Alma's repository search is upgraded with new UI concepts, resulting in faster, simpler searches and streamlined workflows, saving time and boosting productivity - starting with the title searches. The new search offers more actions that can be performed directly from the search and enhanced navigation options, bringing your workflows into the search page and enabling you to perform them while in the original search context. Introducing a new approach to loading the search results, the new search offers improved search performance and a gradual loading, showing information as soon as it is available and adding more details as they become ready and enabling users to start working faster.

To turn on the new title searches, click on your user icon () in Alma's persistent bar, select Feature Rollout Preferences, and activate the New Title Search toggle. For information on the coming search experience, see Introduction to the New Title Search Experience.

When browsing for call number, the following enhancements are introduced:

1. Author information is displayed in the browse results to help libraries that use this data for adding call number cutters.
2. Call number auto-population also works for local 09X fields.
3. Read-only access was added, so that all users can now browse shelf listings (similar to browse bib and authority headings).

For more information, see Browsing the Shelf Listing.

A new action labeled Open Authority Headings has been added to the "Editing Actions" menu in the Metadata Editor. This feature enables users to access the lookup functionality previously available through the F3 key, making it particularly beneficial for catalogers who do not use function keys.

The Open Authority Headings action becomes available when the cataloger is in a field that supports the F3 function. It opens the same lookup for that field as the F3 key, displaying identical data (including vocabularies, headings, field indicators, etc.) and offering the same functionality, such as viewing and selecting headings.

For more information, see Metadata Editor Menu and Toolbar Options > Editing Actions Menu.

Alma's "Language" search index, that enables users to select a language in the MARC Code List for Languages and search their catalog for records that contain its MARC code, does not support searching by other language codes from different sources that may appear in MARC 21 "041" field. A new search index, "Language code", was added to enable users to search the code directly as it appears in the record, so that non-MARC codes can be used to find bibliographic records.
This new index will be fully available after the semi-annual indexing is completed.

For more information, see MARC 21 Search Indexes.

Updated - October 31, 2024 - Alma's preferred term correction previously did not handle cases where a bibliographic heading linked to an authority record via a cross-reference, but the preferred and non-preferred terms were in different fields (for instance, the preferred term in authority field 130 and cross-reference in 410). With this enhancement, libraries can configure Alma to correct bibliographic headings based on authority cross-references, updating them to the preferred term and changing the field tag in the bibliographic record accordingly (such as, from 610 to 630).

This feature improves cataloging automation, efficiency, and ensures bibliographic data stays aligned with authority records' preferred terms.

Additional Information:

To enable this functionality in your institution, input the vocabulary codes for the relevant authority vocabularies into the customer parameter authority_ptc_ignore_suffix, separated by commas.

When a bibliographic field is updated to an X30 field, the non-filing indicators in the bibliographic record will be adjusted based on the linked authority record. According to MARC21 standards, the 1st indicator of authority field 130 (Nonfiling characters) will be copied to the 2nd indicator of the X30 bibliographic field.

Once enabled, headings updated by this new behavior appear in the Authority Control Task List under a new report type, “Preferred Term Correction - Bib Heading updated and tag modified,” enabling catalogers to review and make further updates as necessary (such as, adjusting indicators). 

For more information, see Managing Preferred Term Correction.

For more information on the report type, see Using the Authority Control Task List.

For more information on the customer parameter, see Configuring Other Settings (Resource Management).

Since the announcement of our upcoming AI Metadata Assistant—an AI tool integrated into the Metadata Editor that generates metadata suggestions to assist catalogers in creating and enhancing bibliographic records—we've received many requests for early access to test its functionality. While we couldn't accommodate all requests, we greatly appreciate the community's enthusiasm for this feature and its willingness to collaborate with us in testing and improving it. We value the diverse perspectives of our cataloging community and the valuable feedback they provide.

As a result, we have decided to enable Phase I of the AI Metadata Assistant in Preview Mode for all Alma environments as part of the November release, allowing administrators to activate it at their discretion.

Further improvements to the workflow and the generated metadata are expected in upcoming releases, but libraries are encouraged to explore the feature in their Sandbox or Production environments to get an initial sense of its capabilities. We welcome your feedback, which can be submitted via the AI feedback button in the MD Editor when working on a draft created or enriched by AI.

