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1692 results found

  1. Better management of serial prediction when publication frequency changes

    Sometimes providers change a journal’s publication frequency throughout the year. So, the prediction’s pattern selected / elaborated at the beginning of the year doesn’t work anymore in Alma. One part of predictions (date of receipt) will be ok until the change but all other predicted items will be false. Now, we can revise the prediction during the year but we must erase the items already received. We can also leave the prediction defined at the beginning of the year and edit manually the false items from the time of the prediction change.

    It would save a lot of time if…

    421 votes
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    Thank you for the suggested idea.

    After reading it carefully, I understand that the main pain point here is the removal/fix of items already received.

    To be more specific, the description of already received items should be updated to reflect the new pattern.

    1. Is this understanding correct?
    2. How often such change happens?
    3. Can you please add examples of the existing description and the needed update?
    4. Can the 'Update items using Excel load' CloudApp be utilized for fixing the description? see https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/appcenter/item-updater-by-excel/

    Thanks for the collaboration,

    Tamar Fuches

    Alma product

  2. Reminder when opening hours are expiring

    When you add standard opening hourse into the Library / Institution calendar it defaults to setting the expiry for the hours 3 years ahead. This is good but it would be useful to get a reminder to move them on when it's getting close to the expiry date.

    325 votes
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  3. Enable us to display items in an "Unavailable" location type as Unavailable in Primo

    We need the ability to show items that are assigned to a location with Type = UNAVAILBLE to show as unavailable in Primo

    The primary use cases that prompt this idea are:
    1. A library is closed for renovation and the items are inaccessible to staff and patrons, but the items must still be discoverable so that patrons can be directed to Resource Sharing in Primo.
    2. Portions of a collection are temporarily inaccessible to staff and patrons, and the items are assigned to a temp location, but must still be discoverable so that patrons can be redirected to Resource…

    266 votes
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    Dear colleagues,

    Thank you for raising this idea.

    This was part of the CERV cycle in 2025, but did not make it to the final list.

    During the analysis, 3 possible approaches were discussed, each has a different estimation and effort:

    Option 1: New dedicated process type

    • It will be possible to mark specific items as "unavailable", similarly to the way it is possible to mark them as "missing"
    • Items marked as "unavailable" will be considered as "not in place"
    • The new "unavailable" option will appear as a possible process type in all the places where there is a list of process types, including configuration options such as Fulfillment Unit Rules

    Option 2: Mark a location as "unavailable"

    • It will be possible to mark a location as "unavailable"
    • All items in this location will be considered as "not in place"
    • The difference from option 1 is that when an item…
  4. Save certain subfields from being overwritten via F3 and PTC

    When linking names, subjects etc. from authority files in various BIB fields, some cataloguing conventions require giving additional information in certain cases.

    One example for such a requirement, stemming from the German speaking countries, is to add the time and place of an auction when linking to the genre/form term “auction catalogs” in BIB field 655 (see attached screenshot). This additional information is, of course, specific for each BIB record and must not be overwritten or deleted, if at a later point in time either PTC processes said BIB record or a colleague invokes the F3 functionality.

    Since different subfields…

    258 votes
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    Hello everyone, for those who raised comments about the correction of 830 $v, could you please provide a detailed, step-by-step explanation of the scenario in which this subfield gets overwritten?

  5. Allow batch deletion of user notes

    It's possible to add notes to user records in batch using the "Update/Notify Users" job on a set of users. It would be helpful if we could also batch delete notes on user records.

    There are occasions when we have subsets of users who receive special permissions to check out subsets of materials (e.g. students in a specific class who are the only people allowed to use specific equipment or reserve items, collections/materials where we require a signed agreement on file from the user to allow access). In these situations, we add notes to the user record to indicate whether…

    237 votes
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  6. 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,…

    213 votes
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  7. Stop the practice of showing funds for 'in review' invoices as expenditure.

    Current Alma practice is that EDI invoices automatically load into Alma and expend from a fund whilst still 'in review' and before the 'approval' stage.

    Below are some examples where the practice of expending a fund whilst the invoice is still 'in review' is causing us issues:

    1. We have full end-to-end invoice integration from our suppliers, via Alma and into Agresso. We don't send through manual invoices for payment. Our invoice data is automatically transferred through to Agresso every evening once an invoice has been approved. Only those invoices that have moved out of review are included in the export.…

    213 votes
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    Dear colleagues,

    Thanks you for suggesting this idea.

    After reading it carefully, my understanding is that the need is for a new “entity” which will serve as a “bridge” between encumbrance and expenditure. This bridge will be named “Pending invoices”.

    Any POL which is invoiced will be disencumbered and the amount will be added to the “pending invoices balance”. When an invoice is approved, the amount should be reduced from the “pending invoices balance” and added as an expenditure.

    1. Is this understanding correct?
    2. Do you think that the definition of using this "bridge" should be in institution level, or might be different from invoice to invoice?

    Please note that this is a complicated addition. We will need to define the behavior in rollover, and in any place that changes balances etc.

    Thanks for your collaboration,

    Tamar Fuches

    Alma product team

  8. Override and reset the maximum renewal date

    We would like to be able to override and reset the maximum renewal date when renewing loans that has gone over the initial maximum renewal period.

