December 2018 Release - Harvard Highlights

Owned by William Walsh
Last updated: Jun 03, 2019
10 min read

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.

https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Release_Notes/010_2018/001Alma_2018_Release_Notes?mon=201812BASE

Searching, Display, and Sorting results

Numerous corrections for searching and display (to take effect when December re-indexing completes)

  • 541 $e in MARC 21 holdings records
  • Uniform Title search results sorting on 130, 240, or 245 a
  • Series search results sorting on 490 indicator 0 or 830 
  • When spaces are part of the stored data and advanced search is done using the Contains exact phrase starting with option

    • For example, the call number QP 320 can be found with the Contains exact phrase starting with option when QP or 32 is entered for the search criteria. See Call Number Search with Exact Phrase for more information.

  • Series details from the following MARC 21 830 subfields in repository search results: $a, $d, $f, $k, $l, $n, $p, $s, $x, and $v. Subfields will appear in the order in which they are cataloged (not in alphabetical order).

  • The display of subfields in their original order (instead of alphabetic order) for MARC 21 authority records in repository search results
  • Correct search results when a search string contains an apostrophe in an advanced search with Title parameter and using Starts With
  • The properly working Is Local (Electronic Collection) parameter in advanced search for electronic collections
  • Retrieving accurate search results when using the advanced search Activation Date (Electronic Collection) option with Is Empty for electronic collections
  • The removal of punctuation marks between CJK characters in browsing results is a feature that is now available for all customers without the need to request Support to activate this capability. This feature will be fully available after the completion of the semi-annual reindexing (to take place in December; a more detailed explanation can be found here). See Browsing CJK Results for more information.
  • The sort options for repository search results were expanded to include the following: Uniform Title - Asc, Uniform Title - Desc, Series - Asc, and Series - Desc. See Sorting Search Results for more information. Note that to be fully functional, these new options require reindexing.
  • When performing an All titles repository search, the Configuration icon  options in the search results now include the column Uniform Title that displays data from the MARC 21 130 and 240 fields. See Record Lists for more information.
  • The following MARC 21 resource types are new: Map - Microfiche, Map - Microfilm, and Map - Microopaque.  In addition, the formula for identifying the Microforms resource type (MARC 21) changed. See the Rules Used to Create the Resource Type Field – MARC 21/KORMARC and UNIMARC table for more information.

  • An advanced search for Tag Suppressed (Title) returned no results. This was fixed.

  • Users without the Repository Manager role could not see the holdings and items links when opening a public set. This was fixed, and now Physical Inventory Operator can also see the links.

Late entry (added 12/17/18)

  • CJK Punctuation: all punctuation marks are removed during indexing when they appear within CJK text. However, the punctuation remains when you are searching. This helps to ensure that the best results are retrieved. Note that the display of CJK content continues to show the punctuation. This existed previously for Chinese/Japanese, and is now available for Korean. 

Analytics & Reporting

Enhancements

  • E-Inventory
    • New dimensions for Portfolio URL Information, Electronic Collection URL Information, Service URL Information each with fields for Parser Parameters, URL Type, and Static, Dynamic, Proxy URL data.
    • In Portfolio dimension, added attributes for Perpetual Coverage Information Combined, Perpetual Embargo Months, Perpetual Embargo Operator, Perpetual Embargo Years, Portfolio Access Type
  • Leganto Student Usage
    • In Student Usage dimension, added attributes for Number of Files Downloaded, Students that Downloaded Files
    • In Citations dimension, added Citation Library Internal Tag

Resolved

  • When Item Loans are anonymized, the statistical categories of the patron record now remain available
  • When the Item Creation Date field was added to a Physical Items report, the Num of Items measure was doubled. This was fixed.
  • Running a report on more than one fiscal year produced incorrect expenditure values. This was fixed.
  • Holdings records without items were not updated when there was a change in the Physical Items subject area. This was fixed.
  • In some cases, the Sent Date did not appear for PO lines. This was fixed.
  • Fields ISSN and ISSN (Normalized) displayed each ISSN twice. For ISSN, non-normalized and normalized versions appeared, and for Normalized, the normalized version appeared twice. This was fixed. In addition, the display order was from bottom to top, instead of from top to bottom. This was fixed.
  • When the code table Local Parameters for Reports was customized, for example local_parameter_1 was set to local field 983, and there were several 983 fields in a record, in Analytics, the mms display field Local Param 1 contained the 983 fields in reverse order, delimited by semicolons. This was fixed and now the local fields are concatenated according to their original cataloging order. The fix requires the full inventory indexing, which will occur during the month of December.

