Alma/Primo VE News and Highlights FYE 2023

Katie Utschig
From:
Sent:
To:

Subject:

QUICKLINKS
ALMA
Cloud App – Import CSV of
Users
Annual Data Clean-up

Katie Utschig
Tuesday, July 5, 2022 10:47 AM
Abbie Joranger; Ann Owen; Ben Teel; Carol Eberhardy; Carol Mittag; Christian Himsel;
Craig Mueller; Dan Vinson; Don Scholzen; Dyan Barbeau; Hannah Schmidt; Jac Sinclair;
Jason Palmer; Jena Sales; Jennie Bartholomew; Jenny Baker; Jenny Pinterics; Jerry
Dutscheck; Julie Gates; Katherine Pietrantonio; Kathleen Sielaff; Kathy Harty; Kathy
Malland; Katie Utschig; Larry Duerr; Lori Gleed; Marijo Zielinski; Mark Schrauth; Maureen
Schinner; Michelle Rekowski; Molly Ostendorf; Nancy Siker; Neal Bogda; Ryan Parker;
Sara Shutkin; Sarah Klippel; Sebastian Black; Yang Zhuo; Krause, Debra J.;
maria.becker@cuw.edu
Alma/Primo VE - News and Highlights - July 2022

PRIMO

ANALYTICS
Analytics - Purge Older
Reports

OTHER
SWITCH Day

ALMA
Cloud App – Import CSV of Users
This cloud app allows you to load a CSV file and Add or Add/Update users. If you currently manually load users
(rather than sync with your university’s student information system), you may want to take this approach
instead of having SWITCH load an XML file on an FTP server. If you want to explore this option, please submit a
ticket to support@switchinc.org.
(Return to Quicklinks)

Annual Data Clean-up
July is a great time to clear up data problems that have crept into Alma during the previous school year. You
can find the reports by going to Analytics and clicking Catalog. The path for the reports is Shared
Folders/Community/Reports/Consortia/Switch Consortia/SWITCH Recommended Clean-up. If you click Ctrl
Open, you can run the report in a new tab. Each report has a description that explains why you should bother
running it.

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(Return to Quicklinks)

ANALYTICS
Analytics Clean-Up
Another area that needs attention is cleaning up old analytics files. I mentioned this a few months ago and
really want to encourage everyone to make it a priority this month. Please review all reports in the shared
folders.
For example, everything in the Mount Mary University and Wisconsin Lutheran College
01SLCO_MMWLC/Reports should be reviewed by expanding each folder.

and then reviewing each report to determine if you need it. The preview feature can give you an idea of what
the report results look like:

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Clicking on Properties tells you when it was last run:

If you decide you want to retain a report, please add DO NOT DELETE, the date, and your initials.

3

If more than one person uses a report, they should add their initials so that when we review the reports again
next year, we can be sure to retain something until the last person who uses it no longer wants it.

In August, I plan to go through and delete any report that does not have DO NOT DELETE at the start of their
Properties. This will include reports in shared folders that have a person’s name on them. I will send out a
reminder in the August newsletter before purging reports.
Let me know if you have any questions.
(Return to Quicklinks)

OTHER
SWITCH Day
SWITCH Day is fast approaching. We are excited to have an in-person event at Wisconsin Lutheran College.
Details:
Thursday, July 28, 2022
8AM-1PM
Continental Breakfast and Boxed Lunch provided. Please use the following form to indicate your lunch
preference and dietary restrictions:
https://forms.gle/mMAA8kobo2VAqVv4A
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Lunch orders are due by noon on July 18, 2022!
(Return to Quicklinks)

Katie Utschig

Consortium Coordinator
SWITCH Library Consortium
c/o 3401 South 39th Street
PO Box 343922
Milwaukee, WI 53234-3922
Office# 414-382-6710
Cell# 414-214-0134

5

Katie Utschig
From:
Sent:
To:

Subject:

Katie Utschig
Friday, August 5, 2022 1:02 PM
Abbie Joranger; Ann Owen; Ben Teel; Carol Eberhardy; Carol Mittag; Christian Himsel;
Craig Mueller; Dan Vinson; Debra Krause; Don Scholzen; Dyan Barbeau; Hannah
Schmidt; J Palmer; Jac Sinclair; Jason Palmer; Jena Sales; Jennie Bartholomew; Jenny
Baker; Jenny Pinterics; Jerry Dutscheck; Julie Gates; Katherine Pietrantonio; Kathleen
Sielaff; Kathy Harty; Kathy Malland; Katie Utschig; Larry Duerr; Lori Gleed; Maria Becker;
Marijo Zielinski; Mark Schrauth; Maureen Schinner; Michelle Rekowski; Molly Ostendorf;
Nancy Siker; Neal Bogda; Ryan Parker; Sara Shutkin; Sarah Klippel; Sebastian Black;
Shannon Stroud; Yang Zhuo
Alma/Primo VE - News and Highlights - August 2022

The August Quarterly Release is just around the corner. Over the next three newsletters, I will highlight some
of the best new features from this release.
QUICKLINKS
ALMA
NERS Enhancements

PRIMO
Funnel all Article Requests through Resource
Sharing

ANALYTICS

OTHER
SWITCH Day
Video

ERM Webinars
Item Retention
Indicator
Resource Sharing –
New UI
Customizable User
Form

ALMA
NERS Enhancements – Coming to an Alma near you
IGELU (International Group of Ex Libris Users) manages NERS (New Enhancement Request Service) which
annually promotes higher-level enhancements on behalf of the Alma community. Any member of ELUNA can
submit an enhancement request and each member can participate in two rounds of voting to winnow down
the proposed slate of enhancements. The results of this year’s voting are in, and some look quite promising.
Although it may be several months before we see these rolled out in Alma, some things we can look forward
to from this year’s NERS process are:
 Task List for Resource Sharing – Ready to be Sent
 Ability to customize cancelation reasons (previously we have had to submit a ticket to Ex Libris to
customize these)
 Adding Does not Contain and Does not Equal conditions to repository title and inventory searches
 Additional improvements in letter editing functionality. It is already significantly better than when we
first went live with Alma, but these enhancements promise to make it easier than ever to fine-tune our
patrons’ notices.
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

Dynamic collections – This enhancement will allow you to build collections (not electronic collections)
based on either a logical set (i.e. a query) or an itemized set. Logical set collections will be repopulated
based on the query. This is the ultimate in “set it and forget it” and is ideal for libraries that want to
visually highlight materials in Primo. For example, MIAD uses Collection Discovery to promote the new
books purchased that year. With a collection built on a logical set, this collection will be continuously
updated without any staff intervention to reload titles from a set.

(Return to Quicklinks)

Manage Electronic Collections Webinar Series
Whether you are new to Electronic Resource Management or have been doing it for years, you will probably
find value in a new webinar series from Ex Libris that begins on August 17 th. Because developing a set of best
practices for ERM is one of our SWITCH goals for FY23, I plan to attend each webinar and distill some of the
highlights. However, I encourage anyone working in this area to register as well. Click below to find
information about all the sessions and register for any/all of them:
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Training/Webinars/Managing_Electronic_Resources
Please note that in shared instances, our best practice may deviate from the workflows depicted in this series.
For example, we manage proxy and distributed access in the Group Settings in the collection service.
(Return to Quicklinks)

Item Retention Indication for Managing Collaborative Collections

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With the August quarterly release, the Alma item record will now contain a section for item retention details.

If an item has been marked for retention, attempts to withdraw the item will be blocked.

There are several retention reasons provided OTB, but they can be customized. Moreover, the retention
setting and reason can be added to items in bulk (e.g. if you previously used internal notes to indicate that an
item should be retained, you can create a set and run a job to batch add the setting to the set of records). If
you would like assistance in running a bulk job or modifying the retention reasons, please submit a ticket to
support@switchinc.org.
(Return to Quicklinks)

New UI for Resource Sharing Borrowing and Lending Requests Task Lists
Ex Libris has developed a new UI for Resource Sharing that can be enabled after the August release. The new
UI includes multi-select facets, a two-pane display, and options for in-line editing. I encourage anyone
managing the Resource Sharing queues to watch the following short video and transition to the new UI on
Monday to start taking advantage of the new interface as soon as possible: https://youtu.be/TsSmP-K5XYI
(Return to Quicklinks)

