Alma June 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
| Action Items |
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| Sorting Collection List By Date and Name – If you are using Primo’s collection discovery, this great new feature will allow you to arrange your collections in an order that optimizes end-user viewing and discovery of your collection. |
| Fines for Overdue and Lost Loan Profiles per Letter – If you are physically mailing printed out overdue letters, you may be looking for a way to charge handling fees for overdue loan letters. With this new feature, you can set the Overdue and Lost Loan Profiles to charge handling fees for generated letters, according to your fee-charging policies. |
| Fulfillment Network Requests – Are you enjoying pickup anywhere and return anywhere services based on a fulfillment network? If you have implemented this service, or have interest in implementing this service, you can now make use of an enhanced fulfillment network that is fully automated using the resource sharing rota. Your patrons can enjoy a seamless resource sharing requesting service, empowered with an option to request pickup and return resources at any member library in the fulfillment network. |
What's New
The following sections present the new and changed features in this release of Alma.
New Alma User Interface
The new Alma user interface is now available for testing by members of the UX focus group. As part of this project, note the following documentation and training additions/changes:
- Training videos for the new user interface are available at Introduction to the New Alma User Interface.
- Documentation is available for the new search mechanism, the new persistent UI elements, and the new configuration menu.
- Documentation is available for the new UI of each of the June features. The release notes link to the pages that describe the classic UI, but there is a button on the top of the page that allows you to open the documentation for the new UI:
- If you are in Alma’s classic UI and select Help > Help for This Page, you will be sent to the classic UI version of the help page. If you are a member of the UX focus group taking part in the early testing of Alma's new UI and select Help > Help for This Page, you will be sent to the new UI version of the help page (provided such a version has been produced). Note that for the June release only a small number of help pages are available for the new UI. In the upcoming months, the number of help pages available for the new UI will grow significantly.
Acquisitions
- Fiscal Period Rollover for Standard Sandboxes – Note that all default standard sandbox environment fiscal periods end on July 1st. Ex Libris recommends that your institution roll over the fiscal year on your standard sandbox to enable your institution to continue working with and testing acquisition workflows. (This is relevant only for standard sandboxes and not premium sandboxes.)
- UStat Account Deactivation – Institutions that are currently live with Alma and can now import COUNTER data directly to Alma and use all COUNTER features will have their UStat accounts deactivated in September 2017. Institutions that are not yet live with Alma will have their UStat accounts deactivated three months after they go live with Alma.
- Acquisitions Enhancements – Several enhancements were made to the Acquisitions functional area for the June release.
Resource Management
- Call Number (Classification) Data Published to Primo – Data published to Primo can now be enriched with call number (classification) data.
- Linked 880 Fields in Bibliographic Records – New capabilities were added for editing, importing, and publishing 880 linked fields in bibliographic records.
- TSVCC Browse Bibliographic Headings – Expanding on the May 2017 TSVCC announcement, Alma now supports the TSVCC (Traditional, Simplified, and Variant Chinese Characters) standard when browsing bibliographic headings.
- General Publishing Physical Inventory Enrichment Parameters Expanded – The holdings and item enrichment parameters in the General Publishing profile were expanded to enable publishing a variety of date information for these types of records and the ID for the holdings record linked to items.
- Additional Authority Headings for GND Uniform Title Authority Records – In addition to creating the standard authority headings from 1XX and 4XX fields in uniform title GND authority records, now additional authority headings are created that begin with $t.
- Extended Visibility of Call Numbers in Resource Management – Visibility of call numbers is now available for holdings-level and item-level parameters in several areas of Resource Management.
- Browse Bibliographic Headings Indexes – The indexes for the Names headings type (Personal Name, Corporate Name, and Meeting Name source codes) and the Title headings type in Browse Bibliographic Headings are being updated.
- Authority Control Task List – Several enhancements were made to the Authority Control Task List that include working with selections across multiple pages, additional Find options, and working with AUT record deleted - Unlinked BIB heading from the Review tab. Plus, new configuration options are available.
- GND Report Types in the Authority Control Task List – Two new GND report types, GND – AUT record partial redirection and GND – AUT record to be deleted, were added to the Authority Control Task List.
- Additional Resource Management Enhancements
Digital Resource Management
- Sorting Collection List By Date and Name – You can now sort the list of collections or sub-collections by Creation Date or Collection Name.
- Additional Digital Resource Management Enhancements
Fulfillment
- New Options for Fines/Fees Notification Profiles – The fines/fees notification profile now has options to suppress a message being sent to a patron if the patron has an active loan or if the patron is expired.
- Fines for Overdue and Lost Loan Profiles per Letter – The fee generated from Overdue and Lost Loan Profiles may now be generated per letter rather than per loan. This allows institutions to charge a fee for sending the warning letters.
- Sort Pick from Shelf List – The Pick from Shelf task list can now be sorted by location name and call number.
- Additional Fulfillment Enhancements
Resource Sharing
Idea Exchange: Assigning Borrowing Requests – Borrowing requests can now be assigned to operators similar to the assignment done for Resource Sharing Lending Requests.
Collaborative Networks
- Fulfillment Network Requests – Fulfillment network requests can now be automated using the resource sharing rota. Watch the Automated Fulfillment Network video.
- Additional Collaborative Network Enhancements
Analytics
- New User Details Dimension Fields – New fields were added to the User Details dimension of the Users subject area to provide additional information concerning linked user accounts.
Idea Exchange: New Bibliographic Details Dimension Fields – New fields were added to the Bibliographic Details shared dimension in all subject areas in which it appears.- Additional Analytics Enhancements
Administration and Infrastructure
- Idea Exchange: Record History for User Record Changes – Changes made to the user record are now recorded in the Audit tab of the User Details page. Watch the History of User Record Changes video.
- Additional Administration and Infrastructure Enhancements
APIs
- The max_expected_arrival_date and min_expected_arrival_date were added as filters to the Retrieve PO Lines API.
- The Set Members API's id_type parameter was enhanced to enable the creation of sets using an ID other than MMS IDs, including ISSN, ISBN, and 035.
- There are new APIs for creating, updating, and deleting electronic collections and services. For details, see https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/alma/apis/bibs.
- Webhook support was added for user creation, deletion, and update.
- The Add and Update Collection API now contains the order parameter in the payload. If the order is not provided, a default of 0 will be used.
Content Operations
- 860475 new RVK ;records were imported into the Alma Community Zone. These records are based on full MARC XML provided by Regensburg Association Classification Online.
- Library of Congress Authorities Community Zone Updates
- New Electronic Collections Added to the Alma CKB
- No new external search resources were added for the June release.
Known Issues
There are no known issues for the June release.
Next Release Sneak Preview
View a list of the features that are planned for the next Alma release.