Alma 2025 Release Notes

Last updated
Save as PDF
Share
1. Share
2. Tweet
3. Share

Search for what you need

Search:

Release:

Showing results for: Main Features: | Additional Enhancements: | Resolved Issues:

Upcoming Issues to Note

Elevating Your Experience with Our Service Excellence Program

We are committed to enhancing your experience through our Service Excellence Program, driven by your valuable feedback and support needs.

Key initiatives for the upcoming year include:

Improved visibility into cases requiring development support.
Estimated timelines for issue resolutions.
Consistent updates: Regular status updates on cases at set intervals.

To achieve these goals, we are launching the Defect Backlog Resolution Project for Alma and PrimoVE in collaboration with the ELUNA and IGELU Steering Committees. Resolved issues will be documented in the release notes.

We will keep you informed of our progress and appreciate your ongoing feedback. We look forward to continually enhancing your experience.

Main Features

Resolved Known Issues for the New Manage Patron Service UI

January 2025 Fulfillment and Resource Sharing (Updated - December 17, 2024)

A number of known issues in the new Manage Patron Service UI were resolved. For more information see Managing Patron Services.

New Physical Books Titles Network View Dashboard Now Available

January 2025 Analytics and Insights URM-227817

The new out-of-the-box Physical Books Titles Network View data visualization dashboard is now available under the Alma > Consortia > Data Visualization folder. It is designed to provide the main office of a Network Zone with an overview of its single copies of physical items across the network to facilitate retention and deselection processes.

Physical Books Titles Network View

It displays information about the physical books in your consortia and contains the following tabs:

Overview – an overview of physical book titles, which presents useful information regarding unique titles in your consortia
Unique Titles Details – information on physical book titles that are held by only one institution in the network, which can be useful when preparing retention plans
Limited Titles Details – information on physical book titles that are held by up to 3 institutions in the network, which can be useful when preparing retention plans
Multiple Titles Details – information on physical book titles that are held by more than 3 institutions in the network, which can be useful for deselection processes

Due to the large amount of data processed by this dashboard, we highly recommend filtering the dashboard to limit the data within the analysis.

Additional Enhancements

January 2025 Analytics and Insights URM-229360
The PO Approval Date and Time field was added to the following locations. It displays the date and time that the PO was approved.
- E-Inventory > Portfolio PO Line
- E-Inventory > Electronic Collection PO Line
- E-Inventory > Cost Usage > Cost Usage POL
- Funds Expenditure > PO Line
- Physical Items > PO Line
- Purchase Requests > PO Line
January 2025 Analytics and Insights URM-227062
The Event Library Unit dimension was added to the System Events subject area. It contains fields about the library in which the event occurred. Previously, it was only possible to report on the institution in which the event occurred. For more information, see Event Library Unit.
January 2025 Analytics and Insights URM-225324
The following enhancements were implemented for fields in Analytics Usage Tracking > Query Details:
- The Query Type Group field was renamed to Query Type and its possible values were enhanced to include the following:
  - Classic Report
  - Classic Dashboard
  - Data Visualization Workbook
  - SOAP API Calls
  - None (includes support queries such as report prompts and dashboard prompts)
  Reports including the original field are not affected, unless the field was saved as a filter with one of the original values. In this case, the filter needs to be updated.
- For the Object Type field, if the analysis is not linked to an object, the value is now No object assigned instead of None.
- For the Dashboard / Workbook Path field, the values where updated to be consistent and now all begin with shared/.

