Alma December 2017 Release Notes
This Alma release provides numerous new features and enhancements. Some of these enhancements are a result of Idea Exchange 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 |
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| Option to Send/Not Send Vendor Letters for PO Lines – Do you sometimes want to send an order letter to the vendor, but in other situations find it unnecessary to do so? Until now, you have been able to accomplish this only through workarounds such as making the PO line purchase method Gift, Technical, or Purchase at Vendor System. Now, with any purchase method, you can choose whether or not you want the PO line sent to the vendor. |
| Distribute General Electronic Services from the Network Zone – Institutions that share a Network Zone can now further consolidate the general electronic services they provide and simplify their configuration by centrally managing these electronic services. General electronic services can be configured in the Network Zone and then automatically distributed to member institutions. |
| New Analytics Usage Tracking Subject Area – Curious about how Analytics is being used in your institution? This new subject area allows you to create various reports about the usage of Alma Analytics, using a wide range of parameters. Be sure to check out the ready-to-use dashboard at: /shared/Alma/Analytics Usage Tracking/Dashboards |
What's New
The following sections present the new and changed features in this release of Alma.
New Alma User Interface
More than 80% of Alma users worldwide are now using Alma’s new interface. If you haven't yet started using the new interface, now is the time to try it out. You can turn it on gradually for specific staff users, or decide to turn it on for your entire institution (Click here for more information about enabling the new UI).
Note that as of the January 2018 release, the new UI will be set as the default for all institutions that haven't yet switched to the new UI. This will be the default for all users, including users who had set the default to the classic UI. Users can switch back to the classic UI if required. The option to switch between the classic and new UI will be available until the February release. At this time, the opt-out option will be removed and the only option will be the new Alma UI.
Acquisitions
- Option to Send/Not Send Vendor Letters for PO Lines – You can determine whether to send a letter to the vendor for each PO line that you define.
Idea Exchange: Remove Historical License References – A resource may be removed from the license history in the license's Inventory tab.- Adding a License to a PO Line with No Inventory – You can add a license to an electronic PO line without inventory.
- Add Group Settings to a License – A group setting may be associated with a license for environments with multiple campuses or libraries.
Resource Management
- Additional Staff Search Fields – The Additional Network Zone Staff Search Fields configuration option announced in September was renamed Additional Staff Search Fields and is now available for all Alma institutions.
- Vocabulary Option for Other Classification Number in Browse Bibliographic Headings – When you select the Call Number/Classifications heading type and Other Classification Number for source code in Browse Bibliographic Headings, a new vocabulary option is available.
- 651 Authority Record Linking and Suggestions – For bibliographic records containing the 651 field with a second indicator of 0, the system now checks LCNAMES in addition to LCSH.
- New Authority Search Indexes – New authority search indexes are being added for MARC 21, CNMARC, and UNIMARC.
- Latin Displayed for Multiscript UNIMARC Records – For UNIMARC bibliographic records that contain multiple scripts and have $7 ba in certain fields, Alma displays only the Latin script version wherever records appear, such as in search results.
- List of Holdings Enhanced – Several columns on the List of Holdings page are now sortable and new filters were added to the page.
- Additional Resource Management Enhancements.
Digital Resource Management
- Available Libraries Restricted According to Permissions – The libraries available from the Library drop-down list when adding representations and top-level collections are now limited according to the user's permissions.
- Add Representations from Repository Search and MD Editor – You can add representations to bibliographic records directly from the repository search and the MD Editor.
- Additional Digital Resource Management Enhancements
Fulfillment
- Notification Fees for Fines and Fees Notification Profile – You may configure the Fines and Fees Notification Profile to charge a handling fee to patrons for sending the notification letter.
- Reading List Search and Sets – You can search for reading lists and create reading list sets.
- Additional Fulfillment Enhancements
Resource Sharing
- Deactivating Resource Sharing Libraries – A resource sharing library may be set as temporarily inactive for borrowing or lending requests.
- Additional Resource Sharing Enhancements
Collaborative Networks
- Idea Exchange: Distribute General Electronic Services from the Network Zone – General electronic services may be created by the Network Zone and distributed automatically to the member institutions.
- License Negotiation When Content Differs Between Members – Within an acquisition network, the Network Zone may record and manage different content for each member institution when the license type is Negotiation.
- Additional Collaborative Networks Enhancements
Analytics
- New Analytics Usage Tracking Subject Area – The Analytics Usage Tracking subject area allows you to create reports concerning the usage of Alma Analytics.
- Additional Analytics Enhancements
Mobile
- Idea Exchange: Restore Scan In Items – Alma Mobile now provides a Restore option with Scan In for managing your inventory.
Administration and Infrastructure
- Administration and Infrastructure Enhancements – Several administration and infrastructure enhancements were made for the December release.
APIs
- The suppress_from_publishing field is now available for holdings records, in addition to bibliographic records.
- The Analytics API can retrieve directories as well as reports, both in the default Alma directory and in the institutional folder. You can thus retrieve both the name and path of a report, eliminating the need to open a report in the Alma Analytics interface to ascertain the full path in the report properties.
- It is possible to use a POST call to create a new set based on a Boolean operator between two sets (logical/itemized). The output is always an itemized set.
- BIBFRAME is now available through the API.
Alma-Summon Integration
The following improvements were made to Alma-Summon patron-facing pages:
- The Virtual Browse service is now supported on the Services page and allows patrons to virtually browse the library shelf and find additional related records based on the holdings call number of the record.
- End users are now able to use the self-registration capabilities of the various social login methods to self-register and access the Services page. For more information, see Social Login.
- You can now upload a clickable logo without having to edit and upload the entire customization package. To support this functionality, the Upload Logo section was added to the Manage Customization Package tab on the View Configuration page (Discovery > Display Configuration > Configure Views).
Content Operations
- Library of Congress Authorities Community Zone Updates
- New Electronic Collections Added to the Alma CKB
- No new external search resources were added.
We received notification of changes that are being made by the German National Library (DNB) to the GND authority format. Since the changes that were made to the GND authorities include major structure and content updates, these cannot be implemented in a gradual manner. Rather, they require a full update of all the authorities. The changes must be therefore be handled in Alma as soon as the DNB incorporates them.
We concluded as a result of analysis that the most efficient way to adopt these changes in Alma is to reload the entire set of GND authority records (in coordination with the DNB) as soon as these changes are ready. Our plan is to handle this load in November/December. The reloading and indexing will begin on the 26th of November and is expected to take two weeks. During this time, the GND authority records and related functionality may not be fully available in Alma for use by your institution.
In addition, during this two-week period no users will be able to add new contributions or update existing electronic collections in the Community Zone. There may also be a delay in updating NLI and BARE authority records from external authority files.
We will update once the GND reload process is completed and contributions to the Community Zone can resume.
Known Issues
Current known issues related to the new Alma UI can be found here.
Next Release Sneak Preview
View a list of the features that are planned for the January 2018 release.