Ex Libris Documentation

 See the Ex Libris monthly notes for complete details: 

• Alma February 2023 Resolved Issue Notes
• Leganto February 2023 Release Notes

Acquisitions/Finance

Enhancements

• • Staff can now include activation notes in the Electronic Resources Activation Task List. An activation note is added to the PO Line of an e-resource and displayed in the activation task list to provide the person activating the resource with relevant information or instructions to the person activating, similar to a receiving note for a physical resource. NOTE: activation notes can only be created from the new layout of the PO Line task list, but they are displayed regardless of which layout is being used. 

Resolved

• • Advanced search for PO Lines by PO Status did not work correctly when a Vendor Code was also included in the search criteria or in a facet. This work correctly now.
  • Receiving items for a PO Line for multiple copies of the same item caused all items in the PO line to be received, even if some had already been received. Previously received items that were on loan or in transit were "received" again and the loan or transit was cancelled. This is fixed. 

Alma-D

Enhancements

• • The Internet Archive Book Reader (used for 3-hour digital reserves) now supports right-to-left paging when reading books in right-to-left languages. Contact LTS to have this feature activated. 

Analytics

Enhancements

• • The new Alma Analytics user interface (UI), which is already available at Harvard as a early adopter site, will be released to all other Alma customers. Enabling the new Analytics UI is optional. See Introduction to the new Analytics user interface in Alma on the Analytics & Reporting Working Group wiki for Instructions on enabling and navigating the new Analytics UI. You may also wish to view Ex Libris' short video on YouTube:  New Interface for Analytics in Alma video (5:28 minutes).
  • The Electronic Collection Bibliographic Details dimension was added to the E-Inventory subject area. The fields of this dimension enable you to create reports that contain information concerning the bibliographic details of electronic collections. This is especially useful for reports concerning collections without portfolios. The fields of this dimension are the same as in the Bibliographic Details dimension found in many subject areas with an added prefix of E-Collection Bib. For more information, see Electronic Collection Bibliographic Details. Watch the Bib Details of E-Collections in E-Inventory Analytics Reports video (1:20 minutes).
  • The names of the Fund Ledger dimension and the following field names were changed to remove the word Ledger from their name to more accurately describe the information they display. The term Fund Ledger refers to a parent fund, while these fields display information at both the parent and child level. Note that any existing reports that use the old field names continue to work.

    • The changed dimension and field names are located in the Funds Expenditure, Purchase Requests, Physical Items, and E-Inventory > Cost Usage subject areas.

      New Name	Old Name
      Fund (Dimension)	Fund Ledger
      Fund Code	Fund Ledger Code
      Fund ID	Fund Ledger ID
      Fund Name	Fund Ledger Name
      Fund Status	Fund Ledger Status
      Fund Owner Code	Fund Ledger Owner Code
      Fund Owner Name	Fund Ledger Owner Name
      Fund Name	Fund Ledger Name
      Parent Fund Code	Parent Fund Ledger Code
      Parent Fund ID	Parent Fund Ledger ID

  • The names of the following fields in the Fund Expenditure subject area were changed to clarify that they display the name of the user:

    New Name	Old Name	Dimension
    Invoice - Approver Name	Invoice - Approved By	Invoice Line
    License Modifier Name	License Modified By	PO Line License
    License Creator Name	License Creator	PO Line License

  • The Statistical Category field (Users > Statistics) now displays the statistical category description and not the statistical category code. Any report filters that are based on the statistical category code may need to be updated.
    Watch the Additional Analytics User Statistics video (1:16 minutes).

Resolved

• When a report was created with the Primary Identifier field, not all of the Barcodes were displayed. This was fixed.

Course Reserves/Leganto

Enhancements

• • You can now search Reading lists by List ID in Alma. For more information, see Reading List Search Fields.

  • Analytics updates:

    • For consistency and clarity, the Brief Display Request Status label is now labeled Citation Status to match the Citation Status facet label and the data in analytics.

    • The List Last Set to Complete Date field was added to the Reading Lists dimension in the Leganto Student Usage, Leganto Instructor Usage Events, and Course Reserves subject areas. It displays the most recent date that the reading list was set to complete.

    • The Citation Hidden Links field was added to the Citations dimension of the Leganto Student Usage and Leganto Instructor Usage Events subject areas and the Reading List Citations dimension of the Course Reserves and Purchase Requests subject areas. It indicates if there are hidden links in the citation.

    • The Reading List Type field was added to the Reading Lists dimension in the Leganto Student Usage, Leganto Instructor Usage Events, and Course Reserves subject areas. It indicates if the reading list is designated as the parent list. Possible values are Parent and blank (no value).

    • In addition, the names of the Article Number of Pages, Article Start Page, and Article End Page were changed to Number of Pages, Start Page, and End Page.

    • The No List Expected field was added to the Course dimension in the Leganto Student Usage, Leganto Instructor Usage Events, Course Reserves, and Requests subject areas. (Possible values: Checked and Unchecked). It indicates if the No List Expected checkbox is selected on the course record in Alma or not. For more information on this checkbox, see Indicating that Courses Deliberately Have No Reading List.
  • Libraries that are reusing reading lists can now reset the request for a review date, making it easier to monitor submitted reading lists. The Reading List Bulk Update job (Admin > Manage Jobs and Sets > Run a Job) Reset options now includes an option to Reset request for review. When the Reset request for review option is checked, the Current Request for Review, Review Requester, and Initial Request for Review columns on a reading list are reset.

Resolved

• • The hide toggle button was missing for physical items. This was fixed.

E-Resources

Enhancements

• • There are two new fields in the Portfolio Editor that allow staff to control the availability of portfolios automatically at a pre-defined date. 
    • Available from date  (when the portfolio will become automatically available)
    • Available until date (when the portfolio will be automatically set to not available)

You can use this to set a date when the portfolio will become available, when the portfolio will become not available, or a date range in which the portfolio will be available. This is particularly useful for instances where you purchase an electronic collection where you buy 1 year of access for selected titles. These fields are also available to be changed via job. 

• • The "Service Temporarily Available" messages now have a field for "Display unavailable message until date" allowing Alma users to set a date where the Temporarily Unavailable message will expire and no longer appear in Primo/View It.

Fulfillment

Enhancements

• • Additional Parameters for Automatic Loan-Renewal Rules: Two powerful new types of parameters can now be used in configuring automatic loan-renewal rules.
    
    • Locations: Location-based auto-renewal parameters make it possible to create distinct rules for locations within individual libraries.
    • Statistical categories:  Employing statistical categories as parameters in automatic loan-renewal rules makes it possible to fine-tune auto-renewal rules for the various types of patrons served by the institution.  
    • See Configuring Automatic Loan-Renewal Rules.
  • User-defined statistical categories can now be used as input to fulfillment-unit rules. See: Physical Fulfillment. 
  • It is now possible for each institution to customize the list of request-cancellation reasons that appears in the dropdown list of reasons when cancelling requests like holds. The list of cancellation reasons can be edited at Configuration menu > Fulfillment > Request Cancellation Reasons. For additional information, see Configuring Request Cancellation Reasons.

Resource Management

Enhancements

• • Alt Key can now be used to access all menus in the new MDE. 
    • Watch the Alt Key Shortcuts for Metadata Editor Menus video (58 seconds). 
    • Pressing Alt will assign a number to each menu, then you can press that number to open the menu. Use the up/down arrow keys to navigate the open menu.