Alma
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38 results found
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Overdue fine
Overdue fines should not only be configurable for a time period of 1 hour or 1 day maximum, but also for 1 week and 1 month.
6 votes -
Optimisation of reminders and overdue letters (anti-phishing)
The reminders and reminder letters sent to patrons currently often end up in upstream spam filters of the mail providers. If this is not the case, we regularly receive feedback that they considered some of the automated notifications to be spam or phishing mails.
On the one hand, we would like to be able to optimise the automated notifications so that they are less automatically classified as spam according to today's standards. Ideally, Alma would already take common standards into account. On the other hand, we would like to see the possibility to personalise the notifications more and, for example,…
59 votes -
Disputed fine to trigger a task
It would be good if Alma could trigger a task or notice to staff or supervisors responsible for dealing with disputed fines when public service staff mark a fine as such.
1 vote -
Require a better fines and fees summary report
Would like to see an actual report that summarizes the days transactions by transaction type (one line each for fines, lost payments, processing fees, etc., inlcuding the total number of transactions and amounts) in one section and then a summary of transactions by payment method (# of transactions and the total), with a line for the grand total. An itemized list of transactions would not be required as staff generally just need the totals to balance at the end of the day/shift. While something like this can be built in analytics, that data is not available until the next day,…
3 votes -
Alma Withdrawal Option
Our library needs the Withdraw function in Alma. We request a Deposit when we lend particularly valuable items. After the reader returns the book, the Deposit should be refunded. And this option is not available in Alma. There is a Pay option, but there is no Withdraw/Refund function, and we would like to be able to settle all financial matters in Alma (and not use external fiscal programs / cash registers).
157 votes -
Option to disable circulation desk operator to waive fines/fees for themselves
We have student workers to perform waiving fines/fees activities. We'd like an option disable certain circulation desk operators' ability to waive fines/fees for themselves.
2 votes -
Ability to run a job on items already marked lost.
We would like the ability to run a job on lost items from other institutions, to receive a special block. This block restricts the user from placing anymore request and also (do to an app we built) blocks their electronic access. It is quite effective in getting the patron to return items the institution would then be billed for.
The problem is a block placed on the item prior to it going lost is removed when the item is marked lost and we are not able to run a job on the lost items that would actually apply the block.…
6 votes -
Receipt for waived fees
Customers sometimes want a receipt for waived fees. Currently that's not possible within ALMA.
20 votes -
The Lost item process fee (aka Lost item fine) should be automatically removed when an item is found.
The Lost item process fee (aka Lost item fine) should be refunded when an item is found. Currently, only the Lost Item Replacement Fee is refunded. This requires staff intervention, having to manually waive the fine. This is not always caught when books are returned through the drop slot, for example. It causes confusion for both patrons and staff when a fine remains on a patron's account for an item that has been found.
62 votes -
Allow Fines API to return closed fees in the /users/<userID>/fees/<feeID> endpoint
Something I have noticed is that the fines API has strange behavior when it comes to returning data. /users/<userID>/fees will return only fines for a certain status supplied in the query params, which defaults to active. This makes sense and is fine, but what doesn't make sense is that /users/<userID>/fees/<feeID> doesn't return closed (paid) fees. It returns this error message
{
"errorsExist": true,
"errorList": {
"error": [
{
"errorCode": "401873",
"errorMessage": "Request failed: API does not support closed fees.",
"trackingId": "E01-1412050816-2AZKJ-AWAE514295771"
}
]
},
"result": null
}This is fairly strange, I would have expected for the fine to still…
21 votes -
Online payment - Transaction ID optional
Actually, when choosing Online as payment method, the transaction ID is mandatory. We would like it to be optional, for our staff to be able to validate a payment without having to fill out this ID when on the circulation desk.
27 votes -
Ability to View Fines/Fees Transactions History from Fines/Fees Section of Patron Account
Currently the Fines/Fees tab of a patron's account shows current or historical fines and fees, and the user has to click on each individual fine to see whether it was paid, waived, etc. It would be helpful to have a Fines/Fees Transactions History in the patron account, where a user could easily view the history of all payments and waives performed on the account by date.
32 votes -
Fines and Fees report Excel output is dumb
Okay, in what universe does having the Fines and Fees report output the money amounts as text make any sense?
It just adds extra steps if you want to work with it - first convert that text back into numbers, then format it as currency.
It should be exported that way to begin with.
157 votes -
Fines and Fees - Overdue fines for item not to exceed cost of overdue item
The maximum fine parameter in Alma only offers a choice between no maximum fine or a specific dollar amount that applies to everything. Would like an additional parameter to limit overdue fines for an item from exceeding cost of overdue item.
32 votes -
Further define credits for patron fines
Fines often get exported through Bursar before a patron disputes them. Our lost item replacement fees and overdue fines get funneled into different accounts. The vague description for "credit" does not give our system any way to determine which account the credit should be adjusted from. (For example: A lost item replacement fee charge ends up in our materials budget once sent to the Bursar. The majority of credits are for materials returned after they were billed, so this is our default credit account. Since all credits are just defined as a "credit" when exported to the Bursar, credits for…
28 votes -
Add Note Option for Fines/Fees
We have several short-loan items that our patrons check out, and these items often generate small fines that are difficult to track whether or not a fine is legitimate, or if there may have been operator error.
For example, we circulate study rooms where a student may check out the room key, and a box of white board markers or a television remote. If the student returns the room key and white board markers on time, but not the remote, it's difficult to tell if that's valid.
Solution: Rather than emailing all staff that may need to interact with that…
28 votes -
Limit fine/fee payment to specific library
One of our satellite libraries would like restrict payment of fines/fees for their materials to them -- we have separate accounting and budgets.
66 votes -
Make Paying Fines/Fees-Waiving Fines/Fees a separate User Role in Alma and remove them from other roles
The auditors at our institution require us to limit the number of staff members who have this ability. We had to ask Ex Libris to remove PAYFINESFEES PRIVILEGE and WAIVEFINESFEES_PRIVILEGE from a large number of roles, most of which didn't even relate to fulfillment responsibilities during our implementation.
Our Student Assistants and Operators at the Circulation Desks should not have these privileges. But they did before we had them removed.
Approving Manager and Operator, Producer Manager, User Manager, Editor Full, Assessing Manager and Operator, Arranging Operator and Manager are all roles that I don't understand, and…
114 votes
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