March 2021 Release - Harvard Highlights

Owned by William Walsh
Last updated: Mar 01, 2021
7 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:

General Enhancements

  • (blue star) Menu layout With this release, it is no longer possible to opt out of using the new Alma menu layout.
  • Accessibility Improvements to new menu layout
    • Recently used options in dropdown lists are now labeled with a recently-used indication. 
    • The Clear button in the search bar is now accessible by keyboard navigation and is labeled. 
    • All options in dropdown lists are now enabled to keyboard navigation, the screen reader reads the correct number of options.
    • Additional improvements

Analytics & Reporting

Enhancements

  • The following fields were added to the Fulfillment subject area:
    • The Loans (Not In House) from Resource Sharing Borrowing Request field was added to the Loan dimension. It indicates the number of not in house loans that came from a resource sharing borrowing request.
    • The Is Resource Sharing Borrowing Request Loan field was added to the Loan details dimension. It indicates if the loan was initiated by a resource sharing borrowing request.
  • The Active for Fulltext In CDI field in E-Inventory > Electronic Collection was renamed to CDI-only full text activation to be consistent with the naming style of the other CDI fields.
  • The In CDI field in E-Inventory > Electronic Collection was renamed to CDI - Available for CDI search activation to better explain the purpose of the field.

Resolved

  • The 'is equal' operator did not work for the Invoice - Approval field (Funds Expenditure > Invoice Line). This was fixed.
  • A report to identify the number of Loans, Renewals, and Returns for a certain library during a time period sometimes returns incorrect values. This was fixed.
  • Sort is not working properly for null values. This was fixed.
  • Combined reports were not working. This was fixed.
  • The Available for Group Members field (E-Inventory > Portfolio) was not populated when a cumulative field, such as No. of Portfolios (in Repository), was added to the report. This was fixed.

Acquisitions/Finance

Enhancements

  • Option to Replace Resource Associated with Electronic PO Line - When editing an electronic POL, you can now detach the existing resource and replace it with another e-resource associated with the Institution or Community Zones. In addition, the color-coded house or people icon has been added before the resource name.



  • Use Existing Bibliographic Record when Creating a PO Line via EOD Import Profile - A new radio button (Use Existing Record) was added to the Match Profile tab of EOD Import Profiles. When selected, the bibliographic record is not updated. Only the POL and inventory are created.

Resolved

  • Creating an invoice from file failed for large Excel files. This was fixed.

Alma-D

  • (blue star) For restricted objects delivered through Alma Digital (such as the Digital Reserves Program), there is an improvement to the messages displayed to the user when they cannot access the object. If they are not signed in, the note will let them know they need to be signed in. If they are signed in, and the object is in use and restricted to a specific number of users, the note will reflect that the object is in use. This will be rolled out over several days. 
  • Additional features have been added in the toolbar viewing PDFs. 


Course Reserves/Leganto

Enhancements

  • Annotating PDFs: Users can now highlight important text and add annotations in the Leganto PDF viewer, enabling students and instructors to take notes and add comments directly within their course materials. All annotations are private and visible only to the individual, and annotations are not stored on the original file, but rather, as a separate layer. This new development is available for any embedded PDF file.
  • Labels can now be imported into Leganto. For more information, see Importing Code Table UI Leganto Labels in the Alma release notes.
  • The Citation Number of Loans field was added to the Citations dimension in the Leganto Student Usage and Leganto Instructor Usage Events subject areas. It indicates the number of times the citation was loaned during the course dates.
  • You can now add or remove courses from reading lists with citations that have an approved copyright. Leganto will recalculate the copyright on a nightly job.
  • Digitization workflow: Alma will now attempt to automatically add the file to the citation at the completion of the digitization workflow, in addition to the existing notification email that is sent to the library staff that manages the list.
  • You can now configure URLs for the default thumbnails which are used when there is not a cover image. This is configured in Citation Default Thumbnails (Configuration Menu > Leganto > UI > Citation Default Thumbnails). The supported size is 100 width * 160 height.
  • Changes have been made to processing citations in bulk

Resolved

  • Some filters disappeared after editing an item in a filtered list. This was fixed.
  • The Not Marked as Read filter label was changed to Marked as Incomplete
  • The Reading List actions menu cut off when zoomed in on Firefox. This was fixed.
  • When moving from one citation to another using the next and previous buttons in the citation full view, links and availability did not refresh. This was fixed.
  • In some cases, when adding citations from Primo, the URL in the citation was corrupted. This was fixed.
  • In the analytics reports, the Origin value that previously displayed "PC" will now display "CDI" (Ex Libris Central Discovery Index).

