Alma
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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.
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37 results found
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Display related holdings for monographs only for the 773 $w relation and not for the 8xx $w relation
When filtering to a certain location via facets, you often get results from other locations too, which is unexpected from patrons perspective in many cases. This is caused by the current related records setting which is also taking locations with related records into account. The display is correct for analytical records without inventory (book chapters and articles), but not for the other monographical resources.
What we wish to achieve is the following:
When the record of a book chapter, journal issue or journal article (i.e. a record containing a 773 field with $w) is viewed in Primo, the holding of…
665 votesI want to share with you our plan for releasing this feature:
May 2026: Testing phase for selected customers in Sandbox environments. We can include up to five customers. Please let me know if you are interested.
August 2026: General release. Customers will be able to turn on a new UI option that defines how the Contains related record holdings are displayed in Primo and Alma.
Note: Full functionality will be available after the November to December 2026 semiannual reindexing.
If you are interested in participating in the early access, please feel free to contact me at Erez.Shabo@Clarivate.com.
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'Not Needed After' date should be mandatory on patron physical request form.
It would be helpful if the 'Not Needed After' date is mandatory on the patron physical request form to improve the requesting process for Patrons when there is a high demand for physical items.
394 votesHi all,
This will be part of the Alma May 2026 Feature Release.
Alma Product.
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Add "Search within results" box on a set
Hello,
It would be very useful if we had a search box of "Search within results", on a set we created with indication rules.
Thanks.
388 votes -
Add "Request" as a block option in Block Preferences
Currently the Block Preferences have Block options to permit Blocks on Loan and Renewals, but it would be good to include Blocks on Requests on these blocks - specifically Patron Physical Item Requests, but conceivably other requests.
For example is a Patron Limit is defined on Overdues or Recalled overdues, and the limits are exceeded, the relevant Block Preferences are triggered,
i.e.
Patron overdue limits has exceeded
Patron overdue recall limit exceededHowever, the only options on what patron services blocked are Loan and Renewal.
Requests should also be added to the options so that overdues can immediately block a…363 votes -
Change due date when patron account expiration date reduced
As a Fulfillment Manager, I would like the due dates of a patron's books to be changed to their account Expiration Date if this is reduced. Eg, if a book is issued to a student for 10 weeks and they withdraw from their course, the original due date remains which can be some weeks after they have left. This can cause confusion for library staff and the patron.
332 votes -
Increase the visibility of digitization requests in case of multiple requests
When there is more than one digitization request on a same item (same or different requesters), only the first request is displayed in the Task List. When this request is completed, the second request is not listed in the Task List or in the “In Process Items” page, except when the barcode is scanned again.
We think that “In process Item” page should not be empty once the first request is completed. Or least, there should be an alert informing the operator that there is another request on the same item just ready to be fulfilled...
322 votes -
Make configurable pop-up assistance in metadata editor
Currently the po-up assistance in metadata editor for subfields 260$a$b$e$f, 264$a$b, 505$r$t and 561$a is hardcoded and it can not be deactivated. Activation/Deactivation should be configurable. We have many queries from our catalogers about that.
303 votesHi all,
This idea was marked as Completed by mistake. However it is planned to be implemented later in the year.
Stay tuned,
Alma Product.
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Add expiry date for "proxy for" users
In an academic institution, many "proxy for" users will be arranged on a semester or yearly basis, it would be good to have an expiry date so that this permission stops and does not extend into perpetuity.
260 votesThe proxy relation between two users will have an expiration date. After the expiration date, the proxy relation will be considered inactive, and be ignored by the system.
The date of expiry will be updateable in the Proxies tab of the user form.
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Indication that shows I edited an open record
Icons in MD-Editor only show if a record has been saved or not. I would like to have an indication to see if the record has been edited by me after I opened it.
238 votesHi all,
This idea was marked as Completed by mistake. However it is planned to be implemented later in the year.
Stay tuned,
Alma Product.
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Add notifications to Alma reminders
I appreciate the addition of the Reminders in Alma, but I think it would be even more useful if reminders could trigger email notifications when the reminder date has arrived.
215 votes -
Change item information RESTORE change type should allow clearing temporary item information.
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…
214 votes -
Fine for failing to pick up request
We would like to have a fine automatically applied when a patron fails to pick up a request. The fine should be applied after the last pick-up date has passed if the request has not been picked up or cancelled. It should be possible to determine for which locations/user groups the fine will be applied.
209 votes -
How to distinguish namesakes
When you search a user (fullfiment > manage patron services), there is no possibility to distinguish to different user, who have the same nam (namesakes).
In the old UI, there was a patron card image, and, when clicking on, we accessed to a summary of the patron.
Now, we have no more solution.
Can you add this functionnality in the new UI?
Thanks a lot.
206 votesHi,
Makes sense ! Currently, the user information that is displayed in the user Ajax search results (e.g. patrons services WB) is hardcoded.
A mapping table, similar to the one that configures the user pop up, will control the fields that show in this list. The mapping table will enable the same fields that the user pop up allows, and allow setting the order of the fields.
