Consortia

Overview

Alma supports consortia by providing a platform for working together and sharing resources, while allowing members to independently and separately manage their own library needs.

Roadmap

2021 H2	2022 H1	2022 H2-2023
Automatically delete Bibliographic records that are not used across the Network Define Display Logic Rules for shared electronic services managed in the Network Zone	Transit network item directly to requested location Network Zone ability to influence Institution Zone LinkResolver Service Order for centrally managed resources	Real Time Update of Linked Accounts User Groups in a Fulfillment Network Blocks Across Network

2021 H2

Automatically delete Bibliographic records that are not used across the Network

What’s New	Highlights	Impact
Automatically delete Bibliographic records that are not used across the Network	When the last item in the Network is deleted by a consortia member, the shared bibliographic record in the Network Zone will automatically be deleted as it in not held by any consortia members	Added efficiency in managing bibliographic records across the network

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Define Display Logic Rules For Shared Electronic Services Managed in the Network Zone

What’s New	Highlights	Impact
Consortia members will be able to control the appearance of shared electronic services that are managed in the Network Zone using Display Logic Rules	Link Resolver display logic rules configuration will include electronic services that are managed in the Network Zone and available to the institution.	Efficient management of central electronic services across the network

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2022 H1

Transit Network Item Directly to Requested Location

What’s New	Highlights	Impact
Direct forward of returned item to next requested pickup location	An item that is returned, but not to its home institution, will be put in transit directly to the next requested pickup location rather than to its home institution	Added efficiency in managing requests, faster processing and saved costs

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Network Zone ability to influence Institution Zone Link Resolver Service Order for centrally managed resources

What’s New	Highlights	Impact
Network Zone ability to influence the Institution Zone's Link Resolver Service Order for centrally managed resources	Central offices that manage shared electronic resources in the Network Zone will be able to determine the preferred order of shared electronic services in the members' Institution Zone Link Resolver. The institution will be able to define if they wish to inherit the central office's preferences.	Efficient management of central electronic services across the network

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2022 H2 - 2023

Real Time Update of Linked Accounts

What’s New	Highlights	Impact
Linked account updates will happen in real time	The refresh of linked accounts across institutions will take place in real time, when the record is updated in the source institution	Libraries will be able to make use of more up to date user account information across the network.

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User Groups in a Fulfillment Network

What’s New	Highlights	Impact
Institutions will be able to create different local linked accounts dependent on the patron’s user group in the source institution	Linked accounts rules will be configurable per the user group value in the source institution This will enable assigning different user groups in the target institutions based on the patron's user group in the source institution	Network libraries will be better able to configure network level fulfillment policies for different user types.

What’s New

Highlights

Impact

Institutions will be able to create different local linked accounts dependent on the patron’s user group in the source institution

Linked accounts rules will be configurable per the user group value in the source institution
This will enable assigning different user groups in the target institutions based on the patron's user group in the source institution

Network libraries will be better able to configure network level fulfillment policies for different user types.

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Blocks Across Network

What’s New	Highlights	Impact
Fulfillment Network members will be able to share local blocks with the entire network	User blocks will be automatically copied to all of the patron’s linked accounts, as per institution policies The blocks will be copied from any linked account, even if it is not the source account	Libraries will be able to better consolidate their fulfillment services across the network.

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