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Alma- Automatic Renewals for Local and I-Share Patrons

Overview of Automatic Renewals in Alma

Webpage in progress.

Alma has the ability to automatically renew materials for patrons, when both the patron and the transaction are eligible for the renewal to occur.

  • Which user groups are eligible for auto renewals?
    • I-Share institutions may decide whether they want to offer auto-renewal for loans to their local patrons; this can be for a subset of their local patron's transactions, or, for all eligible loans to local patrons.
    • Per the guidance of the CARLI Resource Sharing Committee, as of Monday July 28, 2025, loans to I-Share patrons will be enabled for auto-renewals.
  • "Eligible for renewal" means:
    • The user record has an active patron role.
    • The user record expiration date is far enough in the future.
    • The user record is "active."
    • The user does not have blocks or exceeded limits.
    • There is a permissive auto-renewal rule that applies to the transaction.
    • The item is renewable.
    • The item has a status that allows renewals.
    • The auto-renewal calculated due date would be a date different than the current due date.
    • The transaction has not yet reached the end of the "maximum renewal period" in the governing terms of use.
    • The item does not have a pending booking request that will conflict with the renewal.
    • There are no "general errors" (from ExL documentation).
       
  • Three days before the loan due date (the three days is a consortial policy), Alma will attempt the automatic renewal.
    • If the automatic renewal is successful:
      • The patron's loan due date will be extended.
      • The patron will be emailed the Automatic Loans Renew Notice letter notifying them that their due date has changed.
    • If the automatic renewal is not successful:
      • The patron's loan due date is not changed.
      • The patron is emailed the Courtesy Letter letting them know their item must be returned within 3 days, or it will become overdue.
         
  • The auto-renewal rules contain four possible criteria (aka, input parameters) for determining which loans should be eligible auto-renewed by Alma.
    • User Group
    • User Statistical Category
    • Library
    • Location
  • The auto-renewal rules work in conjunction with the Terms of Use that governs the transaction; if the auto-renewal rule would permit the renewal, but the TOU would prevent it, the auto-renewal is prevented.

updated 6/11/2025

Documentation

FAQ

  • Will there be a maximum length of time that patrons can keep their renewed materials? I'm worried our items will be checked out forever.
    • Alma will consult the Terms of Use (TOU) that governs the loan transaction to the patron. The TOU contains a field called, "Maximum Renewal Period," which functions as the maximum length of the loan. If the "Maximum Renewal Period" contains a value, Alma will not allow a renewal that would extend the due date beyond that length of loan. It is possible to have the "Maximum Renewal Period" set to "No Maximum;" if set as such, the loan would be able to be renewed indefinitely (until another condition preventing the renewal was met).
  • How will Alma calculate the patron's loan renewal due date?
    • After evaluating that the user and the loan are both eligible for auto-renewal, and
  • What happens if another patron places a hold request on an item?
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  • What happens if another patron places a booking request on an item?
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  • What happens if library staff recall an item (such as for course reserves)?
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  • What emails/letters will the patron receive as part of this process?
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  • What suggestions do you have for encouraging patrons to read their emails?
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  • Is it possible to set auto-renewals by item policy?
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  • Will all I-Share libraries have the same auto-renewal policies for loans they make to my patron?
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  • Will the items we have borrowed through the Lender of Last Resort (LoLR) functionality be renewed?
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  • Will it be possible to prevent auto-renewals for our library use pseudo-patron accounts, such as our accounts for OCLC/Worldshare ILL loans, binding, and mending?
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Automatic Renewals for I-Share Patrons

Upcoming webinar on automatic renewals for I-Share patrons on July 2, 2025. This session will be recorded.

Additional information on I-Share patron loan/renewal transactions:

  • Loaned "print" materials- the maximum length of the loan period for an I-Share patron is 112 days.
  • Loaned "non-print" materials- the maximum length of the loan period for an I-Share patron is 28 days.

Consortial Letter Wording

 

Automatic Renewals for Local Patrons

I-Share member institutions are welcome to enable Alma's Automatic Renewal functionality for local patrons.
--Note: The CARLI Resource Sharing Committee is currently discussing/investigating this functionality for I-Share patrons; survey sent to I-Share member library staff on 11/8/2021. Enabling for I-Share patrons is on pause until the committee discusses the newly released as of November 2024 "Automatic Loans Renew Letter".

During this informal webinar, we discuss the automatic renewal functionality alongside the Ex Libris documentation, configuration settings, and known issues (as of the date of recording, 10/21/21) related to Alma's automatic renewals for local patrons.

Recording:

Documentation discussed during presentation: