LibGuides: Page 1+ Alma &amp; Primo Guide: New Features Releases

New Features Releases - OCLS Recommendations

May 2024 Alma/Primo VE New Features

OCLS has reviewed the new features and identified the following features that may be useful to colleges. Please note that some features may need to be turned on or configured. If you need assistance, please email helpdesk@ocls.ca.

To view the full list of new features for Alma and Primo VE, see this Alma page and this Primo VE page.

New Feature	Description
Acquisitions Quick Ordering from Amazon	With the new Order It! browser add-on, Alma users can easily create an order automatically in Alma directly from Amazon.
Acquisitions Enhancements for Sending POL Information with EDIs	When sending the "Quantity for pricing" for electronic PO Lines, the actual quantity in the PO line is sent. In addition, the Access Model now appears as an option that can be selected for sending with the EDI.
Acquisitions Improvement to Usage Report Performance	COUNTER files are now manually loaded by a background job. In addition, the "Allow data overlap" checkbox was added to give users more flexibility for handling data duplication.
Analytics and Insights Springshare Integration with Alma	Alma Analytics now offers integration with Springshare Gate Counts and Reference data.
Analytics and Insights New Limited Design Analytics Roles	New design analytics roles are now available that give the user access to specific subject areas only.
Analytics and Insights Limited Anonymization of Report Details	There is now an option to anonymize all user details except for these fields - First Name, Last Name, Primary Identifier, and Email.
Digital Resource Management Digital Titles No Longer Require Collections	Digital titles can now be created and maintained without being part of a collection.Institutions will need to contact Ex Libris support to enable this feature.
Digital Resource Management Multi-Language Captions Now Available	This feature allows users to configure captions in multiple languages for video files.
Electronic Resource Management Automatic Upload Electronic Holdings Updates	Automatic upload of Electronic Holdings now available for JSTOR Books and Preselect (KBART formatted holdings file). Automatic upload of electronic holdings from Project Muse expanded to unclude gratis content. Taylor & Francis autoholdings will transition from ISSN/ISBN matching to a unique key matching approach to decrease the instances of multi-matches that require manual activation of portfolios.
Electronic Resource Management New General Note Advanced Search Option Added to the Electronic Collection Search	Notes tab - General Notes (Electronic Collection) and Notes tab - General Notes (Service) have been added as Electronic Collection advanced search options.
Metadata Management and Primo VE Indexing the Full Call Number for Search and Browse	This feature, supported by the semi-annual re-indexing will enable users to perform repository searches and browse for complete call numbers.
Primo VE Additional Enhancements - New Linking Template for InfoBase	A new template has been added to the Custom linking for Central Index databases page to support InfoBase collections.
Primo VE Add "Exclude CDI Resource Types" Option to CDI Scopes	An Exclude resource types option has been added to the Define CDI Search Scope - Resource Types page when editing a CDI search profile.
Primo VE Translate Letter Names for Patron Opt-In/Out in My Library Card	Libraries that enable patrons to opt in/out of receiving letters, can now configure Primo VE to have the letter names translated.
Primo VE Showcase Carousel Enhancements	Several improvements have been made to the Showcase Carousel: instructions on how to embed the Showcase Carousel in Primo VE sites, the number of carousel items has been increased, local thumbnails are now supported, and accessibility improvements have been made to the display.
User Experience, Accessibility, and Infrastructure Support Parallel Work in Multiple Tabs in Internet-Browser	This feature enables users to work on multiple workflows in the same Alma environment through multiple tabs.
User Experience, Accessibility, and Infrastructure Scheduling Support for Manual Jobs	A new scheduler is implemented for scheduling periodic or one-time jobs.

November Alma/Primo VE New Features

OCLS has tested the new features and identified the following features that may be useful to colleges. Please note that some features may need to be turned on or configured. If you need assistance, please email helpdesk@ocls.ca.

To view the full list of new features for Alma and Primo VE, see this Alma page and this Primo VE page.

