Alma
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43 results found
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Specify time period for SUSHI harvests
When you manually request a particular SUSHI account/report to be harvested by Alma, by default Alma requests any data which it hasn't already loaded for that account from the last 12 months. If there are multiple months in sequence missing, Alma requests the data for these months together as a single SUSHI request.
This is an inflexible system.
Instead, at the point where a user requests a harvest, Alma should ask the user to specify the time period they would like to request.This would have several advantages:
- We would be able to use SUSHI to harvest usage data from…
168 votesAs of August release it is possible to indicate SUSHI – "Custom Harvest .
“Custom Harvest" function provides an option define the exact time frame for the harvest period
For more information see:
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Release_Notes/2021/Alma_2021_Release_Notes_Included_Material/2021_RN_08_Main#Define_a_Specific_Time_Frame_While_Manually_Harvesting_R5_SUSHI_Data -
Alma task lists: "Assign to me" and bulk actions
In Alma task lists ...
- Electronic resources - activation - unassigned (Electronic Resource Activation Task List)
- Order Lines - review - unassigned (Purchase Order Lines in Review)
- Invoices - review - unassigned (In Review Invoices)
... there is only a row action ("..." button) to start the "Assign to" dialog which opens a pop-up window where you can select a user. Our colleagues are not satisfied with this cumbersome assignment functionality.
The missing functionalities are:
(1) a one-click "Assign to me" button
(2) a bulk functionality for "Assign to" and "Assign to me" (it is already possible to mark several…189 votes -
Rename Review and Approve functions in Acquisitons menu of new Alma Layout
The Acquisitions Menu has some items with exactly the same name in the different sub-menus. When these show as Quick Links, it is impossible to tell which general function it will work with,
Please rename Review and Approve to
Review POL (or Purchase Order Line)
Review PO (or Purchase Order)
Review Invoice
Approve PO (or Purchase Order)
Approve Invoice26 votesAlma – Acquisitions menu link names were modified in order to assist users using these links in as part of the ‘Quick Links’ menu.
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JSON reports for zero usage are not including a usage data line
Ex Libris have advised that the current behaviour is by design. When Alma loads an empty file that does not contain any usage data, the log will show "Failed" with no reason or description for the failure. Alma reports should include a message to indicate that there was zero usage, so that users know Alma has conducted a successful harvest.
3 votesAs of May release Alma knows to handle 3060 error messages coming from vendors which have difficulties analyzing the standard R5 date format. in these cases Alma will re attempt to send the request with a different date format for the vendor to process.
Additional handling was done to files which were “Fully processed” but did not contain any usage data. In the past the “data description” column was empty.
In cases where the harvest was successful and there was no data in the file, the status of the harvest will be “Completed – No valid report items found in the file”In case a single harvest brought a file with usage for multiple months, and some months had usage while others don’t the status of the harvest will be “Completed”.
Vendors which Alma can now better communicate with are:
Sage Journals
Duke Press
MIT Press
American Society of Civil… -
Add a "Platform" field to SUSHI Release 5 Account Details
A field for Platform needs to be added to the SUSHI Release 5 account details page. Some vendors, specifically Elsevier, require that platform information is included to harvest data via SUSHI.
LibInsight provides a "platform" field in the SUSHI release 5 account set up. With COUNTER 4, the platform was provided before the customer ID (SD/C000000123). For release 5, a separate field is required.
20 votesAs of July release the SUSHI Account Details page now includes a Platform field. This field should be populated for vendors that require a platform code for successful harvesting of usage data. Note that the platform code is case sensitive. Only one platform code can be used per SUSHI account.
For more information please see Alma July release notes:
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Release_Notes/2020/Alma_2020_Release_Notes -
Allow Acq managers to force POs to close.
There are a number of occasions where POs get stuck at 'sent' where they should be closed. Currently we have to contact Salesforce to close these which is needlessly time consuming for all parties. It would be very helpful if Alma had the option select closed as a status type that would override the sent status regardless of activation/receipt status of the order.
235 votesThis was identofied as a defect that was resolved as part of Alma January release
In some cases, the PO status was stuck in Sent even though all PO Lines were closed or cancelled. This was fixed. -
For institutions working in accrual accounting, enable the option to create an invoice from PO for one-time orders
Currently institutions which work in accrual mode have no ability to create an invoice from PO. In order to allow institutions who work with accrual accounting a stream line workflow for creating their one-time orders, there is a need to allow creating invoices from PO for one time orders.
