March 2020 Release - Harvard Highlights

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

Viewing your recent work: Recent Entities is a new interface that lists records you have added, updated, or deleted within the last 7 days. These include bibliographic records, holdings, physical items, electronic portfolios, and authorities.

For additional information–including a detailed breakdown of which actions cause records to appear–see the Recent Entities List.
Bibliographic MMS ID now appears in search results for physical items, electronic collections, and portfolios. In addition, the MMS ID appears in the header information for the following resource editors/lists: Physical Item Editor, List of Holdings, List of Items, Electronic Collection Editor, Electronic Portfolio Editor, and the Electronic Service Editor.
Within HOLLIS, when we do not have full-text access to a resource, incorrect holdings will no longer show up in the section titled "Online access not found"
Dara interface enhancements: The DARA interface was enhanced with the following changes:
- Recommendations are now marked as implemented even when they are handled outside of the DARA workflow.
- The Mark as Done and Dismiss actions were replaced by the new Remove action
- The Let's Do It button was replaced by a button with an action specific to the recommendation, such as Create SUSHI account and View Tile in Search.
- The Show Me Why button was renamed to More Info. The recommendation description was shortened to make it more focused and the some of the information was moved to the More Info page.

Searching & Sets

Resolved

Searching for item descriptions caused an exception when the description contained a period and an asterisk. This has been fixed.
Previously, there was an unexpected change in the behavior of the Add Members to Set Job initiated from a file containing a list of barcodes when the file contained invalid barcodes. The job report showed 'completed successfully' and the 'Total invalid' count did not match the count of rows in the error file. This issue was fixed.

Analytics & Reporting

Note: OBI 12 and Data Visualization Tool will not be released in March as previously announced. Ex Libris has postponed the release pending further testing.

Enhancements

Last Activity Date field was added to every place that user details appear. It indicates the last date that a patron was active (for example, made a request or borrowed, renewed, or returned an item).
The following fields were added to the Fulfillment subject area. They provide information concerning the institution at which an item was loaned when it is not the institution that owns the item:
- Loan Details > Loaned at Another Institution
- Loan Details > Loaned at Institution Name
- Loan Circulation Desk > Loaned at Institution Circulation Desk
The following fields were added to the Physical Items subject area under Physical Item Details and Fund Information > Fund Measures. They allow you to create reports according to the type of request.
- Num of Requests (Booking)
- Num of Requests (Digitization)
- Num of Requests (General Hold)
- Num of Requests (Physical Item)
- Num of Requests (Total)
Shipping Date and Shipping Date (Calendar) fields were added to Borrowing Requests > Borrowing Request Details. They indicate the date the lender shipped the item to the borrower.

Resolved

On the Fulfillment dashboard, for the 'Recalled items', 'Loans by title', and 'Loan items ratio' tabs, selecting a library from the prompt does not filter the data according to the selected library. This was fixed.
Reports with fields from the Fulfillment > Location dimension did not work because the reports were not updated to the new name of the dimension 'Item Location at time of loan'. This was fixed.

Acquisitions/Finance

Resolved

On the last page of results in Receiving Department Items, clicking on the second or subsequent entry navigated to the incorrect record. This was fixed.