E-Resources

Enhancements

  • Option to Replace Resource Associated with Electronic PO Line - When editing an electronic POL, you can now detach the existing resource and replace it with another e-resource associated with the Institution or Community Zones. In addition, the color-coded house or people icon has been added before the resource name.



  • Improvements to the Community Zone Update Task List - Both tabs have been enhanced to include new fields, actions, filters, and sorting abilities. In addition, the default time range has been changed to the last 30 days. Those who use the list should view the complete list of changes from Ex Libris.

  • Access to the Community Zone Update Task List from E-resource Editors - A button has been added to the Electronic Collection, Service, and Portfolio Editors for resources that appear on the CZ Update Task List.



  • New Electronic Collection Search Option - An advanced search index for Electronic Collection Content Type (Selective Package, Aggregator Package, or Database) has been added.

Resolved

  • The link to community functionality deleted the Public access model. This was fixed.

Fulfillment

Resolved

  • In Analytics, in the Fulfillment subject area under the Loan Details folder, the Loan Note field contained no data even when the loan had a note. This was fixed.
  • The number of requests under the item list in specific cases was incorrect. This was fixed.
  • Multi-item titles with many title-level requests resulted in slow loading for loans/returns. This was fixed by implementing performance improvements for scanning in requested items.
  • When the Closed Library Due Date Management policy was set to 'Move to next open day (same hour)' or 'Move to previous open day (same hour)', the Fulfillment Configuration Utility displayed a wrong loan due date time if the due date fell on a closed day. This was fixed."

Resource Management

  • (blue star) The new Metadata Editor is now the default for all MDE users. You may switch back to the old MDE if needed. Rules management is now available in the new MDE. The old MDE will no longer be available beginning in June. Please visit Metadata Editor (MDE) for more information on the new MDE. 

Enhancements

  • Rules management is now available in the new MDE. Also, you can now perform actions in the Rules area from the right-click menu in the new MDE.



  • Accessibility improvements in the new MDE
    • Ability to close the Navigation panel using keyboard, when it is opened in hover above the Metadata Editor. To close it, press Escape. Note that if a tooltip is opened in the Navigation panel, you have to press Escape twice - the first closes the tooltip, the second closes the Navigation panel. 
      navigation panel on hover.png
    • You can now navigate up and down within the lists of items in the Navigation panel using the keyboard. 
    • You can now open the Alerts panel and navigate within it using the keyboard. 
    • Unique IDs were added to Html elements of each record/template/rule in the Navigation Panel and within the Editing area.
    • The page title was set to "Metadata Editor" for screen readers.


  • Editing Tasks from Authority Control Task List in the Metadata Editor

    • Now when you review tasks in the Authority Control Task List, you can edit the relevant record directly in the Metadata Editor. To support this, a new type of set "Authority Controlled Task List" was created under Sets in the Records area. To open records in the Metadata Editor, select the desired records in the Authority Control Task List and select Edit in the row list actions, or Edit Selected above the list.  

Authority Controlled Task List in MDE.png
Watch the Edit Records from Authority Control Task List in Metadata Editor video (0:59 seconds).


  • Brief Levels in Record Header

    • The brief level indication now appears in the record header for all MARC bibliographic formats.
    • See Harvard's Alma Brief Record Levels

  • Side-by-side Editing of Primary and Searched/Browsed Records

    • Now you can view the searched/browsed record alongside your primary bibliographic record, whether on the right of the primary record, or on the left. This allows you full flexibility in how you want to display the records, while also providing easy navigation back to the search form to refine your search if needed.



Resolved

  • Binoculars icons for the linked headings disappeared. The issue was fixed.
  • Editing fixed fields via form > Edit > Exit form > the change was displayed only after clicking on the field. The issue was fixed.