Acquisitions/Finance

Enhancements

  • Display a 13 Digit ISBN Number in the PO Line Description - When an order is created for a monographic bibliographic record that has an ISBN, the ISBN appears in the Identifier field in the PO Line details section. You can now enable the display_isbn_13_in_predefined_result parameter to display the 13 digit ISBN in the PO line description, even if the original bibliographic record has only a 10-digit ISBN. 

  • Configuring Physical Items Sort Routines - When configuring the Physical Items Sort Routines (Configuration Menu > Resources > General > Physical Items Sort Routines), the following additional fields are available for sorting physical items: Chronology J (month), Chronology K (day), Material type, and Receiving date. 

Course Reserves/Leganto

Enhancements

  • Facets were added in place of filters on the Edit Citations and Reading Lists Task List pages. On the Edit Citations page, all filters were moved to facets. In addition, the facets Processing Department, List Status, and License Type (Leganto only) were added as facets. In addition, a Sort By feature was added to the page, with the options Last created, Last modified, Reading list name, and Citation title.
  • On the Reading Lists Task List page, the Processing Department, Status, Publication Status, and List Modification Date filters were changed to facets. List Creation Date and Request for Review (date) were added as facets. Alerts remains as a filter.
  • Published was added as an option for the publication status facet on the Reading List Task Lists page. Published matches all publication options other than Archived or Deleted.
  • The following fields were added to Leganto Student Usage > Student Usage:
    • Number of Files Downloaded
    • Students that Downloaded Files
  • By default, Leganto updates a reading list and its citations' statuses from Being Prepared to Ready for Processing when a list is published
  • Useful Links was moved to the top of the page.
  • Librarians (only) can now mark a citation as complete directly within Leganto. This action is only available for citations that are not already marked as complete.

Resolved

  • Inactive reading lists appeared on the Scan in Items page and when adding items to a reading list after a repository search. This was fixed, and inactive reading lists no longer appear.
  • In Analytics, in the Leganto Student Usage subject area, when Usage Level was not equal to Citation, student type displayed ALL in the report. This was fixed, and now when Usage Level is not equal to Citation, student type is empty.
  • When a course had multiple reading lists, only one reading list was retrieved by the Retrieve Reading Lists API. This was fixed.
  • Export to Word did not work since the October release. This was fixed.
  • After selecting to customize a row on the Labels configuration page, the page scrolled to the top. This was fixed.
  • Different due dates sometimes appeared in the reading list and citation details pages. This was fixed.
  • There were some display issues in Alma with lists that had many citations. These were fixed.
  • Some searches against Primo failed. This was fixed.
  • The incorrect version of the location names appeared when printing a reading list. This was fixed.
  • Some readings were inaccessible when using the JAWS screen reader. This was fixed.
  • The Back to top icon sometimes overlapped the options button of the final section heading. This was fixed.
  • The Reports tab displayed an error when viewed in Internet Explorer. This was fixed.
  • The side menu buttons sometimes overlapped with the logo in Leganto. This was fixed.
  • For citations with public notes that included new line breaks, exporting to PDF had some issues. This was fixed.
  • Librarians and course organizers could not search in Find Lists for lists published for course students only. This was fixed.
  • Find List sometimes did not return a list that was associated to multiple courses. This was fixed.
  • For a citation associated with a bibliographic record with physical inventory that also had a related record with electronic inventory, selecting View Online from the reading list page resulted in an error. This was fixed.

E-Resources

Enhancements

  • Changes to PubMed Metadata Augmentation - If you are using PubMed augmentation, note that as of December 1st, 2018, there will be a change to the way PubMed metadata augmentation is performed and the use of a customer-specific API key will be required. Please contact PubMed to obtain an API key and update the PubMed Definitions section of the Augmentation integration profile with the API key that your receive.


Fulfillment

Enhancements

  • You can now view overdue and lost loan profiles in the Fulfillment Configuration Utility. A new tab is available, Overdue and Lost Loan Profiles. When selecting the patron and item, the applicable profiles appear.
  • New Letter for Hold shelf Slips - it is possible to configure a slip for use for on hold shelf items, that is different than the slip that is used to pick up the item from the shelf.  By default, the letter has the same attributes as the Pickup Print Slip Report Letter, but it can be configured as needed. The letter is invoked when scanning in an item and placing it on the hold shelf and when selecting the Activate next function on the Expired Hold Shelf page.
  • Library Filters and Fines/Fees sorting - You can now filter on fee owner in order to see only the fines under an individual library's responsibility. The filter is available in the Fines/Fees tab of User Details and the User Fines and Fees window when selecting a specific fine to pay in Manage Patron Services.
  • Option to customize language that appears when a patron is unable to renew an item in Primo due to user's account expiring in two days or less (current description is Loan cannot be renewed due to patron block). 