New Feature	Description	Notes
Acquisitions – Fund Editor – Expended and Encumbered Balances as Links	Links to a list of related orders to see which PO lines caused encumbrances and expenditures on the fund balance	There are many enhancements and changes in Acquisitions for this working in this area to review
Administration and Infrastructure – New Digital Adoption Tool	Starting with this release, Ex Libris is gradually deploying Pendo	This tool must be configured for use
Administration and Infrastructure - Added Option to Edit User from Alma User Card	Staff can access user details directly from a task list through a linkable username
Analytics – New ‘Configurations (Limited)’ Subject Area	This subject area enables you to create reports to answer business questions related to Fulfillment policies and Terms of Use
Digital Resource Management – Display of Microsoft Office Documents Now Supported by Digital Viewer	Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents now supported
Electronic Resource Management – Average MARC Record Quality Measured in CZ Collections	Bibliographic ranking now available for CZ collections
Electronic Resource Management – Link Resolver Usage Added to Portfolio Search Results	A counter showing how many times patrons were shown the portfolio’s service vs. how many times they clicked through using the link resolver
Physical Resource Management – Option to Append to Existing Note Field in the Job Change Physical Items	This is useful for adding a note to all items in a set without erasing previous notes
Physical Resource Management – Running Jobs on Physical Holdings Sets	Simplifies the process when having to manage physical holdings only
Primo VE – Enable Users to Filter or Expand Citation Trail Results	Can be configured to include CDI collections that did not have access to full text	This feature needs to be enabled when configuring views.
Primo VE – Preserve the Formatting of Citations Copied from Primo (NERS #8157)	The Citation export action now saves the citation to the clipboard in Rich Text Format (RTF) and retains the citation’s formatting when copied to Word documents. When using a text editor such as Notepad, the text is copied without formatting
Resource Management – Creating Itemized Physical, Digital and Electronic Title Sets Using MMS ID	Previously, MMS ID could be used only when creating All Titles itemized sets

August Alma/Primo VE New Features

To view the full list of new features and resolved issues/bugs, see this Alma page and this Primo VE page.

New Feature	Description	Notes
Primo VE Resource Recommender - Enhanced Search Capability	Resource Recommender now supports the following enrichments so that the search query does not have to exactly match the searchable tag to display the matching recommendations: synonyms, inflections, stop words, and words ordered differently from searchable tag.	For existing resource recommendations, indexing is required, The next full indexing is planned for the beginning of August.
Primo VE Display Document Attributes for CDI Records	CDI document attributes provide more information about the type of record and complement the existing resource types.	This functionality is disabled by default.
Primo VE Display Item Policy in Get It	You can now display the Item Policy in Primo VE. This information displays in Primo VE only if the Item Policy field is configured in Alma's Physical Item Editor.	This functionality is disabled by default.
Primo VE My Library Card Improvements	This enhancement enables users to view all library notices and choose whether to receive them or not.	This functionality is disabled by default.
Acquisitions Rollout of the New Layout for the PO Lines Task List	The next-generation Alma UI design is now available for the PO Lines task list. In this release, individual users can opt-in to try out the new task-list layout, or continue using the classic version of the layout.	This feature needs to be enabled.
Resource Management Metadata Editor Enhancements: Undo Remove, Cut and Paste Field Actions	Previously, the removal of fields from a bibliographic record could not be undone. A new functionality called "Undo Remove, Cut, Paste Field" is introduced that enables catalogers to undo such actions.	This feature is applied automatically.
Resource Management Match on Title Type Option Added to the Import Mechanism	Alma's import mechanism was enhanced to include the option to match on the title type - electronic or physical.	This feature needs to be enabled.
Resource Management Control the Ability to Ignore Title Based Link Resolving	Currently, when Alma gets an open URL from Primo, it tries to find resources according to three main methods: Match by identifier; Match by title and author; Search by title only ("Fuzzy Match"). Institutions now have the option to avoid "Fuzzy Match" attempts.	This feature needs to be configured.
Administration and Infrastructure Regenerate Public Key in S/FTP Profile	Previously, the Public Key associated with an S/FTP profile remained static and could not be updated or refreshed. However, this constraint has now been rectified, and users can now refresh the Public Key	This feature will be applied automatically.
Digital Resource Management Logical Collections	You can now assign titles to collections automatically based on a logical query instead of assigning them manually.	This feature needs to be configured.
Fulfillment - Course Reserves Search for Citations Within a Reading List	You can now search for a citation within a reading list in Alma by keyword, citation ID, creator, etc.	This feature will be applied automatically.

May Alma/Primo VE New Features

To view the full list of new features and resolved issues/bugs, see this Alma page and this Primo VE page.

