Debbie Campbell
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58 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
shared this idea
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123 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
Alma knows, as evidenced by the user record’s the Network Activity Tab, whether the patron has active transactions at other network institutions. Please add functionality to Alma’s User Purge job to check for that linked user record network activity before allowing the user’s home record to be purged.
An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
Hi! It's been a year since my last comment, so I'm back to reiterate how important this is.
An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
Hello! I am back to reiterate the importance of this issue. Please.
An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
This remains a VERY IMPORTANT enhancement for me. Commenting to reiterate my support.
Debbie Campbell
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41 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
I'm adding the results of some testing I've completed today in the sandboxes.
Home patron has three requests at another AFN institution. Those requests are in three states.
1) Request Placed (item library staff not yet processed).
2) Request Filled (item library staff has scanned the item in for transit; not yet arrived at patron's pick-up location)
3) Request On Hold (item has been scanned in for hold at the patron's pick-up location)Alma allows the linked user record in the items' home library to be purged.
What happens to the requests?:
1) Request Placed (item library staff not yet processed): This request is auto-promoted to another AFN member institution, if another institution is available in the lender string.
2) Request Filled (item library staff has scanned the item in for transit; not yet arrived at patron's pick-up location): The request vanishes in Alma. The patron is not notified that their request will not be fulfilled. The item remains in transit status at the item's home institution; when scanned in at the patron's pick up library, the item asks to be transited home for reshelving. The patron is not notified.
3) Request On Hold (item has been scanned in for hold at the patron's pick-up location): The patron is not notified that their request has been erased from their account. The item is still physically sitting on the hold shelf at the patron's pick-up location, but the request no longer displays on the pickup location library's "Active Hold Shelf" list in Alma. At the item's home institution, the item shows as "on hold" at the patron's pick-up location.
Today, Alma did allow the library staff to still complete the loan to the requesting patron, but in past testing, Alma would not permit the loan to occur since it was "on hold for another patron." While more testing will need to be done to confirm the current behavior is consistent, the lack of accountability in Alma for the hold transaction remains concerning in either case.
An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
In the November 2025 release, Ex Libris did add the ability to "pure users by set" (https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/050Administration/070Managing_Jobs/020Manual_Jobs_on_Defined_Sets#:~:text=purges+users+for+a+specified+set.+)
While this new job has a lot of potential for being valuable to more-carefully purge the intended users, there is still not an easy (less timed-labor-intensive) way in Alma to identify users with active requests to not include in either the traditional user record purge, or the new purge by set.
Since Analytics is static data as of the previous night, library/consortial staff would need to run an API report to identify which purge-eligible users do not have any active requests, and immediately turn around and run the purge to remove those user records.
We recognize that typically, a library would be purging their own local user records only after the patron is no longer active/enrolled/associated with the institution.
However, in an Automated Fulfillment Network, we want to be able to regularly purge LINKED user records that are no longer active at an item's institution because the patron's transactions have completed, so that patron data is not sitting around in other IZs in the consortium after the linked user record is no longer currently in use. But, those patrons may still be active/enrolled/associated at their HOME institution. And, since those patrons are still active/enrolled/associated at their HOME institution, that patron could place a new active request at any moment. Thus, their linked-user record should not be purged if they place a new active request (since the linked user record is once again in use).
Since active requests are not a way to prevent the purge of a user record, (and since we cannot rely on analytics reports), it means that we must generate via API the "unused" linked user record list, and then there can be zero delay between generating that list and running the user record purge job to clear the linked users. This is a very staff labor intensive, and time-intensive process in large consortia using the AFN.
It is poor customer service to delete the linked user record of a patron with an active request; when this happens, the patron will be unable to have their request fulfilled.
Debbie Campbell
supported this idea
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An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
I agree- I've tried to submit this through the NERS/CERV cycle a few times, but it has not yet gotten enough traction to move forward. Here is what I'd written in the submission:
User Purge should not delete users with active requests.
---Describe the functionality being requested:
The Alma User Purge job currently deletes users with active requests. Alma should allow for active requests to prevent user record purge.
---Business reasons that reflect the community or how all customers would benefit:
It is possible that the only purge-prevention activity that a user may have is an active request (local, or AFN). When purging linked user records in a fulfillment network, sometimes the only activity that a linked user record may currently have is an active request (a request that is in the pick-from-shelf queue, in transit for hold, or on the active hold shelf); the requested item may be committed for the patron’s use, but not yet checked out to their account.
---Technical Requirements:
Alma already checks the user record for these settings, and the user record is eligible to be purged, if:
Balance due on their local account is below “waive threshold”
No outstanding local loans.
No assigned PO lines, POs, or invoices.
No locked bibliographic records.
No assigned import profiles.
Not working in the MD Editor.
Not currently locked by a running job.
No associated assets or grants (If Esploro is enabled for your institution)Ex Libris should be able to add “No active requests” to this list of checked criteria.
---User Story:
The patron may have already been notified that the item is on hold for their pickup, but if their linked user record is purged in the item’s home library as part of cleanup while the item is on hold, the patron will become unable to check out the item.