Create/Edit User forms now customizable
For those who participated in the migration to Alma, you may recall that many of us wished we could have a
cleaner user record with only the fields we needed. Now that wish will come true with the August release. In
user configuration, we will now have the ability to determine by Alma instance which fields to display (as well
as which fields to require) in a simple table. This will allow us to drastically reduce the number of fields from
something like this:
3

to something like this:

This feature does not interfere with user records that are loaded through an integration with your Student
Information System, but it should make it easier for any patrons you enter into Alma manually. If you would
like assistance, streamlining the new user form, please submit a ticket to support@switchinc.org.
(Return to Quicklinks)

PRIMO
Funnel all article requests through Resource Sharing
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It is possible to present your patrons with a single request button for articles in Primo (whether you have
physical inventory to fulfill the request or not). This is done by setting your library up as the first library in your
Resource Sharing rota and then using Display Logic Rules to hide the digitization and general digitization
request options in Primo. You can relabel the Request from another library to something like “Get This For
Me.” Then when your patrons discover an article they want (whether you can fulfill it or not), they will see a
simple button to “Get This For Me.”

The request will come into your borrowing queue. If you have inventory for the source publication, Alma will
identify your library as a lending partner. You can then send the request to yourself so that it appears in your
borrowing queue.
Benefits:
 Clean interface for patrons
 Consistent article request fulfillment statistics because all the requests come through resource sharing
Cost:
 Some extra steps because you have to send the request from your borrowing queue to your lending
queue
 In the lending queue, you may have to locate the source and then manage the fulfillment options to
get the request on your Pick From Shelf queue. (NOTE: If you are inclined to just jot down the citation
and grab the material yourself, you could bypass these extra clicks and just ship digitally from the
Resource Sharing Lending queue).
If you think the benefits outweigh the costs, please submit a ticket to support@switchinc.org. Libraries in
shared instances would have to agree on the label of the Resource Sharing Request button, but they can
operate independent workflows.
(Return to Quicklinks)

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OTHER
SWITCH Day
Special thanks to all who could attend SWITCH Day last month. We had a great ½ day at Wisconsin Lutheran
College and even got to enjoy our lunch outside at the picnic tables. This year we were celebrating the 35 th
Anniversary of the consortium. I have loaded the commemorative power point show on the wiki for those
interested in learning about the history of the consortium. You can download it from here:
http://switchlibraries.pbworks.com/w/file/150004392/SWITCH%2035%20Years%20of%20Collaboration.ppsx
(Return to Quicklinks)

Katie Utschig

Consortium Coordinator
SWITCH Library Consortium
c/o 3401 South 39th Street
PO Box 343922
Milwaukee, WI 53234-3922
Office# 414-382-6710
Cell# 414-214-0134

6

Katie Utschig
From:
Sent:
To:

Subject:

QUICKLINKS
ALMA
Alma Certification

Katie Utschig
Wednesday, September 7, 2022 11:27 AM
Abbie Joranger; Ann Owen; Ben Teel; Carol Eberhardy; Carol Mittag; Christian Himsel;
Craig Mueller; Dan Vinson; Debra Krause; Dyan Barbeau; Hannah Schmidt; J Palmer; Jac
Sinclair; Jason Palmer; Jena Sales; Jennie Bartholomew; Jenny Baker; Jenny Pinterics;
Jerry Dutscheck; Julie Gates; Katherine Pietrantonio; Kathleen Sielaff; Kathy Harty; Kathy
Malland; Katie Utschig; Larry Duerr; Lori Gleed; Maria Becker; Marijo Boushon; Mark
Schrauth; Maureen Schinner; Michelle Rekowski; Nancy Siker; Neal Bogda; Ryan Parker;
Sara Shutkin; Sarah Klippel; Sebastian Black; Shannon Stroud; Stritch Reference; Yang
Zhuo; rallison@shsst.edu
Alma/Primo VE - News and Highlights - September 2022

PRIMO
Bookmarklets

ANALYTICS

OTHER
Credo Information Literacy
Tutorials

Resource Sharing Lending –
Download Electronic
Resource
RIALTO – E-book invoicing
Improvements
Cataloging - Ctrl + Shift + C ;
Ctrl + Shift + V

ALMA
Alma Certification

Have you ever wanted to up your game in Alma or want to learn more about how certain processes are managed on the
back end? If so, you might want to take advantage of what Ex Libris dubs their “fully re-designed Alma Administration
Certification kit on the Customer Knowledge Center, and a new certification exam in the Ex Libris Academy.”
(Return to Quicklinks)

Resource Sharing Lending – Download Electronic Resource
The new Resource Sharing Lending Queue now has a great menu option to “Download Electronic Resource” if
Alma has found a match in your electronic inventory. This feature used to be “hidden” under Manage
Fulfillment, but now it is much more explicit and handy.

