Let's Talk about Fulfillment (I mean Alma, not life's purpose) 3/12/21

Notes from this session:

New Known Issue- Borrowing Requests in "Ready to be sent" status (posted 2/25/2021)

• CARLI's Alma/Primo VE Known Issuses

Recalling material in Alma

• Newly-posted documentation: How to: Place Recalls in Alma
• The four currently-known methods for recalling an item from a patron in Alma were demonstrated.
  Those methods are:
  • Method 1: Recall the item individually as part of a reserve reading list
  • Method 2: Recall the item individually by moving it to a temporary location
  • Method 3: Recall multiple items as a set
  • Method 4: Recall the item individually as part of a work order
• Summary of why recalls work how they do in Alma:
  • We don't allow Patrons to recall items from other patrons; only staff are permitted to recall items. 
    • In the Alma loan Terms of Use (TOU), there is a setting for Policy Type: Is Recallable. This setting determines whether patrons are able to recall material from other patrons and does not affect whether library staff are able to recall material, and as such, it must be set to No Recall.
  • To allow staff to do recalls, but not allow patrons, we had to make decisions during implementation. (This was easier in Voyager, we hid it in the catalog. In Alma, we couldn't do the same thing.)
    • When an item is moved to a temp location using one of the 4 methods above, then the recall will be triggered. 
    • Just applying a temp location within the item record will NOT cause a recall.
  • To change a patron's due date on a recalled item, staff must manually adjust the patron's due date. Directions are in the How to: Recalls in Alma documentation.

When you recall material as a set, can you change the all of the item due dates as part of that job?

• Unfortunately no, it must be done manually per item.
• Alma's Bulk due date change is not granular enough to work on a specific set of items either.

When will we know about whether we will have another term loan period beyond the current May 7 period?

• We will be asking ResShare Committee for input about making another term loan for I-Share patrons. If they decide yes, new loans would get new term loan, but existing loans would have to be renewed on purpose to get new term loan.
  • If your institution is keeping local loan periods in tandem with I-share, we'll probably know next week if a new term is going to be applied.
  • If you'd like to go back to using your own loan periods, you can; CARLI Office can help you get that set up if you send an email to CARLI support.

Is staff-initiated I-Share requesting a feature on the horizon?

• Through Primo VE, no.
• Through Alma, yes- directions are available on the How To: Staff workflows for Alma Requests- Local and AFN under the sub section, "Staff workflow for Placing Requests on Behalf of a Patron."
• We did a demonstration of placing a request on behalf of a patron in Alma. A few reminders:
  • When adding the requester to the patron physical request form, be sure to choose the user from the dropdown provided. If you go too fast or don't choose, Alma will not provide you with pickup locations in the form.
  • When you apply the Rota, it picks a random institution first (might not even own it) to display. Once you save, the Rota will do its work to find an institution that owns the item.
  • If you choose to Add Partner, you can select a specific institution for Alma to send the request too as first in the rota.

What if you forget to choose a rota when creating a request? What happens with the request?

• We tested two examples live and both appear to have successfully been assigned to a library that owns it; Alma seems to know to apply the default rota.

How can I verify that I registered for the webinar on the 16th?

• You should receive a confirmation email from the system, but CARLI staff can always double-check for you.
• Note after session: If you try to register again with the email address you think you would have used, the registration page will alert you if that email address has already registered.

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. All sessions are listed on the CARLI Event Calendar.