Alma
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1749 results found
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Pop-up message for activating / deactivating the patron’s identifier using the slider
To activating or deactivating the patron’s identifier, it can be done by toggling the slider to “blue color” (i.e. ON) or “gray color” (i.e. OFF) under the tab ‘Identifier’ of the patron account in Alma. The attachment shows the screen capture. Once, the slider is toggled, the identifier will be activated or deactivated immediately. The “Cancel” button on top right-hand corner (“red rectangle”) has no effect to turn it back to the old value after toggling the slider.
The patron’s identifier is an essential part of the login credentials for user authentication in Primo. After login, patron can manage the loans, renewals, requested items, bookmarked titles, and search history in his/her library account. In case of any unintentionally or accidentally toggle of the slider will deactivate or activate the patron’s identifier without instant notification, it makes the login credential invalid or valid and so an active patron cannot login or an inactive patron can login Primo. It would be better to have a pop-up message to notify library staff to pay extra attention to either confirm the slider toggle for the change or revoke it. It would be very helpful to avoid the similar login incident occurred in the future.
In this regard, we kindly request considering this suggestion to enhance the security of patron account in Alma and Primo, and let library staff be always aware about the essential effect from the change of patron’s login credential. Thank You!
To activating or deactivating the patron’s identifier, it can be done by toggling the slider to “blue color” (i.e. ON) or “gray color” (i.e. OFF) under the tab ‘Identifier’ of the patron account in Alma. The attachment shows the screen capture. Once, the slider is toggled, the identifier will be activated or deactivated immediately. The “Cancel” button on top right-hand corner (“red rectangle”) has no effect to turn it back to the old value after toggling the slider.
The patron’s identifier is an essential part of the login credentials for user authentication in Primo. After login, patron can manage the…
1 vote -
Enhanced Export Physical items CSV, TSB, XLSX
We use the physical items export procedure at regular intervals in the form of a CSV file (comma-separated text file). Official documentation :
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/050Administration/070Managing_Jobs/020Manual_Jobs_on_Defined_Sets
see “Export Physical Item” sectionThe CSV file is inconsistent: fields are sometimes surrounded by quotation marks, sometimes by French quotation marks (guillemets), sometimes by quotation marks and French quotation marks (guillemets), and sometimes by nothing at all. This causes problems for some of the analysis programs we use in post-processing.
We would like to see one improvement:
-A compliant CSV file: quotation marks systematically surrounding each field.
-Can we have the option to export in another format: TSV format (tab separator), or Excel format (XLS or XLSX).We use the physical items export procedure at regular intervals in the form of a CSV file (comma-separated text file). Official documentation :
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/050Administration/070Managing_Jobs/020Manual_Jobs_on_Defined_Sets
see “Export Physical Item” sectionThe CSV file is inconsistent: fields are sometimes surrounded by quotation marks, sometimes by French quotation marks (guillemets), sometimes by quotation marks and French quotation marks (guillemets), and sometimes by nothing at all. This causes problems for some of the analysis programs we use in post-processing.
We would like to see one improvement:
-A compliant CSV file: quotation marks systematically surrounding each field.
-Can we have the option to export in…23 votes -
Webhooks enhancement
We're using webhooks as a proof of concept on our sandbox, for the time being. In particular, we use webhooks on loans.
Official documentation :
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/090Integrations_with_External_Systems/030Resource_Management/300WebhooksWe're bothered by the ecological/energy waste generated by this webhook. Unlike the notification webhooks, this webhook does not provide any filtering.
If we activate it in production, we estimate that there will be almost 500,000 API calls per year, for which only 1% will result in an action according to our action rules.
Can we have a possibility to filter the webhooks on loans, according to these criteria (and / or):
-item library
-item location
-item temporary location
-item policy.We're using webhooks as a proof of concept on our sandbox, for the time being. In particular, we use webhooks on loans.
Official documentation :
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/090Integrations_with_External_Systems/030Resource_Management/300WebhooksWe're bothered by the ecological/energy waste generated by this webhook. Unlike the notification webhooks, this webhook does not provide any filtering.
If we activate it in production, we estimate that there will be almost 500,000 API calls per year, for which only 1% will result in an action according to our action rules.