1

Clicking on the menu option will open a services page

Clicking on the hyperlink opens the resource on the appropriate platform where you can download a PDF of
the article

2

Then you can “Ship Item Digitally”

This interface is now the same as the Fulfillment>>Resource Requests>>Deliver Digital Documents and the
upload speed is considerably faster than it used to be

3

Voila! The request is complete.
RIALTO – Ebook invoicing Improvements

Rialto libraries will be migrating to a new order/invoicing system sometime in the next 12 months. Your library will get a
4-week notification when its migration is set to begin. The new system will unlock some great new features:
 All platform orders will be combined into a single invoice
 Option to mark an invoice as paid when ProQuest receives payment (you still need to send the invoice to your
business office)
You can review all the details here:
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Rialto/Release_Notes/Release_Notes_2022/August_2022_Release#Rialto_Orderin
g_and_Invoicing_for_Electronic_Orders
(Return to Quicklinks)

Cataloging - Ctrl + Shift + C ; Ctrl + Shift + V

New hotkeys in the MD-Editor allow you to rapidly copy/paste whole fields in the MD Editor. This can be especially
helpful if you want to add additional subject tracings in Alma. Rather than having to Add a Field and then add the Marc
Tag, Indicators, and Subfields, you can start with an existing field that is close to what you want and then just edit the
field to save the content you want.
(Return to Quicklinks)

PRIMO
Bookmarklets
Bookmarklets are browser bookmarks that include code that allows you to dynamically change your current
browser URL or complete a URL with information you provide in a prompt.
For information on how to create a bookmarklet AND the code for some bookmarklets used by the Ex Libris
community, please check out this SWITCH wiki page:
http://switchlibraries.pbworks.com/w/page/150170277/Bookmarklets. I am always happy to help you set
these up during a site visit. Just submit a ticket to support@switchinc.org and I will add it to the list of things
to do on my next visit.
(Return to Quicklinks)
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OTHER
Credo Reference
Those who attended SWITCH Day will recall that Dyan gave a demonstration of Credo Information Literacy
Core, a highly flexible way to provide information literacy tutorials that can be branded for your institution
and readily embedded in your course management software. Here is a link she has provided to the product:
https://corp.credoreference.com/collections/instruct.html
Here is a link to experience one of the modules first-hand:
https://frame.credocourseware.com/courses/course-v1:Cardinal-StritchUniversity+Core+Core/course/
(Return to Quicklinks)

Katie Utschig
Consortium Coordinator
SWITCH Library Consortium
c/o 3401 South 39th Street
PO Box 343922
Milwaukee, WI 53234-3922
Office# 414-382-6710
Cell# 414-214-0134

5

Katie Utschig
From:
Sent:
To:

Subject:

Katie Utschig
Monday, October 3, 2022 8:11 AM
Abbie Joranger; Ann Owen; Ben Teel; Carol Eberhardy; Carol Mittag; Christian Himsel;
Craig Mueller; Dan Vinson; Debra Krause; Dyan Barbeau; Hannah Schmidt; J Palmer; Jac
Sinclair; Jason Palmer; Jena Sales; Jennie Bartholomew; Jenny Baker; Jenny Pinterics;
Jerry Dutscheck; Julie Gates; Katherine Pietrantonio; Kathleen Sielaff; Kathy Harty; Kathy
Malland; Katie Utschig; Larry Duerr; Lori Gleed; Maria Becker; Marijo Boushon; Mark
Schrauth; Maureen Schinner; Michelle Rekowski; Nancy Siker; Neal Bogda; Rachael
Allison; Ryan Parker; Sara Shutkin; Sarah Klippel; Sebastian Black; Shannon Stroud;
Stritch Reference; Tara Kron; Yang Zhuo
Alma/Primo VE - News and Highlights - October 2022

This month, I just wanted to highlight a few Primo enhancements:
 Add reCAPTCHA technology to the Report a Problem/Feedback Tool
 Sort subjects alphabetically
 Display Access Model in View It
PRIMO
Add reCAPTCHA technology to the Report a Problem/Feedback Tool
If you have enabled the Feedback Tool to give patrons an easy way to report problems with links or other
issues, you can now incorporate reCAPTCHA technology to prevent spam or abusive use of the tool.