Resolved Issues

January 2025 Acquisitions SF: 07710086 URM-234944
PO Lines would sometimes return errors when adding funds due to an invalid fund in the Recently Used list. This was fixed.
January 2025 Acquisitions SF: 07147595 (Added - December 17, 2024)URM-223708
The issue with long holdings records, where summary holdings (866/7/8) were not created during the enhancement process using the 'MARC21 Expand Holding By 866/7/8 Task', has been resolved. The fix ensures that holdings are now enhanced as expected, with all 866/7/8 fields being generated correctly. Please note that for this fix to work, the customer parameter 'send_summary_holdings_request_to_aleph_in_chunks' must be enabled (it is set to 'false' by default).
January 2025 Analytics and Insights SF: 07748750 URM-234776
The Analytics Shared with Me page did not open for a customer. This was fixed.
January 2025 Analytics and Insights SF: 07690543 URM-234523
In several cases, the Is Blocked field (Users > User Details) did not display the correct value. This was fixed.
January 2025 Analytics and Insights SF: 07023561 URM-217027
An incorrect currency symbol was displayed in the Rialto data visualization dashboards. This was fixed and the symbol was removed.
January 2025 APIs SF: 07271536 URM-230481
When sending multiple Update Open Hours API calls while the Apply Calendar Changes job (initiated from the first API update) was still running, later APIs were not processed correctly. This was fixed. In addition, the Update API response now also includes the "APPLY CALENDAR CHANGES" job ID, which can be used to verify the status of the previous job.
January 2025 APIs SF: 06732443 06767091 06814972 URM-198122
In some cases, orders that received an invoice were incorrectly marked as "waiting for an invoice". This was fixed.
January 2025 Digital Resource Management SF: 07763400 URM-235054
The "webm" extension was missing from the Extension drop-down list in the Digital File Advanced Search. It was added.
January 2025 Digital Resource Management SF: 07746273 URM-234726
The DC Import could not handle records with very long descriptions. This was fixed by truncating the records at the maximum character limit.
January 2025 Electronic Resource Management SF: 07684307 07681003 URM-234357
The Community Zone Updates Task List Extended Export produced an empty Excel file. This was fixed. The exception was handled, so the export does not fail.
January 2025 Electronic Resource Management SF: 07185047 07693390 URM-231451
Upload electronic holdings jobs (Project Muse, T&F, Ovid, Wiley) randomly failed. This was fixed and all holdings jobs execute without failure.
January 2025 Electronic Resource Management SF: 07750108 URM-234792
Collections deleted via API left orphaned sub-collections behind. This was fixed. Users can no longer delete collections with sub-collections, regardless if the sub-collection is being suppressed or not.
January 2025 Fulfillment and Resource Sharing SF: 06929261 URM-231166
When selecting “Submit Request” from the Manage Patron Services page, searching in the Network Zone scope did not work correctly. For the moment, this was fixed by disabling the search title by Network Zone scope.
January 2025 Fulfillment and Resource Sharing SF: 07241116 URM-230425
On the patron requests tab, the "Item information" section showed the "External Name" (the Primo name of the location) of a physical location. This was fixed and it now shows the internal name.
January 2025 Fulfillment and Resource Sharing SF: 06960247 URM-227696
The recalculate requests job may cancel a TRANSIT_FOR_RESHELVING request if the item that is in transit is deleted. However, the job would send a redundant notice to the operator that put the item in transit. This was fixed and the notification is no longer sent.
January 2025 Fulfillment and Resource Sharing SF: 07106533 URM-222050
The "Requests" count on the "Pick From Shelf" list was incorrect in some scenarios. This was fixed. For example, if there are 3 booking requests and 1 hold request for a title, the initial count shows 4 requests. When filtering by "Booking Requests" the count shows 3 + start/end time of the earliest booking request. When filtering by 'Patron Physical Item Request', the count shows 1.
January 2025 Fulfillment and Resource Sharing SF: 06721704 URM-201599
The Workflow Step Status facet showed the name for institution work orders and the code for library work orders. This was fixed, and now the library-level workflow step status also shows the name.
January 2025 Fulfillment and Resource Sharing SF: 07194749 URM-225401
The manual skip location did not work as expected for booking requests. This was fixed.
January 2025 Fulfillment and Resource Sharing SF: 06944947 URM-233140
In some cases, a completed pick-from-shelf request related to a lending request remained active. This was fixed.
January 2025 Fulfillment and Resource Sharing SF: 06881733 URM-230982
In some cases, when a borrowing request was completed, the related MMS and its entire hierarchy were deleted. This was fixed, and now the system runs pre-deletion validations before deleting the temporary bib record associated with a borrowing request.
January 2025 Fulfillment and Resource Sharing SF: 07123486 07216689 URM-227401
Trying to ship SLNP requests that shared the external ID with closed requests resulted in an error. This was fixed.
January 2025 Fulfillment and Resource Sharing SF: 07176920 URM-226884
Some records caused the manual locate job process to fail. This was fixed.
