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76 results found

  1. Prevent change of due-date when the item is under the recalled status.

    Or have an alert message of some kind when the due date is being changed.
    Because when the due date is changed, the recalled item reverts back to its initial status making it difficult to determine if there are requests placed on the item.

    230 votes
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    We're exploring a solution that would allow configuration of a warning when the "Change Due Date" action is applied to recalled loans. The warning would be overridable, giving users the flexibility to proceed if needed.

    In cases where "Change Due Date" is performed on multiple items, and this warning is enabled, a pop-up would notify the user that some of the loans are recalled and offer options for how to proceed.

    This isn’t planned for immediate development, but it’s definitely on our radar

  2. Add more flexibility in Request TOU Pickup Locations policy

    We’d like more flexibility in Request TOU Pickup Locations policy.

    We have more than 20 libraries and most of them are located within walking distance. Therefore, we want our patrons to go directly to those libraries instead of placing pickup requests and limit the patrons who can place such requests. Otherwise, the number of requests will become too large to handle and logistics and management cost will become enormous. Moreover, it’s not time efficient. If users go directly, they can borrow immediately, but it may take 1-2 days to deliver since there is no direct route between some libraries.

    Currently,…

    214 votes
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  3. Purchase Request Library management in User records

    A new multi-selection field, Purchase Request Library, was added to the User Details page with the June 2018 release. If one or more libraries are defined for a user, the user may create purchase requests only for the listed libraries. If no libraries are defined, the user may create a purchase request for any library.

    But managing Purchase Request Libraries in user records can only be done record per record; there is no possibility for batch processes.

    Currently, there is no option:
    - to add or remove a Purchase Request Library with the Update/Notify Users job;
    - to add or…

    197 votes
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    The Purchase Request library will be supported vi SIS/API and user update job, just as the Resoruce Sharing library is.

    We’ll also look into making the Purchase Request and the Resoruce Sharing library be searchable in the users advanced search option.

  4. Resource Request Monitoring - partner information missing for Lending requests on hold

    When a Lending request is put on hold, the partner information is not visible in the Resource Request Monitoring list. This makes it impossible to check which place in the queue a lending request has.
    We would like the Requester field to to display partner information and be added to lending requests in the Resource Request Monitoring display.

    Please see attachment for screenshots.

    171 votes
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  5. Improve 'Electronic Resource Activation Task List' Management

    The Electronic Resource Activation Task List does not adequately cover the multiple tasks and steps that operators need to complete during the resource's lifecycle. For example, for most electronic resources, there are usually multiple tasks in progress simultaneously (e.g., entering the EZProxy stanza on the server, ensuring admin access to the publisher's site). But because the Electronic Resource Activation Task List allows only one status to be assigned to a resource, there is no way to manage multiple simultaneous tasks nor easily determine what task has already been completed. This results in double handling and inefficient use of managing our…

    299 votes
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    Dear Alma Community,

    I am writing to inform you of a recent change that affects the status of an enhancement you have created or supported in the Idea Exchange. 

    As part of our ongoing commitment to align our internal development processes and increase roadmap transparency with our community, some Ideas that were previously marked as “Planned” have been reassigned a status of “Accepted”.

    The “Accepted” status signifies that the Alma Product Management team recognizes the value of these Ideas and is committed to their development. However, enhancements are not expected to make it onto The Roadmap in the next year. 

    We believe that this change will ultimately benefit our user community by providing a more realistic and transparent view of Alma development. We appreciate your understanding and patience as we implement this change.

    We understand that this change may lead to disappointment or frustration, and we sincerely apologize for any

  6. New fields on Alma screens missing from Primo RS form

    In the December 2017 enhancement, the fields Chapter Author, Chapter Title, and Editor were added to the Alma Resource Sharing screen and Chapter was renamed Chapter Number.
    However, these fields were not added to the Primo Resource Sharing form, which means all the details must be entered in one field such as. Chapter details: title, author, number.
    As most Resource Sharing requests arrive via the Primo form, it would be helpful if EXL fixed this too.

    18 votes
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  7. Copy and paste multiple MARC fields into the metadata editor

    We would like to be able to copy multiple lines from MARC records and paste them into the metadata editor so that multiple MARC fields are pasted into the record in one action. This would help us enormously with our workflow of importing MARC authority records from LibrariesAustralia into Alma.

    For us, this is necessary because the LibrariesAustralia headings are not in the community zone and are unlikely to ever be included there and Alma does not allow for Z39.50 import of authority headings.

    We have this functionality of copying and pasting multiple fields in the LibrariesAustralia Cataloguing Client and…

    550 votes
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    Dear all,

    I believe we now understand the requirement better: To be able to paste a block of text in MARC 21 format, and have Alma parse it and populate the MARC tags, indicators and subfields accordingly.

    This is a larger development, but we hope to be able to add a solution for it to our future roadmap.

  8. Short Term Loans - Courtesy and Overdue Notices

    The new shortloancourtesyreminder & shortloanoverduereminder cannot be configured for multiple locations. For institutions with several hourly loan locations (for example Boston College maintains 2 and 3 hour loan periods for Course Reserves and a 4 hour loan period for some technology items) this dictates that the reminder notice has to be set based on the location with the shortest loan period. The overdue notice must be timed to make sense for for the longest loan period.

    In our test configuration we used the following time parameters:

    ​shortloancourtesyreminder - 105 minutes
    short

    284 votes
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  9. Add preferred pronoun field that displays in Fulfillment Manage Patron Services display

    We will be asked to provide a place to store preferred pronoun for our users (e.g. he/his/him) at some point in not too distant future.

    We cannot use Note field for this information because we have been told by Ex Libris that if we import notes the entire note section in a user record is overwritten.

    We need a configurable field (i.e. we can add the categories of preferred pronoun) that displays in the patron info section of the Fulfillment Manage Patron Services display

    220 votes
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    The core user record will  have a field for selecting a preferred pronoun. The options will be from a configurable drop down such as:

    • he, him, his
    • she,her,hers

    The field will  be updatable from:

    • Alma form
    • SIS
    • API
    • Primo (VE)

    The preferred pronoun will in the Manage Fulfillment Options screen.

    It will be possible to locally override this field without overriding from the SIS, like other fields allow (such as user group).

  10. Configurable Fines/Fees Behaviour

    Configurable Fines/Fees Behaviour

    We are a library that has two libraries in two different cities but we are one organization and we share the same economy. The Fines/Fees Behaviour is hardcoded to be owned by library which doesn't mirror our situation. We would like the Fines/Fees Behaviour table to be configurable.

    101 votes
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  11. Sorting Authority Task List

    It would be highly helpful to have a sorting filter in the Authority Task List that would allow us to sort the list by Fields (e.g. 100's,600's, 700's, 830's,): Personal Names, Corporations/Conferences, Subject, Title, Uniform Titles, and Series. This way work loads can be created and assigned for these specific areas. As things are now, all items are mixed together and it takes far too much time to find/create a single list.

    207 votes
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  12. Blocking borrowing requests on books published within the last year

    With an active automatic rota for books, borrowing requests sent from Primo to Alma are automatically sent to partner. This applies for books published within the last year as well. Before we activated the autoROTA, we would usually change most of these borrowing requests into purchase requests and place the patron on a waiting list.
    New books requested by a patron are often items we want to purchase ourselves, and not spend money on borrowing from our partners in addition. With the autoRota there is no way for us to block these borrowing requests from being sent.

    We would like…

    198 votes
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    Hi,

    We’re thinking along the lines of enabling rules that will automatically turn resource sharing requests to purchase requests based on criteria such as:
    - Requester User Group
    - Copyright related block
    - Publication Date within time
    - Request failure Yes\No → This will enable to set the rule to work when the request is created or when it is rejected

    The rules output will have options to either create purchase request in addition to the resource sharing one or cancel the resource sharing request and create purchase request instead.

  13. Add "Edit" button to item records from viewing, like holdings and bib records have.

    When viewing bib and holding records, there is a link to edit mode that takes you into the metadata editor. If you are viewing an item record and realize that you would like to change it, you have to cancel, go back to the list of items, and then select edit from the action menu.

    It would be handy to have an edit button on item record when viewing it, even though that isn't in the metadata editor.
    It would be handy to have this feature in MANY other fields--there are lots of times when I click on something in…

    34 votes
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  14. Automatic dismissal of corrected authorities from the Authority Control Task List.