Resolved

  • When entering a user in Patron ID of the Managing Patron Users, and then entering another user without deleting the first, in some cases the Notes tab displayed the notes of the first user. This was fixed. Now, to switch between users, you must select the X button to clear the first user's data.
  • The fine/fee type field was not included in the bursar export file for some fine/fee types. This was fixed.
  • In the Get It holdings list, the related holdings indicator did not appear when using the enable holdings configuration option. This was fixed.
  • In some cases, when a manual due date change was made on a recalled loan, and the canceled recall policy was Restore to Original, the new due date was incorrect when the recall was canceled. This was fixed, and now the due date is restored to the most recent manually changed due date, if it exists.
  • In some cases, you could not add a calendar entry when time changes between daylight savings time and standard time incorrectly seemed to cause overlapping entries. This was fixed.
  • When a renew action for a loan was blocked due to the Maximum Renewal Period policy, sometimes the block display window did not appear and the block could not be overridden. This was fixed.
  • In Manage Patron Services, when submitting a request, entering data in the title field was slow. This field is now more responsive.
  • Selecting the number of requests in physical item search results sometimes returned a Java error. This was fixed.
  • In some situations, such as when a user accidentally scanned in an item twice or received the same NCIP message twice, a resource sharing lending request appeared as if it had multiple barcodes. These requests could not be deleted or removed after the item was returned. To fix this issue, you can ask Ex Libris to run a data corrector to remove duplicate barcodes. When the data corrector corrects a request, a note appears in the request indicating that it was most recently updated by the data corrector. Note that users should use the correct workflow for shipping using the ship items interface to avoid duplicating barcodes.

Resource Management

Enhancements

  • Templates search - When you work in the Templates section of the MD Editor, there is now a search box that you can use to more quickly access an existing template. For templates that you created that are located in the Community folder, there is now the option to delete the template from the Community
  • Configuring Physical Items Sort Routines - When configuring the Physical Items Sort Routines (Configuration Menu > Resources > General > Physical Items Sort Routines), the following additional fields are available for sorting physical items: Chronology J (month), Chronology K (day), Material type, and Receiving date. 
  • Control Punctuation for Headings Updates to Bibliographic Records - A new customer parameter is available for controlling punctuation that is added or corrected when authority headings information is used to update a bibliographic record when using F3 or preferred term correction. Harvard has chosen the new option to NOT add/change punctuation when using F3 or Preferred Term Correction job. 

  • New Import Profile Option for Matching based on inventory:  When you import records with a single match, you can now configure the import profile to use inventory type as a criterion for a match. With this new option, you can maintain separate bibliographic records for electronic and physical inventory types with the same title. See Single match - match only record with the same inventory type (electronic/physical) for more information. (Feature postponed by ExL). 

  • New 001 fields in holdings - when holdings are saved, an 001 for the Alma system number will be added. For migrated records that have the Aleph holdings 001, the 001 will be replaced with the Alma 001. 

  • New External search resources - (contact LTS to have these enabled): ZDB, DNB
  • Tab separated values: when importing records, you can now set up a profile for files that contain tab-separated values (TSV). See Physical source format for more information.
  • The publish and update times given to a bibliographic record can now reflect either your institution's time zone

Resolved

  • On the List of Items page, when selecting Duplicate, Add, or Change Holdings, the pagination was reset to the first page. This was fixed.
  • When a bibliographic record was changed without saving the record, it was not possible to add a holdings record, resulting in a broken holdings appearing in the MD Editor. This was fixed.
  • In the Authority Control Task List > Ambiguous headings, when you selected Edit, the bibliographic record appeared instead of the headings. This was fixed.
  • In the MD Editor, field 830 2nd indicator (non-filing characters) was not considered for authority control. This was fixed.
  • Some types were missing in the All tab in the authority control task list. This was fixed.
  • You could not manage an import when there was no user assigned to the import. Any Catalog Administrator, Catalog Manager, Purchasing Manager, or Purchasing Operator can now release the assignment of these imports.
  • On the Resolve Import Issues page, selecting Validation > View Records > View Errors resulted in a page with no contents. This was fixed.

By default, the letter has the same attributes as the Pickup Print Slip Report Letter, but it can be configured as needed.

The letter is invoked when scanning in an item and placing it on the hold shelf and when selecting the Activate next function on the Expired Hold Shelf page.