Can we have a possibility to filter the webhooks on loans, according to these criteria (and / or):
-item library
-item…14 votes -
Additional Exportable Fields
When viewing electronic collection results, after a search, we would like the ability to export several additional fields: Alternative Title, General note (electronic collection), and General note (Service). This would allow our consortium to do some real-time analysis of how multiple collections are setup which would save significant time over having to click into each electronic collection individually.
41 votes -
Add Alternative Title to Alma Analytics
Adding the Alternative Title for an electronic collection would allow us fully use Alma Analytics and not need to maintain separate reports that are created outside of Alma. As a consortium, this would also allow more information sharing with our members and more efficient troubleshooting and maintenance.
40 votes -
Make Bib Description editable when editing a POL
It would be helpful to be able to edit the Bib Description section of a POL after having clicked on 'Edit' to edit the POL, rather than needing to save the POL, return to it and then click separately onto 'Bib Description' to update that section. Sometimes it's necessary for the description to be different to the MARC record, e.g. when ordering an annual content update for an encyclopedia, where we would want each annual update to have it's own POL but for them all to be linked to the same bib record.
24 votes -
'Manage purchase request' page report to include fields like ISBN
The ‘course instructor’s name’ and the ‘course name’ fields are not there in the ‘create purchase request’. So, we write the course instructor’s name under the Requestor tab and Librarian's name who has inputted the request on Requester Note. If there were separate fields we could have searched by the name of the Librarian also as we cannot filter by requester note.
After creating a purchase request, when we export the requests to an Excel sheet using the ‘export list’ icon on the Manage purchase request page, we don’t get fields like ISBN, Publisher, publication year, edition, etc., which are needed for sending purchase requests to Vendors. My request is to include the above fields on the exported report.The ‘course instructor’s name’ and the ‘course name’ fields are not there in the ‘create purchase request’. So, we write the course instructor’s name under the Requestor tab and Librarian's name who has inputted the request on Requester Note. If there were separate fields we could have searched by the name of the Librarian also as we cannot filter by requester note.
After creating a purchase request, when we export the requests to an Excel sheet using the ‘export list’ icon on the Manage purchase request page, we don’t get fields like ISBN, Publisher, publication year, edition, etc., which are…4 votes -
Standing orders - transferring additional information from one PO Line to another by changing the vendor in standing order
Changin vendor for the Print Book Standing Orders closes current PO line and creates a new one instead simply changing a vendor. This action moves all items to new PO line while the additional and very useful information are lost. Keeping all internal notes (PO Line notes, renewal note, invoice note), attachments, invoice lines, history in a new PO line allows us to track standing order and to avoid unexpected problems with our inventory.
We would like to have this option in the work with Print Book Standing Orders.28 votes -
Make Display of Inventory Groups list sortable (alphabetical by one of the columns.)
Display of Inventory Groups list is not predictable or sortable
In the Electronic Service Editor > Group Settings tab, there’s no predictable, consistent order for the display of associated Inventory Groups, and there is no way to sort them.The list of groups in the Inventory ‘Available For’ Management Groups (Configuration Menu > Resources > General > Inventory Network Groups) is also in no order and is not sortable.
As a large consortium with 94 member libraries, CARLI maintains many Inventory Groups in our Network Zone. The display of the Inventory Groups are not consistent from one e-collection service editor to another. When viewing the Inventory Groups of an e-collection or in the ‘Available For’ list, the groups are not in alphabetical order by Group Name nor by Group Members, nor are they in the order in which they were entered, and the columns in this table display do not allow for sorting. This random sorting makes maintaining the list challenging and very time consumingExamples of the variation in ordering of Inventory Groups in attached file
Display of Inventory Groups list is not predictable or sortable
In the Electronic Service Editor > Group Settings tab, there’s no predictable, consistent order for the display of associated Inventory Groups, and there is no way to sort them.The list of groups in the Inventory ‘Available For’ Management Groups (Configuration Menu > Resources > General > Inventory Network Groups) is also in no order and is not sortable.