New Feature	Description	Notes
Acquisitions Editable Lines in Closed Invoices	It is now possible to edit certain fields in the lines of closed invoices. This allows institutions to handle data corrections caused by manual errors.	This feature will be applied automatically. It can be disabled.
Analytics Change to Analytics New Layout Rollout Schedule and Known Issues	The schedule of the phased rollout of the new analytics user interface was changed. There are several known issues regarding scheduling reports when moving to the new analytics interface.	This feature needs to be enabled currently, but will be applied automatically in August.
Fulfillment Anonymization of Notes in Requests and Other Records	It is now possible to delete Notes as well as other patron information from closed loans, fines and fees, requests, and resource-sharing requests.	This feature needs to be configured.
Resource Management Semi-Annual Re-indexing	During May, the semi-annual re-indexing will be run. Features or resolved issues that require re-indexing to be fully functional will be addressed by the May semi-annual re-indexing.	This feature will be applied automatically.
Resource Management Bibliographic Ranking in Metadata Editor and Record View	Alma now evaluates the completeness and richness of MARC 21 bibliographic records. This is reflected in a new Bibliographic Rank, meant to provide a helpful tool for libraries to identify records that may need attention.	This feature will be applied automatically.
Resource Management Searching Records by Bibliographic Rank	A new search option for titles is added to aid libraries in identifying records within a specific range of the new Bibliographic Rank that require attention.	This feature will be applied automatically after the completion of the May se-annual re-indexing.
Electronic Resource Management Community Zone Updates Task List to Include Indication Regarding Collection Level Management	This is for institutions to see what the planned changes are to CZ content. This enables institutions to prepare in advance for any potential change which has an impact on the institution’s electronic CZ linked inventory.	This feature will be fully functional only after the completion of the May semi-annual re-indexing.
Physical Resource Management New and Generic Physical Items Material Types	An increased range of physical material types, including generic options that institutions can customize according to their requirements.	This feature can be customized.
Administration and Infrastructure User's Role Profiles Now Recorded in Account Notes	It is now possible to find all users to which a particular role profile was applied in the past. A logical set of these users can also be saved, and used as input for the Update/Notify Users job, which can update the roles assigned to the users in the set.	This feature will be applied automatically.
Primo VE Support Customization of Resource Type Mapping	It enables you to customize the mapping of system resource types in Primo VE.	This feature can be customized.
Primo VE Support Exact Phrase Only Searches in Advanced Searches	Previously, the Is (Exact) Advanced Search option for Author, Title, and Subject field searches returned results that included the exact phrase, but it could also contain other words. With this enhancement, the name of the Is (Exact) Advanced Search option has been changed to Contains exact phrase. And there is a new Equals exact phrase Advanced Search option that returns results that contain only the exact phrase for Author, Title, and Subject field searches.	This feature needs to be configured.
PrimoVE Resource Type Filter Bar	It enables a new resource type filter ribbon that appears under the basic search box to allow users to filter their results by resource types.	This feature needs to be enabled and configured.

February Alma/Primo VE New Features

To view the full list of new features for Alma and Primo VE, see this Alma page and this Primo VE page.

New Feature	Description	Notes
Resource Management Using Normalization Processes When Creating Inventory and POL Using Import Profiles	It is now possible to use a dedicated normalization process in the import profile to update the data used in inventory and POL mapping. For example, a library may remove the currency information from the List price field, or add a temporary location information to the field mapped to items. The normalization will only be applied for inventory and for PO Lines, and will not be part of the record when saved to the catalog	This feature will be applied automatically.
Resource Management Assign cataloguing level to imported records	Ability to work with cataloguing levels when importing	This feature will be applied automatically.
Resource Management Alt Key Menu Keyboard Shortcuts in New Metadata Editor	It is now possible to access the menus in the new MDE using a keyboard. This is especially useful for catalogers that rely on keyboard shortcuts in their work.	This feature will be applied automatically.
Resource Management Show List of All External Resources Instead of a Search	Alma enables the option to show all available external resources. This allows users to browse through all resources.	This feature will be applied automatically.
Primo VE Support "Starts With" Option for Call Number Searches	For advanced searches, users can now use the Starts With option to search for holdings call numbers. Previously, this option was enabled only for title searches.	Must be configured.
Primo VE Separate Form Description for Booking Requests	With this enhancement, you can now display different descriptions for the Requests and Booking Requests forms.	Must be configured.
Primo VE Increase Maximum Number of Conditions for Local Resource Types	This enhancement enables you to define a maximum of five conditions per local resource type instead of four conditions	This feature will be applied automatically.
Primo VE Remove Google Bot Statistics from Analytics	With this enhancement, Beacon calls generated by Google bots are no longer tracked in Primo VE Analytics	This feature will be applied automatically.
Fulfillment Additional Parameters for Automatic Loan-Renewal Rules	Two new types of parameters are now available when configuring automatic loan-renewal rules: Locations and Statistical Categories. The Locations parameter allows distinct rules for locations to be created. The Statistical categories parameter is primarily used for analytical reports.	This feature will be applied automatically.
Fulfillment User Statistical Categories as Parameters in Fulfillment-Unit Rules	User-defined statistical categories can now be used as input to fulfillment-unit rules.This feature makes it possible to use these statistical categories to define patrons' privileges for fulfillment services.	This feature will be applied automatically.
Fulfillment Request-Cancellation Reasons Now Customizable	You can customize the list of request-cancellation reasons that appears in the dropdown list of reasons when cancelling requests like holds or resource-sharing borrowing requests.	This feature needs to be customized.
Electronic Resource Management Electronic Service - Expiry Date Option for the Service Temporarily Unavailable Message	Within the Electronic Service Editor page, a new field Display unavailable message until date allows Alma users to set a date where the Temporary Unavailable message will expire and no longer appear in the View it.	This feature will be applied automatically.
Acquisitions Activation Notes in Electronic Resource Activation Task List	Activation notes are now included in the Electronic Resource Activation Task List. This enables the person creating the PO line to provide relevant information or instructions to the one activating it.	This feature will be applied automatically.
Analytics New Analytics User Interface	The Alma Analytics user interface was redesigned with several enhanced features that improve the display of information and simplify procedures and workflows.	This feature will be applied automatically.
Analytics Electronic Collection Bibliographic Details	The Electronic Collection Bibliographic Details dimension was added to the E-Inventory subject area. This enables users to create reports that contain information concerning the bibliographic details of electronic collections. This is especially useful for reports concerning collections without portfolios.	This feature will be applied automatically.

