Let's talk about Fulfillment (I mean Alma, not life's purpose) 10/30/20

Let's talk about Fulfillment (I mean Alma, not life's purpose) 10/30/20

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Friday, October 30, 2020 - 2:00pm to 3:30pm

During this session held on Friday, 10/30, topics of discussion included:

  • Reminders:
    • Notes are posted from each session in the event page.
    • November Release will be on 11/1/2020.
      • After November Release, the new UI will be turned on by default for everyone.
        • Individual staff can be opted out until March 2021; retrieve their user record and uncheck the "Enable New Layout" under the User Management Information section.
    • Newer documentation on CARLI website:
    • Voyager and SFX will be turned off at end of day on 10/30/2020. See the Office Hours from 10/22 for more details.
       
  • Upcoming Fulfillment Updates; email sent 10/28/2020:
    • During the first week of November, CARLI Staff will plan to make these updates to each I-Share library’s Alma Fulfillment Configuration:
    • Upcoming steps for re-enabling Overdue Notices:
      • During the first two weeks of November, CARLI staff will provide each I-Share library with reports of transactions in Alma that library staff should review before the overdue notices are re-enabled.
      • Starting the first week of December, CARLI staff will start working with each I-Share library to review and adjust their Overdue and Lost Loan rules, double-check the wording of the associated letters, and enable to Overdue Notices job.
      • Reminder: CARLI staff will NOT enable the Alma fulfillment jobs, rules, and settings that cause either local or I-Share patrons to be further fined, billed, or blocked until we can begin more “normal” circulation operations again.
    • Overdue fines and Processing Fees end January 1, 2021; complete form by November 10:
      • Each I-Share library should complete this form by November 10, 2020 to indicate whether you will edit your Alma policy settings to eliminate overdue fines and lost material processing fees, or if you would like the CARLI staff to do this work on your behalf. If you do not currently charge overdue fines and/or processing fees, please check those responses on the form.
    • Update on plan for ILLINET libraries:
      • November-  CARLI staff will:
        • Finalize the setup, testing, and workflows to allow the ILLINET libraries access to placing requests from I-Share member libraries.
        • Prepare documentation to help I-Share library staff know how to identify and work with those requests.
      • December, assuming the final steps of testing go as planned, CARLI staff will:
        • Present a recorded training session for I-Share library staff on working with ILLINET library requests.
        • Provide I-Share libraries with directions on how to merge any local-staff-created ILLINET records into the CARLI-managed home records, if an I-Share library has locally-created records for ILLINET libraries during this interim. This will allow ILLINET libraries to see all of their I-Share charged materials on a single account.
        • Work with the ILLINET libraries to collect current contact information including email addresses to prepare to provide the ILLINET library staff with the usernames and passwords needed.
      • Early 2021:
        • ILLINET libraries should be able to begin placing requests from I-Share libraries.
    • Accommodating winter break closures in Alma:
      • More details will be forthcoming.
         
  • How to limit a user group to be allowed only local request pick-up; examples, community patrons and alum that are not I-Share eligible:
    1. Locate the appropriate fulfillment unit for the materials that should be able to be requested.
    2. Consider:
      • which user groups at your institution,
      • should be able to request which materials from those locations included in that fulfillment unit,
      • for pick-up at which locations/institutions.
    3. Where each Voyager matrix entry covered both the loan and the request policies for a patron type/item type combination, in Alma, how a patron can check out which items is in the Loan Rules, whereas the permissions for a patron to request material for pick up at which locations is in the Request Rules.
      • Each Request Rule has input parameters (location, user group, item policy/item type) that determine the conditions for when each output parameter should be applied (Terms of Use, aka set of policies).
      • Many I-Share libraries can simplify their Request Rules and Request Terms of Use significantly from the rules created as part of the migration to Alma. For example, an institution NOT doing digitization in Alma may only need:
        • Default terms of use (not requestable)
        • NZ Request TOU (consortial terms of use for I-Share patron group)
        • Local patrons- pick up only in item's owning library (example: main branch item only requestable for pick up at main branch)
        • Local patrons- pick up in any local library (example: main branch item requestable for pick up at main branch or any other local library such as USPS mail library or law library, not eligible for I-Share pick-up)
        • Local patrons- pick up at an I-Share library, or any local library (example: main branch item requestable for pick up at any local branch or at any I-Share library)
      • If interested, email CARLI Support and CARLI Staff will be happy to review your library's settings with you in a Zoom call, make sure your policies in Alma match your policies in day-to-day operations, and help to condense TOUs/Rules where appropriate.
         
  • When troubleshooting unexpected behavior of a Terms of Use, you may need to double-check all the way down to the Advanced Policy Configuration level.
    • In Alma> Configuration> Fulfillment> Physical Fulfillment> Advanced Policy Configuration, it is possible to edit the Policy Name, but, if the associated value is not updated to match the name change, the behavior is not updated to match.
       
