Can we please increase inclusivity by changing to gender-non-specific language in both documentation and descriptions in coding tables?

The Primo and Alma documentation uses very gendered terms, particularly his / him. End users and library staff are mostly referred to as he / his / him, despite libraries being an overwhelmingly female workforce. We also need to recognise the increasing numbers of non-binary users within our institution.

I propose the following changes:
Him or her -> them
His or hers -> theirs
She or he -> they

As one example, a search on Alma documentation shows 3324 results for he, him or his. Searching for she or her mainly brings up German language results.

Gendered language is also in mapping and code tables e.g. Fulfilment administration > General > Other settings has the description "When user has an active loan, enable him to request the resource with a different loan period policy"

Currently, the locations in the Alma resolver (Get It menu) are not sorted in a consistent, meaningful manner. There is a "use IP best locations ordering" option, but this option is insufficient for many institutions. For instance, in many cases, users are off site or not in a library building, and many institutions do not reserve IP addresses for specific buildings. There is also an alphabetical option but often the size or significance of locations doesn't fit well into an alphabetical listing (for example a small branch starting with A or B might sort ahead of a large Central Library).

Ideally, we would like the ability to explicitly define the preferred order in which locations are sorted. For multi-campus institutions, customers should be able to define the location order for each campus including accommodation for different sort orders between Alma available for groups/Primo views.

Please elaborate Collection in Analytics. We suggest three ideas for that;

Idea 1)
Collection can be a separate dimension, with the existing/new parameters below;
- Collection ID (existing)
- Collection Name (existing)
- Collection External System
- Collection External ID
- Collection MMS ID (of the collection's BIB itself)
- ★★★ The PIDs of the collection's direct sub-collections (in different rows, not combined with semicolons; should be repeatable so that the created report can show the hierarchical structure of whole collections)
- Collection level (the depth)
- Collection Path (from the collection's top level collection to itself)
- Collection Description
etc.

Idea 2)
If the aforementioned parameters are not capable to show the hierarchy of the collections, nine dimensions for each level of collection can be created as followings;

1. Nine Demensions for each Collection level;
   Dimension 1 : Collection level 1 (top)
   Dimension 2 : Collection level 2
   Dimension 3 : Collection level 3
   ....
   Dimension 9 : Collection level 9




2. Then, each dimension can have the following parameters;
   Collection BIB MMS ID
   Collection PID
   Collection Name
   Collection Description
   Direct super(upper)-collection PID
   Direct sub-collection PID
   Create date
   Modification date
   Creator
   etc.

Idea 3)
Collection can be a new Subject Area.

Configuring Alma to deliver an exclusively off-campus service in response to the Coronavirus pandemic included the extension of due dates for us. We were thankful for the 'Bulk Change Due Dates' functionality, which we were able to use to push back the due dates of a majority of items on loan (until 1 June in the first instance for us). We encountered problems though when it came to any items borrowed by patrons whose records were due to expire before that date. The items wouldn't go beyond the patrons' expiry dates, which under normal circumstances would be exactly how we would have Alma work, but in this situation was inconvenient and required us to do a manual workaround. Likewise, the due dates of any items on loan that had been recalled due to policy (e.g. having reached the end of the maximum renewal period) or requests were not extended, so again we had to deal with those separately.

Recognising that the way Bulk Change Due Dates works currently is suitable for Alma users probably a majority of the time, could tick-box options such as 'Disregard patron record expiry dates' and 'Include recalled items' be added to that screen please?

I originally posted the idea https://ideas.exlibrisgroup.com/forums/308173-alma/suggestions/16880380-add-oadoi-org-as-an-option-in-uresolver which was implemented in the Alma November release.

It looks like it's implemented the feature exactly as I suggested – unfortunately the method I suggested turns out to be exactly wrong for the use case as I (admitted briefly) described it! :-{

Our use case, more specifically, is that when we don’t have full text for an item but an OA version is available through Unpaywall, we want that Unpaywall option to appear very visibly for users. (Being a bit fuzzy on the relationship between uResolver, GetIt, ViewIt, and when these all appear) I suggested doing it through uResolver. But that puts it into ViewIt, and ViewIt only appears when we do have full-text.

