When an Automated Fulfillment network allows for their patrons to pick up materials at any Institution in the AFN, it is possible for a patron to pick up their item at a third institution, that is neither the patron's home library, nor the item's home library.

With how Alma currently manages Linked Users, and with the fields available for display on the Active and Expired hold shelf screens, library staff at that third (pick-up only) institution are unable to determine which institution the patron is from.

This is because:

Since the patron is not a local patron to the pick-up institution, and the item was not from the pick-up institution, the patron's linked user record is not automatically saved to the pick-up institution's Alma instance.

This means that the Requester ID that shows when the item is scanned in for hold is not searchable (that requester ID is only searchable at the item's home library), and, without knowing the patron's home library when the AFN is set up for staff to select the patron's home affiliation (because patron identifiers are not unique across the consortium), their name is not searchable either.

We realize the patron would, in theory, receive an email letting them know the item was ready for pick-up from the shelf and would bring their ID with them when they came to pick up the item, but, if the library wanted to contact the patron for some reason, we don't know how they would do that as we don't know how to help them retrieve the patron's record in fulfillment.

Thanks!
Debbie

Hi,
We have dedicated librarians working on digitizations, and sometimes the item they have on loan and like to scan is not suitable for the digitzation process (notes, underlining etc).
They would then like to request another item. This request will be rejected in Alma due to policy. An item can not be requested when you already have a an item from the same bib record on loan. They would, of course, like to keep the original item on loan until they have checked if other items are more suitable.

You are able to request if the items have different policy (enablerequestduringloanfordifferentpolicy value is true in the Customer Parameters Mapping Table), or if the items are differentiated from one another using the description field https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Knowledge_Articles/Configuring_Alma_to_Allow_Multiple_Requests_on_A_Title.

This is not the solution for us.

We would like an additional option to these two under Block preferences in Alma:

24 Item of the same title is already on loan for this patron. Parallel loan is prohibited. Actions= Override by operator

25 An item of the same title was recently loaned to this patron. Actions= Override by operator

?? Item of the same title is already on loan for this patron. Request is prohibited. Actions= Override by operator

Currently, the Display Logic settings are limited to IZ resources only; they do not allow choices for resources that are shared from the NZ among several institutions.

For example, my library offers unmediated CCC document delivery for certain Wiley titles we don't subscribe to. So when I set the display logic rule, it should be "Hide service Full Text with Electronic collection = CCC Get It Now Wiley if exists service Full Text with Electronic collection = Wiley Online Library." However, because the Wiley Online Library ecollection is shared in the NZ for my consortium, it will not appear as an option when I try to create the rule.

Scenario:
There are multiple workflows and purposes for which the Quick Cataloging interface is used. For example, in course reserves, staff frequently need to create records for different resource formats beyond book and article. Staff at the circulation desks need to create records any time an item brought to the desk is not found in Alma, and these resources can take any form - from sound recordings on CD to equipment like laptop chargers.

Problem:
Not all of these materials fit the current “book” and “article” templates provided for Quick Cataloging. To enable efficient use of the Quick Cataloging feature, it is essential that staff are able to quickly complete record creation tasks without having to “fix” the records later because the current “Book” and “Article” templates don’t contain the correct coding.

This lack of proper templates leads to the need for libraries to educate non-cataloging staff on why records look/work the way they do, and to create “cheat sheets” for their use in editing quick-cataloged records to match their resource type. These fixes and workarounds add a considerable amount of time to the “Quick” Cataloging workflow.

Request:
The ability to configure multiple Quick Cataloging templates would more effectively meet libraries’ needs. For each template, staff should be able to configure the template’s default fields and mandatory fields. The templates, once configured, should appear in a drop-down selection list alongside the existing book and article record types when the Quick Cataloging feature is used.

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 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 lot of clicks) or wait until the item automatically appears on the expired hold shelf and reshelve from there. With this last option there is too much time between the moment of consultation and the moment of reshelving, which makes that items are not available on shelf or for request for a too long time period. It also makes that new features like the hold shelf reminder letter cannot be set up (because patrons could receive a reminder when they already consulted the item).
Possible solutions are: for an item that is scanned in via ‘return items’ the underlying request will disappear and the item will be reshelved automatically. A button ‘consulted’ (like there is a button ‘cancel’) which immediately reshelves the book when you handle a request is another – less preferable – option.

Boston College would like to be able to configure Alma so that work orders are auto-created for materials in a designated location when they are placed on loan.

Here is the desired workflow:

1. Item is loaned.
2. At the same time, Alma automatically places a work order on the item.
3. When the item is returned to the managing circulation desk the work order is triggered and the item is routed to the correct work order department for processing.

The purpose of this request is to improve the management of the laptops that Boston College Libraries loan to patrons, and to facilitate the implementation of an online laptop availability tool.

In our previous system, with one click we were able to change items to Claimed Returned status, no matter what their current status was. one click and it was done.
But in Alma, for some reason, this is not possible once the item has been declared Lost. One has to go through a long and convoluted process creating a file and saving it then creating a set and saving it then running a job on the set. This involves three pages of instructional documentation and about 15 minutes of staff time every day.
We often have items claimed returned when they have automatically gone to Lost status, and it would be really useful to have the Claimed returned option appear as a choice in the elipsis also when the item is Lost.