    Automatic dismissal of corrected authorities from the Authority Control Task List.
    Improve the Authority Control Task List linking functionality so that when an authority is upgraded/corrected in the metadata editor, it is automatically dismissed from the Task List. Items are added to the Task List before an institution has had a chance to upgrade the catalogue record. Many of these authorities will routinely be upgraded at the cataloguing stage. The need to then manually remove substandard authorities from the Task List which no longer exist in the bibliographic records adds a huge burden of extra work, especially for large institutions.…

    138 votes
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  15. Make Alma resolver better at locating books and book chapters without ISBN

    Alma resolver incorrectly matches to other books with the same title if the open URL does not contain an ISBN.

    Alma is not fit for purpose as an open url resolver for Books when an ISBN is not available.

    Other resolvers such as SFX and 360 link use all the information in the openurl eg author and publisher and date. Alma resolver only uses the Book title which causes numerous false matches.

    See example in attached file

    231 votes
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    Hi all,

    and thanks to Stacey for summarizing the currently available configuration options for the link resolver.

    As mentioned, resolving by title + author is already supported, and the system can be configured to avoid matches based on title only.

    Additionally, the resolver considers material type to help reduce mismatches.

    We are actively reviewing the possibility of adding more match points—specifically publication date—to further improve accuracy.

    Alma Product Team

  16. It would be helpful if there were an option to "print MARC record" within the MD editor and from the Repository Search.

    We sometimes have need of a hard copy of the MARC record for tracking certain workflows. One such example is for making notes about title changes and tracking them across several records. It would be nice if there was a "print full record" option, both in the MD editor and in the repository hit list. Right now, we need to either do print screens or do a screen capture and print from that. Thank you!

    158 votes
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  17. List of items - when have several pages of items on a holdings, return back to active page

    I apologize if this has already been posted (I searched and searched and did not see it), but when viewing a holdings record with a list of items that have multiple pages of items (like 6-7 pages) - it would be great if Alma would default back to the page of items you were actively on, versus defaulting back to page one - every time you edit an item record on list of items page. I know that the lines on invoices that were several pages used to do the same thing (default to page one), but was fixed.

    Example,…

    99 votes
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  18. When entering dates of coverage in portfolios, make it all click through tabs

    Before the Nov. 2016 release, when you entered dates/vol/issue numbers in the portfolio coverage, each space could be clicked into, then tabbed to the next one. Now each time you enter a year, the system saves and you must click into the next box. This slows down the work and adds more clicking. Can we go back to just tabbing until the final save?

    14 votes
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    Dear community,

    I am writing to inform you of a recent change that affects the status of an enhancement you have created or supported in the Idea Exchange:

    As part of our ongoing commitment to align our internal development processes and increase roadmap transparency with our community, some Ideas that were previously marked as “Planned” have been reassigned a status of “Accepted”.

    The “Accepted” status signifies that the Alma Product Management team recognizes the value of these Ideas and is committed to their development. However, enhancements are not expected to make it onto The Roadmap in the next year.

    We believe that this change will ultimately benefit our user community by providing a more realistic and transparent view of Alma development. We appreciate your understanding and patience as we implement this change.

     

    Most sincerely,

    Tamar Fuches

    Alma Team

  19. Create Analytics field for self check loans and returns

    Currently to identify self check stats for loans and returns in Analytics you either need to do one of the following:

    1. Create separate Circulation Desks for self checks
    2. If the operator Primary Identifier field is "None" assume the loan or return was a self check one

    Neither of these workarounds work if you choose to delete Library staff records from Alma and not retain full statistics in Analytics or if the Circulation Desks are deleted (which can happen if a Library is closed)

    It would be preferable to have a separate field in Analytics that indicates whether a loan or…

    107 votes
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    2 comments  ·  Analytics  ·  Admin →
  20. Allow configuration of quick cataloguing form required fields

    We currently only use the quick cataloguing form at circulation desks to create quick records to loan items found on the shelves but not found on Alma. The items are loaned and then the work order routes them to the cataloguing team on return. All these items already have call numbers so we'd like the call number field to be a required field in the quick cataloguing form. Sometimes returned items are incorrectly returned to the shelves and if the quick catalogue record does not include the call number they are often impossible to track down.

    222 votes
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    Dear all, we are currently looking into the possibility of a re-design of the quick cataloging functionality - we will take this request into consideration as part of this future change.

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