Alma
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71 results found
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Search for ISBN with hyphens
Previously, it was possible to search for ISBNs with hyphens (e.g., 978-82-693905-0-6) using the "All titles – keywords" search in Alma. However, this functionality no longer works with the release of the new title search.
While the search still works if you manually switch from "keywords" to "ISBN," it would be much more convenient if ISBNs with hyphens were recognized in the keyword search as well. As it stands, users are forced to repeatedly switch search types, resulting in unnecessary clicks and a less efficient workflow.
129 votesHey all, thank you for bringing this to our attention. support for keyword search for ISBN with hyphens has been added as part of the Alma November 2025 release.
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Searchability for MARC 361
We would like to be able to search MARC-361 in Alma, if possible also specifically in subfields of the 361.
https://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bd361.html
https://www.loc.gov/marc/holdings/hd361.html107 votesHi everyone, thank you for supporting this idea.
As of February 2026 release, Alma supports defining custom indexes for each institution based on Bibliographic data. This new infrastructure provides the flexibility for each customer to create their own search indexes tailored to their Bibliographic data.
Refer to the Alma release notes for more information.
Best,
Alma Product
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Metadata editor: LDR form opens automatically
With the November 2023 release, we noticed a change in the metadata editor.
With the configuration "forced form editing" activated, whenever a record is pushed to the metadata editor, the LDR form is opened automatically and this is irritating, since cataloguers do not necessarily want to start working on the LDR, and the display of the form takes up a lot of screen space. Moreover, the LDR form opens again when saving the record.
We would like to suggest the following adjustments:
- the LDR form is not automatically opened when entering a record
- the LDR form is not…6 votesThis was completed and available in the February 2024 release.
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Index field 310 for the Alma Repository Search
It would be useful to be able to search within all records with field 310 not only through the codes in 008 but also via the text in 310. We therefore suggest adding the field to the indexes for the Alma Repository Search.
29 votesHi everyone, thank you for supporting this idea.
As of February 2026 release, Alma supports defining custom indexes for each institution based on Bibliographic data. This new infrastructure provides the flexibility for each customer to create their own search indexes tailored to their Bibliographic data.
Refer to the Alma release notes for more information.
Best,
Alma Product
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Index fields 700 $$4 and 710 $$4 for the Alma Repository Search
As 100 $$4 and 110 $$4 are already indexed and can be very useful for cataloguers for searching records in Alma, we strongly suggest having also the relator codes in 700 $$4 and 710 $$4 indexed for the Alma Repository Search.
(Follow up of support case 6659197)
55 votesHi everyone, thank you for supporting this idea.
As of February 2026 release, Alma supports defining custom indexes for each institution based on Bibliographic data. This new infrastructure provides the flexibility for each customer to create their own search indexes tailored to their Bibliographic data.
Refer to the Alma release notes for more information.
Best,
Alma Product
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Index fields 772 $$w and 830 $$w for the Alma Repository Search
As these fields are currently not indexed but would be very useful, we strongly suggest adding them to the search indexes which are available for the Alma Repository Search.
Field 773 $$w is already indexed and we think these two additional fields could be used for similar search queries.(Follow up of support case 6659197)
32 votesHi everyone, thank you for supporting this idea.
As of February 2026 release, Alma supports defining custom indexes for each institution based on Bibliographic data. This new infrastructure provides the flexibility for each customer to create their own search indexes tailored to their Bibliographic data.
Refer to the Alma release notes for more information.
Best,
Alma Product
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Index field 773 $$g for the Alma Repository Search
Our libraries would like to have subfield $$g in field 773 indexed for searching in Alma, because it would allow to have more precise search queries including e.g. the issue number within a journal collection.
24 votesHi everyone, thank you for supporting this idea.
As of February 2026 release, Alma supports defining custom indexes for each institution based on Bibliographic data. This new infrastructure provides the flexibility for each customer to create their own search indexes tailored to their Bibliographic data.
Refer to the Alma release notes for more information.
Best,
Alma Product
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Make it possible to add single titles from other sources than the IZ to Collection Discovery
At the moment you may only add titles from your IZ to a collection in collection discovery. It would be nice to have a method also to add titles from the NZ, the CDI and external resources.
61 votesThis feature is supported as part of the May 2025 release.
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Display MARC 250 subfield "b" in "Edition" in the Brief Results List
Even when a record has 250 subfields a and b, Alma brief results display only subfield $$a with a slash in the Edition field. Alma should also display subfields b according to the MARC21 standard:
https://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bd250.html4 votes -
Enable Alma collections items linked to logical sets to be updated as the set changes
Currently it seems that Alma Collections can only be updated by manually adding individual items or adding items from sets. If the set is a logical set, as new items that fulfill the set search criteria are added, could they also automatically update the Alma Collection. This would save having to manually maintain Alma Collections to some degree.
566 votesIt is now possible to define a logical collection based on a logical set of titles. The collection will be updated daily based on the changes in the set. Ad-hoc updates to the collection are also possible if required.
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Display all related records instead of 500
When looking for related records (Brief results list > Other > Related records), only 500 titles are displayed.