So eg https://library-lincoln-sb.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=TNcambridgeS0007485399000437&context=PC&vid=LU&lang=enUS&searchscope=Allresources&adaptor=primocentralmultiplefe&tab=defaulttab&query=any,contains,Mitochondrial%20COI%20and%20II%20provide%20useful%20markers%20for%20Wiseana&offset=0 we have the full-text so don’t need an OA version, but the Unpaywall link appears.

Whereas https://library-lincoln-sb.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=TNmedline22342531&context=PC&vid=LU&lang=enUS&searchscope=Allresources&adaptor=primocentralmultiplefe&tab=defaulttab&query=any,contains,drosophila%20genetics&offset=0&pcAvailability=true we don’t subscribe to the full-text, so we want to provide OA. But precisely because we don’t subscribe to the full-text, no ViewIt tab appears, so we don’t get the Unpaywall option!

I think there’d be a number of different ways to tweak the functionality that has been created to make it work for our usecase. I would really like the opportunity to have some dialogue with how it gets developed from here so we can make sure it works the best way possible.

My libraries circulate various pieces of equipment from microphones, to musical instruments, to 3D printers, to lockers, and the current physical material type table does not suffice without adding a slew of item policies or location codes, which is messy and makes the resulting analytics more painful than it should be.

Ex Libris support states that "The [physical material type] codes cannot be changed, because Development needs them for statistics across libraries." However individual libraries will have items that they need to distinguish between either for fulfillment rule purposes or our own statistics.

I would like there to be about 15 generic material types added to this table that will allow libraries a bit of flexibility in dealing with this category. Similar to how Primo has blank PNX fields that can be used to create additional facets, etc. that best fit the needs of the library and its users.

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
shortloanoverduereminder - 241 minutes

However, this creates a situation whereby patrons borrowing from some locations will have already incurred an overdue charge before the overdue notice is sent.

In order for this functionality to provide the service is designed for, it must be robust enough to support different loan periods.

https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/ProductDocumentation/010AlmaOnlineHelp(English)/030Fulfillment/080ConfiguringFulfillment/110General#ConfiguringFulfillment_Jobs

Currently the only way to use records from NZ in an IZ is to search them in the NZ and perform an action like "order" or "link" on every single record one by one. There are, however, situations where an IZ wants to use a bulk of records. For this purpose we need a possibility to link records in bulk and create inventory for the linked records.

We imagine a linking job that takes as an input a logical or itemized set of records saved from a search in the NZ. The linking job can create physical and electronic (and digital) inventory, similar to current import profiles. The inventory operations for electronic inventory should include an option to specify the desired action if the record and a portfolio exist already in the IZ, out of the following choices:

• Add new portfolio.


• Update portfolio information (the URL).


• Don't do anything.

Use case:
The NZ loads monthly updates from e-book vendors where the IZs have purchased different packages. The workflows for group inventory aren't applicable here because the NZ doesn't possess the necessary information for determining who has rights to which portfolio. OAI is no option because this currently creates duplicate portfolios each time a record gets updated in the NZ. The workarounds currently in place involve sending files back and forth which is error prone and not very efficient.

Currently, there are limited scheduling options for emailing Scheduled Reports (Alma Analytics Object area). Many of our users need reports delivered on the 1st of each month in order to capture the previous month's data. The only option right now somewhat close to that is delivery on the 2nd of each month. This doesn't work for us because it adds the first day's worth of data from the next month to the previous month. I propose adding delivery options for the 1st of each month. Better yet - how about offering a drop-down list where users can choose a certain day of the month for report delivery?

When using the Restore change type under Change item information, the only change made is toggling the "item is in temporary location" back to NO. Any values filled in for temporary library, temporary location, temporary item policy, temporary call number, etc. remain. Restore should clear those fields, or allow operators to keep those fields by unchecking a box that would be checked by default.

If the item has been scanned to have an item policy for special circ rules, that information remains in the record when it is restored, even though that information is not applied. If the item is given another temporary change that doesn't require a special item policy the previous item policy will be applied when it is moved to a temporary location. See attached file for an example, and desired option to clear all temporary info.

This was also suggested in 2017 NERS as Idea 5111: Remove Temporary Item Information during "Restore" Currently, temporary item information is not wiped out when a temporarily moved item is "restored" either via a staff process or expiration of the temporary move date. The info is confusing and can cause issues with Analytics, Manage Sets, and future temporary moves on the item.

See also the idea relating to removing temporary item information: https://ideas.exlibrisgroup.com/forums/308173-alma/suggestions/11012787-remove-temporary-location-not-just-change-indicat