Alma
Your feedback matters to us. Help us improve Alma by telling us what you’d like to see using the message areas below. You can also can support something already posted.
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.
1697 results found
-
Letter for purchase requests initially approved and finally canceled
Sometimes it happens that a user's purchase request is initially approved by the acquisitions staff and sent to the vendor, but sometimes it ends up being canceled for some reason.
Prior to this cancellation, when this request is sent to the provider, the POL generated in Alma remains in "sent" status. Prior to this cancellation, when this request is sent to the provider, the POL generated in Alma remains in "sent" status. Then it will be manually canceled.
We request the creation of a letter in which the user is informed of this circumstance. Together with this, we request that…0 votes -
Has Local Information on CZ Updates Task List shows up even when Global Coverage is being utilized instead
If a portfolio is using global coverage information, but has local coverage information remaining, the portfolio shows up in the CZ Updates Task List under "Has Local Information" when updates come in, even though local coverage is not being utilized. If local coverage is not selected, it would make more sense for it not to show up in the list since it's not being utilized and therefore does not really matter at that point.
1 vote -
Pop-up note to alert operator when checking out item with "0 Day Loan" item policy
When checking out an item with a "0 Day Loan" policy, operator is not alerted that the item is due that day and consequently patrons are not being informed at the time they check out the item. This can lead to overdue items and overdue fees charged in error to patron. A pop-up alert would require operator to acknowledge the note before completing the loan, also alerting operator that item should be assessed for item policy correction.
Possible message: This item has an Item Policy of "0 Day Loan." Do you want to proceed? <options: CANCEL or OK>
27 votes -
Make the current publication location discoverable in Analytics
When a record contains both a 260 and 264 field, Analytics will only display the publication location from the 260 field, which often isn't the current publisher's location if a publisher change has occurred. This is also inconsistent with how the publisher field works. The publisher field returns all publishers, separated by a semicolon, but publication place only returns the original publisher's location. Not returning all publication locations makes it difficult to do maintenance on the 260, 264, or 008 country code fields. It also doesn't allow you to accurately record collection development statistics by current country of publication.
6 votes -
Add a Delete button for portfolios in the Community Zone Updates Task List
Could a "Delete" button be added to the set of available options when reviewing portfolios in the CZ Updates Task List? There are options to Test Access and Edit the portfolio, but in order to delete a portfolio you must leave the list and do a separate search. It would be much more efficient if there was an option to delete from within the list.
11 votes -
Differentiate “regular” Hold Request and Interested User Request or Change “Interested User Check” Order
Because Alma does not have the granularity to separate an Interested User request and a regular hold request, our Interested User hold process does not work.
When the “Non-Requestable Processes Fulfillment Unit Rule or Change Order” is configured to prevent “in process” items from being requestable, any items that have an Interested User that are in our Technical Services Work Order are treated as “in process” and therefore, the interested user request is blocked. While we do not want most “In Process” items to be requestable, we do want our Interested User requests to be fulfilled.
Because of this configuration,…
59 votes -
Enable the ability to associate vendors
Similar to associating POLs, it could be useful if it were possible to associate/link vendors to each other. It would enable organizing individual vendors (mostly access providers) under broader vendors (billing agents, IP Registry, etc) and consortia.
5 votes -
Have searchable Notes fields in vendor records
It would be great if the data in the Notes tab of vendors records could be searchable - possibly as an Advanced Vendor search, or as part of a keyword search, or even within Analytics. Some data from Voyager's 'alternative vendor name' field has been migrated into the notes and it would be useful to be able to search on this.
35 votes -
Overdue notifications to be sent also on days after closed days
We noticed that if closed days are configured, and a closed day is between the due date of a loan and the planned day on which the first reminder should be sent, the job does not generate a notification on that day but waits until the next one.
This leads to misunderstanding on the patrons side, because the grace period is not always identical and can vary depending on possible closed days.
We described the issue in case nr. 05301818 (old SF nr.: 00953477) and were told that this is the expected behaviour. The Product manager decided that when there's…131 votes -
Improve Job "Change Physical items information" parameter "Item call number"
Our "Item call number" are made up of two parts, one alphabetical and the other numerical. We need to be able to modify the alphabetic part in a group of items, and keep the numerical part exactly the same.
