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.
121 results found
-
Adding the publisher location to the "Keywords" index in Alma
Currently, the publisher location is not indexed in the general "Keywords" index in Alma. If someone wants to search for a certain publisher location, one must use the specific index because a "Keywords" search won't bring any results.
This is particularly unpractical when searching for series or periodicals, as they often have similar names but different publishers or publisher locations, or later editions of a certain work which can be identified by the different publisher resp. publisher location.
What confuses staff users is also that if one wants to search for a book, using the title and/or the author as…128 votes -
Option to change default management tag publishing for bibs
When creating or importing new bib records from an external source (especially OCLC), the bib's default management tag in the MDE is set to "Publish Bib" for publishing under "Export to WorldCat". However, "Publishing Holdings Only" is useful for the purposes of publishing our library's Local Holdings Records (LHRs), and other libraries may not want to publish bibs or holdings by default at all. The option to choose between one of these three publishing defaults would benefit libraries who would otherwise need to either regularly update batches of records or manually edit each one as they're created.
124 votes -
Search possibilities as "Received X weeks ago" or "Available X weeks ago"
Libraries sometimes wish to build logical sets from constantly changing data. For example, a logical set of items received in the last 30 days or a logical set of ebook portfolios activated in the last 15 days. The "Receiving date" (Physical items) and "Activation Date" (Electronic portfolios) search indexes only accept a specific date (selectable from a calendar) and only allow the operators "Equals", "Not Equals", "Before", "After", "Is Empty", and "Is Not Empty". It is therefore not possible to build 100% logical sets based on items received in the last 3 weeks and associate them with a collection for…
122 votes -
Allow sorting of itemized set members similarly to logical set results.
In Manage Sets, enable sorting the members of itemized record sets by title, creator, and publication date, similar to the criteria available for sorting results of logical sets. Currently our only option for sorting the members of an itemized set is by exporting to Excel and manipulating the resulting spreadsheet, which doesn't allow for clean sorting by the same criteria.
115 votes -
Default search option setting for external resources
MD editor > Tools > Search external resources
Search options for external resources such as title, creator, isbn, system number and year of publication are automatically filled in from a bib record. This make us to delete fields manually and spend time. It would be great to set search options at the institution level or individually.
99 votes -
A way to set the Scan-in-Items drop-down-menu Status to our specific workflows
In Cataloging when we scan in item barcodes to send a work order to shelf preparation or end-processing, the scan-in-Item Drop-down menu defaults to Cataloging. Acquisitions uses this to send material to us --but we want to send material to Shelf Preparation/End-Processing. So we have to manually mouse down to insert this everything single time. This is slow (uses up time). It would be faster and healthier (on our hands) if Ex Libris could reconfigure so any library unit in a library could unit set the Scan-in-Item Drop-down menu to default to (--or to "persist" or "stick" at--)the specific status…
97 votes -
Expand "Create Physical Items Work Order" job to include work order Status
The “Create Physical Item Work Orders” job should be expanded to allow users to add work order Status in addition to Type and Department to a set of records. Currently adding Status is a 2nd separate step. After running the job to apply Type and Department, you must then sign into the appropriate Currently At location, Manage In Process Items, and then apply the Work Order Status (limited to one screen of 20 records at a time). Very Inefficient!
93 votes -
Customize Alma search indexes
We would like to customize the search indexes in Alma for all MARC21 fields (not just localized fields). For instance, in the Alma advanced search > all titles > "Title" > we would like to change to "245 (Title)" to make it easier to identify the MARC21 field we want to search.
91 votes -
Display the date a work order is created
When a work order is created to put an item in process internally ("Technical Services (CAMS)" or "Show to supervisor" or "Preservation") it would be helpful to have Alma display the date this status change happened.
It could be in the "item history", and/or the "In process" display, and /or in the "list of items." Currently, the receipt date is the last date displayed in these locations, which does not help with locating an in-process item.
88 votes -
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…
85 votes -
Add warning for active title-level-requests when relinking or deleting holding records or items
When relinking holdings and items to new bib records or deleting holdings or items, requests can get lost. This is the case if they are on the titel level instead of on the item level.
(Cf. https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/Physical_Resource_Management/015_Managing_Physical_Resources#Relinking_Items_to_Another_Bibliographic_Record)Staff with the role Cataloger Extended or similar roles which allow for relinking and deleting of records, holdings, and items, would benefit from a warning that an active request is present on the title level (e.g. a pop-up) before a holding record or item is relinked or deleted.
80 votes -
Refine search and Search external resources function
When using the "Search external resources" function under profiles including several external catalogs, we can only use refine search link on the first tab.
It would be great if the refine search link was on all tabs rather than on the fisrt tab only.
73 votes -
"Display in Discovery" from any screen in Alma
Make the Display in Discovery action available in any screen/view of a record in Alma, not just in a repository search or in portfolio lists. There is often the need to see how a resource displays in Primo when working in an item, orders, and other areas of records.
65 votes -
Linking bib records based on 830 $x should be optional
Alma currently links bib records based on the presence of the ISSN in the 830 $x. This causes a terribly confusing display in Primo and Alma and is prone to messing up requests. This should be an optional "feature" and not automatically enabled. We do have the option to turn off all related records, but if we use that, we lose all our boundwith relations.
We should not have to delete a valid MARC subfield (830 $x) in order to prevent related holdings record displaying in Alma and Primo.
65 votes -
Alma User Role for Editing/Deleting only Quick-Cataloged Records
Scenario:
Library staff frequently need to create records for resources using the Quick Cataloging feature. Often, those records need to be edited after creation, due to mismatching resource types, updated information, operator input errors, etc. Most of the staff using the Quick Cataloging feature are not trained as catalogers, and do not have cataloging roles in Alma.Problem:
Quick-Cataloged records are not editable by staff without cataloging roles in Alma - who are frequently the creators/managers of these records. This has led to several different workarounds at various institutions:Some institutions have given their non-cataloging staff full cataloging permissions to…
65 votes -
Make it possible to add single titles from other sources than the IZ to Collection Discovery
At the moment you may only add titles from your IZ to a collection in collection discovery. It would be nice to have a method also to add titles from the NZ, the CDI and external resources.
63 votes -
Ampersand symbol (&) in Repository search
It's found that the repository searches using the ampersand (&) symbol and the word 'and' produce different results. Our request is to make the ampersand symbol and the word ‘and’ interchangeable when Alma does repository searches.
SF case # 00646924
62 votes -
Add Melingo to ALMA
Hello,
The assimilation of Melingo in Primo for the customers in Israel proved to be a useful solution.
It would be nice if it can also be implemented in ALMA.
If Melingo will indeed be in ALMA, the catalogers will no longer need to add Ktiv Maleh or Ktiv Haser in Hebrew in variant titles.Thanks.
59 votes -
New UI-Call Number as an option in the search customization
In the old UI when conducting a search the call number would display in the search results. In the new UI each individual title now has to have the physical title clicked on to see the call number. It would be helpful to have a call number option under the customization options so that it would eliminate all of the unnecessary clicking when trying to view call numbers during a search.
59 votes -
Need ability to search 79X fields
We plan to implement use of the 790 field for local tracings (such as former owners) to be used for special collections materials, and have set up a separate search field in Primo. Now we see that we can't search that field at all in Alma, only Primo. Since Alma does index 59X fields as "local notes" and 69X fields as "local subjects" we propose that the 79X be indexed as well.
58 votes
- Don't see your idea?