Alma
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1040 results found
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Keep patron physical requests active even if “deliver to” relationships are temporarily interrupted
Our consortia has several libraries connected through “deliver to” relationships, allowing patrons to request and pick up physical items from different sites.
Currently, when these relationships are interrupted — for example, due to maintenance, or temporary closures — all related patron requests are automatically cancelled, and patrons receive cancellation notifications. That makes them angry.
We would like Alma to preserve these requests in an active or pending state during such interruptions, so they can be fulfilled automatically once the relationship is restored, without requiring patrons to place new requests.
This would improve the user experience and reduce…
33 votes -
Ability to flag a request for further investigation/Make notes visible from request summary
Currently there is no ability to flag a request for further investigation. This would be useful in both lending and borrowing.
In lending:
If an item is being returned and we need to change the call number, if we could flag the item a staff member could look at the notes and make the changes.If the item has previously been lost and has been returned. We now need to do further work on the item before it can go back to the shelf. Once again we need to go into the notes to find out what we need to…
1 voteHello All,
This idea has been closed as part of a cleanup process for ideas older than two years with fewer than 20 votes.
This cleanup process is necessary to streamline our idea management process and ensure that the most relevant and impactful ideas receive the attention they deserve. If you still feel strongly about this idea, you may submit it via the NERS process.
We value your feedback and encourage you to continue submitting and voting for ideas that you believe will enhance Alma.
Alma Product Team
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"Skip location" in "Pickup from shelf"
We would like to be able to choose which location to send a request to when skipping a location in the "Pickup from shelf" task list.
277 votesOn the Pick-Up Requested Resources page, if the Skip Location action is available (the request can be fulfilled by at least one other location that the request has not been previously assigned to), a Manual Skip Location action now displays in addition to the Skip Location action
For more information please see:
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Release_Notes/010_2019/Alma_2019_Release_Notes#Select_Request_Locations -
Search entry for Resource Sharing Requests must be adjustable
When working on resource sharing requests lists (lending and borrowing) the first thing to do is selecting another search entry/term, mainly an aspect at the end of the list, to find a special request, because the author ist never the aspect we search for. The list in the pull down menue is hard coded and there is no option to re-order the list as we need it.
At least we like to achieve that the list starts with the last three search aspects the staff user has used. Alma has to remember them for the logged in staff…53 votesSince the search of the list has moved to the upper persistent search bar, the last used search options are saved and can be easily reused. The last used search option is auto selected as default. See attached.
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Not so much an idea more like a request
I would love to see more keyboard shortcuts like "Alt+B" throughout the system. Like in voyager I would love to able to use keyboard instead of the mouse. It would make my workflows so much more comfortable and faster.
9 votesHello All,
This idea has been closed as part of a cleanup process for ideas older than two years with fewer than 20 votes.
This cleanup process is necessary to streamline our idea management process and ensure that the most relevant and impactful ideas receive the attention they deserve. If you still feel strongly about this idea, you may submit it via the NERS process.
We value your feedback and encourage you to continue submitting and voting for ideas that you believe will enhance Alma.
Alma Product Team
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Allow Resource Sharing Request status as displayed in user account to be customizable
When viewing resource sharing requests in a patrons account the system truncates the request status description. For example status of Ready to be sent is truncated to Ready. Desk staff (not always those who work directly with RS requests) see Ready they assume the item is available for pick up. While we can train staff given the large number of staff and turnover, ensuring everyone knows and retains the information about what those truncated status descriptions mean is a nearly impossible task. We would like to be able to customize the display for our library to use language…
3 votes -
Prioritize requests by location or fulfillment unit
When a user submits a request at the title level in Primo VE there should be a way to prioritize certain items in a holding by location or fulfilment unit. For example, if a book has copies available in a circulating location, but there are also copies available in a non-circulating collection that is managed by a Reading Room desk, the circulating item should always get priority.
19 votes -
Stop Change Due Date from overriding hold request
There's an issue we're having where changing the due date of a loan allows the current owner to extend their checkout time, even after a hold request has been placed. We have Alma configured so that it prevents a renewal from occuring, but change due date seems to ignore that function.
1 vote -
Convert to Resource Sharing Request - Needs to be able to work even if an item is in transit to the request.
Currently we have set up a Scan and Send process. However, dependant on how many staff we have able to digitize items on a given day. We will convert some requests to Resource Sharing. However, it is not possible to do this if an item is already in transit to the request.
1 voteAs of July release institutions can convert ‘Hold’ requests to ‘Resource Sharing’ requests if the pick-up location is personal delivery and the resource sharing library supports personal delivery.
for more information please see Alma July release notes:
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Release_Notes/2021/Alma_2021_Release_Notes -
Improve handling of requests on multiple copies across multiple holdings
Scenario:
Multiple patrons place physical item requests on a title that has multiple available copies spread across multiple holdings records in different branchesCurrent outcome:
All the requests get attached to a single holding
Multiple requests are assigned a queue position of 0
When a request slip is printed from the pick list all requests with a queue position of 0 are printed (even though there aren't enough copies at that branch to fill all of the printed request slips)
Once the retrieved item is scanned in and placed on the hold shelf or in transit…10 votesHello All,
This idea has been closed as part of a cleanup process for ideas older than two years with fewer than 20 votes.