November Alma/Primo VE New Features

To view the full list of new features for Alma and Primo VE, see this Alma page and this Primo VE page.

New Feature	Description	Notes
eResource Management Portfolio Loader/Export - Support Split Coverage	When using the Extended Export function, the exported file now supports the export of portfolios with multi-coverage. The exported file is structured and formatted so that it is suitable for use in the portfolio loader.	This feature will be available automatically.
eResource Management Enable the Improved ProQuest Ebook Central Upload Electronic Holdings	Improved process - more up-to-date with increased frequency of synchronization, supports the activation of Subscription titles, includes indication of purchase model, automatic activation from CZ	Colleges who are already using the PQ EBC Upload Electronic Holdings integration, and would like to utilize the improved one, please contact Ex Libris Support.
eResource Management Usage Reflection for Community Zone Collections	Each Community Zone Collection now has 2 new indicators: usage and region. This enables users (that browse the Community Zone in order to activate resources) to better understand which resource is most suitable for activation.	This feature will be available automatically. The information regarding the number of activation(s) and region(s) is refreshed every week. The information is reflected in the Community Zone collections search results only.
Fulfillment - Course Reserves Simplify the Data Managed in Alma Using Course Archiving	You can now archive courses in Alma, enabling your library to reduce the amount of data you view in Alma without deleting historical information. Archived courses are still available for reference purposes, and you can view statistical data on archived courses via Alma Analytics. Courses can be archived and unarchived individually or in bulk.	This feature will be available automatically.
Analytics Primo Discovery Subject Area	The new Primo Discovery subject area allows you to track the number of titles indexed for Primo VE	This enhancement will be available automatically.
Analytics New Fields Added to the Bibliographic Details Dimension	Added fields: General Note, Local Note Subject (Names), Series Statement, Electronic location and access	This enhancement will be available automatically.
Analytics New Out-of-the-Box Reports	Added reports: Fulfillment Network - Loans by guest patrons per library; Fulfillment Network - Local items loaned at another institution; Fulfillment Network - Requests by source (AFN and Manual) and pickup location (Local and Remote)	This enhancement will be available automatically.
Analytics New Fields Added to Block and Notes Dimensions of the Users Subject Area	Added fields: Library Code, Library Description	This enhancement will be available automatically.
PrimoVE Share Export Action	The Share export action has been added to the Brief Display, Full Display, and My Favorites pages to allow users to share records with other users using social media applications (WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn).	This feature needs to be enabled and can be customized.
PrimoVE Give Us Feedback Improvements	Support the configuration of if email address and description fields are mandatory or optional on the Give Us Feedback form. Support the configuration of feedback managers per category. Support the customization of the Feedback icon and Send button. Support the ability to add links to the Give Us Feedback dialog box via directives.	This applies to colleges who are already using the Report a Problem widget. This feature needs to be enabled, and can be customized.
PrimoVE Provide Warning Message when Guests Add to Favorites	Guest users will now receive a message when adding records to favorites to let them know that these records are temporary and last during the session only.	This feature needs to be enabled, and can be customized.
PrimoVE Provide Direct Linking from Full Record	Users can be taken directly to the full text of the first entry in the “View Online” section, instead of being taken to the “View Online” section first.	This feature needs to be enabled.