---Documentation:
Support case https://support.proquest.com/s/case/5003r00001XLMSWAA5/patron-purge-not-aware-of-active-requestson-hold-items?tabset-9b93c=2 -
85 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
This would be helpful, especially in an Automated Fulfillment Network where the patron at another institution may return at a later date, and you want to keep their permissions prevented.
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25 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
This functionality would still be beneficial!
An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
Yes please! We would like the behavior to be consistent between local and AFN items. It causes confusion and inconvenience for our libraries' patrons and library staff when the behavior is inconsistent.
Ex Libris explained to us in a ExL support ticket that:
--For the most part, when working with a Fulfillment Network all notifications are sent from the Item owner, not the patron's home institution. So even though your proxy and sponsor are from your home institution, the notifications being generated are all coming from the 'lenders,' which are the other AFN institutions.
--In this AFN situation, the fulfillment proxy user is placing the request, as you described. But, when it comes time to create the AFN request, it only gets associated with the sponsor user (as there is no field in the Borrowing Request menu to allow for the fulfillment proxy information). And by design, linked accounts cannot be created for fulfillment proxy users, so we have to rely on the information for the sponsor user. So when the request is sent to the lender/item owner, only the sponsor's information is shared and available.
--Because the item owner sends the notification, and only the sponsor's information is sent to the item owner, they are the only one to receive the notification. This is why it differs from local requests - when everything is local, all of the information is available for both parties, so a notification gets sent to both.So in order to have this behavior modified for consistency for our staff and patrons, it'll need to come through Idea Exchange voting.
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27 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
Commenting to reiterate my support for this enhancement.
Debbie Campbell
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88 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
Commenting to reiterate my support for this enhancement.
An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
Yes, please add the item details to the course reserves area in Alma Analytics. Having that information would make it easier to run Alma jobs based off of sets, it would make it possible to do an inventory of physical items that should be on the reserves shelves/in the reserves area, as well as assist with usage statistics.
Debbie Campbell
supported this idea
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76 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
We still regularly get questions from our member libraries about how staff can assist patrons in renewing material the patron has borrowed from another AFN member institution.
Debbie Campbell
supported this idea
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427 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
This remains important to the libraries in our consortium. Thanks!
Debbie Campbell
supported this idea
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An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
Yes please. Many of our institutions have materials cataloged that they want to display in their IZ for their local patrons to know are available, but, they do not necessarily want to have the records show in the NZ for all of the consortia's members to locate on a search.
Common examples include materials such as headphones, dry erase markers, professor's copies of reserve materials, and certain kits or equipment.
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193 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
This ticket is still of interest to our member libraries.
An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
Patrons of the libraries in our consortium frequently used this functionality in our prior OPAC. They would use it if it were available in Primo VE as well.
(I would use it too.)
Debbie Campbell
supported this idea
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308 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
A library asked me about Course Reserve browse just this week, and I pointed them to this Idea Exchange. This functionality would still be appreciated.
Debbie Campbell
supported this idea
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An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
I would appreciate this enhancement for Primo VE.
It is much easier for patrons to browse the list of available courses/instructors to review a reserve list than to remember the correct words in order to search. -
19 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
Yes, I agree with this idea. Could this letter be changed to be sent by the user's home library, including ALL home library AND network library activity in one letter?
Currently, the letter is sent by the item's home library (where the loan transaction is recorded).
If the user's library is part of a consortium (especially one using the Automated Fulfillment Network), the patron is confused when the letter from their home library contains ONLY the activity at their home library and NO activity from the other libraries where they have activity.
If the consortium is large, all institutions have this letter enabled, and the patron is an active borrower, then the patron will receive altogether too many emails for the letter to be helpful to the patron (one per institution where the patron has activity). In our consortium, for a superuser, that could currently be up to 90 emails for a single patron to reflect their activity at any given time.
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31 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
It would be helpful, when loading an offline charge file into Alma, to provide a checkbox option to send loan receipts for each individual loan recorded in the upload file so that patrons are able to receive the e-mail reminder of their loan's due dates. (I understand that it would likely not be possible to collate the uploaded loans into a single email for the patron.)
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31 votesDebbie Campbell
shared this idea
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182 votesDebbie Campbell
supported this idea
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An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
This would be a helpful enhancement- so many times libraries are creating/editing internal records at the circulation desk for community patrons, alumni, etc, and it would be ideal to then be able to give the patron a temporary password, that they are prompted to change on next login. Please make this functionality possible for Primo VE as well.
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93 votesDebbie Campbell
supported this idea
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An error occurred while saving the comment Debbie Campbell
commented
Yes, I agree that it would be very helpful for patrons if the default selection was the "Has Activity" filter.
Hello! Alma is already aware of which items on a user’s account have the status of Lost. Thresholds for Max Overdues, Max Cash, and Max Overdue Recalls are already set in the Patron Limits table. Please add a Lost Item threshold to the Patron Limits in Alma.