May 2016 Release Notes
The Alma May release provides numerous new features and enhancements. Some of these enhancements are a result of the NERS or 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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 Idea Exchange: Customizing the Request Forms for Primo - Request forms that are tailored for your end users’ needs and exactly match the service options you suggest to your end users are definitely something that you will want to easily implement. The new Primo request form customization options allow you to do just that. |
| Requesting Copyright Agreement for Digitization Requests - If your library, like so many other libraries, is required to make sure your patrons are aware of copyright restrictions when placing requests, you can now turn on the option to mandate a copyright declaration signature on the digitization request forms. |
| Group Items or Loans by Library in User Notifications - Notifications are now made clearer for patrons, with library separations implemented in the default notification templates. If you’ve customized your notifications, you can use the Alma default as an example for modifying your templates accordingly in order to achieve this goal. |
| Integration with UK Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) - If you are using the UK Copyright Licensing Agency’s Higher Education license, you can now verify your reading list citations' compliance with the license terms in an integrated manner, by turning on this new integration option. |
What's New?
The following sections present the new and changed features in this release of Alma.
Acquisitions
- PO Line Dates and Related Invoice Lines Displayed When Adding an Invoice Line - When viewing or adding invoice lines, you can now see the To and From dates of the attached continuous PO line and up to five other invoice lines attached to the PO line. This information is helpful for seeing if you already received an invoice for the latest coverage period.
Resource Management
- Electronic Collection Bibliographic Records and URLs Added to the Community Zone - Electronic collection level descriptive records (bibliographic records) describing the collections and electronic collection level URLs are being added to the Community Zone. As part of this development, URL override options are available for activated electronic collections.
- Duplicate Title Analysis - You can now generate a report that identifies duplicate bibliographic records in your catalog. Watch the Duplicate Title Analysis video
- Authority Control Task List Enhancements - The Authority Control Task List now includes the capability to edit records from the list, and you can use the Expand feature in the MD Editor to display additional authority headings details.
- Additional Resource Management Enhancements
Digital Resource Management
- New Global Changes Job for Digital Representations - A New Update Information job is now available to implement global changes to the representations in a set of digital titles.
- Enhanced Support for SRU/SRW Protocol - Additional schemas (for example, Dublin Core) are now supported for the SRU/SRW protocol.
- Streamlined Digitization Workflow - There is now a single workflow when processing a digitization request, regardless of whether the representation is remote.
- Additional Digital Resource Management Enhancements
Fulfillment
- Idea Exchange: Customizing the Request Forms for Primo - Non-mandatory fields may now be hidden from the patron's view for hold, booking, and digitization request forms in Primo.
- Group Items or Loans by Library in User Notifications - The Borrowing Activity report, overdue/lost items notification, loan receipts, and return receipts have been restructured to group notices by library.
- Idea Exchange: Keyboard Shortcuts for Patron Services - Returns, Pick from Shelf, Manage Patron Services, and Scan In Items may now be invoked from keyboard shortcuts.
- Requesting Copyright Agreement for Digitization Requests - It is now possible to require a patron to indicate that he or she has read a copyright agreement before submitting a Primo digitization request form.
- Copyright Approval Enhancements - There are additional fields for managing copyright clearance and enhancements to the Approval Requests List.
- Integration with UK Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) - Alma can now retrieve real-time copyright licensing information for UK customers.
- Viewing Electronic Resources for a Citation - You can now see more information about linked electronic resources on the Edit Reading List page.
- Additional Fulfillment Enhancements
Resource Sharing
- Lookup Agency for NCIP Partners - Alma now supports the option to call the NCIP Lookup Agency function while configuring the partner. This is applicable only for NCIP peer-to-peer partners.
- Create a Resource Sharing Request from Search - It is now possible to place a resource sharing request from the repository search result, allowing creation of requests without accessing the task lists. Watch the Create Resource Sharing Request from Search video
- Additional Resource Sharing Enhancements
Collaborative Networks
- Held By Indication for Electronic Collections - Title searches in the Network Zone will now include the Held By indication for electronic collections available to members.
- Distinguishing Between Network Level Local Authority Records and Institution Level Local Authority Records - Improvements have been made in the MD Editor to distinguish between local authority records at the Institution and Network levels.
- Browsing Bibliographic Headings in the Network - Member institutions in a collaborative network environment can now browse the headings of the shared catalog managed in the Network Zone .
- Enhancements to the Aleph Central Catalog Integration - Enhancements have been made to the integration of Alma institutions with the Aleph Central Catalog—for example, the ability to indicate the merge routine to be used by Aleph when merging changes from a member institution into the Central Catalog.
Analytics
- Source Type Added to Link Resolver Usage - The Source Type field has been added to the OpenURL Context Details dimension of the Link Resolver Usage subject area.
Due to an upgrade of the OBIEE used by Alma Analytics, the export option for reports from Alma Analytics to Excel 2003 will no longer be supported in a future release. Only export to an xslx format will be supported and not export to an xls format.
Alma Infrastructure
- You can generate a tracking ID that assists Ex Libris in debugging, by clicking the new Generate Tracking ID link from the Persistent Menu (Help > Generate Tracking ID). Use this option when an error occurs and the standard error message with a tracking ID does not appear automatically. Generate the ID as soon as possible after the error occurs. This ID enables Ex Libris to provide better initial analysis of the issues that you are encountering and helps identify inconsistent problems. Provide this ID in any Salesforce issue that you open. The following is an example of a tracking ID:
Generate Tracking IDWatch the Tracking ID Generator video - In certain cases, an institution may have multiple SSO systems using the SAML protocol. In such cases, you can now configure multiple active SAML profiles in one institution. The Alma URL must contain the /SAML/idpCode/[profile code] suffix for Alma to use the correct SAML integration profile. To configure this feature, change the enable_multiple_active_saml_idp parameter (Administration > General Configuration > Configuration Menu > General Configuration > Other Settings) to true. For more information, see SAML-Based Single Sign-On/Sign-Off.
Alma APIs
- Idea Exchange: A new API was created to retrieve a job's status as well as the job's report, including detailed information such as successful records and failed records:
GET /jobs/
GET /jobs/\{job id}
GET /jobs/\{job id}/runs
GET /jobs/\{job id}/runs/\{run_id} - The Expand parameter was added to the Get User Loans API. For details, see https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/alma/apis/users.
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 they occur.
- 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 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.
- When creating an Analytics report using the Cost per Use field, the year used is taken from the date of the invoice transaction instead of the fiscal year of the fund used in the transaction.
Data Services
- More than 3800 Alma Community Zone records are now enriched with MARC records from OECD iLibrary.
- Library of Congress Authorities Community Zone Updates
- New Electronic Collections Added to the Alma CKB
- No new external search resources for added for this release.