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Alma

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120 results found

  1. Work Orders: package of required enhancements

    Work orders are useful but often cumbersome and don't work as required. A package of enhancements/fixes would make them much more useful and useable:

    • Adding notes when creating work orders in bulk. This would enable having fewer work order types as explanatory notes could be used instead.
    • Makes notes more (immediately) visible when scanning in (pop up message?). Again would enable fewer work order types as items could be easily catergorised according to explanatory note upon receipt at managing department.
    • Select recall/not recall at work order placement (like pick from shelf), not baked into type (and in…

    234 votes
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  2. Add more flexibility in Request TOU Pickup Locations policy

    We’d like more flexibility in Request TOU Pickup Locations policy.

    We have more than 20 libraries and most of them are located within walking distance. Therefore, we want our patrons to go directly to those libraries instead of placing pickup requests and limit the patrons who can place such requests. Otherwise, the number of requests will become too large to handle and logistics and management cost will become enormous. Moreover, it’s not time efficient. If users go directly, they can borrow immediately, but it may take 1-2 days to deliver since there is no direct route between some libraries.

    Currently,…

    202 votes
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  3. Consultation in Alma FF

    There is no easy solution in Alma FF to indicate that an item has been consulted in the library and that it can be reshelved.

    When items are placed on the hold shelf and are briefly consulted in the library, there is no easy way to directly reshelve them in Alma FF. The workarounds are far from ideal and are very labour-intensive when facing a large amount of physical requests: cancel the request (but this is not correct and influences our request statistics) and reshelve via the expired hold shelf, update the expiry date to yesterday (but this requires a…

    159 votes
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  4. Provide multiple hold pickup options within a single Alma library

    We'd like to provide, within a single Alma library, the following pickup location/delivery options to our users: locker, circulation desk, or mail to home. At present, this is only possible through the creation of additional libraries.

    157 votes
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  5. Configurable item lists

    In the several item lists we need to display several columns. In the item list "Item - in department" we need for instance columns for the item fields.

    In the different lists something else should be displayed.
    There for the different work steps different displays are needed.

    It would be best to configure which columns per list we would like to see. Thereby we need more fields from the Physical Item Editor (or for other editors) that we can configure for display in the list.

    155 votes
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  6. On-shelf requests for specific user groups

    We have limited human resource for picking up the items for on-shelf requests. Therefore, we hope this service is only available for patrons in need, for example, disabled patrons or distinguished professors/researchers.

    Therefore, we need Alma to support “specific user groups’ to “request for on-shelf items”, and “pick up in different library/campus only”. It would also be nice if we can limit the number of on-shelf requests in a period of time.

    This will definitely help librarians to provide precise service efficiently!

    146 votes
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  7. Request letter

    We would like to be able to send a user a notification about a request immediately after placing the request. The notice would give basic information about the status of the request. Something along the lines of the "interested in" letter. Running a request report once a day is insufficient for our operations.

    145 votes
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  8. Alternative Call Number in Manage Patron Services-Requests

    In Manage Patron Services, tab Requests, we can’t display or add Alternative Call Number.
    For us is important the visibility of this field due to it’s our location system.
    We would like this field to be displayed.

    Thanks!

    130 votes
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  9. Expired Hold Shelf to Alma mobile

    It would be practical to get the Expired Hold Shelf lists to Alma mobile so we didn't have to print them on paper.

    129 votes
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  10. Enhanced “In Transit” flow/functionality

    We encounter a lack of important functionality to efficiently follow-up on In transit requests (physical item requests to another pick-up location). We would like the functionality to be extended with the following additional features:
    1. A patron facing letter when the requested item is placed “in transit” by the owning library, so that the patron is better informed of the status of his request.
     We want to create a situation that once a requested item is being transported, there is in fact no way back and a fee needs to paid.
    2. To make it impossible for patrons to…

    122 votes
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  11. Add block action for patron digitization requests in User Block Definitions

    The configurable blocked actions for user blocks in Alma are:
    01 – loan
    02 – loan, renew
    03 – loan, renew, hold

    It is therefore possible to configure that blocked users are not allowed to place requests at all.

    We propose a distinction between the different request types in blocked actions.

