is that we have 2 libraries (eg. Library A - Library B) in 2 different cities. Students affiliated to a particular library can borrow items (books, DVD, etc.) owned by the other library.
The problem is:
Eg. Due to COVID, library A closed and library B remain open, so students affiliated to library A can't physically return their books. I would like to bulk change due date for all loans of library A students.
HOWEVER, if I choose 'Library A' in the field 'Library' of Bulk Change Due Date feature, Alma will change due date of loans related…
7 votes -
Add a ToU configuration option to block renewals only once a loan becomes overdue.
We would like to be able to prevent users from renewing certain loans in Primo once they become overdue. This is often what we want for equipment, for example.
This should not be a user-level block, but rather an item-level block. Any other items the user wishes to renew should be renewable in Primo, but we want users to have to return overdue items first.
As an illustrative example, we have items that check out for 3 hours. We want these items to be returned before the library closes each day, but we want to allow online renewals throughout the…
6 votes -
Ability to create true temporary "on the fly" items that disappear
The "quick cataloging" in fulfillment is fine for items that are expected to be shunted to technical services after they are returned, but some items, like journals that don't normally circulate, don't need to be processed after, just returned to the shelf. There should be a true "on the fly" process that creates a temporary record that is automatically deleted once the item is scanned back in.
6 votes -
Verificación de usuario al realizar préstamo de material.
Cada vez que se realice un préstamo el sistema identifique a través de una huella digital u otro sistema al usuario.
6 votes -
Display Number of Renewals information under ‘Other Details’ of a Physical item
To enhance the circulation service and provide convenient access to usage information, we suggest displaying the renewal information including ‘number of renewals’ and ‘last renewal date’ under the ‘Other details’ section of a physical item in Alma. The number of renewals records how many times the due date of a loaned item was extended before the ‘maximum renewal period’. This figure is often essential to measure the usage and understand patron’s intention to continuously keep the loaned item.
In current release of Alma, the information under ‘Other details’ of a physical item shows usage information for circulation such as loans,…
5 votes -
Items with fulfillment notes cannot be checked out on self checkout machines
Currently items with Fulfillment Notes loaned through the Automated Fulfillment Network (AFN) cannot be checked out on the self checkout machines. Locally owned items with fulfillment notes can be checked out through the machines. Having the ability to checkout all loans on the machines regardless of notes will streamline the process for patrons and service desk staff. It will also eliminate the confusion that occurs when users encounter this situation during the time of checkout.
5 votes -
Add "Copy ID" to loan information in Manage Patron Services
When viewing a patron's current loans in "Manage Patron Services", Alma will display information like the loaned item's barcode, but it doesn't display its "Copy ID". When libraries have multiple copies of one item, it can be difficult to tell which item is out on loan to a specific patron without leaving the Patron Services page and going to view the item itself. "Copy ID", like "Barcode", is a unique identifier for an item and should be visible in the same way.
5 votes -
Sorting of loans in the user's registry.
In the new user services interface, loans are sorted by library and it would be better if, by default, they were sorted by due date.
4 votes -
In House Use Function
There needs to be a separate function for 'In-House Use'. Scan-ins for activating Holds and the Return function are being too easily conflated in our In house use statistics. For example we have Kiosks that periodically scan all of the books inside the kiosk and each time it detects an RFID tag it scans in the item which then registers it as an in-house use. Also, staff may scan in an item that they are unsure about which registers it as an In House use. All of this renders In-house use statistics unreliable. The only remedy for this is a…
4 votes -
Option to reset reloan limit at a specified time each day
We manage laptops as inventory in Alma, and as such they are governed by Terms of Use and Advanced Policies. Our policy is that a user can checkout one laptop at a time, renew it once, but then can't checkout any more in that same calendar day.
Currently the reloan limit allows blocking by "Other - you may define the time span (in the Unit of Measurement) in which the same item may not be reloaned - minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months. Note that this option includes the Parallel option and blocks both parallel loans and same item loans…
3 votes -
Allow staff to manually override maximum renewal dates when renewing loans
Occasionally, exceptions need to be made to fulfillment policies like the maximum renewal dates for loans. Currently, the only way to make these exceptions is to temporarily change your TOUs. Please allow staff to manually override policies like the maximum renewal date when managing loans. Ideally, we'd like this to work for all loan types, including resource sharing loans.
3 votes -
Digital Loans
It would really be helpful to have a tab or include borrowed digital books under patron loans so that its easy for them to renew or see what digital books they borrowed and need to return.
Currently there is no ability for a patron to see what digital books they may have borrowed and need to return.
3 votes -
Making the temporary location change before the loan
We would like the temporary location change to be made before the loan, to enable us to exclude the temporary location from the loan count using a Loan limit rule.
Thank you for considering this request.3 votes -
Restrict circulation of reading list items to students in a course
Hello,
In Alma, our library would like to add students to a course, and then have circulation of the reading list for that course restricted to the students in that course.In other words, students who are not linked to a course would be unable to checkout items from the reading list for that course.
Ideally, this would be an option when creating or editing a course.
Thank you.
3 votes -
List of Home Delivery Request to print labels and inform courier company
We manage a big number of home delivery requests. Alma does not allow you to create a list of loans of home delivery to print labels and send the list to the courier company.
The only way to do it is the day after by Analytics or developing a custom solution using webhooks and users API, to have it the same day.
It is necessary to make a list of patrons name, address, zip code, city, telephone and email address to print labels and create a csv file to be imported to the courier company software.
We can't wait a day to print…
3 votes -
Enable configuration options to only prevent renewal of overdue loans (while keeping non-overdue loans renewable)
It isn't possible to prevent renewal of overdue loans without using a block, which also prevents renewal of non-overdue loans.
We would like to be able to prevent loans that have become overdue from being renewed for the purposes of a TOU switching between term and vacation loans. During the vacation we have no maximum renewal limit and this means that previously overdue loans become renewable again.
3 votes -
Provide a way to duplicate a terms of use
This is especially a pain point when you are starting in Alma. When libraries are tweaking circulation rules, often you need to create a new terms of use as part of that, but what you really are doing is taking an existing terms of use and setting a new one up in the same except for one or two policies that are different. Right now, you have to have the TOUs in different tabs to make sure all the right values are matching, when having the ability to copy and then edit an existing TOU would save a bunch of…
3 votes -
Allow automatic barcode generation in quick cataloguing form from Manage Patron Services
The quick cataloguing form has a variant depending on whether you access it through Fulfillment > Manage Patron services > loan tab > create item or through Resources > add a physical item.
In the first case (Fulfillment > Manage Patron services etc.), quick cataloguing is used in the case where a document is presented for loan but does not exist in the database. The barcode is then obligatory for loan, otherwise loan is not possible. The barcode cannot be automatically created.
In the Resources > add a physical item access to this form, the barcode is not mandatory but…
3 votes
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