Phase I of the AI Metadata Assistant supports English-language MARC 21 records using LC subjects. For more details on how to enable this feature, how it works, and our planned enhancements, please refer to the AI Metadata Assistant in the MD Editor page.

MARC21 update No. 38 (June 2024), includes changes resulting from proposals that were considered by the MARC 21 community since the publication of Update No. 37 (December 2023).

We would like to update that as part of the semi-annual re-indexing in November, we will be doing a quality check on bib headings linked to authority records, to validate that they are properly linked. Following this validation, some headings may need to be re-checked by Alma's automated "Authorities - Link BIB Headings" job for a matching authority.

What you might see following the re-indexing in your environment:

• The "Authorities - Link BIB Headings" job may run on larger numbers than usual.
• If a matching authority is found for these headings in the linking job, the "Authorities - Preferred Term Correction" job may run on a larger number as well.
• The Authority Control Task List may show a larger number of bibliographic headings handled by these jobs.

Previously, when a bibliographic record was deleted, the "Publish bibliographic record (DataSync) to OCLC" profile included the deleted record without its holdings. Institutions can now customize this profile to include all deleted holdings of the bibliographic record in the published file. This facilitates OCLC in matching their OCLC symbols and processing the deletion. To enable this feature, institutions can set the customer parameter "oclc_add_hol_to_deleted_bib" to "true". If this parameter is set to true, the published deleted bibliographic record will also include all of its deleted holdings, regardless of when they were deleted. This ensures that all the bibliographic record's holdings are indeed removed from the external system (this functionality has been confirmed with OCLC). The included holdings data will adhere to the mapping specified in the "Map holdings fields into Bib record" table. This feature is particularly beneficial for libraries utilizing the OCLC publishing profile rather than the general publishing profile when publishing to OCLC.

For more information, see Publishing to OCLC.

The following fields are now available to activate in the physical items search configuration:

• Public note
• Fulfillment note
• Internal notes
• Statistics notes
• Receiving date
• Receiving operator

This is especially useful to operators who need to scan this information for multiple items, saving them the need to go into each item.
To activate these fields, click the gear () icon at the top right corner of the search results, and select the fields to add to your results.

For more information, see Customizing the Search Results Record Fields.

When an authority record has a 5XX field mentioning a related authority, the authorities search results contains a link to easily search for that term. If the authority vocabulary does not base these pointers on authority ID, clicking on the "See also" link generates a search for the term entered in the 5XX field. This search was enhanced to give more accurate results, by making the following changes:

1. Change the search operator from "contains keywords" to "equals", to improve the accuracy of the retrieved results.
2. Limit the search by originating system, so that only authorities from the same system as the authority record the search originated from will be retrieved.
3. Before, the entire 5XX field was included in the search, often resulting in not finding the relevant authority. Now, only subfields indexed for search in the relevant source code (subject, personal name, corporate name, and so forth) within the 5XX field are included in the search. Information irrelevant for the search (for example, relationship information for personal name) is excluded, streamlining the results.

Institutions that prefer the previous keyword-based “See also” search behavior (for example, who work mostly with vocabularies where doing a fuzzy match is more desirable), can select to opt out of the new system by setting the customer parameter aut_see_also_link to ‘false’ to retain the old behavior.

For more information, see Performing Actions on the Repository Search Results Page > See also.

The Authority Control Task List (ACTL) now includes a new filter for Network Zone linked records to be used by the Consortia members. Some consortia members update all BIBs from the Network Zone and do not want to view the Network Zone records in the Institution Zone. To support this and still enable other consortia members to show these records, a new filter is added to facets labeled Linked to Network Zone in addition to the existing facet Linked to Community Zone.

For more information, see Working with the Authority Control Task List > Facets.

Libraries that manage local authority records as part of a global vocabulary can now see if an authority record is a local record they've created. This is useful when libraries want to identify and maintain their overriding local authority records, as authority vocabularies change.

For more information, see Adding a Local Authority Definition.

The Metadata Editor now prominently highlights when a record being edited is a Community Zone record. Additionally, a warning message has been incorporated to alert users before saving changes that could affect the community. This precautionary measure is implemented to prevent librarians from inadvertently modifying a community record when their intention is to manage local information exclusively.

For more information, see Editing Community Zone Bibliographic Records.