98 votes -
When a hold expires, have them display in the task list
In the same way that requests show in the task list, it would be helpful that when the hold is expired that it will also show in the task list. People would see on their desktop if an item needs to be shelved or returned to a campus library, instead of remember to check the Expire Hold shelf.
4 votes -
When a hold expires, have them display in the task list
In the same way that requests show in the task list, it would be helpful that when the hold is expired that it will also show in the task list. People would see on their desktop if an item needs to be shelved or returned to a campus library, instead of remember to check the Expire Hold shelf.
9 votes -
Allow lending RS locate process to fail if it cannot determine which volume from a multi-volume set is being requested
Currently, Alma's lending locate process will automatically select a single volume from a multi-volume set if it can't determine which specific volume is being requested in a title level lending reqeust. It often selects the incorrect volume, and that error is rarely caught before the incorrect volume arrives at the borrowing library. It would be very helpful if the lending locate process failed in these scenarios rather. That would give library staff the opportunity to manually review the reqeust and select the correct volume.
5 votes -
Export users in one file
We export all our users every day at 19:00 hours.
This export results in over 600 files that then have to be concatenated into one big file.
It would be most useful if the export could result in one big file being exported.
1 vote -
Possibility to open a record in MDE with MMS ID in URL (Deep Link)
At the moment it is not possible to create a link from an external system or a document which opens the MDE for a given MMS ID.
We would like to speed up the workflows of our cataloguers by having a possibility to generate links to Alma for a list of MMS IDs.
e.g. https://{alma domain}/mde/?mms={mms id}
This could then used by external tools to generate a "show" or "edit" link for our cataloguers.
It would also be possible to generate such links in an Excel document with MMS IDs by using a formula to generate such links, which would…
89 votes -
Alma Analytics> Fulfillment> notification sent indicators
In the Alma Analytics Fulfillment subject area, there is a "Courtesy Notification Sent" indicator field.
I would appreciate similar indicator fields for the other types of notifications sent to the user for the transaction, such as the "Ful Overdue and Lost Loan Letter", the "Ful Overdue Lost Loan Notification Letter," and the "Return Receipt" letter.
It would be helpful to confirm that Alma generated each letter for the user, for the transaction.
Since we have a retention period set on how long each letter copy will stay on the patron's attachments tab, it is possible that the patron may still…
30 votes -
Ability to customise email subject heading in Alma letters using letter data
As library staff we would like the ability to customise the email subject heading of Alma letters using letter data so that we can flag something up to a customer/use in their email inbox.
For example, we've recently customised our On Hold Shelf Letter using XSL to have different content when a customer is picking up a Resource Sharing request as we ask customers to collect these from our Customer Services desk whereas other requests are placed on a self service hold shelf in the library.
We were able to customise the letter using XSL, but could not find a…15 votes -
New Hold Shelf Request Slip Letter for Physical non-returnable
The current hold shelf request slip letter only handles regular RS requests (books etc), but is not generated when a RS request is created and received as physical non-returnable.
We would like to see an improved functionality to support this material type, so a slip is created as with any other request that are placed on hold shelf. It could either be an improvement to the existing letter, or a new letter entirely.
9 votes -
Transit Letter: CC to the destination
Enable an option in Fulfillment for a transit letter to be sent to both destinations (From + To).
As for today, only the “From” department receives a notification letter.
If a CC was an option there was no need to print / forward the letter.28 votes -
Hold shelf request slip letter - new regex code table to create pickup number based on internal identifier for Resource sharing requests?
In 2018, a new letter for hold shelf items was introduced thanks to this idea exchange (https://ideas.exlibrisgroup.com/forums/308173-alma/suggestions/32042020-new-letter-for-hold-shelf-slips) It has been very helpful in managing physical item requests, since the letter is customizable.
We see that improving this letter to also include pickup numbers for resource sharing requests/physical non-returnable. Since these requests do not get a Request ID which then becomes the Additional ID - but rather an Internal ID – the letter could be improved to include a portion of the Internal ID as the pickup number.
For instance, a RS request has the internal ID 4177325980002286. Following…
119 votes
- Don't see your idea?