    The override option that we have today, only overrides the renewal blockage and not the maximum renewal period. When the new due date arrives, the "maximun renewal date" is still expired and the renewal has to be handled by a librarian.

    As it is now, we have to return and reloan the material for the patron, a manual prosess that takes time and opens up for errors.

    209 votes
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  9. 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…

    208 votes
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  10. Make it possible to add Vendor Interface fields and customize field value options for existing fields

    In Alma, Vendor Interfaces in Vendor records are the place designed to hold e-resources administrative information, such as contact information, administrative details, and usage statistics details. However, the fields available to libraries were developed several years ago, are not customizable, and do not reflect the complexity of modern e-resources management. Different types of institutions have different needs and want to record different types of information, so adding a few new fields for all libraries isn't an ideal solution.

    Instead, this request is for libraries to have the ability to add and manage Vendor Interface fields. Libraries should be able to…

    204 votes
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    Hi Elizabeth, Katie, and everyone,

    Thanks so much for sharing this idea!

    From what I understand, it includes two main parts:

    1. Allowing institutions to edit the list of values in various fields, with a specific example being the “Implemented Authorization Method” field.
    2. Adding more fields and making them reportable in Analytics, along with a request for a flexible mechanism to support this.

    Regarding the second point — adding a flexible mechanism is quite a complex change and could impact the timeline.

    If you can point out around three specific fields that are most important to add first, it might be easier.

    Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

    Thanks again,

    Tamar

  11. Job for copying the configuration from the production environment into the Standard Sandbox

    Making testing and training in an Alma Standard Sandbox based on Ex Libris provided configuration is very difficult since this configuration may be very different from the one in the customer's production environment.

    Currently Ex Libris is offering two types of Sandboxes for Alma:
    (1) "Standard" - by default included in Alma subscription pricing. This sandbox contains Ex Libris provided data and configuration
    (2) "Premium" – for addition subscription fee – this sandbox includes a full copy of the customer's data and configuration

    Refresh of the Alma sandbox environment is possible up to once a quarter, upon request. In the…

    188 votes
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    5 comments  ·  Other  ·  Admin →
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  12. 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.

    187 votes
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  13. Separate the ability to delete holdings and items so they depend on different privileges and roles.

    Currently, the ability to delete holdings with no inventory and to withdraw items is controlled by the same user role and privilege. 'Physical Inventory Operator Extended' role, 'Physical Inventory Delete' privelege.

    This idea proposes to separate those functions into 2 roles:
    one will be able to delete empty holdings records (and may be assigned to a broader population of users)
    and the other (the 'extended' role) will be able to withdraw items - which is considered a more sensitive action.


    This idea was edited by the Alma product team for clarity, see original phrasing below

    Dear all
    The 'Delete Holdings'…

    182 votes
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  14. Provide multiple hold pickup options within a single Alma library

    We'd like to provide, within a single Alma library, the following pickup location/delivery options to our users: locker, circulation desk, or mail to home. At present, this is only possible through the creation of additional libraries.

    179 votes
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  15. Enable bulk due date changes based on a set of items listed by barcode

    We've had occasions where it would have been useful to be able to create a set of items, for example, in Alma Analytics. Then to take that set of items, e.g. a CSV or Excel file listing the barcodes, and then to update the due dates of all those items, to a new fixed value.

    This is similar to the current Bulk Due Date Change functionality, but with the addition of uploading a list of items to change.

    Regards,

    Ciaran

    The University of Manchester Library

    181 votes
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  16. Request letter

    We would like to be able to send a user a notification about a request immediately after placing the request. The notice would give basic information about the status of the request. Something along the lines of the "interested in" letter. Running a request report once a day is insufficient for our operations.

    175 votes
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  17. Add a tab "re-loan" to Patron Services to return and re-loan items in one step

    An additional tab (e.g. "re-loan" or "Wiederausleihe" in German) would be a valuable improvement to the Patron Services page.
    The goal of this tab is the returning and re-loaning of an item to the patron in one step, with a pop-up warning if there are requests present in the request queue.
    The option of a re-loan tab would be a big help in cases where large amounts of items are reloaned to the same person when the items reach the maximum amount of renewals. The additional tab would make the process easier, less error-prone and especially faster.

    174 votes
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  18. Ability to create a chosen quantity of predictions

    As someone who manages serial subscriptions, I would like the ability to choose the quantity of predictions I create for any given holdings record. This would allow for quicker navigation of list of items, and reduce the number of inaccurate predictions.

    It is not always desired to predict an entire year’s worth of predictions (which currently is the only option). Depending on the publishing frequency and the number of copies of a subscription, we can have 11 pages of predictions in a list of items, in addition to the received items. This greatly increases the amount of clicking needed at…

    171 votes
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  19. Check past requests

    When a request is cancelled or completed, there is no possibility to retrieve any information about the past request. If something went wrong, it is impossible to trace the patron or destination of the request.

    168 votes
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  20. Shelf Report - Figuring out items that are not in call number order

    When running a shelf report for a set or call number range we want to know if any items are misshelved in the sense that they are not in the right call number order. As far as we can tell this is not possible but is an essential part of our inventory checking. For example, if we are running a shelf report for all items in our early childhood education collection we want to be able to determine if items within the collection are shelved in the wrong place according to their call number so that we can go to…

    169 votes
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