When a user will select to creatr an invoice from PO, Alma will present the user only PO's which contain one-time PO lines.
0 votesAs Of Alma September release institutions have the option to create an invoice from a purchase order for one-time orders only.
for more information please see:
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Release_Notes/2020/Alma_2020_Release_Notes -
Display PO-Line owner in "Manage EDI Tasks"
I would like to suggest to add a column in the Manage EDI Tasks List for PO-Line owner. That would give the option to sort the List by PO-Line owning Library.
273 votesA new "Owner" column is added to the EDI task list. This column, which is sortable, displays the owning library for each PO line. The added column enables institutions working with the EDI task list to review the PO lines by their owning library.
For more information please see Alma January RN
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Order Line Search
Enhance the search capabilities for POLs to include OR logic. Also, include fiscal period as a search parameter.
18 votesA new advanced search interface for PO lines allows using the "OR" Boolean operator and works similarly to the existing advanced search for other types of searches. The new search interface is based on a condition-writing concept using a query builder, which offers a more convenient and user-friendly user interface, with the ability to easily write complex queries.
This capability is part of the new layout of the POLine task lists which is now available for early access
For more information please see Alma November Release Notes
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Acquisitions workflow for born digital material
The National Library of New Zealand (NLNZ) is ordering and receiving an increasing amount of born digital material, particularly through Legal Deposit. These publications are collected as individual monograph publications and serial issues, not as part of an aggregation or domain/website harvesting, for the purposes of long term access and preservation in our Heritage Collections. They are publications in their own right, not digitised version of print holdings. Alma’s Acquisitions workflows do not currently have any options to allow for steps that are specific to receiving born digital material.
Our current workflow involves the creation of Vendor records and POLs…
70 votesAlma now supports acquisition workflows for digital material that enables institutions to manage ordering and receiving of digital material. To enable this functionality, two new PO Line types were created:
Digital One Time (DIGITAL_OT)
Digital Continuous (DIGITAL_CO)for more information please see Alma June Release Notes:
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Release_Notes/2021/Alma_2021_Release_Notes?mon=202106BASE -
Allow Purchase Requests to be re-linked to a different bib record
After the March updates and the removal of the search in repository it has become difficult to correct mistakes after the initial creation of a purchase request. I suggest that the search in repository function be added back to allow us to relink a purchase request to the correct bib record instead of having to recreate the purchase request.
320 votes -
Support R5 Counter
Some of the major vendors are going to stop support R4 counter and in effect breaking your usage statistics automation (SUSHI)...
START NOW supporting R5 counters3 votesAs of January release Alma will be fully compliant with COUNTER release 5. COUNTER Release 4 will continue to be supported along with COUNTER release 5. This is the case for both Alma as well Alma Analytics. For more information, see video COUNTER Release 5 in Alma and Alma Analytics as well as Knowledge Center entry Managing COUNTER-Compliant Usage Data .
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Provide the ability to select more than one file to delete when looking at uploaded sushi files.
Right now you can only delete invalid sushi uploads one at a time, please let us select multiple and then delete.
238 votesCustomers are now able to manage their lists of downloaded SUSHI COUNTER files more efficiently by running bulk delete actions.
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Ability to change invoice owner
Currently, invoice owner cannot be changed once the invoice Summary tab has been saved.
If a user creates a manual invoice and mistakenly saves this tab with the wrong owner, the invoice needs to be deleted and recreated.
If an EDI invoice loads with the wrong owner due to an issue with one or more lines, the invoice needs to be deleted and reloaded.
This is inefficient, particularly when an invoice with many line items needs to be deleted and manually reentered. Please add the ability to change invoice owner to an appropriate value.
18 votesAs of July release you can change the owner for an invoice after it is edited. The values for the Owner list depend on the owner of the linked PO line/s, user role scope, library availability for vendor, and vendor account and funds. When saving the invoice, if the invoice owner is the institution but all the PO lines associated with the invoice lines are owned by a single library, a confirmation message displays that allows you to confirm or cancel your changes.
