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    Alma Roadmap – Completed – 2022 H2

    Metadata Management

    Authority Control – Exclude Heading From Linking

    What’s New Highlights Impact

    Catalogers are able to control whether specific bibliographic headings are automatically linked to authorities or not
    More information can be found in Authority Control – Exclude Heading from Linking

     

    • The cataloger is able to exclude a heading from the metadata editor​

    • An excluded heading is not linked by automated processes but can still be linked manually from the metadata editor


    Perform catalog maintenance tasks more accurately with less effort

    Enhanced External Resource Search

    What’s New Highlights Impact
    Improved external resource search infrastructure and capabilities
    • The search gateway infrastructure is improved in order to better handle different languages and special characters
    • Improvements to the ongoing setup and management of external search targets
    • Better integration with 3rd party systems
    • Easier administration and configuration of external search targets

    Electronic Resource Management

    Management Level Indication for Community Zone Collections 

    Edit section

    What’s New Highlights Impact

    A new "Management level" indicator on Community Zone collections is set to inform the user who is responsible for the management of the collection

    To learn more, watch the Management Level Indication for Community Zone Collections video

    Here are the 5 Managment Level options:

    • Managed by: Ex Libris

    • Managed by: Community

    • Not maintained (The vendor no longer supports this collection)

    • Pending deletion (the deletion date will be added next to this value) 

    • Contributed by the institution

    The new collection Management Level indicators on Community Zone collections are set to provide better transparency for the community to understand how and by whom each collection is maintained

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    Delete Portfolios from Community Managed Collections 

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    What’s New Highlights Impact

    A new addition enables users to Delete portfolios from five community managed collections

    Currently, there are five Community Zone collections categorized as 'Managed by Community':

    1. Free E- Journals

    2. Miscellaneous EJournals

    3. Miscellaneous Free eBooks

    4. Miscellaneous eBooks

    5. U.S. Government Documents

    For these collections, users can Create and Edit Community Zone portfolios and can now also Delete these portfolios.

    To learn more, see Option to Delete Portfolios from Community Zone Collections Which are Managed by the Community.

    The option to delete a portfolio is added in two places:

    1. On the Community Zone portfolio.

    2. Enhancement to the existing Delete action on Institution Zone portfolios that are activated from Community managed collections.

    The option to delete portfolios from community managed collections enables full community independence on these collections and their content.

     

    Enhanced Indicators for Community Zone Records 

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    What’s New Highlights Impact

    Two new indicators were added to Community Zone collections. These indicators reflect information regarding the usage of the community and the region these collections are most active.

    To learn more, see Usage Reflection for Community Zone Collections.

    Each Community Zone Collection now has two new indicators:

    1. Usage - how many times the Community Zone collection/portfolio was activated.
    2. Region - From which region this collection was activated from.

    There are three main regions:

    • Asia Pacific
    • Europe, Middle East, and Africa
    • North America & Latin America
    Adding these two pieces of information enables users (that browse the Community Zone in order to activate resources) to better understand which resource is most suitable for activation.

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    Physical Resource Management

    Collection Retention

    What’s New Highlights Impact
    The inventory operator is able to manage physical items that are part of retention programs

    More information can be found in Updating Item-Level Information, or in the Commit to Retain an Item for a Collaborative Collection Alma Highlights video
    • Ability to mark an item to be retained with its relevant information

    • The system does not allow the withdrawal of items that are marked as 'committed to retain'

    • Ability to update retain fields in a batch process for a group of items

    • Ability to access and retain information via items search, analytics, and API's

    The inventory operator is able to efficiently manage items that are under retention agreements 

     

    Fulfillment & Resource Sharing

    Resource Sharing Task Lists – Enhanced UX    

    What’s New Highlights Impact
    New resource-sharing task lists
     
    More information can be found in the Workflow Simplification document and in the 'New UI for Resource-Sharing Task Lists for Borrowing Requests and Lending Requests' section in the Alma 2022 Release Notes
    The new task lists are redesigned to leverage new layout UX concepts such as a right pane work area, inline handling of note and patron queries, and multiple facet selection.  More efficient work for the resource-sharing staff and a quicker turnaround time for patrons.

    Below is a capture of the UI.

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    DARA Request Workflow Recommendations 

    What’s New Highlights Impact
    DARA identifies resource requests that are taking a long time to process.
    More information can be found in DARA – Data Analysis Recommendation Assistant
    DARA provides recommendations to review resource requests that are 'in process' for a long time, in order to review them and consider alternatives Quicker workflows provide better services to end users

     

    Alma Analytics

    New System Events Subject Area

    What’s New Highlights Impact

    A renewed "System Events" subject area

    To learn more, see System Events

    • Specifically tailored for Alma community users 
    • Improved performance 
    Faster auditing and event reports creation

     

    Enhanced User Experience: Improved User Interface Creating Reports

    What’s New Highlights Impact

    Creating reports with an upgraded Oracle Analytics Server, version 6.4, for an enhanced UX and new features

    To learn more about new features in OAS 6.4, watch this webinar

    • Improved Oracle Analytics Server (OAS) home page search
    • Data Visualization with a new look and feel (better handling of white space, softer color palette, etc.)
    • Annotations on canvases (Data Visualization), and much more
    Library managers and analysts have more tools and capabilities for data-driven decisions with smoother workflows 

     

    NLM Classification in Analytics 

    What’s New Highlights Impact

    Alma analytics supports the Library of Medicine classification

    Details can be found in the November 2022 Release Notes

    • It is possible to create Analytic reports based on NLM Classification 
    • Report dimensions are similar to LoC and Dewey Classification system reports
    Users who work with NLM Classification are able to create reports in Alma Analytics

     

    Consortia

    Restrict Editing Bibliographic Metadata Fields

    What’s New Highlights Impact

    The consortia central office is able to control which bibliographic metadata fields can be edited by Network Zone members 

    For more information, please see Restrict Editing Bibliographic Records

    The consortia central office is able to configure the Network Zone bibliographic record fields that are restricted from editing by Network Zone members  The consortia office is able to maintain the quality of Network Zone Bibliographic records by preventing unwanted edits of specific fields

     

    General Publishing Network Zone - Option to Exclude Member's Local Bibliographic Records

    What’s New Highlights Impact
    When publishing consortia records from the Network Zone it is possible to exclude local records that are managed by members For each General Publishing profile in the Network Zone, the central office is able to indicate whether to include/exclude members' local records Better control of the ability to share/not share the consortia's private records with a third party

     

    Cost/Usage for Network Zone Shared Electronic Resources

    What’s New Highlights Impact
    Consortia members can create cost/usage analytic reports for electronic resources that are managed in the Network Zone and purchased in the Institution Zone The Alma Analytics E-Inventory subject area includes Cost Usage data for e-inventory managed in the Network Zone and available for the member  Better analysis capabilities for centrally managed resources by members

     

    Digital Resource Management

    IIIF V3 Support 

    What’s New Highlights Impact
    Support advanced services of IIIF API v3, also including delivery of a wider range of file formats via the Universal Viewer

    For further details: Universal Viewer for Alma Digital Now Supports Non Image Files - YouTube
    • Upgrade IIIF manifest to Presentation API v3​

    • Upgrade Universal Viewer​

    • Support delivery of non-image sequences via IIIF, such as PDFs, audio-visual and more

    Expand the range of content to be delivered via IIIF services

     

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    Back to User Experience & Accessibility Roadmap

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