As a large consortium with 94 member libraries, CARLI maintains many Inventory Groups in our Network Zone. The display of the Inventory Groups are not consistent from one e-collection service editor…9 votes -
Notification on 'Pick from Shelf' link
Can a notification or flag be added to the 'Pick from Shelf' link to alert us to new requests? Something like the notifications on Announcements and View Recommendations. Our requests are often sporadic, and it would stop us from having to keep checking the 'Pick from Shelf' list and help us be more responsive to requests.
21 votes -
Pin POL notes to top of list
Context: when acquisition staff view POLs, there are some notes that are important to see, and other notes that are less important. However the only sorting options for POL notes are by created or updated date.
Proposal: users need the ability to pin one (or more) notes to the top of the list of POL notes, so the important notes are always easily viewable.122 votes -
Add Detail for Payment Method=Accounting Department in Vendor Record/Account
Payment Method=Accounting Department is used to route invoices through our campus check feed/ERP export. However, at the campus financial system level, there are multiple options for how the vendor gets paid, including PaymentPlus, ACH (via Paymode-X), as well as paper check. It would be good to 1) record this information as a detail of Payment Method=Accounting Department, 2) be able to modify specifics via a table as needed for institution variations, as well as 3) have the fields available via Analytics. Ex. Campus has made a change in issuing checks, and we would like to communicate this change to our library vendors (getting Analytics output isolating those only those vendors paid by check first).
Payment Method=Accounting Department is used to route invoices through our campus check feed/ERP export. However, at the campus financial system level, there are multiple options for how the vendor gets paid, including PaymentPlus, ACH (via Paymode-X), as well as paper check. It would be good to 1) record this information as a detail of Payment Method=Accounting Department, 2) be able to modify specifics via a table as needed for institution variations, as well as 3) have the fields available via Analytics. Ex. Campus has made a change in issuing checks, and we would like to communicate this change to our…
14 votes -
Add "Vendor invoice number" to PO Line dimension in Analytics
Please add the "Vendor invoice number" from the Vendor Information section of the PO Line screen to analytics. It should be specifically added to the PO Line dimension.
This field is necessary for quickly reporting on POLs that have this information stored at the POL level, but are not attached to an invoice. Workarounds include manually looking up the PO, then searching Analytics, but we shouldn't require staff to search Alma if they could directly query Analytics with an invoice number from a PDF or an email.
14 votes -
Add/modify fields from Vendor Record for Analytics (including Account, Contact Information/Preferred Address)
Add/modify fields from Vendor Record for Analytics (including Account, Contact Information/Preferred Address)
1) Add Vendor Type: Example: I want to analyze the vendor file based on vendors that are only Access Providers/Licensors and not Material Suppliers, or just Material Suppliers.
2) Add Vendor Accounts as output, including options to output Payment Methods. Example: we recently had a campus financial system migration, and I want to isolate those vendors who pass through the ERP export vs. Credit Card vendors. Similar to Bank Transfers - if my campus has a change in policy that needs communication, I want to be able to pull these vendors together.
3) From Contact Information, Preferred Address - be able to break out State and Country fields separately from the Address Details. Example: I want to run a report of my US-based vendors and my non-US-based vendors. Output as currently programmed is only Preferred Address as a whole string where I would have to break that out.
Include Address Type as option (Billing, Claim, Order, Payment, Returns, Shipping)
Add/modify fields from Vendor Record for Analytics (including Account, Contact Information/Preferred Address)
1) Add Vendor Type: Example: I want to analyze the vendor file based on vendors that are only Access Providers/Licensors and not Material Suppliers, or just Material Suppliers.
2) Add Vendor Accounts as output, including options to output Payment Methods. Example: we recently had a campus financial system migration, and I want to isolate those vendors who pass through the ERP export vs. Credit Card vendors. Similar to Bank Transfers - if my campus has a change in policy that needs communication, I want to be able to…
33 votes -
The option to change the permanent location in the item should not be a default, it should be selectable.
To change the permanent location in the item can lead to incorrect results. If you have two holdings with different locations and then change the location of the item which is connected to the first holding to the location of the second holding, your item will be relinked to the second holding AND the first holding will be deleted automatically. If the first holding contained additional information (e.g. the call number), this information will be lost.
