Alma
Your feedback matters to us. Help us improve Alma by telling us what you’d like to see using the message areas below. You can also can support something already posted.
We would love to be able to respond to every idea that is submitted, but this is not feasible. We are, however, committed to responding to the most popular ideas—those that have received the most points.
For more information please review our FAQ and guidelines. Thank you.
- or
No existing idea results
- ~ No ideas found ~
1733 results found
-
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.
156 votes -
Recent searches fine tuning/disabling
Hello,
customizing the number of results of the "recent searches" returned in the new UI would be a great thing.Now on our Alma it seems limited to the last 10 searches.
As some people seems to prefer the old browser cache, it would be a great thing too the possibility of eventually disabling it.
.
Thanks,
Fabiano17 votes -
Make the "General Mail" feature more customizable
On the "User Details" screen in Alma, there is a "Send Message" function. If "General Mail" is selected, any message that is composed shows up as "ILLEMAILTOUSERlongstringofnumbers" under the user's Attachment tab. Unlike other letters, this is saved as a "text/plain" type, requiring the file to be downloaded before it can be viewed. It would be nice if this attachment type could be renamed, or given a more descriptive title than "ILLEMAILTO_USER," especially as it is generated from within the User Details screen and not via Resource Sharing or ILL.
34 votes -
Enable/disable letter activity at the Library Level
Currently it is only possible to enable and disable letters at the institution level.
Initially Alma documentation said this was possible:
"The Letter Activity mapping table (Configuration Menu > General > General Configuration > Letter Activity) lists all of the letters and enables you to enable/disable them for an institution or a library."
However this was a "documentation defect" and you can only toggle letter activity at the institution level.
We would like to disable the "FulCancelRequestLetter" from our Resource Sharing Library and see the ability to turn on/off letters at the library level as desirable functionality.
28 votes -
Re-linking invoice lines from old orders to new orders.
Currently we are unable to re-link invoices from old orders over to new orders, it would be most helpful if Alma was capable of doing this.
23 votes -
Automated order claiming
We need a solution for order claiming that works automatically for this for groups
- one time orders
- subscription orders
- standing orders
- online resource orders.Workflow:
a) The expected receipt date/expected activation date in the order/item/portfolio is reached.
b) Alma must send an claim to the vendor.
c) Alma changes the expected delivery date/expected activation date automatically by taking the information from the vendor-account (date of day plus expected receipt after ordering (days)/date of day+expected activation after ordering (days)).
d) A reminder in the task list is not necessary.Details for the four groups see attachment please.
34 votes -
Add a Notes field to SUSHI accounts
We would like to see a Note field in the SUSHI account area. There are situations where a SUSHI account is set up but Inactive, and it would be nice to have a field where we can describe the situation.
For example, Taylor & Francis Ebooks. It's a new platform (Nov 2017) and Ex Libris has added them to their list of SUSHI vendors. However, I've contacted the publisher and their SUSHI isn't quite ready yet. It would be nice to have a field right in the SUSHI settings where I could note that.
Thanks,
Naomi Maendel
University of Manitoba
CanadaWe would like to see a Note field in the SUSHI account area. There are situations where a SUSHI account is set up but Inactive, and it would be nice to have a field where we can describe the situation.
For example, Taylor & Francis Ebooks. It's a new platform (Nov 2017) and Ex Libris has added them to their list of SUSHI vendors. However, I've contacted the publisher and their SUSHI isn't quite ready yet. It would be nice to have a field right in the SUSHI settings where I could note that.
Thanks,
Naomi Maendel
University of Manitoba…30 votes -
Open predicted issues in bulk / by help of a job
only option in alma is opening the predicted items per title. We would like more functionality in the receiving workbench. We can see that predicted issues can be opened for the coming year when in the receive screen, so have to do it title by title!
70 votes -
Records in 'Find and Manage Users' should appear while editing borrowing requests
When editing Request Attribute in Resource Sharing Borrowing Requests, there is a 'select from a list' button next to the Requester field. Upon clicking the button, however, 'No records were found' message comes up. Therefore, in order to find and manage users matching the value, it is necessary to run another search within the 'Find and Manage Users' window. We believe that it will be a lot more time-efficient for ILL staffs if the user records appear right away upon clicking the 'select from a list.'
33 votes -
Include rolling dates in local date information field
As an electronic resource librarian, I would like to see a better way to deal with rolling coverage dates. There does not seem to be a good way to deal with gaps in portfolio coverage when there's a moving target date involved. For example, if a title includes perpetual access from 2011-present, and issues 12 years or older are open access, unless you include a public note, what will display is:
Available from 2011 volume: xx issue: xx
Most recent 12 year(s) not availableThis is confusing to patrons and librarians alike. It would be useful to have the option to select a rolling date within the "local date information" field, instead of having a separate field that displays rolling date information in a different manner than other coverage information. For example, with the proposed enhancement, you could have date coverage:
Available from 1923 volume: xx issue: xx to 2005 volume: xx issue: xx (or even "issues older than 12 years")
From 2011 volume: xx issue: xxAs an electronic resource librarian, I would like to see a better way to deal with rolling coverage dates. There does not seem to be a good way to deal with gaps in portfolio coverage when there's a moving target date involved. For example, if a title includes perpetual access from 2011-present, and issues 12 years or older are open access, unless you include a public note, what will display is:
Available from 2011 volume: xx issue: xx
Most recent 12 year(s) not availableThis is confusing to patrons and librarians alike. It would be useful to have the option…
70 votes -
Common link between a POL and a License (for updating collections)
A POL has a licence connected to it. It would be great if when adding that POL to an Alma Collection, that the connecting licence would be automatically added to the collection as well. And working in reverse, when adding a licence to an Alma collection, it would be nice if the POL connected to the licence was automatically added to the collection as well (thus saving time adding two things to a collection, when they are already related).
