November 2022 Release - Harvard Highlights

Owned by Maureen Elizabeth Driscoll
Last updated: Nov 02, 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: 


Analytics & Reporting

  • Enhancements

    • NLM Classifications Added to Alma Analytics. NLM Classifications sub-folder is added to the Other Classifications dimension in all subject areas in which it appears to support creating reports containing the classification codes of the National Library of Medicine. NLM Classifications contains the NLM Classification Code, NLM Classification Number, and NLM Group 1-5 fields, taken from the 060 or 096 fields of the bibliographic record.

    • Oracle Analytics Server Updated to Latest Version. From September to November, OAS (Oracle Analytics Server) will be gradually updated to its latest version (6.4) in our data centers. This version includes includes many long-standing OAS bug fixes allowing a more streamlined user experience for Analytics Designers using OAS, as well as some UI improvements and additional functionality. For more information, see New features in OAS 6.4 for Alma and Primo Data Visualization.
    • Bibliographic Details dimension, common to many subject areas, was added to the Digital Waitlist subject area to enable you to create reports with the fields of this dimension.
    • The Service Auto-Activates Portfolios field (Y/N) was added to E-Inventory > Portfolio. It indicates if the option to automatically activate new portfolios when they are added to a service is configured. For more information, see Managing Electronic Resources.
    • The name of the Receiving Note field was changed to Receiving/Activation Note to better describe the information displayed by this field in the PO Line dimension for every subject area for which it appears.
    • The Additional Notes field was added to Borrowing Requests > Borrowing Requests Details and Lending Requests > Lending Requests Details. It displays the notes added under the Notes tab for the borrowing request or the lending request. This field is separate from the Notes field that displays the notes added under the General Information tab.
    • The following fields were added to the Bibliographic Details dimension for all subject areas for which it appears:
      • General Note
      • Local Note
      • Subject (Names)
      • Series Statement
      • Electronic location and access
    • The following out-of-the-box reports were added for the Fulfillment subject area:
      • Fulfillment Network - Loans by guest patrons per library
      • Fulfillment Network - Local items loaned at another institution
      • Fulfillment Network - Requests by source (AFN and Manual) and pickup location (Local and Remote)
    • The Library Code and Library Description fields were added to the Block and Notes dimensions of the Users subject area. These fields enable you to filter reports according to the library.


  • Resolved

    • The number of rows that were possible to export in formatted Excel format was limited. This was expanded to 1,000,000 rows.

Acquisitions/Finance

  • Enhancements

    • The Set content type that was previously called PO Lines is now called Order Lines. 

Course Reserves/Leganto

  • Enhancements

    • The Course Visibility field was added to the Courses dimension in the Course Reserves, Leganto Student Usage, and Leganto Instructor Usage subject areas and the Request for Course dimension of the Requests subject areas. It indicates if the course is archived or unarchived.

    • You can now archive courses in Alma, enabling your library to reduce the amount of data you view in Alma without deleting historical information. Archived courses are still available for reference purposes, and you can view statistical data on archived courses via Alma Analytics. Courses can be archived and unarchived individually or in bulk. An Archive action is now included in the course action list to easily archive a single course. Marking a course as archived immediately filters the course from the current course list visibility, removing it from view.


  • Resolved

    • The Resize divider bar did not work when viewing citations in full view or when editing a citation. This was fixed.

E-Resources

  • Enhancements

    • The Extended Export functionality in the Alma portfolio loader, now supports the export of portfolios with multi-coverage. The exported file is structured and formatted so that it is suitable for use in the portfolio loader. The portfolio loader loads all of the date ranges for the various coverages and does not require the user to manually update multi-coverage portfolios.

    • Each Community Zone Collection now has 2 new indicators:

      • Usage - how many times the Community Zone collection/portfolio was activated.

      • Region - From which region this collection was activated from. The three main regions are Asia Pacific; Europe, Middle East, and Africa; and North America & Latin America

Fulfillment

  • Enhancements

    • The next-generation Alma UI design is now activated by default for the Borrowing Requests and the Lending Requests task lists. Individual users can opt-out to use the previous version of the layout during this quarter.  For more information about opting into using the new UI for features for which it is available, see Opting In or Out of a New Feature. Watch the New Resource Sharing Task List video (3:34 minutes).
    • To assist librarians in evaluating copyright, the Edit > Copyright Attributes tab now includes a field for Copyright percentage. This field auto-populates when the Required Pages and Resource Total Pages contain values. The Copyright percentage field enables librarians to clearly determine the percentage of pages requested for a resource.

  • Resolved

    • Previously, when a work-order request or transit request was created by scanning an item, the description field was not included in the request details, despite this option being enabled. This was fixed; the description field is now filled in as it should be.

Resource Management

  • Enhancements

    • Physical holdings index search now includes pattern levels of enumeration. (This will take effect after November re-indexing is complete). 
    • Alma now includes additional scheduled times in the Import Profiles job scheduler.

  • Resolved

    • 1st indicator of fields 630 and 730 (non-filing characters) was not considered during authority control. This was fixed. The existing data will be fixed after the reindexing job of the November release is completed.

Alma-D

  • Enhancements

    • The Universal Viewer and IIIF Manifest now support the display of captions for video files. (We are not currently exposing this viewer but if you have a need for it please contact LTS. Currently videos use the Alma viewer.)