Alma User Records: Importance of Preferred Addresses

Revised 4/29/2021

When a patron from your library checks out an I-Share item from another library, or walks in and checks out an item at another I-Share library, Alma copies the user's home record from your library's Alma instance to the other library's Alma instance. However, if the Address or Email Address is not identified as "preferred" in the user's home record, Alma will not copy those fields over to the copy of the user's record. This will lead to errors when the other library tries to save the record because those required fields are blank, and may prevent your patrons from successfully borrowing I-Share materials.

In addition, if a user record does not have a preferred address or preferred email address, no address information will display in their Library Card in Primo VE.

For more information on how to set preferred address/email during SIS Loads to Alma, please see the I-Share Mandatory Fields for User Records in Alma, for the section "ABOUT PREFERRED="TRUE" ATTRIBUTE."

Other SIS-related Documentation

Getting Started with SIS Synchronization in Alma

How to Create an S/FTP Definition in Alma

SIS Synchronization Troubleshooting

CARLI's SIS Validator Tool

I-Share Mandatory Fields for User Records in Alma

Patron Extract Resources