    Blocked users should be able to place hold requests, as it can be checked at the latest at the time of loaning whether there is a block, and users then have to take care of the unblocking (e.g. by paying fees) in order to be able to loan the…

    121 votes
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  12. Please add restrict request function for fulfillment network requests in Primo VE between institutions.

    We are a library consortium facilitating interlibrary loans through a fulfillment network with Network Zone, rather than AFN.

    It allows patrons to find items from other institutions directly and request them. Our goal is for patrons of Institution A to use Institution A's Primo VE to request books from Institution B.

    If Institution A has the book available for borrowing, requesting the book from Library B will not be possible.

    Implementing the above feature in Alma to restrict requests in this manner would not only save shipping costs but also reduce waiting times for patrons.

    We previously submitted this requirement,…

    118 votes
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  13. More humanity in the letters: add the name of librarians who take care of the requests

    Automatic processes in Alma make library staff save time and efforts, but also significantly reduce human interactions with patrons (very few emails are personally sent by librarians to patrons). Lots of Alma letters sent to patrons are nameless and only signed by generic service names like "Acquisitions Department", "Circulation Desk", "Library ABC" etc. (see @@department@@ in the Labels). Some staff members suffer from this dehumanization in the processes.

    We want to give a name and a face to a request when patrons get notified and would like to enrich some Alma letters with the name of the librarian who took…

    118 votes
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  14. No request cancellation with change of item description

    Actually it seems that Alma automatically cancels requests when there is a change of location (not the same FU rules anymore), of item policy (not the same TOU anymore) and a change of description (as this field is to be found in the request form).
    For the latter, we would like to have a possibility to choose whether the request should be cancelled.

    101 votes
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  15. Digitization Requests - remove 'next step' from process

    When managing Digitization Requests after 'Scan In', there is an obligatory 'Next Step' which has to be selected before getting the option to 'Attach documents' (and get the status from 'Digitization' to 'Document delivery'). Is it possible to remove this 'next step' from the Digitization process?

    99 votes
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  16. Alma bookings - concurrent bookings issue

    Our institution wants to introduce bookings in Alma for our High Demand loans, which are 3 hours.

    The main issue we’ve found is concurrent bookings, see scenarios below, with a 5 minute exclusion set up:

    • A books item for 11:40-12:40 - however doesn’t borrow the item within the 5 minute exclusion

    • B books item at 11:46, for 11:50-12.50

    • A checks out item at 11:53, despite booking for B at 11:50

    What is needed is some mechanism for bookings to expire automatically once the exclusion period is reached.

    87 votes
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  17. Allow each items’ request policy with specific parameters (location, keyword etc.) to be excluded from the title-level request policy

    I believe this is an expansion on this idea https://ideas.exlibrisgroup.com/forums/308173-alma/suggestions/31119715-title-level-request-and-item-level-request

    But we are dealing with ASRS in our case so I thought it might be a little more elaborate.

    We would like to have the option to allow each items’ request policy with specific parameters (location, keyword etc.) to be excluded from the title-level request policy.

    Currently we have "No requesting" as our general policy that's applied to all of our items except for the ones in ASRS. The problem is that when items with multiple copies and identical call number exist both at open-stack library and ASRS, the No…

    83 votes
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  18. New type of block : booking

    Currently the Block Preferences in Alma have Block options to permit Blocks on :

    · Block types 01 et 02= Loan and renewals

    · Block type 03= Loan and renewals and request

    · Block type 04 = Resource sharing

    · Block type 05 = Request

    It would be good to include a type of block for Booking only. It would allow us to block Booking without blocking other services for a patron.

    Right now libraries can’t choose to sanction a booking abuse without blocking every other service. It is too strong a sanction for some users.

    Best regards,

    Nathalie Darbon

    82 votes
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  19. On Hold Shelf letter should display pick-up library rather than owning library

    Currently, if a student places a request on a book from a different library to be picked up at their "home" library, the On Hold Shelf letter comes from the owning library with the owning library's branding, not from the pick-up location, which is what they are expecting. This is confusing to students because they are not expecting an email from a different library and often ignore it.
    The On Hold Shelf letter email should have the pick-up library information/branding, not the owning library's information/branding.

    80 votes
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  20. Make citation information mandatory in digitization requests

    The patron form for digitization does not make page numbers, or any citation information mandatory. This would be helpful for patrons who do not provide complete information.

    77 votes
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