Introduction to Fulfillment
Fulfillment is the process by which patrons borrow and return physical resources, or access electronic or digital resources, from the institution. For information about requests, see Requests in Alma. For information about loaning and returning items, see Loaning Items and Returning Items.
Fulfillment contains the following workflows/sections:
- Resource Requests Workflow – This is the workflow that governs the way a general resource request utilizes internal staff operations. For a detailed explanation of the resource requests workflow, see Resource Requests Workflow.
- Booking – This is the workflow that governs the way Alma reserves resources for a patron that is to be used during a specified time frame. For a detailed explanation of the booking workflow, see Booking.
- Circulation Desk Operations Workflow – This is the workflow that governs the way the operations check-out/check-in actions flow at a circulation desk, from the creation of a request through its fulfillment. For a detailed explanation of the circulation desk operations workflow, see Circulation Desk Operations.
- Resource Sharing – This is the workflow that governs the way a resource sharing department manages both borrowing and lending requests to other institutions. For a detailed explanation of the resource sharing workflow, see Resource Sharing.
- Courses and Reading Lists Workflow – This is the workflow that governs the way in which a reading list for a course is created and managed. For a detailed explanation of the courses and reading lists workflow, see Courses and Reading Lists Workflow.
- Advanced Tools – This section describes managing fulfillment sets, changing loan dates in bulk import, viewing restore request jobs, uploading offline loan and return transactions, configuring criteria for items requiring action, and shifting requests between circulation desks. For a detailed explanation, see Advanced Tools.
- Configuring Fulfillment – This section describes fulfillment configuration activities. For a detailed explanation, see Configuring Fulfillment.
- Fulfillment Library Independence - This section describes better separation of fulfillment activities between multiple libraries that are grouped in an Alma institution. For more information, see Fulfillment Library Independence.