Next Release Sneak Preview (for May 2018)
The features below are currently planned for the next release. However, some of these features may, for various reasons, not be included in this month's release, but rather in a future Alma release.
Acquisitions
- Alma Trials Enhancements – The Alma Trials workflow will be enhanced with a number of new features—for example, the option to create survey questions with a closed list of responses, and the option to add trial participants based on a set of users.
- Reply-to in Vendor Communications – It will be possible to configure a reply-to address for orders and vendor communications.
Resource Management
Idea Exchange: New Field in the Item Record – A new Condition field in the item record will enable you to define the physical condition of an item—for example, damaged, fragile, or deteriorating.
NERS Enhancement (Request ID #3792) and Idea Exchange: Move Portfolio Action – A new action, Move Portfolio, will provide the ability to move one or more portfolios from one collection to another collection. - General Publishing Profile Enhancements – The general publishing platform will be enhanced with the option to enrich the published data with linked data information, even when used in an Institution Zone. In addition, new options will enable better management of FTP file names generated by the profiles.
- Alma Extension Packs – It will be possible to share Alma extension packs with the Alma community using the Community Zone contribution mechanism. The extension packs will also be improved to enable extending the cataloging profiles for the LDR and fixed fields.
- Idea Exchange: SRU Server Enhancements – The SRU server will be enhanced to support retrieving holdings information using the ISO 20775 holdings schema. in addition, configurable normalization routines will enable controlling what fields are exposed through SRU requests.
- Additional Enhancements for Multilingual Authorities – Further enhanced multilingual authorities support will enable the F3 button to work with multiple preferred terms.
Digital Resource Management
- HANDLE Generation – Alma will be able to generate HANDLE persistent identifiers for every new digital resource, which will then be published to the HANDLE server.
- Migration Tool – There will be a new, easy-to-use utility to transfer remote digital repository to Alma using OAI-PMH.
Fulfillment
- Limit Access to User Information – The library will be able to limit the access of Circulation Desk Operators to user information by blocking the operators' ability to search for patron information.
- Cancel Purchase Requests – Patrons will be able to cancel their purchase requests from My Account in Primo.
- NERS Enhancement (Request ID #5197) and Idea Exchange: Include Request History in Search Results – Further to the April feature that enables you to view historical requests in Resource Request Monitoring, you will also be able to view request history for an item retrieved in search results.
- NERS Enhancement (Request ID #4629) and Idea Exchange: New Re-loan Limit – Libraries will be able to configure a re-loan limit, preventing patrons from re-loaning items that they have just returned.
Resource Sharing
- NERS Enhancement (Request ID #4856 and #3672): New Options in the Resource Sharing Request Form – The resource sharing request form will enable patrons to know in advance whether there are potential lenders for the requested resource. In addition, the resource sharing request form will automatically be augmented with additional metadata if submitted with a PMID or a DOI.
Analytics
- Enhanced Physical Items Subject Area – Holdings information will be enhanced in the Physical Items subject area. It will be possible to have more fields from the holdings record included in the report. In addition, holding records will be reportable even when they have no attached items.
APIs
- It will be possible to manage standalone portfolios using Alma’s RESTful APIs. This is in addition to the existing option to manage standalone portfolios through their collections.
- Discovery APIs will be further enhanced to enable a calling application to retrieve information from Alma about options for placing a broker resource sharing request and for activating a general electronic service.