Thanks,
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Add ability to reorder Description Template Setup Rules using drag and drop
The Description Template Setup Rules list must continually be reordered, since the first (sequentially) rule for which the enum/chron combination meets all criteria is used for the description, even if the enum/chron would more exactly meet a later rule. Regardless, is is also helpful to order the list so that similar rules are grouped together, so reordering would desirable as rules are added or removed.
Currently, the only way to reorder the list is to move a selected rule up or down in the list, ONE PLACE AT A TIME. This is time consuming and inefficient.
Please add the ability…
199 votesHey all, starting from the May 2026 release it will be possible to rearange description templates via drag and drop, making the experience easier and smoother.
thank you for suggesting this!
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Linking patron name to patron record
I have noticed there are several ideas suggested in the ideas exchange regarding linking a patron's name and/or ID to their record in Alma.
These include:
- 'Link patron loan to patron record' (posted 25/05/2016)
- 'Hyperlinking from request queue/holdshelf to patron record' (posted 21/09/2017)
- Ability to view patron data via patron ID link in resource sharing' (posted 11/01/2018)I have one more to add to the list - linking within 'Manage item returns'.
When an item is returned, the patron returning the item is displayed in the 'Patron' column, with a hyperlink to their record, and the option…197 votesThe solution approach will be to add a link from the user contact info pop up to the user record. This link will be available for users that have a role that allows viewing a full user record.
By having this link added to the user information pop up we will have added to the many places where user information is displayed.
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Possibility to configure that a patron can login into his/her account in ***** AFTER expiration date, to view open fees / fines and or loans
Currently a patron whose expiration date has passed is not able to log into his/her ***** account. The patron can neither see open fines/fees nor loans.
We suggest:
* institution-wide option to allow or permit users read-only-access to there ***** accound after patron’s expiry date (in Alma)
* user manager role not necessary to do any changes in role expiration dates.
* no additional functionality outside Alma needed that uses the API to achieve the goal.181 votesHi,
The login for an account that is managed in an external IdP (such as a Shibboleth IdP), is done by the IdP and not by Alma. Alma does not control the success of this type of login.
Alma does control the login status if the user record is internal, i.e. its password is managed in Alma. In that case, we will indeed allow the login to succeed even if the user is expired.
The user record status will be verified when calculating:
- GetIt services (hold/digitization/resource sharing)
- My Account renew loan option
In either case, the account will be considered active only if:
- The user record status is active
- The user record expiry date is not in the past
- The user’s patron role is active
- The user’s patron role’s expiry date is not in the past
The login, however, will not be affected by these conditions.
Thank you,
Moshe -
New role for Manage Import Profiles
Currently users must have a Cat Admin role or Gen Sys Admin role to be able to Manage Import Profiles (change/add profiles). This also gives them access to the Configuration area of Alma. There should be a role to permit users to Manage Import Profiles that does NOT also give them access to the Alma configuration area. Access to the Alma configuration menu should be separate from the ability to Manage Import Profiles.
173 votesHello all,
I’m currently working on a detailed solution for this request and would appreciate your input. Could you share the reasoning behind the need for a completely new user role to manage import profiles?
An alternative approach could be to introduce specific privileges for managing import profiles and add them to the existing Purchasing Manager and Catalog Manager roles, with these privileges turned off by default. This way, institutions can decide whether to enable them for these roles.
The advantage of this approach is that it leverages existing manager roles without requiring the creation of an additional new role, while still avoiding granting full administrative access to configuration settings.
Looking forward to your feedback.
Erez
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Fulfillment: Physical item recall: option to recall more than one copy
Currently in Alma when a request is placed on a title where there are 10 copies all out on loan, and none available, a single real-time recall notification is sent to the patron who has the oldest loan, changing their loan status to 'recalled'. The 9 other patrons who have a copy are not made aware of the potential demand for the item at that time.
For the case where there are many copies of a title, the patron requesting the title could be better served if we were to recall more than one item. For example, we might say:…
169 votes -
Create option to keep CZUTL deleted portfolios active in Institution Zone
When portfolios are deleted from a non-auto-active electionic collection and notifications for this appear in the Community Zone Updates Task List, the portfolios stay unlinked in your institution zone but are deactivated. Often these are portfolios that represent access that still exists for the institution and we merely reactivate the local portfolio. We would like to be able to select an option to keep these portfolios active in our institution zone. If they are really no longer necessary, we can delete them when we review the CZUTL, but it would save us time if the portfolios were not deactivated automatically.
161 votesHi all,
Happy to update that work is underway on this feature and it is expected to be part of the Alma May 2026 release.
Best,
Liza and the Alma product team.
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Job or tool for extraction of related bibliographic records
We would like the ability to get a hold of or extract the related bibliographic records in bulk based on a set of (other) bib-records.
Alma already now automatically displays related records in "other details". We understand that the links are built based on bibliographic data in the MARC linking fields: 773, 774, 777, 786, 800, 810, 811, and 830 (subfield w,x,z).
An example of a related record is a title within a monographic series. In this case, the bib record for the single monograph has a 830 $w with the MMS-ID/system number of the superordinate bib record.
We would…
144 votesHi all,
This idea was marked as Completed by mistake. However it is planned to be implemented later in the year.
Stay tuned,
Alma Product.
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