What’s happening at your library?
- Valley City – Ben reported that the library had a de-stress week for students the week before finals with activities like crafts, a movie night, dog days, and snacks.
- Bismarck State – Lisa reported that they are doing finals stuff at the library, but nothing special. There have been some retirement parties because people are retiring at the end of the year.
- Mayville State – Kelly reported that she is trucking along and has survived the fall semester. She has also cataloged a bunch of books.
- UND – Drew reported that last week and this week they have had extended hours until 2 a.m. They have also been providing snacks for the students.
- NDSU – Jenny reported they are doing extended hours as well, providing snacks, hot cocoa and coffee. They are wrapping up the renovation of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection area and one recruitment.
New Topics:
- Alma release notes for November/December-
- New Title search interface- I reviewed this in the Alma Release notes meeting in November. There is also an hour-long webinar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxXuRjv-5Zw ) and a 7-minute staff search video (https://youtu.be/jQAqE5EjcHg )
- Interface improvements to the manage sets page: addition of labels, filters for the labels, and ability to “exclude” based on filters.
- Customize Real-Time Notifications – new notifications for when an analytics report is shared with you.
- Browse shelf listing enhancements – Author information is displayed in the browse results to help with adding cutter numbers. Call number auto-population also works for 09X fields. Read-only access was added so all users can now browse shelf listings.
- Linking to Authority Via Dropdown Menu in MDE. – A new action labeled "Open Authority headings" has been added to the Editing Action menu. Previously only available via the F3 key.
- Searching by “Language Code” now available. Based on the code in the 041 field.
- MARC21 Preferred term correction can flip headings with cross-reference in different field – previously Alma didn’t handle cases where a bibliographic heading linked to an authority record via a cross-reference, but the preferred and non-preferred terms were in different fields. (Example: the preferred term in authority field 130 and cross-reference in 410). Libraries can configure Alma to correct bibliographic headings based on authority cross-reference, updating them to the preferred term and changing the field tag in the bibliographic record accordingly. This feature is opt-in and requires configuration. Once enabled, headings updated by this new behavior appear in the Authority Control Task List under a new report type “Preferred Term Correction – Bib Heading updated and tag modified.”
- Consortia Authority Control Task List enhancement - The enhanced Consortia Authority Control Task List now includes the reporting of record changes processed in the Network Zone at the Institution Zone level, enabling corrections or modifications of such records and pushing them to the entire Consortia members' Authority Control Task List. This enhancement improves the experience for Consortia member catalogers working with authorities by reflecting Network Zone linked records reporting in each Institution Zone Authority Control Task List. When one Consortia member corrects a Bibliographic record based on such reporting, this action is reflected in all Consortia members' Authority Control Task List, ensuring that authority catalogers do not need to duplicate the same work across different institutions.
- New AI Metadata Assistance in preview mode- I reviewed this in the Alma Release notes meeting in November. There is also a 2:27 minute video (https://youtu.be/Sh7hli0uE5A)
- Discussion about whether this is helpful for ODIN because members only catalog in OCLC. This function may be helpful for local records like course reserves and equipment.
- Improved handling of bibliographic records upon physical holdings relink or deletion- now you can select how to handle the bibliographic record if it has no remaining inventory.
- Enhancements to the Upload Electronic Holdings Job Reports: Mulitmatch and missing MMS errors that were previously only available within the report’s Excel file are now displayed in the report summary. The autoholding job report now includes a link to view portfolios and bibliographic records deleted by the job.
- Update URL suffix using “change Electronic Portfolio/Collection Information jobs.”
- SUSHI – new out-of-the-box analytics report called “COUNTER Report SUSHI Harvesting Analysis with Prompt By Load File Year” found: Shared Folders > Alma > Usage via COUNTER Reports – Release 5 > Reports.
- ODIN Workdays are being planned for March – if there is something you’d like to share please let us know.
- There is interest in a session on doing inventory. Jenny and Ben have both done inventory with Alma.