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Ex Libris Documentation

Harvard Alma Working Groups have summarized key changes below. A full list of changes for the release can be found in the official Ex Libris Release Notes:

General Enhancements

  • A new Tech Services Work Order status has been added: Serials Cataloging
  • In Manage Sets, the order of sets can now be sorted by any column, including: Active, Content Type, and Creation Date. Sorting is sticky across sessions.
  • DARA recommendations can now be assigned.
  • (blue star) Sets
    • When viewing a list of sets, you can now sort by any of the column headers, such as Creation Date
    • Your selection will persist across Alma sessions. 
    • A new Cloud App is available that allows you to delete up to 20 sets at once. See Alma Cloud Apps at Harvard for additional details. 

Analytics & Reporting

Enhancements

The User Details subject area has been enhanced with the following improvements:

You can now create reports with fields from different folders as is possible in other subject areas.

  • The User Measures dimension was added, which contains measure fields relating to the number of users.
  • The following fields were added under the User Details dimension:
    • Cataloger Level – the cataloger level of the patron
    • Patron Letters Opt In – the letters for which the patron has opted in
    • Patron Letters Opt Out – the letters for which the patron has opted out
    • Has Role Other Than Patron – indicates if the patron has a role other than Patron
    • Has Role Other Than Patron and Instructor – indicates if the patron has a role other than Patron and Instructor
    • Is Blocked – indicates if the patron is blocked
  • The Proxy For dimension was added, which contains fields that indicate for whom the patron is a proxy.
  • The names of the various Status, Type, and Note fields were expanded to include the dimension name to clarify which fields are intended.

The following enhancements were added to the configuration for Scheduled Dashboard Alma Analytics Objects:

  • Scheduled reports can be configured in CSV format
  • If you configure Alma to place the report on an FTP server, you can now have a timestamp included in the file name of the report. This prevents the file from being overwritten the next time the report is run.

For more information, see Scheduling and Subscribing to Alma Analytics Reports.

New Dashboards Added to Alma folder in Alma Analytics

The following new dashboards were added to Alma Shared folder in Alma Analytics. For each dashboard, a new analytics object of type Dashboard was added. The dashboards are now available as links from the Analytics menu in Alma according to specific roles that you can configure:

  • Acquisitions Dashboard (Ex Libris)
  • Analytics Objects Dashboard (Ex Libris)
  • Analytics Usage Tracking Dashboard (Ex Libris)
  • API Usage Dashboard (Ex Libris)
  • Benchmark Analytics KPI Dashboard (Ex Libris)
  • Cost per Use for Electronic Inventory and COUNTER reports Dashboard (Ex Libris)
  • Cost per Use for Physical Inventory and loans Dashboard (Ex Libris)
  • E-Inventory Dashboard (Ex Libris)
  • Fines and Fees Dashboard (Ex Libris)
  • Physical Items Dashboard (Ex Libris)
  • Licenses Analysis Dashboard (Ex Libris)
  • Purchase Requests Dashboard (Ex Libris)
  • Overlap Analysis Dashboard (Ex Libris)
  • Usage via Alma Link Resolver Dashboard (Ex Libris)
  • Usage via COUNTER Reports - Release 4 Dashboard (Ex Libris)
  • Usage via COUNTER Reports - Release 5 Dashboard (Ex Libris)
  • Monthly Usage Data - Release 5 Dashboard (Ex Libris)
  • Vendor analysis - physical one time Dashboard (Ex Libris)
  • YoY (Year over Year) Dashboard (Ex Libris)


The following out-of-the-box reports were added to the Consortia folder. These reports can aid an institution in evaluating overlap as well as unique titles across the consortia:

