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Alma

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1848 results found

  1. Make physical item templates available in receiving workflow

    The new physical item templates look super useful. However, the vast majority of our new items are added as part of our receiving workflow, so they do us little good currently. Can the physical item templates be made available as part of the receiving workflow?

    132 votes
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  2. Add a view option for Attachments.

    Currently if you want to view an attachment (e.g. licence attachment, POL-attachment, etc) you have to download it to your computer. This is very annoying if you just want to have a quick glance at it as your are constantly cleaning out your downloads folder.
    It would be really great if there were a view option which either showed the document in a pop-up or opened it in another tab of your browser.

    131 votes
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    3 comments  ·  Other  ·  Admin →
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  3. Alternative Call Number in Manage Patron Services-Requests

    In Manage Patron Services, tab Requests, we can’t display or add Alternative Call Number.
    For us is important the visibility of this field due to it’s our location system.
    We would like this field to be displayed.

    Thanks!

    129 votes
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  4. 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…

    128 votes
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  5. Feature Requests for the NZ Fulfillment Network

    1. Access to Borrowing History Across NZ Institutions
      • Feature Request:
      Enable librarians to view the borrowing history of their university patrons at other NZ institutions.
      • Current Situation:
      a. On Network Activity tab, it only displays current FN loans and current FN requests.
      b. Librarians cannot directly access the borrowing history or detailed transfer records when their patron borrows books from another NZ institution.
      c. Assistance from librarians at the other institution is required, which delays service and limits the ability to provide comprehensive patron support.

    2. Show more information on Network Activity tab
      • Feature Request:
      On Network Activity tab,…

    128 votes
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  6. Contributed collections - a Report to Contributor instead of Report to Ex Libris

    There are many collections now that are contributed by the community. Sometimes there are errors within them and as it is now, there is no way to report that and get the linking problem (for an example) fixed and the issues can be so many that a deactivation is necessary, but then the collection becomes dead and just clutter KB. My suggestion is that when a institution contributes a collection, a mandatory field is added to the workflow of contributing. This field contains an email address. That email address is then incorporated into a button so you can report to…

    127 votes
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  7. Please add restrict request function for fulfillment network requests in Primo VE between institutions.

    We are a library consortium facilitating interlibrary loans through a fulfillment network with Network Zone, rather than AFN.

    It allows patrons to find items from other institutions directly and request them. Our goal is for patrons of Institution A to use Institution A's Primo VE to request books from Institution B.

    If Institution A has the book available for borrowing, requesting the book from Library B will not be possible.

    Implementing the above feature in Alma to restrict requests in this manner would not only save shipping costs but also reduce waiting times for patrons.

    We previously submitted this requirement,…

    127 votes
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  8. User Purge should be made AFN aware and not allow the deletion of a user with active transactions or fines/fees at another AFN inst.

    The Alma User Purge job is not AFN-aware. It will allow the deletion of a user record from the user's home institution's IZ even when the user has active transactions or fines/fees at another AFN institution. These "orphaned" linked user records are confusing for both users and library staff and are not a best practice for user record management.

    Examples of the resulting problems we've encountered thus far include:
    1) If the user's home institution performs a purge and then re-loads records, the orphaned linked user records in the other AFN member institutions do not re-connect to the new version…

    126 votes
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  9. Using load portfolios in a collection to update POL link

    We currently use the Load Portfolios tool in the Electronic service to update portfolio information. We have found this won't update the PO Line information in the Acquisition tab of the Portfolio. It is included in the data in an extended export of portfolio information, but does any changes/additions made to this field in the spreadsheet are not reflected in Alma when it is loaded.

    We would like to be able to add/change this information using the Load portfolios tool.

    A recent example of where this would be useful was a number of portfolios were incorrectly deleted from a collection.…

    126 votes
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  10. Pin POL notes to top of list

    Context: when acquisition staff view POLs, there are some notes that are important to see, and other notes that are less important. However the only sorting options for POL notes are by created or updated date.
    Proposal: users need the ability to pin one (or more) notes to the top of the list of POL notes, so the important notes are always easily viewable.