January 2025 Fulfillment and Resource Sharing SF: 07178516 URM-226568
For lending requests, an error occurred for the Ship item physically option. This was fixed.
January 2025 Fulfillment and Resource Sharing SF: 07704188 07139149 07716549 URM-222832
An error occurred when using the download function for a lending request. This was fixed.
January 2025 Fulfillment and Resource Sharing SF: 07050330 07042126 URM-218769
Re-adding partner records after rejecting them resulted in an error. This was fixed.
January 2025 Fulfillment and Resource Sharing SF: 06969090 07132284 URM-218623
In some cases, an institution could not open files sent from their PSB instances for digital lending requests. This was fixed.
January 2025 Fulfillment and Resource Sharing SF: 07022437 URM-215265
Sometimes, requests failed to be sent to a lender because the note sent from the borrower to the lender was too long. This was fixed.
January 2025 Fulfillment and Resource Sharing SF: 07199085 URM-234572
In some cases, the NCIP message sent to an existing borrowing request did not trigger the sending of an "On hold shelf" letter to the patron. This was fixed.
January 2025 Fulfillment and Resource Sharing SF: 06646209 07180331 URM-160884
Previously, when the View It label c.uresolver.request.ill.patron_has_duplicate_request (Configuration > Discovery > Display Configuration > Labels) was customized, the customized message was not displayed. This was fixed.
January 2025 Metadata Management SF: 07713617 URM-234529
Running an advanced search did not work correctly when "Is Empty" and "Is Not Empty" were used in the local call number fields. This was fixed.
January 2025 Metadata Management SF: 07259719 07259713 07221796 URM-230910
Running an All Titles search with Resource Type equal to “Music Component Part” did not work correctly. This was fixed.
January 2025 Metadata Management SF: 07805523 URM-237359
Exporting itemized sets to Excel sometimes failed when the new titles search UX was enabled. This was fixed.
January 2025 Metadata Management SF: 07804433 07805797 07805799 07797699 URM-237336
Electronic collections of type "Database" did not appear in the new titles search UX. This was fixed.
January 2025 Metadata Management SF: 06891329 07002225 07034433 URM-214864
In a record, selecting an authority using F3 added a duplicate subfield if this was a subfield to preserve. This was fixed. Now, if the subfield code and value are already in the field, it will no longer be added again.
January 2025 Metadata Management SF: 06850301 07027010 URM-185266
Synchronize changes from the Community Zone jobs failed frequently due to an internal error. This was fixed.
January 2025 Metadata Management SF: 06444141 06869239 06531921 07143473 URM-184524
Occasionally, import jobs that ran in a member institution and used the Network Zone repository, detected “Records duplicated in Job” incorrectly. This was fixed.
January 2025 Metadata Management SF: 07743331 URM-234739
When importing NACSIS records into Alma, the previous handling was that author names in CJK script (imported into MARC fields 100 and 700) did not have a comma between $a and $d. This was fixed. Now, per the customer's request, names will always have a comma between $a and $d, regardless of the script.
January 2025 Metadata Management SF: 07116770 URM-221255
When importing a NACSIS serial bibliographic record into Alma, the NACSIS NDLPN field was crosswalked to MARC field 024 instead of MARC field 016. This was fixed.
January 2025 Metadata Management SF: 07079201 URM-218089
Customer requested that the crosswalk of MARC field 007 to NACSIS GMD/SMD fields take into account the value in MARC field 300 subfield b (to determine, if possible, if the sound recording is analog or digital). This was added.
January 2025 User Experience, Accessibility & Infrastructure SF: 07154703 URM-226315
Previously, when the "allow_activity_on_transferred_finesfees" parameter was set to true, there were errors when waiving fines/fees in the "Transferred" status. This was fixed.
January 2025 User Experience, Accessibility & Infrastructure SF: 07145438 07015407 06567575 URM-217328
The "Update/Notify Users" job did not toggle the account type of some user accounts from "Internal" to "External". This was fixed.
January 2025 User Experience, Accessibility & Infrastructure SF: 07498158 URM-233689
The SAML metadata file contained a misleading code: "nameid-format:transient", specifically for ADFS (EntraID). This was fixed.
January 2025 User Experience, Accessibility & Infrastructure SF: 06923130 URM-204138
For widgets, the remove button still appeared even after being selected a second time. This was fixed.
January 2025 User Experience, Accessibility & Infrastructure SF: 07175611 URM-231484
The modification of a note owner placed on an account via API USERS, sometimes did not work correctly. This was fixed.
January 2025 User Experience, Accessibility & Infrastructure SF: 07086209 URM-231194
In some cases of the synchronize action, where users were loaded without a user_name, the generated user_name was not unique, which caused a failure. This was fixed.
January 2025 User Experience, Accessibility & Infrastructure SF: 07194479 URM-229262
Users could not be found when searching by Job Category. This was fixed.
January 2025 User Experience, Accessibility & Infrastructure SF: 07250614 URM-235500
For deposit forms, the mandatory Checkbox field was not working correctly when the default value was false. This was fixed.