  • We received an I-Share item through delivery that Alma would not let us check out to the patron; how did this happen?
    • Since Alma handles the checkout permissions for a transaction in the "Loan Rules" and the requesting permissions in the "Request Rules" in the fulfillment unit, it is possible that the Request Rule is permissive to allow a patron to request an item, but then the Loan Rule is non-permissive and does not allow the patron to have the item checked out (without staff override in some cases, or, without contacting the item's home library for that override in other cases).
    • Ideally, if an item is requestable, it should also be able to be checked out by the patron who has requested it.
       
  • Group discussion and review of the Alma> Fulfillment> "Monitor Requests & Item Processes" list:
    • Fulfillment> Resource Sharing> Borrowing Requests - lists what your PATRONS are up to. This list includes requests your patrons have placed for I-Share items (and your library's local items?)
    • Fulfillment> Resource Requests> Monitor Requests & Item Processes - lists what activity your institutions' ITEMS are up to.
    • Discussion topics about Monitor Requests & Item Processes
      • Facets can be helpful for limiting the list to specific workflows, date ranges, or tasks
      • Places to see the item's history:
        • Locate result in the list> Ellipse for the title> View Audit Trail
        • Copy item barcode into a Physical Item Search> Locate the title in the result> Ellipse for the item> "Items"> History tab, then "Item changes" or "Fulfillment activities."
      • REMINDER: Anonymization of transactions is not turned on in Alma at this time; we are waiting to enable it until we have some of the bugs worked out in the system, and that we understand how transactions are recorded in Analytics. While you can see patron information for past tranasctions at this time, this will not always be the case.
      • If an item has been "in transit" in Alma for a long time (longer than the extended quarantine processes would expect):
        • Check shelves at your institution; perhaps it missed part of a scan in process.
        • Contact last library (local or I-Share) where the item was processed to ask them for a shelf check.
        • Send an email to the ILDS-IG email list with the title, author, barcode, and call number to ask for a shelf check.
      • The Acquisitions process in Alma may expect materials to be scanned at a Circulation desk before reshelving.
      • Libraries on the call this week plan to review their "Monitor Requests & Item Processes" list to see if materials can be located; if not, they will send shelf-check requests to other libraries/ILDS-IG if appropriate, and email CARLI support with information about items in unexplained statuses.
      • Some materials are in a "Workflow Step Status" of  "Undefined" status in the Monitor Requests & Item Processes?
        • If the location is RES_SHARE, that is an Alma workflow step, where when your patron places a request for another I-Share library's item and that other library fills the request, Alma creates a temporary bib/item in the RES_SHARE library while the item is in transit. One the real item arrives, Alma automatically deletes that temporary item from the RES_SHARE library.
        • Libraries will review other items that have a workflow status of "Undefined" to see if we can determine other reasons.
           
  • Should the Fulfillment Job "Requests - Handle Expiration Step" be turned on at this time?
    • Yes, it should be on for all I-Share libraries.
       
  • Discussion on when to use "Scan in Items" vs "Return Items":
    • When unpacking purple bags for incoming materials, even if the item has been in delivery for a long time, use Scan in Items.
    • When taking an item off of a patron's account (aka discharging), you can Return Items.
    • For clearing the hold shelf, use the appropriate "Transit" links as denoted in the Best Practices: Alma Hold Shelf Maintenance directions.
    • Libraries will watch for scenarios when using either Scan in Items, or Return Items works as appropriate, vs, causes problems.
       
  • Pop-up notes in Alma- a warning
    • If you are scanning multiple items to process, and one of those items generates a pop-up note on the screen, staff need to address the pop-up note before scanning the next item.
    • This issue is the same as one we had in Voyager- many barcode scanners are set to automatically "enter" after the scan. If you receive a pop-up note on screen when scanning a first item, and you do not manually address a pop-up note from the first item, when you scan the second item, the scan of the second item will address the pop-up note. But essentially, since the "enter" from the second scan cleared the pop-up note, it then did NOT perform the intended action for that second item.
       
  • How to enable the "Loan Letter" and the "Discharge Letter" for patrons.
    • In Alma Configuration> select the library level configuration> Fulfillment section> Circulation Desks> select the circulation desk.
    • Under the Printing Information section:
      • Creates return receipts checkbox- check or uncheck
        • Return receipt destination: User preferred email or Circulation desk printer
      • Creates loan receipts checkbox- check or uncheck
        • Loan receipt destination- User preferred email or Circulation desk printer
    • Remember, to generate the Loan receipt, you need to select the "DONE" button for the fulfillment transaction.
    • To generate a return receipt, attendees were uncertain whether the return needed to be completed from within the patron's fulfillment activity screen, or, whether the Fulfillment> Return items also generated the letters, or Fulfillment> Scan in items. Some testing on this would be great!
       

Additional sessions of "Let's talk about Fulfillment (I mean Alma, not life's purpose)" are scheduled/have occurred.
Please register for future sessions if interested, or review past sessions for the discussion notes: