Alma 2020 What's New Videos
Videos
Report Issues in Alma Using a Performance Tracking File
December 2020
When opening a support ticket for issues in Alma, you can generate and attach a Performance Tracking File, to help Ex Libris investigate and solve the issue as efficiently as possible!
Publishing Content from Two Sets of Records
December 2020
When publishing records from Alma to a third-party system, you can now publish up to two sets of records via the same General Publishing Profile; allowing you to publish content of mixed types.
Patron Welcome Letter
December 2020
When adding a Patron role to a user, Alma now sends them the Patron Welcome Letter. This feature can be disabled for all or some users, if needed.
Policy for Managing Booking Requests Over Closed Days
November 2020
If you'd like to prevent the booking of certain library items and resources for periods when the library is closed, you can now create booking policies that take opening and closed hours into account.
Disable PO Line and Invoice Alerts
November 2020
If you don't want certain alerts to appear when calculating a PO Line or an Invoice, you can disable select alerts.
Display the Waive Reason in the List of Fines and Fees
November 2020
You can display a column with the waive reasons in the list of fines and fees in the User Details page.
Prevent Closed or Approved Invoices from Being Set to Review
November 2020
If you don't wish to allow Invoice Operators or Invoice Managers to set invoices back to review after they had already been approved or closed, you can contact Ex Libris to disable this option.
Currency Exchange Rate Overrides
September 2020
You can define fixed exchange rates for foreign currencies of your choice, rather than using Alma's daily exchange rate table, which based on the Open Exchange Rate. This feature useful if your institution has agreements on specific exchange rates when purchasing resources in a different currency than your default.
Cloud Apps in Alma
August 2020
We're excited to introduce Cloud Apps, applications created by the Alma Community that can be easily installed and run from Alma, and can help you cut down on manual effort in your workflows.
Alma New Layout
August 2020
Overview of the new Alma Layout as a part of the Alma usability improvements
Search for Titles by Call Number Range
August 2020
Alma's Advanced Search lets you search for titles within a range of call numbers using relational operators. This can be useful for finding all titles belonging to a specific subject or range of subjects.
Edit PO Line from View Mode
August 2020
You can now Edit a PO line, even if you only opened it for viewing.
Request Anonymization and Anonymization Rules
July 2020
To protect user-data, Alma offers the option to anonymize loans, fees, resource sharing requests, and item requests once they are completed. Anonymization is performed on a regular basis by the Anonymization job, which can target certain entities according to rules you define. In the case of requests, you can configure Alma to anonymize all requests immediately upon completion, rather than have them anonymized by the job.
Exclude the Grace Period when Calculating a Fine
July 2020
Previously in Alma, when calculating a fine, the grace period was always included as part of the period of the fine. Now you can configure the Policy to not include the grace period at all, and begin accounting for the fine only after the grace period.
Manage Selected Physical Items
July 2020
When viewing the list of physical items for a title, you can perform bulk actions on selected items; for example, running a job on those items.
Move Invoice from the Institution to a Library
July 2020
You can change the owner for an invoice after it is edited. For example, an invoice on the institution-level can be moved to a specific library.
Request Notes in Pick from Shelf List
June 2020
The Pick from Shelf list now displays public notes on the requests, both on the list level and on individual requests.
Advanced Search Options Expanded
June 2020
The Advanced Search for Electronic Collections and Electronic Portfolios by their Public Note or Internal Description has been expanded to include new operators: Is Empty, Is Not Empty, and Not Contains Keywords.
New Alma Metadata Editor
May 2020
Alma's new Metadata Editor is more intuitive, efficient, and easy to navigate! New features include pushing records to the editor from search results, a responsive UI, and fully functional split-screen mode.
Pop-up Messages in the Scan In Interface
March 2020
You can configure how pop-up messages will display in the Scan In Interface. All messages can be configured to appear as a pop-up message, a feedback message, or to not appear at all. Additionally, a new icon will alert you if an item already has a patron request placed on it.
Viewing Your Recent Documents
March 2020
You can see a list of all the Alma entities you have added, updated, and deleted within the last 7 days, and access the entities from the list.
Last Patron Activity Date
February 2020
Alma can record the date of the last activity done by each library patron; such as requests, loans, and returns. This option needs to be enabled by your institution, and in future Alma releases can be used to purge users who have been inactive for a long time.
Suppress Bibliographic Records from External Search
February 2020
You can configure Alma to suppress bibliographic records from searches by external systems. Existing records can be tagged for suppression individually via the Metadata Editor, or in bulk via the Set Management Tags job. New records can be tagged for suppression during import, by configuring the Import Profile accordingly. In addition to tagging the records for suppression, you need to configure your external search server (Z39.50, or SRU) to suppress the tagged records.
Entering PO Line Number in Item Editor
February 2020
Starting in the Alma February 2020 release, you can enter the PO Line Number manually in the Item Editor, saving time on validation.
Export Records in BIBFRAME Format
January 2020
You can export records in Alma to a file in the BIBFRAME format, and also the RDA/RDF formats. This feature is another important step in our implementation of the BIBFRAME roadmap, aimed at increasing library connectivity.
Community Zone Set Management
January 2020
You can create sets from search results in the Community Zone of Authorities or Bib records. These sets can then be exported to XML, and imported to your local catalog. Community Zone sets are managed locally like any other set, and can be created by saving a search query, or via API.