  • Titles with inventory in only one institution based on field 035 subfield a with library and location – displays titles held by only one institution in the consortia. The analysis uses the field 035 subfield a as a basis for determining the uniqueness of the title. This report is designed to be run in the Network Zone.
  • Duplicate electronic collections in different member institutions linked to Community Zone – displays a list of electronic collections that were activated from the Community Zone from multiple member institutions. The electronic collections were not activated from the Network Zone using the Available For functionality and therefore cause many duplicate titles across the member institutions.
  • Duplicate titles by ISBN for NETWORK institution – displays duplicate titles by ISBN in a Network Zone institution and excludes titles linked to the Community Zone. This report is designed to be run in the Network Zone.
  • Duplicate titles by ISSN for NETWORK institution – displays duplicate titles by ISSN in a Network Zone institution and excludes titles linked to the Community Zone. This report is designed to be run in the Network Zone.
  • Duplicate titles by Title Author Combined and Normalized for NETWORK institution – displays duplicate titles by the field Title Author Combined and Normalized in a Network Zone institution and excludes titles linked to the Community Zone. This report is designed to be run in the Network Zone.
  • Duplicate titles by 035a for network institution – displays a list of titles that exist in the Network Zone institution and are duplicate titles. The records are determined to be duplicates based on the 035 field subfield a.


  • The Operator Identifier 1 and Operator Identifier 2 fields were added to Fines and Fees > Staff Operator Details. They allow you to enrich the user details exported to Analytics with additional identifiers.
  • Two additional reporting code fields (#4-5) were added for reporting codes and reporting code descriptions to the PO line dimension for all subject areas in which it appears. The names of the fields were also changed, so that the reporting code fields are as follows:
    • Reporting Code - 1st
    • Reporting Code - 2nd
    • Reporting Code - 3rd
    • Reporting Code - 4th
    • Reporting Code - 5th
    • Reporting Code Description - 1st
    • Reporting Code Description - 2nd
    • Reporting Code Description - 3rd
    • Reporting Code Description - 4th
    • Reporting Code Description - 5th
    ​
  • The DC License and DC Rights fields were added to the Bibliographic Details dimension for all subject areas in which it appears. These fields contain the license and rights information from Dublin Core bibliographic records.
  • The TR_J1 - Unique Title Requests field was removed from the Usage Data Details - Release dimension in the Usage Data subject area. This field was removed because it was erroneously added when COUNTER Release 5 was added to Alma and Alma Analytics.

Resolved

  • When creating reports on physical item requests, sometimes the report was empty. This was fixed.
  • When running reports with a Material Type Description of 'Undefined', no results were displayed. This was fixed.
  • Fields from the Physical Items dimension were visible in the Purchase subject area. This was fixed.
  • Clicks to Bx recommendations were not counted in Analytics reports in the Link Resolver subject area after Direct Linking became active in Primo. This was fixed

Acquisitions/Finance

Enhancements

Resolved

  • EDI file names are not assigned unique names which can cause the file names to be overwritten. This was fixed.

Course Reserves/Leganto

Enhancements

  • New file upload form: The process of uploading a file to a citation is now more intuitive and user-friendly. To streamline the process of creating a new citation that is based on a file, the File option directs the user to first load the file. In many cases, Leganto extracts the metadata from the files and saves manual entry of the citation details. Also see Adding a Citation Manually.
  • List header redesign: Leganto now displays a streamlined view of the reading list header, showing only the first line of the list description and fewer details about the list. When expanded, you can select Read less or Less info to collapse the view. See Working with Reading Lists.
  • Left navigation panel removed
  • List status auto update when citation status changes: When a previously completed list has a citation status change due to one of the following parameters set in Configuration > Leganto > List Management > Course Reserves Automatic Statuses. For example, you can choose to have the list status change to Ready for Processing if the citation status changes when the instructor adds a tag.
  • Institutions can now integrate with the Learning Management System via LTI 1.3. 
    • LTI 1.3: Canvas LMS supports the ability to add a new button to the LMS text editor. Using this button in Canvas, you can now embed citations from your Leganto lists directly into the Canvas editor. For more information, see Editor Button.
  • The Reports tab was removed from Leganto due to technical issues. In the interim, you can use the List Analysis report. For more information, see Reading List Analytics.
  • A new parameter was added to Leganto Features: display_file_option (true/false, default true). When set to false, Add file (in the add item menu) does not display.
  • For instructor rollover, we updated the Rollover Look up course text to Select the course to which to roll over this list.
  • The Library can now decide how to display the login screen to a user who selects CiteIt! before logging in to Leganto. You can now configure Leganto to display a small login window and then redirect the user back to CiteIt.
  • When the request status of an item changes to In Process, an automatic resource locate is no longer performed since Leganto performs the resource locate automatically when the resource is added to the list. This previously resulted in an error message.
  • Upon selecting some actions, the citation menu in Leganto did not automatically close until the user manually selected elsewhere on the screen. Now, the citation menu automatically closes after selecting any option.
  • Section notes no longer have a full display. Only relevant note information such as the title and description displays.
  • We added the option for librarians to include a Description for item request questions (Configuration > Leganto > Item Request Questions). The Description is defined in the customer labels table and supports HTML tags.