Especially when working with series/journals with many issues, monographs, or analytical records, having all related records would simplify the daily work.70 votes -
Improve editing of large fields in the Metadata Editor
When creating and/or editing a MARC field with a large volume of text, such as the 505 or 520 field, occasionally the cursor will appear to be in a different position than it is, so that the user may accidentally delete the wrong characters, or insert them in the wrong place. This appears to happen at random, and saving the record, restarting Alma, and even clearing the browser cache does not consistently fix the problem, even in the short term.
60 votes -
Allow to define several local search indexes, including standard MARC fields
Following the partial implementation of idea "Ability to search via free text MARC tag and subfields" (https://ideas.exlibrisgroup.com/forums/308173-alma/suggestions/17197337-ability-to-search-via-free-text-marc-tag-and-subfi) under NERS 2020 #6795, here is perhaps a more modest suggestion, that hopefully can be more technically feasible and still provide a large chunk of the missing functionality.
Similar to the analytics "Local Param" concept, it would be very helpful if institutions were able to define 5-10 "Local Search Indexes", based on each institution's needs. These indexes should be able to include any MARC field or subfield, whether local or standard (and preferably also field combinations).
Use case: In our institution,…
64 votesHi everyone, thank you for supporting this idea.
As of February 2026 release, Alma supports defining custom indexes for each institution based on Bibliographic data. This new infrastructure provides the flexibility for each customer to create their own search indexes tailored to their Bibliographic data.
Refer to the Alma release notes for more information.
Best,
Alma Product
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Adding the publisher location to the "Keywords" index in Alma
Currently, the publisher location is not indexed in the general "Keywords" index in Alma. If someone wants to search for a certain publisher location, one must use the specific index because a "Keywords" search won't bring any results.
This is particularly unpractical when searching for series or periodicals, as they often have similar names but different publishers or publisher locations, or later editions of a certain work which can be identified by the different publisher resp. publisher location.
What confuses staff users is also that if one wants to search for a book, using the title and/or the author as…129 votesHi everyone, thank you for supporting this idea.
As of February 2026 release, Alma supports defining custom indexes for each institution based on Bibliographic data. This new infrastructure provides the flexibility for each customer to create their own search indexes tailored to their Bibliographic data.
Refer to the Alma release notes for more information.
Best,
Alma Product
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Allow overlap analysis tool to include print as well as e
We would find it useful if the overlap analysis tool could also compare against print holdings, as well as electronic. Currently it only allows you to compare overlap within electronic titles, however the functionality of the tool is useful in that you can upload a file containing a list of identifiers, set up the overlap and leave it to run.
The only way to conduct print and e overlap analysis in Alma at the moment is to use the Title level overlap analysis dashboard in Analytics, which includes various overlap reports and includes both print and electronic. However, we have…
55 votes -
More search indexes in Advanced Search
Please enable search indexes such as 'Is not empty', 'Not contains', 'Not contains phrase', 'Not equal' search logic to as many search indexes as possible, especially for DC fields of Digital titles.
2 votesA "Not Equals" operator is available in the Alma advanced search.
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Search by any standard number in Search External Resources
We would like to be able to search WorldCat by any standard number (UPC, ISMN, music publisher number, video publisher number, etc.) through the Search External Resources tool. This would be particularly helpful for locating audio-visual resources without having to search in the native interface.
54 votesThe option to search by Standard Number in the Alma external search resources is now available.
For more information, please refer to the Alma May release notes and online help.
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Better control over processing order in import profiles
When importing records it would be really useful to have an option to control the order of the processing steps involved in the import, and maybe to add additional processing steps.
We have two use cases where the current order has not worked out for us:
When importing records with EOD, the EOD will be created from the original record rather than the normalized record. This was a special use case, where a change in the originating system prevented EOD to be embedded in a correct way. Had we been able to process the records with normalization rules we could…
19 votes -
Analyse and normalise special characters and diacritics in Alma records
In order to enable correct and consistent automatic linking between Bib. headings and authority records, Alma's treatment of diacritics needs to be normalised, and made configurable according to the Authority file being used. In addition there are special characters in use (such as quotation marks), that have more than a single graphic representation that should be normalised in order to prevent discrepancies in Almas' match and link mechanisms.
SFC#00533813, SFC#00375370 relate to the issue.66 votesHi all,
As of the February 2025 release, Alma supports n link BIB headings rules, helping to enhance control over automated linking to authority records
Read more about the feature in the Release Notes.
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Add the 'Not contains', 'Not contains phrase', 'Not equal', 'Is not empty' search logic to Keywords, Creator, Subject etc. search indexes
Please add the 'Not contains', 'Not contains phrase', 'Not equal', 'Is not empty' search logic to as many search indexes as possible, and particularly to Keywords, Creator, Subject search indexes.
The 'Not contains', 'Not contains phrase', 'Not equal', 'Is not empty' search logics are very essential to advanced searches.
7 votesFor an All titles searches using the Subjects index, the following matching criteria were added to the Advanced search options: Is Empty, Not Contains Keywords, Not Equals, Not Contains Phrase, and Is Not Empty.
for more information please see https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Release_Notes/010_2019/Alma_2019_Release_Notes
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