Alma
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62 results found
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Copy and paste multiple MARC fields into the metadata editor
We would like to be able to copy multiple lines from MARC records and paste them into the metadata editor so that multiple MARC fields are pasted into the record in one action. This would help us enormously with our workflow of importing MARC authority records from LibrariesAustralia into Alma.
For us, this is necessary because the LibrariesAustralia headings are not in the community zone and are unlikely to ever be included there and Alma does not allow for Z39.50 import of authority headings.
We have this functionality of copying and pasting multiple fields in the LibrariesAustralia Cataloguing Client and…
544 votesDear all,
I believe we now understand the requirement better: To be able to paste a block of text in MARC 21 format, and have Alma parse it and populate the MARC tags, indicators and subfields accordingly.
This is a larger development, but we hope to be able to add a solution for it to our future roadmap.
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Allow user to ‘Withdraw’ and ‘Open Predicted Items’ from the ‘Received Items Screen’.
Currently, ‘Withdraw’ and ‘Open Predicted Items’ functions cannot be performed from the ‘Received Items List’, during normal receiving operations.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qdNSY1xkPr71R7XJzPp8QtQJEa_h-00i/view?usp=sharing
Instead, a user must back out of the receiving windows, perform a title search, and access these features through the ‘List of Items’ window.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17yB9XwMI6MYAmnHq95mna6cOUMpXzlbq/view?usp=sharing
This drastically decreases efficiency in performing routine tasks in Prediction, Receiving, and Weeding.
What should be changed: As Serials Processors, we would like to see the ‘Withdraw’ and ‘Open Predicted Items’ functions added to the ‘Received Items List’ window, so that all serials management tasks can be done from one screen. This would eliminate the…
545 votesDear community, as part of the ongoing UX improvements in Alma, the "Receive new material" screen (aka Receiving WB) is planned to be refactored and support the need described in this idea. For more information see Alma roadmap:
Thanks,
Noam Fass | Alma product team
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Improve Alma Job Reports for Failed Record
It would be extremely helpful if more details were given when there are failed records or records with exceptions on the jobs we run in Alma. Many of the job reports only report the number of failed records. It would be great if the report would provide MMSID information so the we know what records failed.
512 votesWe are investigating the options for enhancing the job reports as part of a general enhancement to the jobs UX, which will then allow gradually deploying report enhancements to the different jobs in Alma.
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Add "item policy" and "temporary location" automatically to predicted issues
Acquisition librarians want to add automatically the "item policy" and "temporary location" to predicted issues to speed up their work and limit the number of clicks. At this moment the added value of prediction pattern functionality is being restricted by the lack of functionality (parameter setting) …
Use case: It’s not possible to add the item policy/temporary location as a parameter to continuous pol’s. If issues are created via prediction patterns the item policy/temporary location should be indicated automatically based upon parameter settings on pol level. This would save a lot of time and additional clicks when receiving the issues.…497 votesWhen creating a a POL, it will be possible to also define a default item policy and temporary location. This will be used when items are created (by a prediction pattern or manually) on POL or at receive time
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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.
400 votesHi,
An approach we’ll be looking at is that an optional ‘Last Interest Period’ request policy will, if set, be used to set a default the last interest date (Primo and Alma). This way every request will have a last interest date set by the policy and overridable by the patron.
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Increase customisation options for the resource sharing request form
User experience testing that we conducted showed that most users prefer to place resource sharing requests via the resource sharing request form in Primo. Users also expressed frustration with some aspects of the form including the format of the fields. They also expected that the Library could add notices relevant to the resource sharing service to this page.
The current options for configuring this form do not allow us to meet the expectations of our users. We would like to have more options for customising the page the form is on and the form itself. Specifically we would like :…
357 votesWe are looking into improvements that can be made to the Primo VE form, such as:
- Add a custom notice or message to the form
- Improve the form fields’ responsiveness to the requested format (book/article and physical/digital)
- Look into ways to enhance the configurability of the look and feel for the form
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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.
339 votesWhen a loan due date is shortened due to patron expiry, Alma will retain and internal an indication for that on the loan record. This way when the patron expiry is updated (shortened OR extended) the loan due date will be recalculated using the loan date (i.e. as if the recalculation is happening at loan time).
This way, the due date may be extended or shortened according to the new expiry date.
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Make 'requester' clickable after 'scan in items' step of handling a request
It would be convenient if it was possible to click on the requester after the 'scan in items' step when managing a request.
320 votesWhen scanning in a requested item, the requester name appears. There will be a link to the requester’s user record if the logged in user has priveleges to access the user edit form
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Add an order action in the Purchase Request to “Approve and order from the CZ
Add an order action in the Purchase Request to “Approve and order from the CZ.” Alma would add an alert to the citation and redirect the user to the Community Zone, to the desired portfolio. The operator will only need to click on the "Approve and order from the CZ". Currently the only Action is “Approve and Order” which creates a local portfolio not linked to an E-Collection. It’s cumbersome and time consuming to re-link the POL and portfolio to the correct Community Zone record.
316 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...
313 votesWe’re looking at adding an indication in the Manage In Process Items next to a request where there are more digitization requests for the same item in the queue. A row action will allow the staff to complete the current active request and activate the next.