The option to change the permanent location in the item should therefore not be a default, it should be selectable depending on the needs of the institution. Some may find it useful, others not.To change the permanent location in the item can lead to incorrect results. If you have two holdings with different locations and then change the location of the item which is connected to the first holding to the location of the second holding, your item will be relinked to the second holding AND the first holding will be deleted automatically. If the first holding contained additional information (e.g. the call number), this information will be lost.
The option to change the permanent location in the item should therefore not be a default, it should be selectable depending on the needs…118 votes -
Add purchase model to more auto-holdings.
It is great to have purchase model added automatically for Ebook Central og JSTOR Books holdings, and it would be even better if we could get purchase model also when using auto-holdings for publishers such as Elsevier, Springer, Wiley, Taylor & Francis and de Gruyter. We have evidence based acquisition agreements with all of these publishers and it would be very helpful if we could see which titles were in the EBA corpus and which we have purchased, either through the EBA or by earlier collection purchases.
108 votes -
Alma APIs Multilingual Code-tables
We’d like to request an enhancement to the Alma API that would allow PUT and POST requests to include translation updates. Currently, only GET requests support the lang parameter for retrieving localized data, while updates ignore these descriptions. Enabling translation updates via API would streamline content management across languages, making it easier to keep localized information current and consistent.
Updating code tables for around 80 patron-facing letters in three different languages via the web UI is extremely time-consuming and inefficient. Allowing translation updates through the API would greatly improve this process, making Alma more effective for multilingual institutions.
We’d also like to highlight an inconsistency: the addressFrom field, which represents an email address, is language-dependent in the current setup. Since email addresses are universal and not language-specific, it would make more sense for this field to remain constant across all languages.
Allowing language-neutral fields like addressFrom to remain consistent would simplify multilingual management and avoid unnecessary duplication across language settings.
We’d like to request an enhancement to the Alma API that would allow PUT and POST requests to include translation updates. Currently, only GET requests support the lang parameter for retrieving localized data, while updates ignore these descriptions. Enabling translation updates via API would streamline content management across languages, making it easier to keep localized information current and consistent.
Updating code tables for around 80 patron-facing letters in three different languages via the web UI is extremely time-consuming and inefficient. Allowing translation updates through the API would greatly improve this process, making Alma more effective for multilingual institutions.
We’d also…
20 votes -
Please add 3xx field support in Bibliographic Details dimension of Alma Analytics
Currently there are many fields in the 3xx range which are not supported OTB in the Bibliographic Details dimension of Alma Analytics.
We have mapped 300 to a Local Param several years ago, but we are stymied in our work updating to RDA consistently as the desired foundation for then considering LOD work in BIBFRAME, given this is a key area with many 3xx fields utilised such as 334, 335, 336, 337, 338, 340, 344, 345, 346, 347, 380 and 382.
Although the number of Local Params increased in 2024 finally from 10 to 30 we use many of these for other important field data, and it’s not reasonable to take up more than a dozen of these just with 3xx fields.
These fields do not generally have many characters, so it is not anticipated that this would add much to the performance load for the ETL to hardcode add to the Bibliographic Details dimension for all customers.
This idea would be fulfilled by each of these mentioned 3xx fields being added to Alma Analytics as a standalone field ie not all in one field, to support bibliographic data management, maintenance, updating projects, and reporting.Currently there are many fields in the 3xx range which are not supported OTB in the Bibliographic Details dimension of Alma Analytics.
We have mapped 300 to a Local Param several years ago, but we are stymied in our work updating to RDA consistently as the desired foundation for then considering LOD work in BIBFRAME, given this is a key area with many 3xx fields utilised such as 334, 335, 336, 337, 338, 340, 344, 345, 346, 347, 380 and 382.
Although the number of Local Params increased in 2024 finally from 10 to 30 we use many of these…34 votes -
Alma - Analytics - Users - Add field 'Has password' true/false
Sometimes users may have no password set. For example, in our system we have some internally managed users left with no password when Alma switched to external IDP. Filtering them in Analytics would be useful, but currently there is no way to do so.
Please add Add field 'Has password' true/false in Alma Analytics Users dimension.
13 votes -
Option for support from within EU for EU customers
There should be an option for Alma customers within the EU to allow access opportunities for Ex Libris staff in the EU only. The purpose is to increase the compliance with GDPR by
limiting access to data by US intelligence authorities as far as possible.26 votes
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