Alma
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1849 results found
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Please add the feature „Chat between Institution Zones“ to the Metadata Editor
Ex Libris should offer the option of creating a chat for each data record. This feature would facilitate communication between individual libraries regarding incorrect data records.
Currently, communication concerning bibliographic records are sent by email via a mailing list. For a library that has many departments with numerous employees, it is difficult to develop a workflow for jointly processing these emails. In a chat, several people within an institution can communicate with each other without having to coordinate internally beforehand.
But smaller libraries would also benefit from this chat function. When several emails are sent back and forth on a…376 votesCould you please clarify whether this request refers to communication between consortia (Network Zone) members regarding their shared data?
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Add “Report to Ex Libris” Option to Failed Scheduled Alma Jobs
Scheduled Alma jobs that end with errors do not currently provide a built-in “Report to Ex Libris” option. Reporting such issues requires opening a support case manually and copying information from the job report.
Idea: Extend the existing “Report to Ex Libris” functionality (available at the portfolio level) to scheduled Alma job reports.
For scheduled jobs that end with Error or Failed status, allow users to open a reporting screen, pre-filled with the relevant job details (Job ID, process ID, error message).
Benefit: Provides a consistent reporting experience for recurring system jobs and improves accuracy of job-related support cases.166 votes -
MDE: same behaviour for all languages/scripts which are written from "Right-to-Left"
Hi,
There are several scripts that are written from "Right-to-Left":
Arabic, Aramaic, Azeri, Divehi, Fula, Hebrew, Kurdish, N'ko, Persian, Rohingya, Syriac, Urdu.When typing a Hebrew letter in the Alma MDE the direction switches automatically from "Left-to-Right" to "Right-to-Left". Same for Arabic, Azeri, Modern Aramaic, Kurdish, Persian, Urdu (see attached file: Alma-MDE-Scripts-written-from-right-to-left.pdf).
Please provide us the same behaviour for all the languages/scripts concerned.
In our library, we are especially interested that when typing a Syrian letter the direction also switches to "Right-to-Left" automatically.
Thank you in advance!
83 votes -
Badges for Resource Sharing
There are two Request Types in the patrons' list of Requests:
a. "Patron physical item request" which is used for regular requests and b. "Patron physical item request (resource sharing)" which is used for RS requests.
They are very similar and this is confusing for Fulfillment staff when checking Requests, especially when both types appear.
See attached file with two examples of requests: the first one is for Resource Sharing, and the second one is a regular request.
Proposed solutions:
1. We would like to suggest creating a new Resource Sharing Badge so that Fulfillment staff can clearly differentiate between…70 votes -
Preserve “Requester Note” when converting Purchase Request to Resource Sharing Request
When a Purchase Request is converted to a Resource Sharing Request in Alma, the system automatically adds the note “Request has been converted from purchase request” to the new Borrowing Request, and the original “Requester Note” is not retained. This requires staff to manually copy the original note into the Borrowing Request to preserve patron context and avoid missed information. Automatically carrying over the “Requester Note” would make the conversion process faster, more consistent, and less error-prone.
87 votes -
Allow cross-use of MARC21 authority fields 500 and 510
Alma currently enforces strict validation rules that restrict the use of fields 500 and 510 based on the type of authorized heading (100 vs. 110), preventing cross-usage and triggering validation alerts.
However, in real cataloguing practice (including MARC21 examples and records from the National Library of Spain), it is both common and necessary to establish relationships between different types of authorities (personal ↔ corporate) using 5XX fields. For example, a 110 record may include 500 fields linking to persons, and a 100 record may include 510 fields linking to corporate bodies.
This restriction limits the accurate representation of relationships such…110 votes -
Flexible and normalized comparison of portfolio coverage dates in Overlap & Collection Analysis
Currently, Overlap & Collection Analysis compares portfolio coverage dates exactly as they appear in the portfolio coverage fields. As a result, equivalent coverage ranges are not always recognized as matches when the dates are recorded at different levels of detail or when some components are missing.
For example, coverage such as:
• 2.1.2016, Volume 1 Issue 1
and
• 2016, Volume 1 Issue 1
may represent the same start point, but the system treats them as different because one includes a full date while the other includes only a year.
In many knowledge bases and vendor data, coverage dates are…123 votes -
Allow CZ records to preserve or support local subject access for non-english indexing
We would like Alma to support a stable and sustainable solution for managing local subject access in Community Zone records.
Currently, when CZ records are updated, subject fields (65X) may be overwritten or removed. Although local fields can now be recovered in local indexes, this doesn't solve the core issue: subject access in our language is lost from the standard 65X fields, and this information becomes invisible to our consortial members.
We manage a large and continuously growing volume of electronic records, and the loss of controlled subject access has a significant impact. We have already identified more than 6.000…
107 votes -
Override and reset the maximum renewal date
We would like to be able to override and reset the maximum renewal date when renewing loans that has gone over the initial maximum renewal period.
The override option that we have today, only overrides the renewal blockage and not the maximum renewal period. When the new due date arrives, the "maximun renewal date" is still expired and the renewal has to be handled by a librarian.
As it is now, we have to return and reloan the material for the patron, a manual prosess that takes time and opens up for errors.
