Alma May 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.

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
Set Creation with New File Upload Options – If you are working with itemized sets, note that you can now use standard identifiers to look up items and add them to a set.
Separate Requestability/Availability Check on a Locate Profile – The resource sharing rota can now be made even more accurate than before. With this new feature, you can set the rota to include lenders that have requestable items even if the items are not currently available.
Email Attachment Retention/Purge – This new feature enhances patron privacy in the system by allowing you to set the retention period for patron notifications, after which stored notifications are automatically purged from the system.
New Patron Deposit Interface – In addition to Alma’s SWORD API support, Alma now includes built-in, easy-to-use end user deposit workflows. Your institution’s deposit needs can now be met with minimal configuration and you can link to the deposit from your library and faculty web sites.
Display Copyrights by Default – This new option for access rights enables you to view the copyright statement before viewing the resource, supporting improved copyright compliance.

What's New

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

Acquisitions

COUNTER Enabled for All Customers – All Alma institutions can now import COUNTER data directly to Alma and use all COUNTER features (as of the May production release).
Additional Acquisitions Enhancements

Resource Management

Idea Exchange: Set Creation with New File Upload Options – New identifier types such as ISBN, OCLC ID, and others are now supported when creating itemized sets using a file.
Watch the Create Itemized Sets by Uploading List of Identifiers video.
NERS Enhancement (Request ID 4683): Publishing Bound-With Records to OCLC – Publishing to OCLC was improved for handling related records.
NERS Enhancement (Request ID 4683): Publishing Bound-With Records to Libraries Australia – Publishing to Libraries Australia was improved for handling related records.
Automatic Authority Record ID Update in Bibliographic Records – For institutions configured for ID-based authority control with a direct ID prefix implementation in their metadata configuration, Alma now updates the bibliographic records with the new authority record ID (replacing the old ID) when a new authority record replaces an existing authority record.
Improvements for Externally Managed Authority Records – For institutions managing authority records that are contributed to externally managed systems such as GND and BARE, MD Editor improvements provide cataloger level assignments upon Save and contribution and check for the current record version.
TSVCC (Traditional, Simplified, and Variant Chinese Characters) – The Hong Kong Innovative Users Group (HKIUG) TSVCC (Traditional, Simplified, and Variant Chinese Characters) standard Version 1.0. released on 18 July 2006 was implemented.
RVK Indexes/Restructure – The most current RVK classification records (RVK March 2016 release) are being loaded into Alma's Community Zone beginning with the May 2017 production release.
NERS Enhancement (Request ID 4615): MMS IDs Added to Lists and Excel Files – MMS IDs were added to Excel files that are generated from repository search results, the physical items list of items, and the Community Zone Updates Task List.
Multiple Access Points for CNMARC 6XX Fields – Alma now supports a single CNMARC 6XX field to be split into several segments, where each segment is an access point for F3 and authority control.
240 Field and Uniform Title Bibliographic Headings – Uniform title bibliographic headings support was enhanced to include support for the MARC 21 240 field.
GND Uniform Title Authority Headings Include 5XX – Suggested uniform title headings may now utilize data provided by the 5XX fields.
Additional Resource Management Enhancements

Digital Resource Management

New Patron Deposit Interface – Library patrons can now use a built-in, standalone interface to submit digital files for deposit to Alma.
Idea Exchange: Display Copyrights by Default – You can now configure the Alma Viewer to display the copyrights page of a digital image by default before the image is displayed.
Watch the Display Copyrights by Default video.
Additional Digital Resource Management Enhancements

Fulfillment

Manage All Citations on a Single Page – You can now manage all citations on a single page.
End User, Item Level Requesting – Institutions can now configure Primo to generate all end user requests as item level requests in the Primo Get It tab.
Item Policy and Barcode in the Z39.50 OPAC Syntax – Barcode is now reported in ItemId. For items that have an item policy, this policy is now reported in the availableThru element.
Additional Fulfillment Enhancements

Resource Sharing

Separate Requestability/Availability Check on a Locate Profile – You can now manage the requestability and availability separately to determine the success of a locate process.
Additional Resource Sharing Enhancements

Analytics

New Digital Usage Subject Area – There is a new subject area that supports analyzing digital usage of the Alma viewer, separate from the Link Resolver Usage subject area.
Enhancements to the Licenses, E-Inventory, and Fund Expenditure Subject Areas – The Licenses, E-Inventory, and Fund Expenditure subject areas were enhanced to allow the creation of joint reports using fields from the Licenses and E-Inventory subject areas, and the Licenses and Fund Expenditure subject areas.
Digital Usage Fields Added to the Link Resolver Usage Subject Area – Several fields were added to the Open URL Context Measures dimension of the Link Resolver Usage subject area to support the reporting of digital usage.
Support Added for Additional Types of COUNTER Reports – Several fields were added to the Usage Data Details dimension of the Usage Data subject area to support additional types of COUNTER reports.
Material Type Indicator Filter Added to the Usage via COUNTER Report Dashboard – The Material Type Indicator filter was added to the Trends by Month tab of the Usage via COUNTER Report dashboard. You can use this new feature to filter the report results by material type.
Additional Analytics Enhancements

Administration and Infrastructure

Idea Exchange: Email Attachment Retention/Purge – You can now define the retention of letter attachments for each letter individually.
Additional Administration and Infrastructure Enhancements

APIs

There are new APIs for retrieving both electronic portfolios and electronic services. For details, see https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/alma/apis/electronic.
The collection ID, portfolio ID, and portfolio availability fields were added to the AVE section of the Retrieve Bib API and SRU responses.
There are new APIs for creating, updating, and deleting collections (of bibliographic records). For details, see https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/alma/apis/bibs.
Idea Exchange: The Retrieve Library API now returns the following additional three fields: campus, proxy, default location
Running the General publishing profile using the Jobs API is now supported.
The institution code was added to the Webhooks XSD.