Analytics Evidence AGSA11 (Alma) - Date Dimensions are inconsistent - (Resolved)

Users would like to be able to report on all transactions by date/day/time.  

In some subject areas dates and date ranges cannot be user-defined. They are pre-defined as ‘Year’, ‘Week’ etc. Example: Leganto subject areas.

See also Primo and Leganto evidence and the Working Group's proposal for a consistent approach to dates in the future.

Ex Libris Response at ELUNA 2018 and subsequent meetings:

Ex Libris is committed to improving the handling of date fields. They are currently working on standardizing dates in Alma, Primo and Leganto.

The November release should add calendar picker fields for date/time fields that do not currently have a calendar picker due to the time being included with the date. For example in the "Borrowing Requests" subject area the "Borrowing Request Details" folder has a field "Item Arrival Date" which has the date and timestamp. The user cannot use a calendar picker on this field to easily choose a date.

The November release will add a new field with only the date and suffix "(calendar)" so in this example the field will be called "Item Arrival Date (calendar)" and will have the calendar picker. Time will be excluded from this date field.

The Working Group has worked on a list of relevent fields and subject areas together with Ex Libris and specific examples where the date fields are not consistent have been provided.

Alice Tippitt has volunteered to work on this list.  List compiled by Alice: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L2wypdXYV4QPmW0MrsBpT3CD4ZVYFv6bYFL5kE4TSGs/edit?usp=sharing

Ex Libris released standardized date picker fields in Alma with the January 2020 release of Alma.

status: in process
priority: high
subject area: general

Original List

1. User Subject Area: lacks Date dimensions

• Create Date, Expire Date, and Purge Date are available as fields under the User Details dimension. Still, would be great to have separate dimensions with the ability to use the new Date Filtering fields available in other Subject Areas.

2. Request Subject Area: Date dimensions are inconsistent

• Request Date has nine date fields, lacks Fiscal Month. Request Completion Date has 7, lacks Fiscal Year, Time, and Date Filter fields. Date Needed By has 6, lacks Date Filter, Fiscal, and Time fields (but questionable whether some of these fields are needed for this dimension).

3. Lending Request Subject Area: Due Date dimension lacks Date Filter field.

4. Leganto Student Usage Subject Area: lacks Date dimension

• Due Date is a field in Student Weekly Usage dimension. Event Date dimension is available in the Leganto Instructor Subject Areas, but I don’t know enough about Leganto to interpret the discrepancy. A Date dimension is available in Leganto Institution Student Usage Subject Area.

5. Fines & Fees Subject Area: Creation Date dimension lacks a Time field.

6. Fulfillment Subject Area: Renewal Date dimension lacks Renewal Fiscal Month Key.

7. Events Subject Area: has more key fields available than other subject areas.

8. Digital Usage Subject Area: lacks Time field, which is available in the Request Subject Area, and Fiscal Month Key field.

9. Digital Inventory Subject Area: Date Filter fields are missing for Representation Modification Date and File Modification Date dimensions

10. Course Reserve Subject Area: Start Date and End Date dimensions lack Fiscal Month Key field.

11. Borrowing Request Subject Area: Due Date dimension lacks Date Filter field.

From the IGeLU-ELUNA Analytics Working Group, Analytics Evidence Document

Please send questions or comments to the Analytics Working Group Listserv