Alma January 2017 Release Notes
This Alma release provides numerous new features and enhancements. Some of these enhancements are a result of 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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| Browsing the Shelf Listing – Do you manage call numbers at the level of the items? The Browse Shelf Listing now includes item-level call numbers. |
| Merge Records and Combine Inventory in Resolve Import Issues – When importing records, do you come across cases in which there are multiple matches? With this new functionality, you will be able to resolve these cases in an efficient manner; Alma will automatically merge and combine inventory associated with the multiple matches. |
| New Deposit Functionality – With this new functionality, your institution can now consider leveraging Alma for its end user deposit workflows. This release will see an initial set of functionality for staff approval and mediated deposit on behalf of end users. Upcoming releases will expand this to include SWORD support as well as built-in end user deposit capabilities. |
| Alma Document Delivery for Resource Sharing Requests – Electronically sharing resource sharing items has never been easier. You can now use the new Alma document delivery platform to send digital content to resource sharing borrowers. This is in addition to the previously existing option to send the files as email attachments. |
| Identify Bibliographic Records that are Not Used in the Network Zone – Use this new functionality to find bibliographic records in the Network Zone that are not used by members, as a starting point for cleanup maintenance of the Network Zone. |
| When exporting reports in CSV format, the resulting file may contain up to 500,000 lines. If there are more than 500,000 lines in the original report, the last line of the exported report will state that the maximum limit has been reached. This increased export capability is useful for, among other purposes, synchronizing files and records with external sources such as the HathiTrust Digital Library. |
What's New
The following sections present the new and changed features in this release of Alma.
Acquisitions
- Enhanced Barcode Generation for Orders and Post-Receiving Processing – Enhanced barcode generation is now supported when creating PO lines and processing post-receiving work.
- Additional Acquisitions Enhancements
Resource Management
- Browsing the Shelf Listing – The new Browse Shelf Listing feature provides item-level call number browse capability from within the MD Editor.
- Merge Records and Combine Inventory in Resolve Import Issues – The Import Profile configuration options and the Resolving Import Issues options were enhanced to address handling multiple matching duplicate records as part of the import process.
- Support for the 689 Field – Support for the MARC 21 689 field in bibliographic records for German MARC cataloging is now available.
- CNMARC Authority Availability – The CNMARC authority profile in Alma is now available for use.
- Additional Resource Management Enhancements
Digital Resource Management
- New Deposit Functionality – A new Deposit functionality was added, allowing library staff to deposit digital material to Alma for inclusion in the digital repository.
Watch the New Deposit Functionality video
- Activating/Deactivating and Deleting Remote Digital Repositories – Remote digital repositories can now be deactivated so that they do not appear in the drop-down list when creating an import profile and adding a digital representation.
A NERS Enhancement: MMS ID Column Added to Digital Lists – The MMS ID column was added to several digital-related pages in Alma. - Additional Digital Resource Management Enhancements
Fulfillment
- Resend Printouts/Emails – It is now possible to resend selected printouts and emails. Watch the Resend Printouts/Emails video
- New Calendar Options in Lost and Overdue Loan Profiles – You can now configure the Days after Due Date field on the Overdue and Lost Loan Profiles to consider either the library's open days or the calendar days for the number of days counted by the job.
- Upload Files to a Citation – You can now upload or delete a file for a citation on the Edit Reading List Citation page.
- Changes to the Copyright Attributes Section for Citations and Staff Digitization Requests – A new field, Include Image(s), appears in the Copyright Attributes area on the Edit Reading List Citation page and when creating a staff digitization request on the Create Request page.
- Regional Licensing – You can configure a copyright region to change the available options for selecting a copyright source and the available options for a Creative Commons license.
- Creative Commons for Citations – You can select a Creative Commons license for a citation. The available options depend on the regional licensing (see above).
- Additional Digital Profile Rule Clauses for Citations – Additional digital profile rule clauses related to citations were added.