51 votes -
Automatic renewal notifications of subscriptions
Our library manages about 3'500 current subscriptions to periodicals. We fixed the automatic annual renewals of our subscriptions on a same date, precisely on the 31 August. As most of our subscriptions have been assigned to a few suppliers, our wish is that all renewal notifications intended for a same supplier are included in a single e-mail, instead of being sent individually in separate e-mails. We wish to avoid that each supplier receives as many e-mails as there are automatic notifications on the same date. They would only receive one e-mail with all the renewal notifications.
21 votes -
Autocomplete
It would be extremely helpful for ALMA to have an autocomplete feature when searching for title, author or even call number. Many times you can be off by one letter and ALMA won't find the item.
58 votes -
Differentiate Returns screen from Patron look-up screen
Our student workers at circulation keep on trying to scan student IDs in the returns box or item barcodes in the Patron services box.
I would like to make the highlight around the Returns box anyway a different, bright, distinguishable color. It would make it easy for a student to glance at the screen and think, "bright yellow, I'm on the returns window." See attachment for a preview of this option.
(I realize our students should just pay more attention to what they are doing, but they don't.)17 votes -
Configure courtesy loan letters by location or item policy.
It would be nice to be able to configure courtesy loan letters by either location or item policy, so that letters aren't generated for a 2 hour reserve.
60 votes -
Metadata editor Browse Shelf List forward/back buttons should be bigger or easier to distinguish.
The browse shelf list / call number browse feature is very difficult to use for actual browsing because the forward and next buttons are minuscule. They are not actually buttons, just the less than or greater than sign without borders. I frequently hit the wrong part and end up going back when I wanted to go forward. It's a really small target that calls for high-precision mousing.
Requested improvements:
1) Allow keyboard shortcuts for navigating to previous and next sections of the browse list.
2) Create borders/margins around those buttons.
3) Add mouse-over text showing previous/next so that if you have a low resolution screen you can see which action you will be taking.The browse shelf list / call number browse feature is very difficult to use for actual browsing because the forward and next buttons are minuscule. They are not actually buttons, just the less than or greater than sign without borders. I frequently hit the wrong part and end up going back when I wanted to go forward. It's a really small target that calls for high-precision mousing.
Requested improvements:
1) Allow keyboard shortcuts for navigating to previous and next sections of the browse list.
2) Create borders/margins around those buttons.
3) Add mouse-over text showing previous/next so that if you…31 votes -
At fiscal rollover, populate 'list price' field in continuous POLs with the total expenditure on that POL from the previous fiscal year
See case #00483470.
The figure in 'list price' represents the amount we first paid or expected to pay for a resource. In most cases, this price is wildly inaccurate after a few years.
Manually updating these prices isn't feasible, as we've thousands of POLs and editing the prices while inputting invoices doubles the time spent on invoice processing.
I'm hoping we can do one/all of the following:
At fiscal rollover, the list price amount in the POL is replaced with the amount of the last fiscal year's expenditure.
We run a job that changes the contents of the list price field for a specific set of POLs to reflect the most recent expenditure or the amount of the last fiscal year's expenditure.
See case #00483470.
The figure in 'list price' represents the amount we first paid or expected to pay for a resource. In most cases, this price is wildly inaccurate after a few years.
Manually updating these prices isn't feasible, as we've thousands of POLs and editing the prices while inputting invoices doubles the time spent on invoice processing.
I'm hoping we can do one/all of the following:
At fiscal rollover, the list price amount in the POL is replaced with the amount of the last fiscal year's expenditure.
We run a job that changes the contents of the list price…
56 votes -
Confirm button for adding manual charges and/or ability to edit/delete manual charges
It would be helpful to have a confirm button when adding manual charges, just as you do when waiving charges. Also, can we have the ability to edit or delete manual charges? We add charges for replacement costs for lost books, for example, and with no confirm button it can be too easy to mis-enter an amount, and as there is no functionality to edit or delete a charge you then have no option but to waive a charge and start again.
18 votes -
Adding 'citation type' to the facet in Resource Sharing Borrowing/Lending Request
Though I can distinguish book and article using other facets such as requested form, I think that citation type(book/article)is going to be more intuitive and useful. In addition, because I found it possible to use citation type as a facet in Acquisitions, including it in Resource Sharing is also proper considering coherence or unity of facets. I hope it is added soon.
32 votes -
Improve financial forecasting of subscriptions
It would nice to have more functionality in terms of subscription financial forecasting.
Although we can roll over subscriptions with a blanket % increase, we would like to be able to input and overwrite this where we know price increases will differ.
In addition, where we know the increases for multi-year agreements, these can all be set in advance, allowing for more accurate encumbrance figures.
48 votes
- Don't see your idea?