211 votes -
Incorporation of All Indigenous Syllabics from the Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics Unicode Block (Revisited)
A previous enhancement request (March 2019; now closed) states that "not all Indigenous syllabics render in Alma, and thus, do not render in Primo either. As an important aspect of Canadian Libraries' commitments to Truth and Reconciliation, and as it is UN's International Year of Indigenous Languages, it would be excellent if Ex Libris could prioritize resolving this issue so that we can allow Indigenous users full discoverability of resources in their own languages."
We have tested the whole range of Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics in our Alma/Primo and can report the following results:
Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics (Range: 1400–167F)
**ALL…61 votes -
Option to automatically suppress Bib records when AutoHoldings portfolios are unlinked or deactivated
The Issue:
Currently, when using vendor AutoHoldings collections (such as Wiley, Elsevier, etc.), Ex Libris recommended best practice is to set "Automatically delete portfolios removed from service" to No. This protects institutions from permanent data loss if a title is temporarily dropped or updated by the vendor.However, when AutoHoldings unlinks or deactivates a portfolio in the Institution Zone (IZ), the portfolio remains in the system while becoming inaccessible. Because the bibliographic record is not automatically suppressed, patrons still encounter these titles in Primo VE as "Not Available" or broken links, leading to a poor user experience and unnecessary support…
32 votes -
Add “Additional ID” as an option for the costumized view on the pages “Scan In Items” and “Manage Patron Services”
Today, when “Additional ID” is used as pickup number for borrowers picking up their hold requests, the librarian will not be able to see the Additional ID when scanning a book with a hold request on the “scan in item”-page. To see the "Additional ID", the librarian will need to enter the “Active Hold Shelf»-page.
This makes the process difficult for the librarian, when he or she needs to manually write the “Additional ID” on the pick up-slip that is placed in the book.
If “Additional ID” were added as an option for the costumized view on the “Scan In…164 votes -
Improving Participant Management and Anonymous Feedback for Database Trials
We recently used the Database Trials feature in Alma and would like to suggest the following improvements:
Anonymous Participant Feedback
It would be very helpful if participants could submit their feedback anonymously. Experience has shown that anonymous feedback encourages more open and honest evaluations, thereby providing a better basis for decisions regarding the acquisition of electronic resources.Improved Participant Management
Currently, participants can be added either individually or via a set. However, once they have been added, the options for managing the participant list are very limited. Participants can only be removed one at a time. If the wrong set…
44 votes -
Change due date - ignore reservations
If we use "Change due date" option to renew a book, the system doesn't take into account whether the book has a reservation and allows the due date to be changed.
Would it be possible for this option (Change due date) not to ignore reservations?44 votes -
Enable Printing of Borrow requests ("Print Slip")
There is no way to print a copy an outstanding Borrow request (that includes request citation information, patron info) from the Borrowing requests queue and this would be a very useful function to have. This could be like the Print Slip option available for requests in the Lending request queue.
43 votes -
Update All Relevant Indicators When Correcting Preferred Terms Linked via Cross-References
The recent enhancement to Preferred Term Correction correctly updates bibliographic headings when the preferred and non-preferred terms are in different authority fields (for example, 410 → 130), and changes the bibliographic field tag accordingly (e.g., 610 → 630).
However, the current implementation does not fully synchronize MARC indicators between authority and bibliographic records.The enhancement documentation states:
"When a bibliographic field is updated to an X30 field, the non-filing indicators in the bibliographic record will be adjusted based on the linked authority record. According to MARC21 standards, the 1st indicator of authority field 130 (Nonfiling characters) will be copied to…63 votes -
Please add more "View only" roles to Alma
Alma already offers some "View only" roles:
- Fund-Ledger Viewer
- License Viewer
- Course Reserves Viewer
but there is still a need for more.Please add the following:
- Invoice Viewer
- Purchasing Viewer
- Physical Inventory ViewerThanks!
135 votes -
Linking Funds to Location Codes so the Funds allocation can be calculated by the ordered copies for the Location Codes
My library recently moved to Alma, but we found that the location codes were not linked to the Funds. It is a big problem for us as we ordered more than 30 copies for 30 locations spending on 7 Funds, while the Funds calculation had to be done by excel table and inputted the amount manually. We have to spend an hour for one order eventually.
What we expected (and suggested here is), just like our old library system, is when entering the Ordered Items part with location and ordered copies, the Funds with respective distributions shall be generated rather…
98 votes -
Apply Automatic Convert to RS TOU when marking an item missing
When requested items are marked Missing, there are no more copies of that title, and there is a TOU term for the patron/item that allows Automatic Convert to Resource Sharing, the request should automatically convert to RS.
Currently, there is a TOU term of "Automatically convert to resource sharing," but this functionality is very limited to the use case of an expired pick from shelf item. ExL's documentation indicates this should be possible, but it is not -- when an item is marked missing, the request is automatically canceled, so any job that runs will not catch that the request…
37 votes -
Add IZ-level option to hide the "Order It" plugin in the navigation bar
In our Institution Zone, we discovered that the "Order It" plugin is not limited to Amazon websites, despite what the Ex Libris documentation currently states under "Supported Platforms". Ex Libris has since clarified that, although the original development focused on identifying Amazon fields, the feature can in principle work with any website that uses the same field identifiers in its HTML.
At the same time, we learned that there is currently no option to hide the plugin from the navigation bar. In our tests, the feature produced extremely rudimentary bibliographic records, which might be more difficult to manage and could…
40 votes
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