- Additional Fulfillment Enhancements
Resource Sharing
- Alma Document Delivery for Resource Sharing Requests – Resource sharing requests can now send an email with a link for digital document delivery.
Watch the Alma Document Delivery for Resource Sharing Requests video
- Control Creation of Move Request from a Lending Request – A new customer parameter controls whether a move request will automatically be created when the lending request is created.
- Additional Resource Sharing Enhancements
Collaborative Networks
- Identify Bibliographic Records that Are Not Used in the Network Zone – Alma provides a new process that identifies bibliographic records in the Network Zone that are not used by members.
Analytics
- Network ID Field Added to Bibliographic Details – The Network ID field was added to the shared Bibliographic Details dimension for use by institutions implementing a Network Zone.
- Title (Normalized) and ISSN (Normalized) Fields Added to Bibliographic Details – The Title (Normalized) and ISSN (Normalized) fields were added to the shared Bibliographic Details dimension.
- View It Clicks of Digital Representations in Link Resolver Usage – It is now possible to configure Alma Analytics to include View It clicks of digital representations when calculating link resolver usage.
- Additional Analytics Enhancements
Administration and Infrastructure
- Social Authentication Successful Connection Message – A direct link to Alma now displays when a staff member logs in successfully with their social network login.
- Social Authentication Activation Letter – A new letter can now be sent when a social authentication has been successfully established.
- Additional Administration and Infrastructure Enhancements
APIs
- The Sets APIs were enhanced and it is now possible to create a logical set. For detailed information on these APIs, see https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/alma/apis/conf.
- The Update Bibliographic Record API for an institution working with a Network Zone now supports updating local fields, and allows linking/unlinking the Institution Zone's and Network Zone's bibliographic records. For details, see https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/alma/apis/bibs.
- An API was created to enable retrieving bibliographic records in RDA/RDF XML format. For detailed information, see https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/alma/integrations/linked_data/rda-rdf.
- The Get Lending Requests Task List API now supports multiple barcodes. For details, see https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com...pis/taskslists.
- Retrieving jobs using the Jobs API now supports filtering scheduled jobs by their profile ID.
- MMS_ID was added to the output of several hold request, loan, and PO line APIs.
Known Issues
- Regarding the autocomplete/pop-up assistance being provided for several UNIMARC fields in the MD Editor, there is a known issue related to UNIMARC 327 $a and 327 $b. These subfields are based on the same functionality and as a result, the pop-up suggestions in the MD Editor suggests both subfields’ values when entering content in either the 327 $a or the 327 $b.
- The URL condition that was added as an advanced search option under Electronic Collection when searching for electronic titles is not functioning properly.
- When using the Calculate functionality (on the Physical Item Editor page) with both the Alternative and Temporary call numbers for the same prefix at the same time, an identical sequence is calculated and saved in both.
- It is currently possible to create two sequences with the same prefix for the same library and location (with a different sequence name). Two sequences with the same prefix should not be allowed. Numeric sequences (which have no prefix) that are configured with the Prefix+Sequence method should only be created once in every institution (either as an institution-level sequence, library-level sequence, or location-level sequence). This issue applies to both barcode sequences and accession number sequences.
- The Identify records that are not used in the Network job needs to be run from the Network Zone. Currently, this job is also available for member institutions. Access to this job for member institutions will be removed in a future release.
- When you want to create an import profile that handles merging records and combining inventory for mult-match records by selecting options from the Merge Records and Combine Inventory for Multi-Match section and you want to select the Manual option for the Handling Method in the Match Actions section, you must first select the Automatic option and either the Merge or Overlay option for the Upon match parameter in order to get the Merge Records and Combine Inventory for Multi-Match section to appear on the Import Profile Details page.
- In the Excel file generated from the Merge Records and Combine Inventory type of import, the content in the Identifier column is missing and the cell format for the content in the MMS ID column needs to be corrected.
Data Services
Next Release Sneak Preview
View a list of the features that are planned for the next Alma release.