Resolved

  • List description was lost when working with two tabs. This was fixed.
  • When uploading a PDF file, in some cases the citation type changed to Article for no reason. This was fixed.
  • List scrolled to the top In some cases for no reason. This was fixed.
  • In some cases, the list thumbnails were not displaying the correct thumbnails. This was fixed.

E-Resources

Enhancements

  • Ability to change Alma full text activation to CDI-only full text activation - When an electronic collection is active for full text you can now change it to only be active in CDI using the action Change to CDI-only full text activation. When using this option:
    • For aggregator/selective collections, the full text service will be deactivated, 
    • For database collections, the bibliographic record will be suppressed, 

Resolved

  • Sushi Harvesting failed when created with an empty report. This was fixed.

Fulfillment

Enhancements

  • (blue star) 'Notify Users' on Cancellation Requests for Staff Requests: Alma now sends cancelation notices to requesting staff via email when a move or work order request is canceled. Cancelling any non-patron request (such as work orders or move requests) with the 'Notify User' checkbox enabled will send the cancelation letter to the request creator, such as the operator who placed it.
  • Courtesy Letter enhancements: Alma's courtesy letter, which is sent to patrons when a loan due date is about to arrive, can include the reasons renewal of the loan is not possible. 
  • Type of request loan block: A new block preference, “Item is requested by the library”, was added, to allow libraries to let operators override internal library requests, such as; move request, work order, etc. but not fulfillment requests, for instance; patron physical item request, resource sharing ship physically, etc., which are still controlled by the “Item is requested by another patron” block preference.

Resolved

  • The Request Queue screen was sometimes empty if the requested title had multiple holdings with an identical library, location and call number values. This was fixed.
  • In specific scenarios, the barcode switched after several scan-in operations. This was fixed.
  • The delayed Place on Hold Shelf letters was previously attached by System. This was fixed and this will now be written on the operator who made the triggering operation.

Resource Management

Enhancements

  • New MDE
    • Color coding has been made consistent across tabs and record types.
    • The record type tab (BIb, Holding...) will be bold with a dark blue underline when its contents are displayed in the record list on the left. If a record from a different tab is open for editing on the right, that tab will be light blue, not bold, underline. See screenshot (click to enlarge). 
  • When the Editing pane is in split mode, the underline of a tab will change to grey if the record being edited in the Editing pane is of a type different than the one currently in focus on the right. For example, if the record list on the left is for Bib records, and the Editing pane is split between bibs and holdings, with focus on the bibs, the Holdings tab will show as light grey. 
  • Accessibility: 
    • The filtering area of the Navigation panel is now accessible by keyboard. For further instruction, see Metadata Editor Accessibility Improvements in the ExL release notes.
    • Now you move between registries in the Navigation panel using keyboard keys. The selected registry is highlighted in light gray color, so you can always know where the focus is. In addition, the name of the currently selected tab will now be read by a screen reader, so that you know what the selected tab is.
    • Now a screen reader can read every section of the Browse Bibliographic Heading form.

Resolved

  • New MDE:
    • When the records list was unpinned, and there were two records in Split mode, when clicking on action that collapsed the left record, the right record extended to the right side. The was fixed.
    • When the new MDE is opened for the first time in your session, it takes some time to load, and there was no clear indication of when the loading was complete, so users got used to pressing buttons over and over. To give a clear sense of the loading time, a loading indicator now displays until the MDE is ready for use. 
    • Holdings record could not be deleted when the holdings list was filtered. This was fixed.
    • After using F3 and clicking on 'Headings from bibliographic records' tab for searching, the response time is slow. This was fixed.
    • View Related Data / Add Inventory / Order menus were unavailable when the record was opened in View mode because it was locked by another cataloger. This was fixed.
  • Import profiles: Items Creation Policy had been added to the Update Inventory profile by mistake. This was fixed.




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