Alma December 2016 Release Notes
The Alma December release provides numerous new features and enhancements. Some of these enhancements are a result of Idea Exchange 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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| Upload Electronic Holdings from Ovid – Save time by replacing the manual workflow with this new Alma feature, which enables you to automatically update Ovid electronic holdings by retrieving the institution-specific Ovid electronic holdings and updating the Ovid collection content accordingly. |
| BLDSS Implementation – If you borrow from the British Library and rely on the Alma-generated ARTEmails, you can finally switch to using the newly supported British Library Document Supply Service (BLDSS) APIs and automate your resource sharing workflow with the British Library. |
| Digitization Request Fees – If you charge service fees for supplying some or all of your patrons with a digitization service, you can easily manage and report on these costs using Alma’s new flexible fee options for digitization requests, allowing you to implement your policies using Alma’s Terms of Use. |
| Managing Display Logic Rules When Working with a Network Zone – Institutions implementing a Network Zone that want to centrally manage display logic configurations can now do so by configuring their logic rules in the Network Zone. This new ability complements previously existing options for centrally managing resource sharing, fulfillment, and other system configurations. |
| Restore Updated or Deleted Records – This great new feature allows you to revert changes or accidental deletions that may have occurred as part of running certain batch update or withdrawal jobs. |
What's New?
The following sections present the new and changed features in this release of Alma.
Acquisitions
- Auto-Claim for Continuous PO Lines – Claims can now be sent automatically by email for continuous PO lines. This is in addition to sending claims automatically by EDI, which is already supported.
- Managing COUNTER Reports in Alma – Ex Libris is implementing the ability to manage COUNTER reports in Alma (rather than from UStat), both for manual upload and SUSHI harvesting. Several early tester institutions are using this functionality. General availability for this feature is planned for March 2017.
- Additional Acquisitions Enhancements
Resource Management
Idea Exchange: Moving an Item Record from One Bibliographic Record to Another Bibliographic Record – You can now move one or more items from one bibliographic record to another bibliographic record, including items associated with requests, work orders, PO lines, and so forth.- Enhanced Barcode Generation – The barcode generation feature was enhanced to provide a library-level barcode counter, in addition to the existing institution-level barcode counter and the ability to create multiple barcode counter sequences.
- Upload Electronic Holdings from Ovid – A new Upload Electronic Holdings integration profile is provided for updating Ovid electronic collection institutional holdings automatically. Watch the Upload Electronic Holdings from Ovid video
- Directional Control Characters – You can now insert and view directional control characters when cataloging in the MD Editor.
- Hanzi to Pinyin Normalization – A normalization process was added for Hanzi to Pinyin transliterations.
- Generate Alternative and Temporary Item-Level Call Numbers – When editing items on the Physical Item Editor page, the new Generate button can be used to create alternative and/or temporary item-level call numbers from sequences defined in the Accession Number configuration. Watch the Generate Alternative and Temporary Item-Level Call Numbers video
- Calculate Alternative and Temporary Item-Level Call Numbers (Developed for use in German-speaking regions) – When editing items on the Physical Item Editor page, the new Calculate button can be used to create alternative and/or temporary item-level call numbers based on existing call number prefixes and sequences in the Alma repository.
- Semi-Annual Re-indexing – Several new enhancements are becoming available as a result of the re-indexing process starting at the beginning of December.
- Additional Resource Management Enhancements
Digital Resource Management
- Enhancements to Dublin Core Publishing – Several enhancements were added to allow for better publishing of Dublin Core records.
- Display Representations Based on Public Note – You can now configure Alma to hide a representation, depending on the value of the Public Note field of the representation.
- Enhanced Support for Automatic Generation of Thumbnails – Additional formats are supported for the automatic generation of thumbnails and a new Thumbnail Generation job has been added.
- Additional Digital Resource Management Enhancements
Fulfillment
- Enhancements to Block When Overdue Policy – Overdue loan blocks may now be calculated based on the number of overdue days accumulated across multiple loans.