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Subdivided LCSH headings should be flipped by Preferred Term Correction
Preferred Term Correction is not flipping all LCSH headings when the authority record changes. If there is an authority record that has a subdivision, it is only flipped by PTC if the heading in the bib has no additional subdivisions. This means there is a significant gap in the PTC process that requires manual attention and handling, which is unsustainable. The PTC process needs to be more thorough.
For example, this LCSH:
$a Germany $x Politics and government $y 19th century
was updated by LC to be:
$a Germany $x Politics and government $y 1789-1900
When the authority record changed,…
315 votes -
Invalid email address list or failed to be sent notifications
We would like Alma to indicate somewhere (in a report, in the user account or else) if an email was not delivered to a patron or a vendor due to an invalid address. This would help to locate them faster and correct this data.
Otherwise, we would like to have a list by Alma institution of users / vendor accounts with invalid email addresses.Thank you!
312 votes -
Make configurable pop-up assistance in metadata editor
Currently the po-up assistance in metadata editor for subfields 260$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.
300 votes -
Extend the "interested users" functionality
Acquisition librarians want to extend the current "interested users" functionality in order to serve the end user in a better and faster way. The current "interested users" functionality is not sufficient enough, to become useful and really benefit from this functionality we would like to extend it with:
• The ability to sort the interested user list.
Use case: some users (e.g. academic staff) have priority and should get the issue first!
• Make it possible to create hold requests on these items regardless of the existing fulfillment policy:
Use case: some libraries don't allow requests for available items, but…289 votesDear community, this idea was reviewed and accepted, below you can find the suggested design, please feel free to comment if you have further suggestion:
1. It will be possible to sort the interested users list using arrows. The hold requests will be activated as per the order in the interested users tab.
2. A check mark for ‘Loan to first interested user’ will cause the received item to be automatically loaned to the first interested user when the item is received.
3. It will be possible to print the list of users (in the proper order) when the item is received
Thanks,
Noam Fass | Alma product management team -
Short Term Loans - Courtesy and Overdue Notices
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
short…289 votes -
add security levels to norm rules
Because all norm rules can be edited by all staff with cataloger roles, there is great room for erroneous changes for rules that are applied to batch jobs. For example, the norm rule that is applied to records being brought in from Z39.50 targets can be edited by any staff member. A single error in the rule can break the z39.50 import process for all staff until the source of the error is identified. Likewise, if we have a rule applied to import profiles and a staff member inadvertently changes it and we load 50,000 records, that could cause huge…
287 votesWe are considering incorporating the idea and effect both templates and rules editing permission
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Initiate consortium fulfillment requests for items in another institution from Alma
In our consortium, we would like to be able to place requests for items in other institutions on behalf of our patrons in Alma.
Scenario: a patron (dean, faculty member, etc) calls the circulation desk asking if an item is owned by the library. Circ operator searches Alma and finds the item in a consortium library. Circ operator SHOULD be able to request item in Alma from the patron's record. Right now, circ operator has to tell the patron to search Primo and request on his or her own.
274 votes -
Fulfillment Borrowing history: allow users to choose to opt in
Currently the library can turn borrowing history on or off, but the choice applies to all users. For privacy reasons, and in order to avoid subpoena situations, we have it off, but some users do want borrowing history on as a convenience, and are not concerned about privacy risk themsleves. Why not allow those users to opt in to borrowing history, and allow the default otherwise to being off?
By the way, this "opt in" approach is how most public libraries in Eastern Massachusetts are set up, so our users expect this level of service from us also.
It is…
265 votesFrom the Circulation Desk user update form, it will be possible to turn on a ‘keep my loan history’ check mark.
Patrons that have this check on will not have their loans anonymized when the anonymization process runs.
It will be possible to get this indication also from API, and from Primo.
The option to turn ‘keep my loan history’ on should be a library decision
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Re-sequence MARC fields by each tag when running a normalization rule
Currently, after running a normalization rule on a set of bib records, the bib records display the 5XX fields out of order, e.g. 500, 546, 506 etc. This occurs even after running the CnmarcBibReSequenceTask as fields between 500 and 899 are not sorted, or sorted only by hundreds (this was the information given to us by a member of staff when we reported the issue on the ExLibris Customer Portal).
Having all fields in the correct order would ease any future cataloguing needed on these records, or when staff members view the record for work purposes.
I've attached an example…
264 votesChanging the existing re-sequencing task would impact all libraries, whether interested in this change or not - but we will look into adding a new re-sequencing task that will handle all fields, so libraries will have a choice on which re-sequencing behavior they want to apply.
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Add “next year” as an option in serials subscription date range drop down menu for invoice lines.
Many of the invoices we process are for serials subscriptions for the following calendar year. Having “next year” as an option, for invoice line subscription ranges would be quite helpful.
260 votesDear all,
As we are analyzing the requirements for this idea, I'd like to clarify with you what should the identification of "Next Year" be?
- Is it the next calendar year (so if selected in any date in 2024 it will return the entire 2025, meaning 1.1.2025-31.12.2025)?
- Is it the next 365 days? Including today or not including today?
- Is it the next 12 months? Including current month or not including current month?
- Other?
Many thanks,
Zohar Shemesh
Alna Product Team
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