Alma
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132 results found
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Title starts with search in Advanced Search
Change "Title Starts With" search in Advanced Search
There are situations when it's easier or more efficient to search by the beginning of the title. However, the “Title Starts With:” search in Advanced Search in Alma requires the user to know whether the title begins with an article (A, An, The) or not, and if so, which article it begins with. So users are expected to remember if a title begins with "A", "The", or no initial article in order to perform the search successfully. Why not just return both results, and let the user decide, instead of forcing them…
145 votesDear all, the title starts-with search was already updated to take non-filing characters into account, allowing librarians to search with or without them.
If for some reason you're not seeing this behavior in your environment, please open a support case with examples so this can be investigated.
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Borrowing - Request completed check
We would like to propose an enhancement request for Resource Sharing - Borrowing where, when you return a book, you get the option to "Complete the request" with a box you can check, like you have when you receive an article (digital or physical non-returnable). Now the status is changed to Returned item to partner, but if you work with non Alma suppliers, this status is superfluous because there will be no Checked in on the Lending side which changes the status to Request completed.
50 votesBorrowing Workflow Profile has an option for ‘Lender check in’.
If you remove that from the workflow profile that is linked to the request’s partner, returning an item will immediately consider the request completed, without waiting for a lender check in confirmation.
Workflow profiles are attached to the partner record, so you can set up this type of workflow for some partners and a different one for others
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Add Vendor contact details to Analytics
We would like to be able to report on the Vendor contact fields of address, phone and email in Analytics.
148 votesThis Ideas exchange to add vendor contact details to Alma Analytics" has been completed as part of the May 2021 release, in conjunction with the revamping of the User Subject area.
It is possible to create a report in the “Users” subject area of all users who are contacts by filtering by the field “User Record Type” from the “User Details” folder -
"delete loan" option
In the loan tab, in the patron folder, there is an option called "Delete loan". This option is offered when you click on "..." for an active loan.
This option is "dangerous" because if we use it, there is no more history of the previous loan. Is it possible to offer the possibility to hide this option for certain users? It could be comprehensible to offer this functionnality to chief but not to desk operators.
1 voteThe ability to delete a loan can be removed by Ex Libris from any requested role.
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Ability to change Acquisition Method in POL
My understanding is that ExL cannot change the Order Line Type due to the inventory database structure. However, what about the Acquisition Method -- Purchase, Approval Plan, Purchase at Vendor System, Gift, Technical, etc? It would be extremely helpful to be able to change the Acquisition Method after an order is sent.
For example, we have some POLs that should have been Purchase at Vendor System instead of Purchase.
We had issues with a depository account where the POLs migrated as Purchase, but tracking our account balance was easier after changing all of them to Technical POLs.
We also have…87 votesThe ‘Update PO Lines Information – Advanced’ job can be used for this purpose.
Please see
exl-edu.com/01_Alma/Alma_Workflows/Acquisit.. -
Create combined IZ and NZ file for Google Scholar
We would like to be able to publish our IZ electronic portfolios and NZ electronic portfolios available for us in one file to Google Scholar. Google Scholar publishing is very problematic for consortia with electronic inventory set up at both the IZ and NZ level. Right now, even though most of our electronic holdings info is set up in the NZ, only our IZ holdings file gets published to GS. In Salesforce, we've been told that (unlike in the SFX days) there is no way to combine the two files for all e-resources available at an institution. As a result,…
12 votesPlease see comment by Asaf Kline about existing functionality.
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Extension Indexing for Alma-D
Publish the complete amazon S3 repository URL of a file contained as a digital object, so that Primo could fetch the data with a file splitter.
28 votesFull text indexing is supported for image and textual formats in Prim o. The full-text can either be ingested with the files or generated in Alma Digital.
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Add API call to fetch all holdings and items associated with one bib record (MMSid)
It would be great to have a single API call to fetch all holdings and items related to an MMS id, which would return all this data in one big XML file. The way it works now, if you want to get, say, all of the barcodes for all items associated with a single MMS id, you have to do an api call for every holding record. So if you have a bib that has one item in 6 different locations, you have to do 6 API calls.
66 votes -
Add Holdings Record note elements to Alma Analyics
Holdings note fields would be excellent for Alma Analytics Currently we can not report on 866 $x/$z or 852 $x/$z, but would very much like to. We end up exporting MARC, extracting fields into Excel, and doing cumbersome somersaults to merge those notes with circulation data for weeding reports.
81 votesThis is being closed as already supported. A lot of work has already been done on the holdings record in Alma. For example the latest comment here in the ideas exchange states
“Seconding both Katie Dunn and JMC on the need for both searching multiple instances of 852 $x and $z, as well as expanding the number of fields searchable. We currently use the more narrowly-defined fields rather than the catch-all 852 $x, but would find both expansions very helpful.”
The Alma Analytics physical items subject area includes the entire 852 field. it is in the “holding details” folder. We have also added several separate fields based on specific sub fields of the 852.
For example see this from Jan. 2018 release notes:
January 2018 Analytics
The following fields from the Physical Items > Holding Details folder are no longer marked as under construction and can be used for saved… -
Multiple Resource Sharing Libraries
Allow an option to have multiple resource sharing libraries.