Course Reserves/Leganto

Enhancements

Managing Purchase Requests Created From Citations: The Course Information table has been added to the Purchase Request form, displaying basic information about the course. The following facets have been added to the Manage Purchase Requests screen (Acquisitions > Manage Purchase Requests): Processing department, Academic department, Campus, Course year, Course term, and Citation tag. The following search criteria have been added: Course Code, Course Instructor, and Requester. For more information on managing purchase requests, see Managing Purchase Requests. For more information on the Leganto purchasing and acquisition workflow, watch the Leganto Purchasing and Acquisition Workflow training video.
Automate Reading List Status While Course Active or Inactive: From the Activate/Deactivate Courses section, staff can now automate the reading list status for a course while it is either Active or Inactive. For example, staff can set a reading list status to be Being Prepared while a course is active, and to change to Archived when a course has been deactivated (when it has ended) (Fulfillment > General > Fulfillment Jobs Configuration).
Third Iron's LibKey Flags Added to Configuration Mapping: The following Third Iron's LibKey flags have been added browzine_api_key and browzine_client_id (Leganto > General > External Integrations). Third Iron's LibKey customers define the Third Iron's LibKey API key and Client ID by inserting them into their parameter value fields. Inserting these parameters enables the Third Iron's LibKey functionality. For citation that have a DOI, check Third Iron's LibKey whether it is supported. If supported a new Download Article link will be displayed. When a Third Iron's LibKey link is displayed and the citation was attached with a file, the standard Download link will be renamed Download Attachment. If you subscribe to the LibKey service and want to enable this feature, please contact Third Iron support to receive your Library ID and API Key, which then can be placed in Alma.
Primo Newspapers Scope Added in Leganto: In Leganto, the new Newspapers scope has been added for Primo. When enabled in Primo, the Newspapers scope is displayed in Leganto (Leganto > Discovery). For more information about selecting the Newspapers search scope in Leganto, see Adding a Citation from the Library. For more information on configuring the Newspapers scope in Primo, see Configuring Central Index and Proxy Settings for Primo VE. For more information about enabling the Newspapers scope in Primo, see Configuring Discovery Views for Primo VE.
Notes Shown in Details in Alma Citation Brief Information: Notes left by users are now shown in Details located in the Alerts tab of a citation's brief information as Last comment (Fulfillment > Course Reserves > Citations). For more information about notes shown in details in the Alma Citation Brief information, see Managing Citations.
Resizing the Right Pane: A handle for resizing the right pane has been created. In addition, this feature allows you to collapse and expand the right pane. A feature for controlling the default right pane will be included in the June 2020 release. For more information about resizing the sidebar handle, see Navigating the UI.
When using CiteIt!, Leganto now remembers the last used list and section. Leganto does not remember the list and section across different browsers.
The display_price flag was added to allow librarians to set citation prices. When the display_price parameter is set to true, the price is displayed in a citation by clicking the More item details toggle switch (Leganto > Features > Leganto Features).The total list price is also displayed in the list level in Leganto. A future release will display the currency and will support auto-pricing population from price vendors, such as Rialto and Oasis. This feature will be developed further in future releases. For more information, see Adding a Citation Manually.
The navigation bar now appears at the bottom of the page on mobile phone screens. For more information about the navigation bar, see Navigating the UI.
The overlay_no_type value has been added for added control on how existing secondary citation type is handled when a repository match is found. For the on_locate parameter key, selecting overlay overrides the secondary type of the citation with the bibliography type, while selecting overlay_no_type maintains the secondary type (Leganto > General > Settings).
The Purge menu item has been added to the menu of actions that can be done on a reading list (Fulfillment > Course Reserves > Reading Lists). The Purge menu item permanently deletes a reading list, while the Delete menu item deletes the reading list, but which can be restored. In Alma, Purge is enabled, and is only displayed on the menu list, by setting the delete_reading_list parameter key to logical. (Leganto > General > Settings). The Purge action can also be done in bulk by clicking all reading lists that you want to delete and selecting Purge from the Manage Selected drop down list. For more information about purging lists, see Enhancements to Deleted Reading Lists. For more information about deleting lists, see Working with Reading Lists.
Several dimensions and fields for Leganto Analytics that were marked as "to be deprecated" were removed.

Resolved

The Course Loader job report did not show a deleted lists event (using the Delete operation). This was fixed.
The course loader job performance has been improved.
In the Alma Citations brief display, Add Pages was hidden by default. This was fixed.
The course loader file was processing duplicate files. This was fixed.
Interface enhancements were made on the owner subscription letter.
Citation processing rules created purchase requests without fulfilling the rules. This was fixed.
For student usage, the title Total Citations was changed to Total Citations (with usage).
The direct link availability indications in the electronic citation brief were functioning incorrectly until selecting the list updated/full item view. This was fixed.
The Purge menu item was visible when logical was not selected. This was fixed.
Searching courses in Leganto functions incorrectly with course codes that contain underscores. This was fixed.
Clicking Cancel while the Leganto Question is displayed causes a Cite It! malfunction. This was fixed.
The Edition information was being populated twice when adding citations to reading lists. This was fixed.
When using Cite It!, the ISBN for https://open.umn.edu/ was missing. This was fixed.
The move_source_url does not work using Cite It! while merging metadata is disabled. This was fixed.
The list sort order on My Lists was being displayed in reverse. This was fixed.
When using Cite It!, Physical Availability of Primo citations is not displayed. This was fixed.
In the bibliographic styles configuration, the expanded reading list style cannot be disabled. This was fixed.
Click to view full note in Leganto was not translated. This was fixed.
Citations exported to EndNote maps the information incorrectly. This was fixed.
Note type citations were being set to Complete when a course was rolled over. This was fixed.
The Student View function was disabled when a list is locked. This was fixed.
The number of participants was marked as mandatory when creating a new course in Leganto. This was fixed.
No book jackets are displayed on the Search Lists link. This was fixed.

E-Resources

Enhancements

Usage data improvements: The SUSHI harvest process contains new performance enhancements. Additionally, the Missing Data tab has been renamed to the Monthly Usage Data tab. The errors on this tab are now further refined to help you troubleshoot connection. See Viewing Usage Data for additional information.
Import local extensions to Community Zone records: It is now possible to add local extensions via the import process. This is a continuation of functionality that was released in February that enables the addition of local extensions to Community Zone records. This capability is enabled through new configuration options in the Repository, Update Inventory, and New Order import profiles under Match Actions. See Community Zone linked records handling and Support for local extensions for bibliographic records linked to the Alma CZ for more information.

