Allow configuration of which columns are in the the Print Slip Report
For institutions that handle a large number of Patron Physical Item, and other request types dealing with their physical inventory, the Print Slip Report available under Fulfilment>Resource Requests> Pick from Shelf is a crucial workflow tool.
However the report output is inflexible, including columns which are irrelevant to many customers and which require hiding/deletion in Excel formats before being printed for onward process by library staff.
It would be a huge improvement to be able to configure the columns that go into this report to ensure that only the key ones are downloaded for each circulation desk's pick from shelf lists.
NB The Print Slip Report is somewhat unusual in Alma in that most functional areas have Excel downloads of data from the User Interface which can be configured column-by-column, however the Print Slip Report has no User Interface equivalent display which makes the lack of configuration particularly awkward for the workflow - i.e. it is the ONLY place we can access this vital request-by request, holding-by-holding, barcode-level, service information.
There's a great cloud app posted by the folks from University of St.Gallen, see - https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/appcenter/print-slip-report/
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Jim Nicholls commented
Hello everyone. The hackathon continues and an initial experimental release of the app is available from https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/appcenter/print-slip-report/.
Instructions on how to use the app are at https://github.com/SydneyUniLibrary/print-slip-report/wiki/Print-Slip-Report-help.
If you have any issues please submit them to https://github.com/SydneyUniLibrary/print-slip-report/issues.
Note that this still early days. There's still more work to be done. See https://github.com/SydneyUniLibrary/print-slip-report/projects
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Jim Nicholls commented
We're developing the Cloud App over at https://github.com/SydneyUniLibrary/print-slip-report. Feel free to engage with the issues and discussions there. There's a project Kanban board of the hackathon. We're aiming for a minimal viable product. Anything in the backlog we will get attempt when and if we have time. The hackathon run until Wed Mar 24 (AEST).
We've complete a proof-of-concept and we know we can do this. But there will be some limitations. The biggest two limitation are: A) You can't use the existing Pick Up Requested Resources page in Alma to filter or select which requests to print. The app will print all of the requests for a particular location and circulation desk. B) The app can't mark a request has having been printed. So if a request hasn't been actioned, the app will repeat requests in subsequent prints.
If those limitation can still work for you, then will be delivering an app when you can select the columns you want and print it. Excel will not be required.
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Natasha Allen commented
@Jim please keep us updated on this. We would be interested in trying out what you come up with.
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Jim Nicholls commented
Hello everyone. The Australian and New Zealand Regional Ex Libris Group is running an Alma Cloud App hackathon. We're going to attempt to make a Cloud App for this.
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Chris Jones commented
This remains a daily irritant for staff and can lead to accidental errors as people try to reduce the sheet to fit on a page. In the COVID era request type and request note have become more important, and apart from title/location and the barcodes there's not a lot else important.
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Peta Hopkins commented
Well this has been around a long time. We have long disliked the spreadsheet generated. We would be happy to have a much simpler output with call number/title at the beginning. And leave out the "Available at" bits.
Staff just want to print it and go, not fiddle about moving columns. -
Leona Hughes commented
I would like this option for Course Reserves as well. We send students to retrieve requested books and books being put on reserve from the stacks. I would be great to be able to have the option to only print out the call numbers, title, and author on one sheet; otherwise, the print function is useless to us.
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Natasha Allen commented
Yes, we discovered that we would have to download an excel sheet, then manipulate it to suit our needs, which takes a lot more time than it needs to take and could easily be solved by making the report configurable.