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.
616 results found
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Populate library hours from other sources
Currently Alma does not accept a feed of library opening hours from other sources, we would like ExLibris to add this feature for better integration with other calendars. Currently Alma API can retrieve and output library open hours, it would be nice to have an API that can read and update library open hours.
1 vote -
Ebook usage information in Alma on Other Details per portfolio
Within Alma when looking at Ebooks (or journals) it would be nice to have the ability to see "usage" - by portfolio - based on the OpenURL report or potentially pulling in SUSHI harvested data. It could be on the portfolio level or "Other details" similar to how books show usage. Quick way to determine if additional titles need to be purchased.
1 vote -
Create a new an authorities search index “Matching Information” (or the like) for field 885
As Alma GND User Group we represent staff users that are tasked with data management in the Integrated Authority File (GND), the most widely used authority file in the German speaking library community.
We would like Ex Libris to introduce an authorities search index that makes the content of MARC 21 Format for Authority Data field 885 available for search purposes.
As a QA measure several different algorithms are applied to the content of GND to find potential duplicate records and mark these candidates in field 885. In cases where the confidence value does not reach a certain threshold, the…106 votesIt is now allowed to search for the Authority content in Marc field 885.
For more information, please refer to the Alma May release notes and online help.
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Allow resource sharing request labels to be deleted
When you're adding a request label to a resource sharing request in the new Alma resource sharing reqeust list interface, you see a list of all the labels you have previously added to requests. Unfortunately, it's not possible to remove labels from this list, so you always see every label you've ever created, including labels with typos and labels that were created by mistake. We would like to be able to remove specific labels from this label list.
87 votes -
Display MARC 250 subfield "b" in "Edition" in the Brief Results List
Even when a record has 250 subfields a and b, Alma brief results display only subfield $$a with a slash in the Edition field. Alma should also display subfields b according to the MARC21 standard:
https://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bd250.html4 votes -
PO line description should represent current bibliographical data
Alma provides insufficient data in PO lines for the task of pulling a list of subscriptions a library has of a specific publisher's titles:
The PO line description contains only bibliographical data from the bib record as it was at the time the PO line was created. Subsequent changes in the publisher data are not updated in the related PO lines.
Even in newly created PO lines, Alma introduces the content of MARC field 264 _1 instead of 264 31 if such a field exists, i.e. it copies the first, not the current publisher’s name into the PO line description.
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155 votesStarting from Alma February 2025 release, Alma will allow to automatically reflect changes on the bib on its linked PO line. This will increase the accuracy of the order, and save additional effort updating these PO lines manually.
The new option is disabled by default, read more about it on the Alma Release Notes or at Other Settings.
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Claims
Would it be possible to add the option to assign in the list of order lines with claim? When there are several purchasing operators working on claims, it would be very useful if each one could assign certain claims.
1 vote -
Opening General message from Resource Sharing record should automatically put the cursor in the text field.
Opening General message from Resource Sharing record should automatically put the cursor in the text field.
Currently, it just opens a pop up, whether from the Edit > General Message button or the three dots (...) > General Message option -- these have different UIs but neither put the cursor in the text field, which is the intuitive action.
1 vote -
Make all PNX elements referable in Template URLs (of General E-Services) and Dynamic URLs
In the Template URL of a General E-Service and in the Dynamic URL of a given collection of e-resources you can currently refer to any piece of metadata that Alma has included in the Context Object ("CTO"). The attributes of the Context Object are based on the OpenURL 1.0 standard but while this standard provides slots to convey any kind of locally scoped metadata (e.g. local identifiers) as well as globally scoped metadata (e.g. ISBN, ISSN, OCN, DOI) and descriptive metadata (e.g. author name, book title, journal title, article title) there is currently no way to let Alma include locally…
113 votes -
59 votes
Dear community,
The Sage AutoHoldings Integration is now available on Alma.
Please see Upload Electronic Holdings from Sage for more information and instructions to configure the integration.
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Add User Statistical Categories as a Parameter in Fulfillment Units Rules
We would like the ability to add user statistical categories as input parameters when configuring Fulfillment Units. This will allow us to apply additional terms of use (TOUs) to certain subsets of User Groups.
