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Alma November 2016 Release Notes

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The Alma November release provides numerous new features and enhancements. Some of these enhancements are a result of NERS or Idea Exchange initiatives.
PDF.png 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
Digital Fulfillment - Alma Document Delivery – Are you supplying digitization services to your patrons, or would you like to implement this service? With this new enhancement, you can start sending digitized material to your patrons without worrying about email limitations and copyrights.
Control Patron Information Sharing – Do you want to participate in a fulfillment network but have concerns about patron data privacy? You can now control the patron information that may be shared with other institutions in order to facilitate the fulfillment network process.
Sharing Digital Inventory Between Member Institutions – This great new feature will provide end users with easy access to digital resources—regardless of where they are managed—and allow institutions working with a Network Zone to easily share their digital collections for the benefit of all end users.
VAT Support for Fines and Fees – If you manage VAT for library-created fines and fees, you can now manage your VAT inside Alma in a configurable, visible, and reportable manner.
Integration with Cloud IdP (Microsoft Azure) – If you are interested in secure management of user information without having to locally maintain identity management applications, you can benefit from the streamlined and integrated user management workflows that this new feature makes available.

What's New?

The following sections present the new and changed features in this release of Alma.

Acquisitions

Resource Management

Fulfillment

Resource Sharing

Collaborative Networks

Analytics

Administration and Infrastructure

APIs

  • The Representation API now includes a new field, deposit_id.
  • The /conf/general API retrieves general institution information such as institution code, environment type, and digital storage location. For detailed information, see https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/alma/apis/conf.
  • The Retrieve PO Line API can now retrieve and sort by the following fields: Item description, Chronology I, J, K, Enumeration A, B, C.
  • The Retrieve Jobs API now includes the related profile ID for MD import jobs.
  • The number of elements sent in POST or PUT API calls is no longer limited.

Known Issues

  • When importing an EOD file using the New Order profile, if the location of the item does not have a call number type, the call number type of the institution should be used as the alternative call number type. Currently, however, no alternative call number is used.
  • Related to merging bibliographic records in the MD Editor, if there are no requests, the Merge Records and Combine Inventory pop-up window does not display a count of 0 (zero) requests. The count appears for requests only when it is greater than 0 (zero). The count should also appear as 0 (zero) requests when there are no requests.
  • Regarding the autocomplete/pop-up assistance being provided for several UNIMARC fields in the MD Editor, there is a known issue related to UNIMARC 327 $a and 327 $b. These subfields are based on the same functionality and as a result, the pop-up suggestions in the MD Editor suggests both subfields’ values when entering content in either the 327 $a or the 327 $b.
  • Fixed position fields (control fields) cannot be modified using the extension loader (extension packs) at this time.
  • When creating an OCLC Connexion import profile in a Network Zone member institution with the Use NZ option selected, the Use NZ record option is used upon finding a match. Currently, there is no possibility to select the Merge, Overlay, or Do not import options instead.
  • When a record is deleted in Alma, the headings associated with the record are still available when browsing bibliographic headings.
  • The Total electronic portfolios imported count in the MD import report does not take into account the portfolios imported in the first file that is imported when the import is split into several files.
  • The URL condition that was added as an advanced search option under Electronic Collection when searching for electronic titles is not functioning properly.
  • A user with the Physical Inventory Operator role can edit a holdings record using the View Inventory option in the MD Editor, although the user should not have this capability and cannot perform this action from the List of Holdings.
  • Receiving of multiple items using Scan In Item is currently not possible when shared barcodes are used.

Data Services

Next Release Sneak Preview

View a list of the features that are planned for the December 2016 Alma release.
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