1 vote -
Please add Silverchair as a SUSHI vendor
A lot of publishers have migrated their platform from Highwire Press to Silverchair. It would be nice if Ex Libris can add Silverchair as a SUSHI vendor, so we can harvest the electronic resources for all the publishers in one COUNTER report in each month, similar to Highwire.
4 votesDear Colleague,
Silverchair is one of many certified SUSHI vendors which Alma knows to integrate with and harvest usage data automatically.
Thanks,
Noam Fass | Alma product management team
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Link to view record in Primo from Alma
When viewing a bibliographic record in Alma, we would like a link to appear that opens a new browser tab/window showing the record in Primo. For example, the MMSID could be hyperlinked, which would then perform a search for the record in Primo. This would enable quick identification of publishing problems between Alma and Primo as well as testing record display in Primo.
305 votes -
Suggestion for Increase of Shared Dimensions Between Subject Areas in Analytics
We have donors who require reports on how we are spending their endowment funding. These reports include Fund Transaction data, Bibliographic Details, and Holding Details. The idea is that the donor should be able to locate any item within our library that we have purchased on their funds. Unfortunately, Holding Details lies within the Physical Items subject area, and currently is not a shared dimension in the Funds Expenditure subject area. Holding Details (such as in the case of Call Numbers) are closely linked in usefulness with Bibliographic Details.
My suggestion, therefore, is that ExLibris please add Holdings Details as…
28 votesThe suggestion here is to add information from the physical items to the funds expenditures subject area. It was opened three years ago. Three years (perhaps after this was opened – Ideas Exchange states “three years ago” but not an exact date) ago we added the fund information to the physical items subject area. This should satisfy the need of creating a report with data from both areas. See https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Release_Notes/030_2016/06July_2016/Alma_July_2016_Release_Notes/08Analytics_-_July_2016_Enhancements
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reporting codes
We find the information available from reporting codes really useful, but staff often forget to apply them when creating a PO. We'd like to have the option of making reporting codes a required/compulsory field
6 votesCurrently when a PO line is saved without having at least one of the ‘reporting code’ fields populated, an alert is added to the PO line and a confirmation message states this to the user upon saving of the PO line.
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Can option for viewing 'Ready to be Paid' invoices be added to Acquisitions menu?
In the 'Receiving and Invoicing' section of the Acquisitions menu,
there are options for displaying invoices in various stages of processing: 'Review', 'Approve' and 'Waiting for Payment'. (See Alma_menu.PNG)It would be very useful to be able to display invoices 'Ready to be Paid' - i.e., which have passed the review stage and await running of the job for export to ERP, which changes them to 'Waiting for Payment' status.
Can the menu be configured to include this option?113 votesDear All,
I am setting this idea to "Already Supported" status as we have a link to 'Ready to be Paid' invoices in Alma.
Kindly,
Zohar Shemesh
Alma Product Team
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Anonymize loans and request older than X
Hi there,
We need to access the recent history of patron loans and requests. For example, when a patron returns an item and there is damage found afterwards or something is missing, we contact the last patron to know what happened.
This way we can resolve about 80% of such cases.But by law, we are bound to anonymize loans and requests older than a year. We don't have this possibility in Alma.
It would be great to add a parameter in the configuration interface in order to anonymize all loans or requests completed before [date].
2 votesPlease note the ‘Loan Anonymization Rules’ configuration option, found under the Fulfillment Configuration. This option allows to set under what conditions loans will be anonymized, including the ‘Days Since Loan Ended’ or the ‘Number of Loans to Retain’.
These rules are especially required for loans, in order to be able to retain history information that is required for inventory management, for example if item is lost ordamaged. The rules are less of an issue for requests history.
Thanks,
Moshe -
automatically remove lost item fees at discharge
When a lost item is returned and discharged, by definition it no longer requires replacement, so all replacement costs (except overdue fine) should be automatically deleted from the patron's record. It looks like we have to do that manually now, which is unnecessary and time-consuming.
14 votes -
Add column to Patron service on the Loan-tab which shows that the item has been requested by another user
Our fulfillment department often gets phone calls of patrons who do not understand why their loan can not be renewed. Now we have to click the View queue in Actions to check this, but it would be much more convenient to see in a blink of an eye that there are requests immediately on the loan tab.
25 votesTwo columns in the Manage Patron Services page display the most recent status and date for the item if any renewal has been attempted. See https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Release_Notes/0099_2017/100_March_2017/Alma_March_2017_Release_Notes/04Fulfillment_-_March_2017_Enhancements#Renewal_Enhancements_in_Manage_Patron_Services
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Make fine/fee types editable
Our library has many unique types of fines/fees, AND many of the fine and fee types in Alma's FineFeeTypeDefinition's Description table do not apply to us. Rather than providing customers with a fixed list, why not create an editable table of Manual Fine and Fee Types, similar to the Reasons for Transactions table that controls options for waiving fines?
50 votesHi,
Please note that the list of fee types can be updated by Ex Libris support, which can add up to 10 institution defined fee types.
Moshe
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Remove Resource Sharing Library
It should be possible to remove the out of the box Resource Sharing Library if your institution is not using it.
9 votesThis is supported but requires EXL Support help.
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