Right now, we are able to configure Fulfillment Unit rules based on User Groups (i.e. Student, Staff, Community Member, etc.). However, there are certain subsets of users within these groups (for example, a student that is part of a scholarship program, learning community, or major) that we would like to apply different TOUs to. We can identify these users with Statistical Categories and if we could…
29 votes -
Set default payment type for circulation desk
We would like the ability to set default payment options for our circulation desks. We currently use the cash option for our student campus payment system since we do not have the ability to add custom payment types and we do not actually accept cash anymore so we use that but cash is showing as the "default" option from the payment area and most of our payments are credit card so we would like to set credit card as the default payment option.
3 votesThis idea was rereleased in Feb 2024
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Enable Alma collections items linked to logical sets to be updated as the set changes
Currently it seems that Alma Collections can only be updated by manually adding individual items or adding items from sets. If the set is a logical set, as new items that fulfill the set search criteria are added, could they also automatically update the Alma Collection. This would save having to manually maintain Alma Collections to some degree.
566 votesIt is now possible to define a logical collection based on a logical set of titles. The collection will be updated daily based on the changes in the set. Ad-hoc updates to the collection are also possible if required.
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ORCID
More and more government agencies require researchers/scientists to have ORCID iD when they apply for government sponsored research. But ORCID iD is for real world object. Please use $1 real world object for ORCID iD for Alma search indexes for MARC21 100, 600, 700 fields. The current Alma search indexes incorrectly support $0 for ORCID iD in MARC21 100, 600, and 700. This error needs to be corrected.
44 votes$1 URIs are indexed and searchable in Alma, since August 2023 release
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Show / Hide Email Type and Address Type values (e.g. Alternative etc.) from Register New User menu
It would be useful if we could show or hide some Email Type and Address Type values (e.g. Alternative etc.) from the Register New User menu.
Actually those values sometimes generate problems in our API connecting Alma with our Human Resources system. But in general making them disappear could help in making the form for registering a new user more customizable and, if needed, simpler.3 votesIt is now possible to configure the fields that appear in the Patron Registration and the Edit User Info (from the Manage Patron Services page) forms in Alma.
The new option makes it possible to configure a form that is fine-tuned to the library's needs and manages only the information the library wants to manage.
For more information see August Release Notes
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Make MMS ID into a clickable link in brief PO line display
It would be great if the MMS ID in the brief PO line display is clickable so that we can click on it and navigate directly from the PO line to the bibliographic (bib) record.
Currently, the MMS ID is viewable in the brief PO line display but is not clickable. In contrast, the number in the Orders field within the brief bib and inventory display is clickable and we can thereby navigate directly from the brief display to the PO line(s).
In the attached document, please find an example.
1 vote -
Add ability to save checkbox "Update Net Price according to item quantity" to PO line templates
The February 2022 Alma release brought an improvement in correspondence between the number of items ordered and quantity for pricing (https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Release_Notes/2022/Alma_2022_Release_Notes > Enhancements to the PO Line Pricing Section).
We are happy, that the enabled checkbox updates the quantity for pricing amount automatically and that the checkbox is enabled by default and can be disabled in the configuration menu.
However, we would very much appreciate the ability to save the checkbox-setting in the PO line templates. This way, if the checkbox is enabled for the whole IZ, it can still be used disabled by individual libraries by saving it…
44 votes -
Exclude cancelled or closed POLs from the search results
When you are searching for POLs, you are able to select one facet pertaining to the POL status to narrow down your results. What would be more helpful is if we could EXCLUDE search results based on a selected facet. For example, selecting a facet to remove all "Cancelled" POLs.
3 votes -
Alma collections: Allow to add from network zone
Our Alma consortium shares a common network zone. On the local institution level, we are building Alma collections (not digital/electronic collections). We can add titles from the institution zone, but we can't add titles from the network zone.
This is documented:
Alma Online Help (English) > Resource Management > Inventory > Managing Collections"You can only add titles from your Institution Zone to collections. NZ-managed inventory cannot be added to collections."
This is very bad since many of our e-book packages are managed on the NZ level. So we can't add e-books to our collection and present them together with…
161 votesHey all,
Thank you for bringing up this idea,
Alma now supports adding titles from the Network Zone to Collections in the Institution Zone.
For more details, see the May 2025 Release Notes.
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DKIM for institutional domain
Allowing DKIM creation for institutional domains. Currently, ExL cannot generate DKIM keys for those institutional domains and allowing us that option will better serve our patrons.
79 votesEx Libris platform products now support DKIM digital signature for outgoing emails.
For more information see the online help page in addition to a Developers Network technical blog Outgoing emails configuration
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