For more information please see Alma Release Notes:
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Release_Notes/2020/Alma_2020_Release_Notes -
Add sushi job options beyond weekly
Currently the only SUSHI job configuration options under acquisition job configuration, is either to run every Saturday or not at all. I get FAILED messages from my weekly sushi job notification. I'm finding out there are some vendors that do not make their data available except for certain weeks of the month. For example, Oxford does not make their data available until around the 15th,unless it's a weekend then it's the following Monday.
So the job runs to no effect except about once a month.
Can an option be added so the customer can run the job monthly in addition…
34 votes -
Ability to change the Requester in the Purchase Request form
Several new features were added to the Purchase Request workflow with the May and June 2018 releases.
One of these has meant a regression for our staff and negatively impacts the library services. In the past, any staff could create purchase requests in Alma, on behalf of academic staff, researchers and students. The patron name could be selected as Requester. This was particularly helpful to Circulation Desk operators and managers. Now, it is not possible anymore and the purchase request creator is automatically processed as Requester (unless the user has the new Purchase Request Operator or Manager roles). A user…
26 votesAs of December release it is possible to allow an Alma user that does not have the Purchase Request Operator or Manager role to create a purchase request and change the requester of the purchase request to another user. The user can search for other users from the purchase request pickup field and can set the user with the auto complete option. This option is disabled by default. To enable it, contact Ex Libris Support.
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Fuzzy Serial Match Method
Since there are still problems with ISBN match method, a large number of duplicate books will be generated and the ISBN match method can not meet the actual needs. There is the fuzzy serial match method that is to accurately compare the 100 and 245 fields. In the system, the 100 fields can only be a single author and the other authors in the multiple, as well as all the contributors will In 7XX. When we import the order, no matter what kind of responsibility method, we put it in the 100 field. So if the system directly compares the…
1 voteNew match profiles that are now available for repository import profiles may partially resolve the issue.
The new profiles match only by 245 abknp and 880 (of 245) abknp and not by 245 abknp, 245a, 210a, 246a (and their 880)
please Alma January release Notes https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Release_Notes/009_2019/Alma_2019_Release_Notes?mon=201901BASE -
Enhance SUSHI harvesting job
The SUSHI harvesting job is set to either run every Saturday or not at all. Some vendors do not make their data available except for certain weeks of the month. This results in failed errors in the notification. Could this be expanded so you can set when the jobs will run, like once a month (after the 15th) when most vendors have made their usage data available.
10 votesThe SUSHI Harvesting job can now be run on a monthly schedule, in addition to the weekly scheduling option. The monthly schedule offers four predefined optional dates across the month. This will save institutions from trying to harvest usage data each week, which can result in redundant failures in case reports are not ready yet.
For more information see Alma May Release Note at:
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Release_Notes/2020/Alma_2020_Release_Notes -
Order bibs - get rid of 'brief bibs alert'
Brief record alerts are configured for cataloging but acquistiions order bibs are always and intentionally 'brief' and we'd like to avoid those alerts. Can brief order bibs be defined separately from catalog bibs? If Catalogers want to retain alerts but acquisitions wants to prevent them we can't use the configuration to cut out the 'required' fields. Hence, is there a way to define at system level what an order bib consists of and stop the 'brief bib' messages we have to override.
6 votesSome PO line and invoice alerts, as seen on their respective Alerts tabs, can now be disabled. The disabling of the alerts also effects the confirmation message associated with these alert
For more information please see Alma November Release Notes:
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Release_Notes/2020/Alma_2020_Release_Notes -
Usage statistics Missing Data page should use different symbols
Currently in the Missing Data page, Alma uses the same red symbol to indicate Data not available for that month. When we investigated, some of them had error in connection so we had to contact the vendors to fix the problems. However, some of them actually worked fine, only there were no usage data available for the requested dates.
I am requesting ExL to use a different symbol to indicate no usage, otherwise everything else is fine. So at a glance at the Missing data page, we could easily explain which months have no usage, so nothing needs to be…
117 votesAs of March release the SUSHI harvest process contains new performance enhancements. Additionally, the Missing Data tab has been renamed to the Monthly Usage Data tab. The errors on this tab are now further refined to help you troubleshoot connection issues. The yellow icon indicates that the connection to the vendor was successful, but the vendor did not send any data. While the red icon indicates that the the vendor connection attempt was unsuccessful. The green icon indicates, as previously, that the usage report file was successfully uploaded.
For more information please see Alma Release Notes https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Release_Notes/2020/Alma_2020_Release_Notes
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