This cleanup process is necessary to streamline our idea management process and ensure that the most relevant and impactful ideas receive the attention they deserve. If you still feel strongly about this idea, you may submit it via the NERS process.
We value your feedback and encourage you to continue submitting and voting for ideas that you believe will enhance Alma.
Alma Product Team
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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…
158 votes -
Alma to DOCLINE OAI-PMH Integration
Integration for automated harvesting of eJournal and pJournal holdings from Alma to Docline (National Library of Medicine's automated interlibrary loan (ILL) request routing and referral system).
88 votes -
Pages option for digitization requests
Creating a partial Patron digitization request allows you to define two "from: / to:" page intervals. Sometimes, articles are spread across more intervals, but with no space for this information, that data is lost.
We would like to see a simple text field: "Pages:" to be used in situations as this. This already exists in Lending requests and should also be available for digitization requests.9 votes -
No requesting when available items in institution
We would very much like there to be an option in Alma fulfillment units (On Shelf Request Policy): "No requesting when available items in institution".
The meaning of which would be that if there is at least one (requestable) item available at any holding, the user will not be able to make a title request. The system will consider all items in the institution, not just one holding at a time.
Currently we use the "No Requesting from available holding" option which means that when all (requestable) items on one holding are checked…
6 votes -
Customize display of fields in Resource Request Monitoring form
If the fields can be selected in Resource Request Monitoring form,we would like the excel to display the information we needed.And when we download it,the form is also expected to be selected in .txt format or .excel format .
1 voteHello All,
This idea has been closed as part of a cleanup process for ideas older than two years with fewer than 20 votes.
This cleanup process is necessary to streamline our idea management process and ensure that the most relevant and impactful ideas receive the attention they deserve. If you still feel strongly about this idea, you may submit it via the NERS process.
We value your feedback and encourage you to continue submitting and voting for ideas that you believe will enhance Alma.
Alma Product Team
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Specify time period for SUSHI harvests
When you manually request a particular SUSHI account/report to be harvested by Alma, by default Alma requests any data which it hasn't already loaded for that account from the last 12 months. If there are multiple months in sequence missing, Alma requests the data for these months together as a single SUSHI request.
This is an inflexible system.
Instead, at the point where a user requests a harvest, Alma should ask the user to specify the time period they would like to request.This would have several advantages:
- We would be able to use SUSHI…
168 votesAs of August release it is possible to indicate SUSHI – "Custom Harvest.
“Custom Harvest" function provides an option define the exact time frame for the harvest period
For more information see:
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Release_Notes/2021/Alma_2021_Release_Notes_Included_Material/2021_RN_08_Main#Define_a_Specific_Time_Frame_While_Manually_Harvesting_R5_SUSHI_Data -
Historical Requests in the Resource Request Monitor : search by patron barcode
In the Resource Request Monitor, we cannot search by patron barcode.
It's easier for us to search a user by his patron barcode as by name. User's name is not a unique identifier.
Is it possible to add this option in the drop down menu?
Thanks,
Charlotte.1 voteAs of November release when searching historical requests in the Resource Request Monitor, it is now possible to search by the patron’s primary identifier within the Identifier search scope
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Need Number of requests and clickthroughs per service type in Alma Analytics
In Alma, we have General Electronic Services (GES) for ReprintsDesk. ReprintsDesk is our document delivery provider. The ReprintsDesk GES appears in the services window in Primo or when linking out from a database. If there is no full text found, the patron can request the article via ReprintsDesk. I need to get statistics for each quarter on how many times the GES was clicked.
In SFX, we ran a query for the number of document delivery requests. It was in the SFX query "Number of requests and clickthroughs per service type” and the service type getDocumentDelivery. We need…
31 votes -
Allow patrons to renew the due date of their item, if a request on title level exists, but their copy is not the recalled one
Please offer the option to configure physical item requests in a way that ONLY the recalled copy is blocked from being renewed.
All other patrons who have loaned a copy should be able to renew their due dates according to the maximum renew period.Our institution offers patrons to place requests on borrowed media on title level. ALMA sets the copy with the earliest loan date to the renew status "recalled". Until this - or any other copy - has been returned, ALL other copies of the title cannot be renewed and therefore have to be returned to…
60 votesIn the Fulfillment Configuration, the Block Preferences menu allows setting how the ‘Not Renewable – Item has Request(s)’ block will work. If set to ‘Handle Automatically’ then only the recalled loan will not be allowed for renew.
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RS BORROWING : A misleading error when patron's library card has expired
When trying to receive or send a borrowing request that is already open in alma, but the patron's library card has expired since then,
The message says: NO ITEMS CAN FULFILL THE SUBMITTED REQUEST
There is no way to guess that there is a problem with the patron info.
a better message would be: "there is a problem concerning patron's card"38 votes
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