If you wish to add this feature to your Report a Problem/Feedback Tool or you have not previously
incorporated this tool on your Primo site and want to learn more, please submit a ticket to
support@switchinc.org.
(Return to Top)

1

Support Alphabetic Sort of Subjects in Record's Full Details
If you prefer that your subject tracings appear in alphabetical order, a simple configuration change in Alma will
change this

To this

Simple change Configuration>>Discovery>>Other>>Customer Settings from false to true

NOTE: This setting is by institution so please check with your partner library if you are in a shared instance.
(Return to Top)

Display Access Model information in View It
If you purchase electronic resources, you can indicate the access model for the resource in your purchase
order
2

With a newer configuration setting in Configuration>>Fulfillment>>Discovery Interface Display Logic>>Other
Settings you can enable the display of the access model for your end-users in Primo

The access model will display below the interface name

A translation table in Configuration>>Acquisitions>>Licenses>>Access Models allows you to tailor the phrase
used to describe the access model.
If you would like help in setting this up, please submit a ticket to support@switchinc.org.
NOTE: This setting is by institution so please check with your partner library if you are in a shared instance.
(Return to Top)

Katie Utschig

Consortium Coordinator
SWITCH Library Consortium
c/o 3401 South 39th Street
PO Box 343922
Milwaukee, WI 53234-3922
Office# 414-382-6710
Cell# 414-214-0134

3

Katie Utschig
From:
Sent:
To:

Subject:

Katie Utschig
Friday, November 4, 2022 4:55 PM
Abbie Joranger; Ann Owen; Ben Teel; Carol Mittag; Christian Himsel; Craig Mueller; Dan
Vinson; Debra Krause; Dyan Barbeau; Hannah Schmidt; J Palmer; Jac Sinclair; Jason
Palmer; Jena Sales; Jennie Bartholomew; Jenny Baker; Jenny Pinterics; Jerry Dutscheck;
Julie Gates; Katherine Pietrantonio; Kathleen Sielaff; Kathy Harty; Kathy Malland; Katie
Utschig; Larry Duerr; Lori Gleed; Maria Becker; Marijo Boushon; Mark Schrauth; Maureen
Schinner; Michelle Rekowski; Nancy Siker; Neal Bogda; Rachael Allison; Ryan Parker; Sara
Shutkin; Sarah Klippel; Tara Kron; Yang Zhuo; Sebastian Black
Alma/Primo VE - News and Highlights - November 2022

November is a major release month for Alma/Primo, but I will be introducing features from this release over the
next few months. Here are the highlights I am sharing this month.
QUICKLINKS
ALMA
SAML Certificate Update
Resource Sharing - New UI

PRIMO
Quick Links

ANALYTICS
Loan Aging
Widget

OTHER
Update Query String in
EBSCO

Report a Problem

RIALTO – Tasks in Alma
Widget
RIALTO - Additional Facets

ALMA
SAML Certificate Update
If your patrons authenticate through SAML and your university requires a signed certificate, Ex Libris will be
issuing signed certificates twice a year. A self-signed certificate exists that would obviate the need to update the
certificate twice a year, but that call is made by your IT department. If your IT department should decide to
switch to the self-signed certificate, please have them contact Jason (jpalmer@switchinc.org) directly.
(Return to Quicklinks)

Resource Sharing - New UI
I suspect most of you have already enabled the new Resource Sharing UI, but if you have not, it will now be
active by default. You can toggle back to the old UI until February by clicking on the person icon and selecting
Features Rollout Configuration.

1

and then toggle this off

(Return to Quicklinks)

RIALTO – Tasks in Alma Widget
With the November Release, you will now be able to see Rialto tasks in your unified Alma Task Widget.
RIALTO - Additional Facets
The November release also includes the ability to facet your order history by electronic inventory by platform.
This will be very useful if you purchase eBooks from multiple platforms.
PRIMO
Quick Links
Additional vendors support Quick Links now, including Alexander Street, JSTOR, Project Muse, and Taylor &
Francis. If you have Quick Links enabled, you will find more and more e-Resources with the Get PDF icon in your
brief results.

