Best Practice Recommendations for Named Users in I-Share

Revised: October 23, 2023

Overview

"Named Users" are active users records in Alma that have been assigned any role that can log into Alma, except for Patron, Instructor, Trial Participant, and roles that are only for Leganto (Instructor, Leganto Course Operator, and Leganto Interface Administrator) or Rialto (Selector, Selector Limited, Super Selector, Rialto Manager, and Rialto Administrator). To keep our total number of Named Users under our contractual limit and avoid any additional licensing fees, all I-Share institutions should follow the recommended best practices outlined below. See also CARLI's Named User FAQ for more information.

How many Named Users each I-Share institution should have will depend on several factors. You should have as many as you need but no more than you require to operate your library securely. Consider the following questions:

  • How many staff need to log in to Alma to perform their regular job duties?
  • How many service points does your library have for which you can create generic user accounts, especially for student workers? For example, a service point such as a circulation desk computer where the login is specific to the workstation rather than the individual worker?
  • Which tasks should be associated with a specific user vs. which tasks may be safely associated with a generic user?
  • Are there staff who only log in to Alma infrequently, and for what purpose?

Best Practice Recommendations

    1. When possible, create generic user accounts for both student positions and library staff. These accounts are to be shared by multiple users rather than assigning Alma roles directly to each user's personal Alma user record.

    • A generic user account should be assigned to specific computers at a circulation desk (e.g., circdesk1, circdesk2), or to a specific job or task that one person will be logged in to Alma to perform at a time (e.g., a bindery student assistant).
    • A generic, shared user account should not be in use (logged in to Alma) by two or more people simultaneously as that may cause data errors in Alma.
    • Exceptions for student workers that have higher level privileges or responsibilities (e.g., a student that supervises others) may necessitate the use of personal accounts with assigned roles for that user.
    • See CARLI's Best Practice Recommendations for Creating Generic Shared User Accounts in Alma for I-Share
    • Consider creating generic user accounts for library staff who do not log in to Alma regularly as part of their job duties.

    2. Use one of CARLI's Alma Sandboxes instead of creating test user accounts in your Alma IZ.

    • If you must create a test user account in your Alma IZ, use it only as long as it is needed and then clean up afterward by removing the user record or deactivating the user record.

    3. Some I-Share institutions where staff typically login to Alma via a campus single sign-on have created an internal Alma user with login credentials for Alma administrators to use as a backup in case their campus authentication system is offline.  This is a good practice, but such backup users should be limited to one or two per institution.  See CARLI's Best Practice Recommendations for Back-Up Admin Accounts in Alma for I-Share Institutions using Single Sign-on.

    4. Establish local procedures to clean up Alma user records when any staff or students leave your library's employment.

    • At the end of each semester, remove Alma staff roles of student workers who are no longer employed.
    • If the staff member leaves but retains patron privileges at your library, you may leave their user account Active with only the Patron role on the user record; remove all other staff roles from the account.
    • If the staff member has no further affiliation with your institution, deactivate the user record and prepare the user record to be purged from Alma by setting a Purge Date. 
    • Do not DELETE user records as this may affect statistical data in Analytics.

    5. I-Share institutions should review all Named Users in Alma at least once per year using the Staff Login Report and the Analytics reports to:

    Background

    "Named Users" are active users records in Alma that have been assigned any role that can log into Alma, except for Patron, Instructor, Trial Participant, and roles that are only for Leganto (Instructor, Leganto Course Operator, and Leganto Interface Administrator) or Rialto (Selector, Selector Limited, Super Selector, Rialto Manager, and Rialto Administrator). Alma pricing is based on a metric that counts titles, e-journals, and Named Users, and CARLI's license for the Ex Libris Alma software permits us a fixed number of Named Users across all I-Share institutions and the CARLI Office staff. If the number of Named Users across all I-Share institutions is over our contracted limit, this will result in additional license fees.

    I-Share institutions should use the Staff Login Report in Alma and the Analytics reports to regularly review the Named Users in their IZ and identify records that are longer needed in your institution’s Alma. Once identified, Deactivate the user record or remove the staff roles from the user record.  Each I-Share institution should conduct this review and clean up at least once per year.

    CARLI I-SHARE NAMED USER DOCUMENTATION

    Named User Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
    How to Identify Named Users
    How to Deactivate Named Users
    Best Practice Recommendations for Creating Generic Shared User Accounts in Alma for I-Share
    Best Practice Recommendations for Back-Up Admin Accounts in Alma for I-Share Institutions using Single Sign-on
    CARLI Named User Management, Office Hours recorded July 13, 2023 (28:13)