Date (2026)

Session Name and Description

Accompanying Resources

Asia Pacific Registration

The Americas and Europe Registration

Jan. 15

The new "Relative Date Index" in Alma

A new index allowing for the staff user to search entities via an "X days ago" relative date index has already been added (Nov. 2025)  to the various 'Titles" searches.  This relative date index will also be added during 2026 to additional entities including, but not only, the Purchase Order Lines.

During this session we will see various ways in which this relative date index can be used.

We will also look at a specific use case which has been desired by the Alma community for several years: the ability to use this index to create a "New Resources List" in Primo (this is sometimes called a "New Books List").  We will see that this can be done by making a "logical titles collection" based on a set which uses the new relative date index.  We will look at this process step by step by creating such a  "new resources list" live during the webinar.

This session will be delivered by Yoel Kortick and Tamar Fuches.

How to create a "New Resources in the Library" list and corresponding link in Primo (using the relative date index and a logical title level collection)

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Other world times

Beijing    14:00
Hong Kong 14:00
Kabul 10:30    
Kathmandu 11:45
Perth 14:00
Seoul 15:00
Shanghai 14:00
Singapore 14:00
Sydney 17:00
Taipei 14:00
Tashkent 11:00
Tehran 09:30
Tokyo 15:00

Register

Other world times

Belgrade 16:00
Berlin 16:00
Budapest 16:00
Casablanca 16:00
Chicago 09:00
Havana 10:00
Krakow 16:00
London 15:00
Madrid 16:00
New York 10:00
Oslo 16:00
Paris 16:00
Rome 16:00

Customized Repository Search Bibliographic Indexes

With this development each institution can customize bibliographic indexes to include those field(s) which are desired by the institution. 

Before this development the only way to retrieve bibliographic records with specific values in specific fields was to run an indication rule on a set.  Now a specific index can be created with the desired field(s) and then that index can be used to search for the desired records.

This will answer the request of many Ideas Exchange requests including:

• Customize Alma Search Indexes
• Add 775 field in the search index
• Need ability to search 79X fields
• Adding the publisher location to the "Keywords" index in Alma
• Allow to define several local search indexes, including standard MARC fields
• Title search - index the 245 field on its own
• Index field 773 $$g for the Alma Repository Search
• Index fields 772 $$w and 830 $$w for the Alma Repository Search 
• Index fields 700 $$4 and 710 $$4 for the Alma Repository Search
• Index field 310 for the Alma Repository Search
• MARC field 788 should be searchable 
• Index 532 field
• Searchability for MARC 361

This session will be delivered by Yoel Kortick and Erez Shabo.

Register

Other world times

Beijing    14:00
Hong Kong 14:00
Kabul 10:30    
Kathmandu 11:45
Perth 14:00
Seoul 15:00
Shanghai 14:00
Singapore 14:00
Sydney 17:00
Taipei 14:00
Tashkent 11:00
Tehran 09:30
Tokyo 15:00

Register

Other world times

Belgrade 16:00
Berlin 16:00
Budapest 16:00
Casablanca 16:00
Chicago 09:00
Havana 10:00
Krakow 16:00
London 15:00
Madrid 16:00
New York 10:00
Oslo 16:00
Paris 16:00
Rome 16:00

AI based tools in Primo VE NDE

• The Primo Research Assistant helps users find an easy starting point for their research by leveraging the power of generative AI.  The Primo Research Assistant provides both information about a topic as well as relevant related resources
• The Natural Language Search ("Ask Anything") enables users to formulate queries in normal spoken language, and automatically converts them into the structured format compatible with Primo’s Advanced Search.
• Both entities use a Natural language Search Query

During this session we will show various aspects of both of these tools, via a live demo and interactive discussion.  We will both a) show current features already available to the Primo community and b)  discuss roadmap plans for both features.

This session will be delivered by Yoel Kortick and Sima Bloch.

Primo Research Assistant (for Primo VE NDE).pptx

Ask Anything Natural language Search (for Primo VE NDE).pptx

Register

Other world times

Beijing    14:00
Hong Kong 14:00
Kabul 10:30    
Kathmandu 11:45
Perth 14:00
Seoul 15:00
Shanghai 14:00
Singapore 14:00
Sydney 17:00
Taipei 14:00
Tashkent 11:00
Tehran 09:30
Tokyo 15:00

Register

Other world times

Belgrade 16:00
Berlin 16:00
Budapest 16:00
Casablanca 16:00
Chicago 09:00
Havana 10:00
Krakow 16:00
London 15:00
Madrid 16:00
New York 10:00
Oslo 16:00
Paris 16:00
Rome 16:00

Physical Holdings retention

Alma will support retention of the holdings record, in addition to the existing retention of physical items and bibliographic records.