A new field, Standard Number, is available for searching in Alma External Search Resources. For more information, see Working with Search Resources in the MD Editor.

(Updated September 12, 2024) Previously, management tags like "Suppressed from discovery" were not logged in record versions, making it impossible to track when or by whom a record was suppressed or unsuppressed. With the recent update, this information will be recorded and visible in record versions. Whenever a record's management tag changes, a new version will be generated, displaying the previous tag value. Restoring a previous version will only affect the metadata, not other information on the versions page, such as cataloging level or management tags.

For more information, see Working with Records > View Versions.

Previously, only the first part of the bibliographic call number ($$a or $$h) was used for searching and browsing. Following this enhancement:

1. Additional details appear upon accessing the browse shelf listing from a MARC21 or KORMARC bibliographic record. The Call Number editing field is automatically filled with the information from $a and $b in fields 050, 055, 060, 070, 080, 082, 084, and with the information from $h and $i in field 852. In cases where multiple instances of the same subfield are present, the first occurrence will be utilized unless the cursor is positioned on a different occurrence, in which case that one is utilized.
2. After the semi-annual indexing process, data from the $b subfield of the following specified fields are included in the call number search indexes within the repository search:
   • LC call number: 050, 055, 090
   • Universal Decimal Class Number: 080
   • Dewey Decimal Class Number: 082, 092
   • Other Classification Number: 084

   This feature is beneficial for librarians seeking to search for the complete call number, rather than solely focusing on the classification segment.
   For more information, see:

   • Using the Browse Shelf Listing
   • Searching for Titles by Call Number Range
   • MARC 21 Search Indexes

The functionality of the "Heading Information" search has been expanded to enable searching for bibliographic records based on their heading information linked to a specific authority record. A new option, "All", has been included in the Heading Type drop-down menu. When selected, users are prompted to specify the authority record's Originating System and Originating System ID. This enhancement enables users to retrieve all bibliographic records with headings linked to the specified authority record, irrespective of the heading type.

For more information, see Searching in Alma > Search Fields > Heading Information.

MARC21 update No. 37, December 2023 is now available for bibliographic, holdings, and authority profiles.

Previously, only users with roles permitting work in the Metadata Editor could access Browse Bib Headings. Now, a read-only Browse Bib Headings is accessible to all users, much like the repository search feature, offering greater access to the library's repository. This enhancement proves beneficial for users seeking to view a list of records by title, author, or subject, even without precise search terms for retrieval.

For more information, see Browsing Bibliographic Headings.

Alma now facilitates targeted matching of incoming repositories specifically to a chosen electronic collection and not the entire catalog. This ensures avoidance of multiple match events, enhancing data accuracy, and simplifying management processes.

For more information, see Creating/Editing an Import Profile: Match Profile.

Institutions now can efficiently export the complete content of their bibliographic records through a newly introduced general publishing option. This enables users to customize pertinent publishing profiles that encompass the entire repository. This option is activated by a new checkbox, Publish the entire repository in the General Profile configuration page.

For more information, see Creating a General Publishing Profile.

Alma users can now apply indication rules to filter collections of holdings records either during the process of saving a holdings search or by utilizing the "Filter Set" feature on the Manage Sets page. Additionally, when generating indication rules through a form, it is now feasible to create rules based on the metadata of holdings records. This functionality proves especially beneficial for libraries aiming to refine their holdings sets using metadata not included in the search indexes.

For more information, see Creating a Form-Based Indication Rule.

Within the General Publishing Profile, there is now a feature allowing the inclusion of the Bibliographic Rank as part of bibliographic enrichment. To enable this, mark the "Add Management Information" checkbox, provide the repeatable field where you want the enrichment placed (if not already configured), and indicate the subfield for inclusion of the bibliographic rank.

For more information on the bibliographic rank, see Bibliographic Ranking in Metadata Editor.

For more information on the general publishing profile, see Publishing and Inventory Enrichment (General Publishing).

Previously, users were able to remove a Network Zone bibliographic record from their institution tab, given that the record is created within the network zone or has a "Held by" indication. However, deleting a record that originated from the community zone was not enabled. Users are now able to delete a Network Zone bibliographic record from the Institution/Network tab, even if the record has its origins in the Community Zone.

For more information, see Deleting Bibliographic Records.