Search possibilities as "Received X weeks ago" or "Available X weeks ago"
Libraries sometimes wish to build logical sets from constantly changing data. For example, a logical set of items received in the last 30 days or a logical set of ebook portfolios activated in the last 15 days. The "Receiving date" (Physical items) and "Activation Date" (Electronic portfolios) search indexes only accept a specific date (selectable from a calendar) and only allow the operators "Equals", "Not Equals", "Before", "After", "Is Empty", and "Is Not Empty". It is therefore not possible to build 100% logical sets based on items received in the last 3 weeks and associate them with a collection for the Collection Discovery feature, for example with a view to promoting that content. Using Analytics is not necessarily the best way of doing things like this.
On the other hand, Rialto offers powerful search indexes such as "Added X weeks ago", "Available X weeks ago" or "Published X years ago" and operators "Less than or equal to", "Equal to" and "Greater than or equal to". Combining the two creates relevant logical sets that are updated automatically.
It should be possible to search the Alma Repository using an approach similar to that used in Rialto.
François Renaville
shared this idea
Hi all,
thank you for supporting this idea!
happy to inform that as of November 2025 release, It is possible to search for titles and inventory using a relative date range, such as titles created in the last month.
read more in the Alma release notes: https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Release_Notes/2025/Alma_2025_Release_Notes?mon=All#:~:text=Relative%20Date%20Searches%20Support%20in%20Repository%20Search
Best, Alma Product.
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Ruth Lewis
commented
This would be great to see in Title-Modification date, as we use this for file exports to other services.
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C Macarthur
commented
As already commented this would be a very useful addition for creation of new books if this would allow them to be used by logical collections which hopefully would automate process.
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Manu_Schwendener
commented
> populating new book lists in our Discovery Collections
Yes, exactly
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Nina Goldie
commented
Ex Libris asked us to post here requests/suggestions for additional search indexes for relative dates (https://ideas.exlibrisgroup.com/forums/308173-alma/suggestions/48741503-create-alma-search-queries-and-sets-with-relative).
Please implement the examples cited by François Renaville in this post - relative dates for receiving date (physical titles) and electronic portfolio activation date (electronic titles). At our library, this would help us enormously with populating new book lists in our Discovery Collections.
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Manu_Schwendener
commented
> for the Collection Discovery feature
There's the facet group "New records" in Primo, with "last week", "last month" and "last three months", but they can't be used to build a set that then populates the logical collection.