July 2024 Release - Harvard Highlights

Owned by Avery Clements
Last updated: Sept 23, 2024 by Lauren Syer

Ex Libris Documentation

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

General

Enhancements

Acquisitions / Finance

Enhancements

Resolved

  • Due to a problem in the process that ensures data is not inadvertently duplicated, Counter 5 data was not reported correctly in Analytics. The problem was fixed, and Counter 5 data is now reported accurately in Analytics.

Analytics & Reporting

Enhancements

  • Data Type and Section Type Added to Usage Data (COUNTER) Subject Area idea exchange Idea Exchange

The Data Type and Section Type fields were added to Usage Data (COUNTER) > Usage Data Details Release 5. They display the section type and data type of the COUNTER master reports and allow users to differentiate between journal titles and eBook titles.
Data is available from COUNTER reports that are loaded from July. To have historical data available, you must load the reports manually. For more information, see Usage Data Details - Release 5.

  • (blue star) You can request that Ex Libris define local parameters under the Bibliographic Details dimension and the under Physical Items > Holdings Details. From this release, only the local parameters that are enabled and have labels defined for them appear in Alma analytics. This prevents fields that are not in use from being displayed. For more information, see Local Param 1-30 and Holding Local Param (1-10).
  • The Action Note field was added to the Bibliographic Details dimension for all subject areas in which it appears and the Holdings Action Note field was added to Physical Items > Holdings Details. These fields display information about the retention and the retention reason of the bibliographic and holdings records. For more information, see Action Note and Holdings Action Note.
  • The Source of Description Note field was added to the Bibliographic Details dimension for all subject areas in which it appears. It displays a note used by the Community Zone with details on AI enrichment. For more information, see Source of Description Note.
  • The Loan Due Date dimension was added to the Borrowing Requests (Resource Sharing) subject area. It contains several date related fields that enable you to create reports concerning the date that the patron must return the item to the library. For more information, see Loan Due Date.
  • The Preservation Status field was added to the Bibliographic Details dimension for all subject areas in which it appears. This field is relevant for customers with Rosetta and indicates the preservation status of the title in Rosetta Plus/Pro. For more information, see Preservation Status.

Resolved

  • When deleting an Analytics object with subscribers, no warning is displayed that the object has subscribers. This was fixed, and now a warning is displayed.
  • The Item Receiving Year-Month field in Physical Items > Item Receiving Date did not work properly. This was fixed.
  • The values of the Available for Group field (E-Inventory > Portfolio) in Analytics reports did not match the actual group settings in Alma. This was fixed.

Course Reserves/Leganto

Enhancements


E-Resources

Enhancements

Resolved

  • Some changes in the Electronic Collections, Services, and Portfolios level are not recorded in the History tab. This was fixed by adding the Counter platform to the History tab in Electronic Collections and Portfolios, thus recording all changes on each level ‘Collection, Services, and Portfolios‘

Resource Management

Enhancements

  • (blue star) Authority Control - new rule implementation
    • Using a new configuration option, Alma will compare not only the content of the subfields used for matching, but also the subfields themselves. For example, bib heading ‘700 $$a Shakespeare, William, $$d 1564-1616 $$t Tragedies’ will no longer match against authority record with ‘100 $$a Shakespeare, William, $$d 1564-1616 $$x Tragedies’. Because the match won't occur, the heading will not be flipped. 
    • The is one of two rule options we have configured. For all of our rule settings and options see Authorities and Authority Control Task List#Harvardconfigurationandoptionssupported
  • (blue star) Browse Bib Headings. Several changes are being made that require re-indexing and these will show up later in July.
    • Re-inclusion of $t in name headings
    • Previously, it was possible for a single line in the heading list to represent a group of bib headings even if some of the headings were linked to different authorities, or not linked at all, and the tab on the right showed only 1 of the linked authority records. Now, a heading will be repeated if some instances link to different authority records or are not linked (due to lack of subfields etc.). 
      • Before example: 
      • After example: 


    • You can leave the Source Code field blank, and the results will show where the heading appeared. 


      • Before example: 


      • After example (note the parenthetical after each term)