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Ex Libris Knowledge Center

Alma June 2017 Release Notes

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This Alma release provides numerous new features and enhancements. Some of these enhancements are a result of Idea Exchange or NERS 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
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:

new UI button.png

  • 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

Digital Resource Management

Fulfillment

Resource Sharing

  • idea_exchange.png 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

Analytics

Administration and Infrastructure

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

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.
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