Resolved

Previously, there was an issue where electronic collections were disconnected from their services in the user interface. This issue was fixed.
There was an issue with duplicates created as a result of the activation job. This issue was fixed. No duplication of any type is created as a result of the activation job. The activation job will activate at once (not partially and without duplication) the desired collection from the Community Zone.

Fulfillment

Enhancements

Pop-up Messages in the Scan In Interface: You can now 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. This is defined in the Scan In Messages Configuration table. Additionally, a yellow icon is added to the list of scanned items for patron request of types Booking Requests, Physical Requests, and Patron Digitization Requests to draw the scanning operator's attention that some items have a patron request associated with them. An additional informational message was added to the Scan Items page for lost items which were returned (Lost status removed). This message appears as a feedback message and can be configured similar to all other messages in the Scan In interface to appear as a pop-up message, a feedback message, or to not appear at all. Watch the Pop-up Messages in the Scan In Interface video (2:04 minutes).
Keep Rapid ILL Requests Open: You can now define whether the Rapid ILL API will close a request that it operates on. When the Close request when exported check box is selected on the Resource Sharing Partner page, the request is closed when exported, as it has done previously, and the request status is updated to Exported to 3rd party. This is the default. When the check box is not selected, the request remains active after it is exported to Rapid, and the request status is updated to Sent to partner. This allows the request to remain viewable in Primo even though it has been exported. Requests that are left open must be manually closed.
Publishing Profile Templates for Rapid ILL: Setting up a new integration with Rapid ILL requires defining sets of lendable and non-lendable resources, as well as publishing profiles that expose that information to Rapid ILL via OAI. Defining the publishing profiles can now be made using Community Zone contributed profiles. When defining a new integration with Rapid ILL, you can now localize the Community Zone publishing profiles with the description EXL profile for Rapid ILL, and attach your defined sets to the relevant profiles. Using these templates speeds up the Rapid ILL integration process. For more information, see Alma Holdings Harvest for RapidILL.
(URM-121879) You can now configure whether the Distribute Central Resource Sharing Configuration job will distribute the value in the Shared Barcodes field on the Resource Sharing Partner page. To maintain the value locally, which is the existing behavior, set the customer parameter, rs_override_local_partner_shared_barcodes, to false. This is the default. When the parameter is set to true, the Shared Barcodes field is disabled at the local institution level and can only be updated by the network.

Resolved

In some cases, when a requested item was checked out to a patron other than the requester, the loan was not blocked. This was fixed.
On the Manage Patron Services page, the counter for the number of items renewed using the Renew All action was sometimes incorrect. This was fixed.
Previously, on the Pick From Shelf task list, marking an entry as missing did not work if the item was in a temporary location and the holding had more than one item. This was fixed.
In some cases, an item that was loaned remained on the Pick From Shelf list. This was fixed.
In some cases, when saving a rule on the Request Pickup Configuration page, an error was generated. This was fixed.
Previously, when Alma responded to a patron information request (SIP 63) at a self-check machine, if the patron's city was blank, the response (SIP 64) included a null string in the patron's address. This was fixed.
When requesting an ASRS remote storage item, sometimes the request appeared in Alma with a status of Request Communicated to Remote Storage, even though the communication with the ASRS server failed. Now, if the communication fails, Alma cancels the request with cancellation reason: Failed to communicate with remote storage.
Previously, if the Send Requests to Remote Storage Job failed after it processed the requests but before it exported the XML file to the FTP (e.g. as a result of server restart or FTP connection error), the requests were not exported but in Alma they appeared as if they were. This was fixed. Now, if the job fails, the requests will remain in Waiting for remote storage status, so that they will be handled again on the job's next run.
Previously, when scanning a barcode and request ID in the Scan In Interface, if multiple requests existed, the item was always attached to the first request in the queue. This was fixed.
Cancellation reason and note to partner limited to 4000 char only.
In some case the Reactivate row action did not display in the Resource Sharing Borrowing task list. This was fixed.
In some cases the itemShipped message contained incorrect bibliographic data. This was fixed
In some cases the Volume, Chapter, Pages fields were not sent to RapidILL. This was fixed.
In the Receive Items screen, entering a due date caused, in some cases, the item creation rule to unexpectedly run and change the location value that was manually chosen by the user. This was fixed. The location is now recalculated only in case both the item policy & location are the default values and were not changed manually.
Dynamic URL was not encoded properly. This was fixed.

Resource Management

Resolved

When saving a holdings record sometimes the 852 field disappeared. This issue was fixed.
In the Metadata Editor, after creating a new holdings for a bibliographic record on the left, replacing it with another bibliographic record on the right, and then creating another holdings using the hotkey Ctrl+Alt+H, two new duplicated holdings were created instead of one. This was fixed.
In MARC21, subfield $$e is no longer part of the matching between bibliographic and authority records for fields 800, 810 in bibliographic records and for fields 100, 110, 400, and 410 in local authorities.
When editing a record and using F3, deleted authority headings appeared. This issue was fixed. The deleted authority headings were removed.