Alma
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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.
1691 results found
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Have multiple pickup locations available in Primo when requesting items from the same library
Our wish is to be able to offer several pickup locations in Primo for the same library when documents are available for loan (not linked to a reading room desk) without having to create a new virtual library. The library must be able to configure the visibility of these pickup locations based on certain user criteria (e.g., user group).
For example, a library may offer a special room whose access is reserved for teachers and doctoral students. The library would like doctoral students/teachers to be able to choose this room as their pickup location at the time of the request…
22 votes -
NZ and IZ environment: deletion of electronic collection in IZ should also delete records from NZ
NZ and IZ environment: deletion of electronic collection in IZ should also delete records from NZ
6 votes -
Rapido – Popup warning when local/consortium copy exists
We have more than 4 millions documents in our consortia, and a Rapido service. Sometimes patrons order a document via Rapido while this document is available locally. This can be choice or an error. To avoid errors, Rapido should display a configurable popup whenever a patron submits a Rapido request for an item that is available in our consortium. The popup would warn the user that a free local loan exists and ask for explicit confirmation before sending a paid ILL request, for example: “One or more copies are available from your library network for free loan. Would you still…
15 votes -
royal society of chemistry gold 2026
Please advise on the ETA on when the Royal Society of Chemistry Gold 2026 package will be loaded into the Community Zone for activation. The vendor rep I am in communication with has mentioned that they are currently in progress to send EXL their 2026 files. It would be great to know when to expect it to be available for activation. Thank you!
2 votes -
Allow Resource Sharing Request status as displayed in user account to be customizable
When viewing resource sharing requests in a patrons account the system truncates the request status description. For example status of Ready to be sent is truncated to Ready. Desk staff (not always those who work directly with RS requests) see Ready they assume the item is available for pick up. While we can train staff given the large number of staff and turnover, ensuring everyone knows and retains the information about what those truncated status descriptions mean is a nearly impossible task. We would like to be able to customize the display for our library to use language that makes…
3 votes -
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…230 votes -
De-duplicate Brill "interfaces" in CZ
There are currently three separate Brill "interfaces" when one searches for Brill e-collections in the CZ - Brill, Brill Online Reference Works, and Brillonline. Would it be possible to de-duplicate the Brill e-collections so that everything appears under a single Brill interface?
3 votes -
Add a filter to remove consortia-specific e-collections from CZ search results OR remove consortia from "Interface" facet
It would really improve the CZ search experience (when looking for the right package from the large publishers of e-journal/e-book packages) if there was a way to toggle off the results from all of the consortia-specific e-collections. For large publishers like Springer, the consortial results completely overwhelm the search results.
OR, at the very least, to separate consortial names from the "Interface" facet - these consortial names aren't actual interfaces - the links in these collections go to publisher platforms. Would it be possible to tag the consortia name in some other way? In a new field?
3 votes -
Add "Linking Information" with direct URL to activated CZ portfolios for view in IZ
Add the ability to see an e-resource's direct URL (not the parser parameters) to the IZ view of activated community zone portfolios (similar to the "Linking Information" button/box that appears in the CZ view of a list of portfolios).
3 votes -
The line separator in Analytics outputs is normally a semicolon, but should not be ambiguous
In various exports from Analytics, it was noticed that the characters present in Alma are output as follows:
- sharp bracket < present in Alma is put out by Analytics as & l t ;
- sharp bracket > in the Alma (bibliographic data) material is put out by Analytics as & g t ;
- ampersand & as & a m p ;
This is likely due to HTML being used as the export format in Analytics. However, for the further processing of large amounts of data, it is disruptive that a semicolon is used for coding here. The semicolon appears both…
45 votes -
Customization on the background color of universal viewer (for 3D Objects)
Some 3D objects with dark textures are poorly displayed with universal viewer (as the background color was default as "Black").
Enhancing the background color customization feature in the universal viewer would help improve the visual experience.4 votes -
Open Minutes as Unit of Measurement parameter for Overdue Fine configuration
The available units of measurement for configuring an Overdue Fine include All Days, All Hours, All Minutes, Open Days, and Open Hours. Open Minutes are not included.
Open Minutes should be an option, so that libraries have the option of charging for less than the full hourly amount when users bring time-sensitive materials back less than an hour late, without forcing patrons to accrue additional fines when the library is not open.
2 votes -
Linked Data Enrichment Moves $e Relator Subfields to Incorrect Positions When Saving Authorities with F3
When saving a name authority record in Alma using the F3 function, the Linked Data Enrichment process is causing the $e relator subfield to move to an incorrect position within the field. Instead of maintaining the expected order (e.g., $a, $e, $1), the $e subfield is often placed at the end or in another unexpected location after $0/$1 subfields are added. This disrupts the intended structure of the authority field and creates extra manual work for cataloguers.
Attempts to correct the placement by copying and pasting the $e subfield do not work as expected—Alma consistently pastes it at the end…
47 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…143 votes -
Request for Improvement of the Physical Item Receiving Function in the Library
Currently in Alma, when librarians receive physical items that have been ordered and have arrived at the library, items with a patron physical item request and items without a patron physical item request must be processed separately.
It would be helpful to have a feature that allows librarians to receive both types of physical items—those with a patron physical item request and those without—together in a single receiving workflow.
7 votes -
COUNTER metric PR_P1 or DR_D1 Searches platform to calculate Total Usage in Analytics databases cost per use reports
We request that the Total Usage field used in constructing the databases cost per use report utilize the COUNTER PRP1 Searches platform or DRD1 Searches platform metric.
Within the group of university libraries that are part of REBIUN (https://www.rebiun.org/), we have agreed to use the PRP1 metric, or alternatively DRD1 Searches platform, to calculate the cost per use of databases.
However, when configuring the report in Analytics, we encountered the problem that Alma uses the DR – Unique Title Requests metric. https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/080Analytics/Alma_Analytics_Subject_Areas/E-Inventory#Cost_Usage
Therefore, even if we build a cost per use report, it would…
96 votes -
Add faceting to the results of the Receiving Workbench
Sometimes serials do not have identifiers, but have very common words as their title, such as Historian, People, or Taxation. The ability to use facets to narrow results lists, beyond just the library would make this much easier to use.
21 votes -
Increase the number of available facets for all POL searching
All aspects of the POL should be available as facets, assuming they appear sufficiently frequently in a set of results. Most notably, all 5 reporting code fields should be available as facets.
Additionally, other sources of POL lists, such as the Alma Vendor Record should offer all of the same faceting functionality, including the ability to customize which facets are visible.42 votes -
Automatically Trim Leading and Trailing Spaces in Patron Names
When staff create or edit patron records, Alma currently accepts leading or trailing spaces in the first name and last name fields. These spaces make the name technically unique, so the duplicate warning mechanism does not recognize the record as a duplicate. This results in poor data quality, as duplicate records are created without warning.
Proposed enhancement:
• Automatically remove any leading or trailing spaces in the first name and last name fields when a patron record is created or updated.
• Alternatively, prevent staff from entering leading or trailing spaces in these fields from the beginning.This enhancement would…
24 votes -
Request for Populating "Item Location" in Network Activity Loan List
I am writing regarding the blank column in the Network Activity section.
For institutions within a fulfillment network, loans belonging to another institution are visible in the Network Activity section. However, in the Loans list, the "Item Location" column is blank.
If the “Item Location” column were also populated with the correct values, it would be much easier to manage differences in return policies that are dependent on the item's location.
In addition, patrons sometimes claim to have already returned the item.
If the "Item Location" column is displayed correctly, it will be able to ask the owning library to…12 votes
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