Please integrate aspect „last copy within library / IZ / NZ“ within “Withdraw Physical Items” process
Ex Libris recently expanded the “Withdraw Physical Items” process to include more individual configurable aspects.
We would like to suggest to include the aspect “last copy in the IZ (thus: do not delete!)” as well, which would protect the last copy from deletion.
It would also be great to be able to protect the “last copy in the same library" or "last copy in the NZ” during the deletion process, if necessary.
We are familiar with the “Retention Information - committed to retain: yes” feature, but it is too troublesome for us to use, because we would have to actualize these fields every day, although contents could be outdated right in the same moment.
Because of missing space several IZs and their libraries have to give away items parallelely.
If Alma could retain items, that are unique (in the same library resp. in our IZ resp. in our NZ), would help us enourmously.
At the moment retrieving these aspects is quite difficult, takes place outside Alma (when open data sources or previous day dated Analytics data need to be checked) and can be outdated the same second, while we take the facts into decision to delete items.
Due to the vast quantities of holdings and copies we have, the enormous time pressure and the limited number of staff, we are unfortunately unable to check each title and each copy intellectually, as would be desirable. We are forced to carry out mass sorting. Powerful tools within the system would be a quantum leap forward.
Johanna Looft
shared this idea
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Thank you for your detailed suggestion and for outlining the challenge.
I’m the Product Owner for the Collection Development workflows available to all Alma users, and wanted to highlight options that may help. These workflows allow real-time analysis and comparison of holdings across libraries, institutions, and within an NZ or Rapido pod - directly in Alma and without advanced Analytics skills.
The Retention and Deselection workflows may be especially relevant. For example, you can withdraw items only if matching copies exist at selected institutions, supporting large-scale weeding with less manual effort. You can learn more from the retention training session here: https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Rialto/Training/Introduction_to_Rialto/Introduction_to_Rialto_-_English/03_Advanced_Selection/Retention_Workflow and the On-Line Help here: https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Rialto/Product_Documentation/Collection_Development_WorkflowsI understand your request focuses on adding automated protections within the Withdraw Physical Items process itself (e.g., last copy in library/IZ/NZ). While this is not currently built into that process, the Collection Development tools are designed to support similar decision-making at scale.
I’d be happy to discuss these options further and explore how they could support your workflows.All the best,
Shoshana de la Fuente -
Rebecca Belford
commented
Having all of these available as options--last in IZ, last in library, last in NZ--would be very helpful!
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Johanna Munkelt
commented
What an excellent idea!