(Return to Quicklinks)

Report a Problem Form – Additional Improvements
We can now make email address and description mandatory fields on the Report a Problem form in Primo VE
AND we can assign different categories of problems to different email addresses. If you have Report a Problem
2

configured and want to take advantage of these new features, please submit a ticket to support@switchinc.org
and let me know.
For those of you who have not yet enabled report a problem, patrons access it by clicking the “!” icon in the
lower right corner.

We have seen plenty of evidence that end-users do report these problems if it is easy enough for them to do so.
The fact that this icon is available on both search results AND in individual Primo records ensures that they can
always let you know if something has gone awry and that the report will include the exact URL of the page they
were on when they reported the problem.
(Return to Quicklinks)

ANALYTICS
Loan Aging Widget Updated
Thanks to Jenny Baker, I realized that Reserve Items would sometimes appear in the loan aging widget if the
item was borrowed before the data was posted to analytics but was returned later in the same day after the data
had been posted to analytics. To solve this problem, I have updated the Loan Aging widget in instances
managed by SWITCH so that an item has to have been due at least 2 days before today’s date.

(Return to Quicklinks)

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OTHER
Update Query String in EBSCO Admin – Custom Linking – Link to Primo
MMU discovered that there were link resolution problems with citations created by linking out from EBSCO if
the vendor relied on the presence of a DOI. We ended up finding a more comprehensive query string through
SUNY’s Wiki and I have updated the Wiki page here:
http://switchlibraries.pbworks.com/w/page/136506144/EBSCO%20Link%20Out%20Settings. I strongly
recommend updating the query string as described in the updated Wiki page. It will pass a tremendous amount
of metadata from the EBSCO record that will ensure better link resolution if you have an available service AND
more metadata in your resource-sharing borrowing request if there is no service available and your patron opts
to place a Request From Another Library.
(Return to Quicklinks)

Katie Utschig
Consortium Coordinator
SWITCH Library Consortium
c/o 3401 South 39th Street
PO Box 343922
Milwaukee, WI 53234-3922
Office# 414-382-6710
Cell# 414-214-0134

4

Katie Utschig
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:

QUICKLINKS
ALMA
My Electronic Resources by
Provider
RIALTO – Cancel orders

Katie Utschig
Thursday, December 1, 2022 2:45 PM
All Switch Librarians
Alma/Primo VE - News and Highlights - December 2022

PRIMO
Save to Favorites –
Warning
Secondary Resource Types

ANALYTICS
Display Total Rows in
Narrative

OTHER
Happy Retirement

ALMA
My Electronic Resources by Provider
Currently only available for ProQuest databases, but this is a fantastic tool that ERM librarians can use to make
sure they are exposing all of their resources to their end-users in Primo VE. To use the tool, you simply need to
find your Pro Quest Account ID and then load it in Resources>>Manage Inventory>>My Electronic Resources
by Provider.
In this example, using Alverno’s Account ID, we can see that several collections should be activated. In many
cases, this may mean that a different collection that was already activated is deactivated and deleted. If so,
you will want to ensure that any PO Lines are transferred to the new collection before you deactivate/delete
the older collection.

1

For more information about this feature, please see the Ex Libris documentation:
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/Electro
nic_Resource_Management/080_Advanced_Tools/010My_Electronic_Resources_by_Provider
(Return to Quicklinks)

RIALTO – Cancel orders
Since the September release, in-process orders (under certain conditions) can be canceled from the Order
History page. It is also possible to request that Ex Libris turn on a configuration that automatically cancels the
PO Line in Alma. The latter can be handy if you do not intend to purchase the title at all. However, if you plan
to place the order with a different vendor, you may wish to keep the PO Line active and change the vendor
and update the purchase details.
If you decide you are interested in enabling the configuration that automatically cancels your Alma PO Line if
the Rialto order is canceled, please submit a ticket to support@switchinc.org.
(Return to Quicklinks)

PRIMO
Save to Favorites – Warning if not signed in
With the November release, patrons can now receive a warning message if they “pin” results without being
logged in.