The major highlights of this feature are:

• It will be possible to prevent the deletion of a holdings record containing a retention note, so the information in the holdings record is not lost.

• Operators attempting to delete a holdings record that is committed to retain will be notified of its status.

The ability to prevent deletion of holding records will ease the management for institutions that maintain their retention information in the holdings record.

Note that this functionality is in addtion to and complements the existing  Bibliographic record and physical inventory retention in Alma.pptx

This session will be delivered by Yoel Kortick and either Tamar Fuches or Liza Voloshin (or both).

Register

Other world times

Beijing    14:00
Hong Kong 14:00
Kabul 10:30    
Kathmandu 11:45
Perth 14:00
Seoul 15:00
Shanghai 14:00
Singapore 14:00
Sydney 17:00
Taipei 14:00
Tashkent 11:00
Tehran 09:30
Tokyo 15:00

Register

Other world times

Belgrade 16:00
Berlin 16:00
Budapest 16:00
Casablanca 16:00
Chicago 09:00
Havana 10:00
Krakow 16:00
London 15:00
Madrid 16:00
New York 10:00
Oslo 16:00
Paris 16:00
Rome 16:00

Developments for Fulfillment and User Management

Several new developments are planned and currently being implemented around fulfillment and user management.  During this session we will explore these developments and show them live.  Some of these developments include:

• When a request created by a staff user in Alma fails there will be a message explaining the reason for the failure and also (depending on configuration) an option to override  (tentatively planned for planned for Feb. 2026)
• The possibility to define that if patron is blocked from loaning then he or she will also be blocked from creating a request (tentatively planned for planned for Mar. 2026)
• When at a circulation desk and performing a loan the existing system notes can optionally be pop up notes.   (tentatively planned for planned for Jan. 2026)
• The "last interest date" for requests will be able to be defined as "mandatory" when the request is created in Alma (it already can be defined as mandatory in Primo).  Additionally , it will be possible to make the "last interest date" for requests be a relative date default (for example X days from now) and have this populate the form in both Alma and Primo  (tentatively planned for planned for Mar. 2026)
• There will be the possibility to run a job to purge users based on a set of set of users  (tentatively planned for planned for Nov. 2025) Ideas Exchange Ability to run user purge on a set
• It will be possible to perform an advanced search for users based on role and scope (tentatively planned for planned for Feb. 2026)
• When a patron has an existing loan and his or her expiration date is changed to be earlier than the due date of the existing loan then it will be possible to have the due date automatically shortened to be equal to the expiration date. (tentatively planned for H1 2026)

This session will be delivered by Yoel Kortick and Baruch Picard.

Copy Cataloging Using AI Title Matching to Enrich Bibliographic Records

A new Alma job will allow the staff user to create a set of bibliographic records and run a "copy cataloging" job on the records in the set.  

The job will search a predefined set of external search resources and based on a variety of parameters which each user can choose in the job, enrich the bibliographic records in the set using metadata from the matched records in the external search resources.

This session will be delivered by Yoel Kortick and Lili Daie.

The Linked Open Data Editor for BIBFRAME

Using the new Linked Open Data Editor for BIBFRAME Librarians will be able to create BIBFRAME records (work and instance) in a new editor.

Highlights in the new Linked Open Data Editor for BIBFRAME include:

• A fully integrated linked open data editor as part of Alma and Alma workflows.
• Creation of templates based on the ontology.
• Metadata creation in a form-based interface.

During this session we will have a live demo of creating BIBFRAME records and templates. 

Physical Items User Experience

Alma is continuing to upgrade to new UI concepts, resulting in faster, simpler searches and streamlined workflows.  This both saves time as well as boosts productivity.  As part of this upgrade the physical items UX will have a new: 

• Physical items search 
• Items list of a title / holdings record 
• Item editor 

The Physical Items Search will be updated and redesigned for better usability, performance, productivity, and overall user experience.

Highlights of these changes include:

• Ability to use multi-value selection facets.
• Table and record views for search results.
• Side-by-side item editor.
• Enhanced navigation

The primary impact of these changes is that staff users will be able to quickly find and perform actions on items.

This session will be delivered by Yoel Kortick and Lili Daie.

Redesign of the "Community Zone Updates Task List"

 During H2  2026 the "Community Zone Updates Task List" will be redesigned for better usability, performance, productivity, and overall user experience.

Highlights of this redesign include:

• Additional faceting options and improved display.

• Ability to define personalized faceted lists.

• Electronic resource representation in a sliding panel to remain in the context.

These changes will provide the staff user with  a streamlined navigation and enhance the usability of the task list for efficient electronic resource management.

This session will be delivered by Yoel Kortick and Tamar Fuches.