February 2022 Release - Harvard Highlights

Owned by William Walsh
Last updated: Feb 16, 2022
4 min read

Ex Libris Documentation

Harvard Alma working groups have summarized key updates below. See the Ex Libris monthly notes for complete details:

General Information

  • The Alma sandbox will be refreshed on February 13, 2022.
  • (blue star)Alma will move to a quarterly update schedule for new features following the May 2022 release
    • August 2022 will be the next feature release after May. 
    • Monthly releases for performance issues and bug fixes will continue.
    • See the FAQ from Ex Libris for additional details.

Alma-D

Enhancements

  • You can now view a list of the patrons in a waitlist for a representation and remove them from the waitlist or move them to the top. To support this feature a Waitlist tab now appears in the Digital Representation Editor for a representation with an active waitlist.
  • For PDFs, Navigation arrows were added to the Alma Viewer for images displayed in Full Screen mode to allow you to navigate between the images of a representation.

Analytics & Reporting

Enhancements

  • You can now request (by submitting a FootPrint to LTS Support) that data visualization projects be added to the Analytics menu in Alma. The DV object will be visible under the Data Visualizations section when selecting Analytics. For more information about how to use Data Visualization, see An Introduction to Alma Analytics Data Visualization (DV). 
  • Permanent Call Number field was added to Titles > Title Details. (It already exists at Physical Items > Holding Details). This field displays the call number used to file items on the shelves of the library.
  • Renewal Note field was added to the PO Line dimension for every subject area in which it appears. It displays the note of the PO line renewal for continuous orders.

Resolved

  • In the Cost Usage subject area, the usage data matched two bibliographic records that have the same title but are from different platforms. This was fixed.
  • In the Purchase Request subject area, when adding the Purchase Request Modified By or Purchase Request Creator fields to a report, only a small number of results appear. This was fixed.
  • The PDF of a scheduled report did not include all of the lines of the report. This was fixed.

Acquisitions/Finance

Enhancements

  • Improvements to PO line pricing section
    • Physical lines now include the Update Net Price according to item quantity checkbox. When enabled, the Quantity for pricing amount and Net Price fields are automatically updated when items are added/removed. This field is enabled by default for PO lines not created by EOD or API. (The checkbox is no longer enabled by default due to feedback from users after discussion at the February 2022 TSWG.)
    • PO lines now include a Discount (amount) field. If used, the value will be used to automatically populate the Discount (%) field.
    • Watch the video (~2 minutes) from Ex Libris about these changes.
  • The Alma roadmap for acquisitions has been updated. The second half of 2022 will focus on UX improvements to PO line workflows.

Resolved

  • Fixed issue where the EDI Load Files job still appeared activate in the Monitor Jobs > Scheduled tab after a vendor was deleted.

Course Reserves/Leganto

Enhancements

  • Customers can now add their own citation material types to Leganto (Configuration > Fulfillment > Courses > Citation Material Type). The new types are displayed as part of the Type drop-down menu.
  • The Citation Alma Digital Views field was added to Course Reserves > Reading List Citations and Leganto Student Usage > Citations. It indicates the number of digital citation views during an active course.

  • When marking a link as broken, users now have the option to add a comment to provide more information about the link. (NERS 7208). For more information, see Enabling Broken Link Reporting.

  • Cite It Improvements: made more clear that the Cite It! button can be dragged to the browser toolbar. The process of installing Cite It! did not change, only the design of the window. Additionally, we added an icon for Cite It! 

Resolved

  • In some cases, an unneeded electronic link was displayed. This was fixed.
  • Previously, long annotations did not display properly. This was fixed. 

E-Resources

Enhancements

  • Flexible Scheduling Options For Automatic Upload Of Electronic Holdings Jobs - The Upload Electronic Holdings jobs for Ovid, Elsevier, and Springer are now scheduled randomly to improve stability. 

  • The Alma roadmap for electronic resource management has been updated. The Overlap Analysis Tool will be improved in the second half of 2022 to include physical titles.

Fulfillment

Nothing of note

Resource Management

Enhancements

  • Physical holdings search - Advanced search now available. Watch the Advanced Physical Holdings Search video (1:57 minutes). It is based on a new concept of condition-writing using a query builder, which offers a more convenient and user-friendly user interface, and the ability to easily write complex queries. 
  • The Browse Shelf List tool now has a larger input box for call number allowing you to see the entire string: 

Resolved

  • New MDE
    • Deleting record default option changed from no to yes. This was fixed; the default option is "No".