    125 votes
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    4 comments  ·  Other  ·  Admin →
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  11. "A" and "The" are not alphabetical

    When listing items, titles that begin with 'a' or 'the' (the indefinite and definite articles) should not be alphabetized under 'A' and 'T', respectively. They should be alphabetized based on the beginning letter of the first non-article in the title. This is standard practice and it is ridiculous to do otherwise.

    125 votes
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  12. Please expand the volume of Internal note fields to the Physical Item Editor

    Our library has more than three kinds of information need to be recorded in the internal note field, such as property number, new books statues notes, compensation books notes and so on.
    Hope is could add more, or became expandable let staff to select numbers of fields they needed.

    124 votes
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  13. Overdue Fine in different periods

    After changing the "Overdue Fine" parameter, the entire fee is recalculated with the new value.
    According to the law, the fee should be counted up to the change with the old value and after the change with the new value.
    E.g. until 2024-12-31 parameter=0.2, then parameter=0.4
    This is especially important in public libraries.

    123 votes
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  14. Flexible and normalized comparison of portfolio coverage dates in Overlap & Collection Analysis

    Currently, Overlap & Collection Analysis compares portfolio coverage dates exactly as they appear in the portfolio coverage fields. As a result, equivalent coverage ranges are not always recognized as matches when the dates are recorded at different levels of detail or when some components are missing.
    For example, coverage such as:
    • 2.1.2016, Volume 1 Issue 1
    and
    • 2016, Volume 1 Issue 1
    may represent the same start point, but the system treats them as different because one includes a full date while the other includes only a year.
    In many knowledge bases and vendor data, coverage dates are…

    123 votes
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  15. Enhanced “In Transit” flow/functionality

    We encounter a lack of important functionality to efficiently follow-up on In transit requests (physical item requests to another pick-up location). We would like the functionality to be extended with the following additional features:
    1. A patron facing letter when the requested item is placed “in transit” by the owning library, so that the patron is better informed of the status of his request.
     We want to create a situation that once a requested item is being transported, there is in fact no way back and a fee needs to paid.
    2. To make it impossible for patrons to…

    122 votes
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  16. Add block action for patron digitization requests in User Block Definitions

    The configurable blocked actions for user blocks in Alma are:
    01 – loan
    02 – loan, renew
    03 – loan, renew, hold

    It is therefore possible to configure that blocked users are not allowed to place requests at all.

    We propose a distinction between the different request types in blocked actions.

    Blocked users should be able to place hold requests, as it can be checked at the latest at the time of loaning whether there is a block, and users then have to take care of the unblocking (e.g. by paying fees) in order to be able to loan the…

    122 votes
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  17. The option to change the permanent location in the item should not be a default, it should be selectable.

    To change the permanent location in the item can lead to incorrect results. If you have two holdings with different locations and then change the location of the item which is connected to the first holding to the location of the second holding, your item will be relinked to the second holding AND the first holding will be deleted automatically. If the first holding contained additional information (e.g. the call number), this information will be lost.
    The option to change the permanent location in the item should therefore not be a default, it should be selectable depending on the needs…

    118 votes
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  18. More humanity in the letters: add the name of librarians who take care of the requests

    Automatic processes in Alma make library staff save time and efforts, but also significantly reduce human interactions with patrons (very few emails are personally sent by librarians to patrons). Lots of Alma letters sent to patrons are nameless and only signed by generic service names like "Acquisitions Department", "Circulation Desk", "Library ABC" etc. (see @@department@@ in the Labels). Some staff members suffer from this dehumanization in the processes.

    We want to give a name and a face to a request when patrons get notified and would like to enrich some Alma letters with the name of the librarian who took…

    118 votes
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  19. Ability to store & track VPAT® documents

    As part of the procurement or licensing process, many libraries may request that a vendor provide a VPAT® (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) in order to indicate their compliance with Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act. It would be desirable if functionality could be developed somewhere in Alma that would allow libraries to track & report whether/when a VPAT was requested and received, which VPAT version was used, and local notes related to accessibility testing.

    118 votes
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  20. 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…

    116 votes
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