Alma August 2017 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
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Secondary and Tertiary Reporting Codes – The ability to facet and analyze your acquisitions data was enhanced with the addition of two more reporting codes. This adds new reporting and analytics capabilities to PO lines, invoice lines, and fund transactions for your specific institutional needs.
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Additional Support for COUNTER Types – Alma’s COUNTER support continues to expand with an additional set of report types, providing your institution with more ways to evaluate electronic resource usage.
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Enhanced Delivery – Does your library have an important image collection? Do you have specialized digital material for which you are interested in integrating a viewer? Read more about Alma’s new enhanced delivery capabilities which will provide:
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Network Zone Information Available in Alma Analytics – This great new option will support members of a consortium using a Network Zone in creating combined and integrated reports of their e-resources—both those managed in the Institution Zone as well as those managed centrally in the Network Zone—all in a single query from the institution’s Analytics view.
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Retention Period for User Record Audit Trail – If your institution is required to abide by privacy laws and regulations, or if you would like to enhance your users’ privacy, this new tool will allow you to ensure that the changes to the users’ records are retained only for a limited time before they are irreversibly removed from the system.
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Configuring Outgoing Email – Ex Libris' Cloud team has been working to enhance the security and infrastructure for outgoing emails. A new option to send emails directly, using your institution’s email servers, is now available.
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What's New
The following sections present the new and changed features in this release of Alma.
Acquisitions
- Secondary and Tertiary Reporting Codes – There are now additional reporting codes to use for PO lines, fund transactions, and invoices.
- Additional Support for COUNTER Types – Alma now supports SUSHI upload for BR3, as well as manual upload for BR4, BR5, and MR1 report types.
Resource Management
Idea Exchange: Browsing a Full Authority Headings List – With the new Alt+F3 key combination, you have enhanced browsing for headings functionality when cataloging records, including improved navigation and an increased number of entries in the list.- New Normalization Tasks/Parameters and a 009 Field for Additional Generated Sequence Management – Normalization options were updated and the 009 field was added to the Metadata Configuration for MARC 21, KORMARC, UNIMARC, and CNMARC bibliographic records for additional generated sequence management.
- Moving ISBN/ISSN from 020/022 $e to 020/022 $a – For electronic bibliographic records stored in the Community Zone, the ISBN/ISSN identifier stored in the 020 or 022 $e is now stored in the 020 or 022 $a.
- Browse Call Number by Library and Location – The Browse Shelf Listing function (Resources > Cataloging > Browse Shelf Listing) was enhanced with filters for library and location.
- SBN Certification – Alma was certified for shared cataloging with the Italian National Library Service Network (Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale).
- 880 Target for Hanzi to Pinyin Normalization – When you use the Add Hanzi to Pinyin Transliterations normalization task, you can now select the new Add Alternate Graphic Representation to identify the 880 field as the target field.
- Skip Holdings with Suppression Status in General Publishing – You can now exclude suppressed records in the General publishing profile.
- Additional Resource Management Enhancements
Digital Resource Management
- Native IIIF Support – Alma now supports the IIIF standard and enables viewing digital images in Alma using the Universal Viewer.
- Support for Third-Party Digital Viewers – Alma now supports the use of third-party digital viewers, which enables customers to use their own viewers for viewing digital content managed in Alma.
- Additional Digital Resource Management Enhancements
Fulfillment
- Reading List Citation Resource Locate Status Enhancements – Additional resource locate statuses were added to the reading list citations.
- Additional Fulfillment Enhancements
Resource Sharing
Idea Exchange: Limiting Resource Sharing Requests – You can now limit the number of resource sharing requests that can be created during a given year, regardless of request status.- Idea Exchange: Associating Borrowing Requests with Funds – You can now link a borrowing request to a fund. This feature can be used to track resource sharing transactions.
- Additional Resource Sharing Enhancements
Collaborative Networks
- Linking Institution Zone Records to Network Zone Records Using a 035 Prefix – The serial and non-serial 035 (Other System Identifier) Match Method matching parameter options were expanded for the Link a set of records to the Network Zone job.
- Managing Item Description Rules When Working with a Network Zone – Item description rules can now be created and maintained in the Network Zone and distributed to member institutions.
Analytics
- Network Zone Information Available in Alma Analytics – You can now create reports in Alma Analytics from your institution, containing information on shared electronic resources from the Network Zone.
- CLA/DCS Link Field Added to Course Reserves – This field displays the link to the full-text content at the DCS for UK customers.
- Additional Analytics Enhancements
Administration and Infrastructure
- Retention Period for User Record Audit Trail – You may now set the length of time that user audit trail records will be retained.
- Primo Email Login – In addition to other social network login options for Primo, an end user can now sign in to Primo using an email link.
- RFID Security Status – When RFID is enabled, searching for physical items now displays the RFID Security Status when it is available.
- Additional Administration and Infrastructure Enhancements
APIs
- Create, update, and delete APIs are now available for all elements of electronic inventory. For details, see https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/alma/apis/electronic.
- An API is now available for deleting a bibliographic record. For details, see https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/alma/apis/bibs.
- The following inventory information was added to the Retrieve Items API: inventory_number, inventory_date, inventory_price
Content Operations
- Library of Congress Authorities Community Zone Updates
- New Electronic Collections Added to the Alma CKB
- No new external search resources were added for the August release.
Known Issues
The following known issues were identified for the August release:
- The Expand option for Alt+F3 incorrectly shows the sorted display text when using the authority heading rules.
- Regarding the 880 target for Hanzi to Pinyin normalization feature, if there is already a linked (880) field for one of the source fields and it is not a Pinyin field, it will be overridden.
- The new BibGenerateControlNumberFrom009 task cannot be used twice in the same process. As a workaround, a second identical task named BibGenerateControlNumberFrom009-2nd is available.
These issues will be fixed in later releases.
Next Release Sneak Preview
View a list of the features that are planned for the next Alma release.