- Idea Exchange: Call Number Added to Fulfillment Pages and Letters – Call Number, Accession Number, and Alternative Call Number now optionally appear on Fulfillment pages and letters. Watch the Call Number Added to Fulfillment Pages and Letters video
- Digitization Request Fees – Digitization fees can now be charged per digitization and/or per page. Watch the Digitization Request Fees video
- Additional Fulfillment Enhancements
Resource Sharing
- Enhanced Overdue Messages – Overdue messages for borrowing requests can now be presented to the borrowing institution at a set interval of days. In addition, SLNP partners that do not have an overdue message can be configured with an email address for sending overdue notifications in addition to the resending interval.
- BLDSS Implementation – The British Library Document Supply Service APIs can now be used for seamless integration between your library and the British Library for resource sharing.
- Enhancing Message to Email Partners – Alma is now able to generate notifications to email resource sharing partners for each request status change. Watch the Enhancing Message to Email Partners video
- Additional Resource Sharing Enhancements
Collaborative Networks
- Managing Shared Digital Resources When Working with a Network Zone – Digital inventory created in a Network Zone can now be exposed to member institutions.
- Managing Display Logic Rules When Working with a Network Zone – It is now possible for the Network Zone to distribute additions, deletions, and updates of display logic rules to all member institutions, or to a specific member institution only.
Analytics
- Enhancements to Course Reserves Subject Area – Enhancements were made to the Course Reserves subject area to allow for the creation of more comprehensive course reserve reports.
- Institutional Analytics Profile – As part of preparing Alma for comparative, cross-institution benchmark Analytics, you can configure an institutional Analytics profile to be used in this upcoming enhancement.
- Additional Analytics Enhancements
Mobile
- Alma Mobile – Using mobile smartphones and tablets, Alma Mobile enables you to access Alma anywhere.
Administration and Infrastructure
- Restore Updated or Deleted Records – You can restore certain types of records that were removed or changed by jobs.
- Additional Administration and Infrastructure Enhancements
APIs
- Idea Exchange: The Sets APIs were enhanced and it is now possible to create an itemized set, and then add, delete, or replace members of the set. It is also possible to create and populate a set of records according to lists that are the output of an MD import job that was run. To assist with this, the API GET /jobs/{job id}/instances/{instance_job_id} now returns links with the relevant details for creating these sets (see https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com...using-Alma-API). For detailed information on these APIs, see https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/alma/apis/conf.
- The response for retrieving a job instance by ID using the Jobs API now includes the related job information.
- The Retrieve Resource Sharing Request API now supports retrieval by external identifier.
- Purge user records and itemize a set were added to the Jobs API GET methods under type=OTHER. Note, however, that it is not possible to run these jobs using the API.
Known Issues
- When importing an EOD file using the New Order profile, if the location of the item does not have a call number type, the call number type of the institution should be used as the alternative call number type. Currently, however, no alternative call number is used.
- Related to merging bibliographic records in the MD Editor, if there are no requests, the Merge Records and Combine Inventory pop-up window does not display a count of 0 (zero) requests. The count appears for requests only when it is greater than 0 (zero). The count should also appear as 0 (zero) requests when there are no requests.
- 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.
- Fixed position fields (control fields) cannot be modified using the extension loader (extension packs) at this time.
- When creating an OCLC Connexion import profile in a Network Zone member institution with the Use NZ option selected, the Use NZ record option is used upon finding a match. Currently, there is no possibility to select the Merge, Overlay, or Do not import options instead.
- When a record is deleted in Alma, the headings associated with the record are still available when browsing bibliographic headings.
- The Total electronic portfolios imported count in the MD import report does not take into account the portfolios imported in the first file that is imported when the import is split into several files.
- The URL condition that was added as an advanced search option under Electronic Collection when searching for electronic titles is not functioning properly.
- A user with the Physical Inventory Operator role can edit a holdings record using the View Inventory option in the MD Editor, although the user should not have this capability and cannot perform this action from the List of Holdings.
- Receiving of multiple items using Scan In Item is currently not possible when shared barcodes are used.
- 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.
- For the Upload Electronic Holdings job for the Ovid integration profile (see Creating the Ovid Integration Profile), one of the portfolios won't be activated as expected when the vendor supplies a file with two entries that stand for two different portfolios with different coverages of the same bibliographic record but each entry refers to a different ISBN.
Data Services
- Library of Congress Authorities Community Zone Updates
- New Electronic Collections Added to the Alma CKB
- No new external resources were added to Alma for the December release.
Next Release Sneak Preview
View a list of the features that are planned for the January 2017 Alma release.