Alma February 2018 Release Notes
This Alma release provides numerous new features and enhancements. Some of these enhancements are a result of Idea Exchange or NERS initiatives.
Download a PDF of the Release Notes – Note that the PDF includes the online help pages that describe the core functionality of the new features.Make the Most of This Release
| Action Items |
|---|
| Change PO Line Attributes After Ordering (Part I) – A new job, Update PO Lines Limited Attributes, enables staff users to change the purchase type of an order that is not closed or canceled to another purchase type of the same inventory type and continuity. For example, now an entire set of PO lines can be changed from Database One Time to Electronic Book One Time or from Print Book One Time to Musical Score One Time. This job will be further enhanced with additional options in future releases. |
| New Controlled Vocabulary (CV) Option in License Term Types – It is now possible to add a list of controlled vocabulary for customized license terms. This makes the process of adding terms more efficient and ensures the uniqueness of the data. All terms are entered by staff in a unique manner by choosing from the predefined list. |
| Peer Review and Open Access – You are now able to see Peer Reviewed and Open Access visual indications in various areas of Alma, such as the search results, resource editors, and the list of items. You are also able to use the indication as a parameter in the advanced search, improving your search refinement capabilities. |
| Dublin Core Forms for Patron Deposits – Institutions can now customize their end-user deposit forms for Dublin Core records. The selection of metadata, the order in which it is displayed, and the definition of mandatory fields are configurable, allowing you to create designated deposit forms per collection. |
| Print a Receive Slip Automatically for Non-Returnable Physical Items – If the resource sharing service you offer to your patrons includes receiving non-returnable items for fulfilling their requests, you now have an option to print a slip for these resources when they are received at the borrowing library. The slips can be attached to the received resources. |
| Configure UI Width and Font Size – As a user, you are now able to switch between different view modes. You can either view more information with a smaller font, or less information with a larger font. |
What's New
The following sections present the new and changed features in this release of Alma.
New Alma User Interface
As of this release, users are no longer be able to use the classic UI. For more information on Alma's new user interface, see What's New in Alma's New User Interface and The Alma User Interface.
Acquisitions
Idea Exchange and 
NERS Enhancement (ID # 5271): Change PO Line Attributes After Ordering (Part I) – You can now update PO line attributes after an order is created and sent to the vendor.- New Controlled Vocabulary (CV) Option in License Term Types – You can now create a license term with a license term type of Controlled Vocabulary, enabling you to define your own custom list of values for the license term field that you add.
Watch the Adding a Controlled Vocabulary for Local License Terms video.
- NERS Enhancement (ID # 4958): Enhancements to the Electronic Activation Task List – The Electronic Activation Task List has two new columns to indicate whether the PO line has interested users and a rush status.
- Delete PDA Profiles – Patron Driven Acquisition profiles now have the option to delete canceled profiles.
- Additional Acquisitions Enhancements
Resource Management
- Browse Bibliographic Headings User Interface – The Browse Bibliographic Headings user interface was modified to improve usability.
- Peer Review and Open Access – When identified in the standard MARC 21 500 and 506 fields, the peer reviewed and open access information is indexed, searchable, and identified in search results.
- ProQuest Ebook Central Integration – Institutions that would like to automatically update ProQuest Ebook Central electronic resources can now do so with Alma's Upload Electronic Holdings integration capability.
- Normalization Rule Syntax – To automatically generate the 859 field from the 866 summary holdings data (per the ZDB form requirements), a new normalization rule syntax was created.
- Suppression Handling for Imported Records – A new parameter for Set Management Tags was added to the import profile.
- Hanzi to Pinyin Task Configuration – The user interface for the Hanzi to Pinyin task parameter configuration was improved, and the Transliterate Entire Record option was added to make configuration easier.
- French UNIMARC – As part of the ongoing enhancement of French UNIMARC, multiscript authority support and multiple IDs in bibliographic fields linking to separate authority records were implemented.
- Additional Resource Management Enhancements
Digital Resource Management
- Dublin Core Forms for Patron Deposits – You can now configure patron deposit forms for creating Dublin Core metadata records.
- DC:Identifier Field Added to Exported Dublin Core Records – The dc:identifier field containing the MMS ID is now added to exported Dublin Core records to enhance the ability to track the record.
- Additional Digital Resource Management Enhancements
Fulfillment
- Fulfillment Enhancements – Several enhancements were made to the Fulfillment functional area for the February release.
Resource Sharing
- Print a Receive Slip Automatically for Non-Returnable Physical Items – There is now an option on the Received Items page to automatically print a Receive Slip for a physical non-returnable item that is received from the lender to fulfill a borrowing request.
- Additional Resource Sharing Enhacements
Course Reserves
- Resource Sharing Requests for Citations – You can now initiate a resource sharing request for a citation.
- Citations of Type Note – Citations of type Note are added by instructors in Leganto and can be added in Alma as well.
- Additional Course Reserves Enhancements
Collaborative Networks
- Define ID Types for Fulfillment Networks – Libraries can define that an ID type is mandatory in order to participate in a fulfillment network.
Analytics
- New Leganto Institution Student Usage Subject Area – This new subject area enables you to create reports concerning Leganto institution student usage.
- Additional Analytics Enhancements
Administration and Infrastructure
- Webhook for Change Log Updates – To better support instant publishing of bibliographic records to discovery systems, a webhook was added for changes to bibiiographic records and physical items.
- Direct Link to Resolved URLs for Portfolios in General Publishing – It is now possible to add access URLs for electronic inventory enrichment.
- Idea Exchange: Configure UI Width and Font Size – You can now configure the font size and width of the UI. You can select between options for font size (Small, Regular, and Big), and layout width (Focused (normal), and Spread (wide)).
- Additional Administration and Infrastructure Enhancements
In April, Ex Libris will start using a new SSL certificate vendor, Digicert, which will provide your connection to Alma with increased security and stability. This change should cause no downtime or service degradation. To ensure that the migration goes smoothly, please confirm that all systems that connect to Alma have the Intermediate and root certificate installed, as detailed here.
APIs
- New Discovery optimized APIs include services such as retrieving a full list of a given bibliographic record’s physical items. For details, see https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/alma/apis/bibs.
- A new API enables you to create a lending resource sharing request. For details, see https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/alma/apis/partners.
- Use of the REST APIs is now available only through the API gateway. This service is blocked when accessing Alma directly.
Accessibility
- Ex Libris is committed to providing an experience that is fully accessible to everyone. We make every effort to ensure that all pages comply with web accessibility guidelines. In the February release, we improved many aspects of accessibility, and during the month of February, we will release an updated Accessibility Conformance Report (valid for VPAT® Version 2.0). This report will cover the degree of conformance for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 and Section 508 as published in 2017. For information on accessibility and Alma, see this FAQ page.
- Alma-Summon (patron-facing, services page) accessibility was improved. More than 40 issues were resolved, including:
- removing all the unnecessary alt text and unsupported ARIA label attributes that are not announced by the screen reader
- verifying that the correct semantics are used on all pages by ensuring that a hierarchical heading structure is used and that there is consistent navigation throughout the site using the “skip to” links
- placing the focus on the last interactive element when opening and closing objects
Content Operations
- Library of Congress Authorities Community Zone Updates
- New Electronic Collections Added to the Alma CKB
- No new external search resources were added.
Known Issues
There are no known issues for the February release.
Next Release Sneak Preview
View a list of the features that are planned for the March 2018 release.