Library Level Management of Funds/Ledgers – With the February release of Alma, it will be possible to start managing new ledgers and funds at the library level, allowing organizations to divide ledger/fund management and authorization among specific libraries.
Resource Management
Controlled Vocabulary for Statistics Notes in the Item Record – An optional controlled vocabulary drop-down list will be enabled for the Statistics Notes fields in the Physical Item Editor's Notes tab.
Idea Exchange: Support Batch Deletion of Empty Holdings Records – The February release will see new support for deleting holdings records with no items, as part of a new batch job.
Assign a Title to a Collection from the MD Editor – There will be a new action in the MD Editor enabling you to add a title to a collection. This functionality will also enable you to see, from a bibliographic record, the collection to which it belongs.
Unify All Set Management Menu Entries – Instead of being accessible from different Alma functional areas (Resource Management, Acquisitions, and Users) as it is today, Set Management will now be accessible from one link under Administration. The types of sets to be viewed/managed will depend on the role of the staff user.
Digital Resource Management
New Deposit Functionality – With the January release, new Deposit functionality was added, allowing library staff to submit content to Alma to be added to the repository on behalf of patrons. With the February release, this functionality will be enhanced with the ability to deposit using the SWORD API.
Resource Sharing
BLDSS Level of Service – It will be possible to configure a mapping table to map the values of the LevelOfService code table to BLDSS values.
Notify Broker about a Recall Request – Alma will be able to notify a broker (lender side) that an item is requested for recall.
A NERS Enhancement: Enhance Lists with the MMS ID – Resource sharing lists will be enhanced with the MMS ID, which can be exported.
Collaborative Networks
Unlink Records From the Network Zone – There will be a new batch job for unlinking a set of bibliographic records from the Network Zone.
Using 77x/78x Fields as Local Extensions – There are fields that are used for creating relations, based on specific member information. With the February release, it will be possible to define these fields as local fields without having to manage them in the Network Zone shared catalog.
Analytics
New Title Level Subject Area – A new Title Level subject area will form part of Alma Analytics. It will include typical bibliographic-level facets, such as LC and Dewey, as well as audit details (created by, updated by) with user dimensions and an indication of whether there is linked physical, electronic, or digital inventory. This new subject area will support new options for performing cross-format overlap analysis.
New Benchmark Analytics Subject Area – A new subject area for Benchmark Analytics will be deployed for system-generated KPIs on an institutional level, for eventual comparison with other institutions.
Administration
Social Login via Twitter – Staff will be able to use their Twitter account to log in to their Alma account..
To simplify and streamline the management of various types of sets in Alma, the Manage Sets page will be available from the Administration > Manage Jobs and Sets menu and will be removed from the Acquisitions, Resource Management, and User Management menus. Sets will be visible on this page according to user role.
APIs
Call Out Channel - Webhook for Notifications – Initially, there will be support for a few specific letters that will be listed in the Letter Activity mapping table. This will allow libraries to build applications that respond to the call out—for example, to place a warning for the patron on the library portal—or for sending an instant message in real time.
API for Retrieving Electronic Collections – An API to retrieve electronic collections will be available.