That is a nice UX improvement that came from an Ideas Exchange post.
I went ahead and enabled this for the production view for all instances managed by SWITCH. To enable this
display for a test or other views, go to Discovery>>Display Configuration>>Configure Views>>[Edit your
production view]
In the General Section, check this box

2

(Return to Quicklinks)

Secondary Resource Types
Have you ever wanted to facet a resource type by more than one resource type? For example, you have a
serial that you store in your main stacks and classify as a book and you want to make sure that when patrons
filter their results by book that they do not eliminate those titles. Primo now allows you to identify a
secondary resource type so that a single bibliographic record can be counted and included with a secondary
facet. If this sounds like it might be a solution to a problem you have been having, please submit a ticket to
support@switchinc.org and tell us more about it.
ANALYTICS

Display Total Rows in Narrative
I recently came across this little trick that you might want to incorporate in some of your analyses:

Easy step-by-step instructions can be found here:
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Knowledge_Articles/How_do_I_display_the_total_number_of_ro
ws_in_an_Analytics_report%3F
(Return to Quicklinks)

OTHER
Happy Retirement, Jennie Bartholomew
3

Best wishes to Jennie Bartholomew as she retires later this month from Sacred Heart Seminary and School of
Theology. It has been a pleasure working (and lunching) with you each month. You accomplished a great deal
during your tenure as library director, including greatly expanding electronic/remote access to a wealth of
resources.
(Return to Quicklinks)

Katie Utschig

Consortium Coordinator
SWITCH Library Consortium
c/o 3401 South 39th Street
PO Box 343922
Milwaukee, WI 53234-3922
Office# 414-382-6710
Cell# 414-214-0134

4

Katie Utschig
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:

Katie Utschig
Monday, January 9, 2023 12:17 PM
All Switch Librarians
Alma/Primo VE - News and Highlights - January 2023

Happy New Year!
I don’t have much to update you on this month, but I expect to have more content next month in anticipation
of the February quarterly release.
QUICKLINKS
ALMA

PRIMO

ANALYTICS

OTHER
EBSCOhost Reference Center
Databases
SUNYLA’s Midwinter Virtual
Conference

OTHER
EBSCOhost Reference Center Databases
EBSCOhost is in the process of migrating its Reference Center databases to its new Explora Platform. The
reference center databases are typically geared to 6-12 academic and public libraries, but some of you include
them in your available BadgerLink resources. For the time being, your patrons will be able to continue to
access these databases on the current platform, but eventually, the legacy interface will be phased out. Please
read EBSCO’s documentation https://connect.ebsco.com/s/article/New-Reference-Center-User-ExperienceOverview-and-Frequently-Asked-Questions?language=en_US#refctr9 to see which Reference Center
databases are already available on the new interface and the timeline for migrating the others. You can proactively switch to the Explora Platform for any database for which it is currently available OR wait until all the
Reference Center databases to which you link have completed the migration process. However, once you
migrate to the new platform, you will want to update the link from your homepage or Databases A-Z.
At this point, I do not anticipate that this change will affect article-level linking to content in the Reference
Center databases from PrimoVE.
(Return to Quicklinks)

SUNYLA’s Midwinter Virtual Conference
The SUNYLA virtual conferences are always really good. This year’s conference will be held on Friday, February
3, 2023, from 8:30 AM-3:15 PM (Milwaukee time) and is chock-full of great presentations on using data for
both internal evaluation and external communication. The conference is free. To see a list of presentations
and register for the conference, please click this link: https://sunyla.org/sunyla-midwinter-2023/
(Return to Quicklinks)

Katie Utschig
Consortium Coordinator
SWITCH Library Consortium
1

c/o 3401 South 39th Street
PO Box 343922
Milwaukee, WI 53234-3922
Office# 414-382-6710
Cell# 414-214-0134

2

Katie Utschig
From:
Sent:
To:

Subject:

QUICKLINKS
ALMA
Customize Resource Sharing
Display
New Alert-CZ Collections to
Review Widget
Simple Search

Katie Utschig
Wednesday, March 1, 2023 11:21 AM
Abbie Joranger; Ann Owen; Ben Teel; Carol Mittag; Christian Himsel; Craig Mueller; Dan
Vinson; Debra Krause; Dyan Barbeau; Hannah Schmidt; J Palmer; Jac Sinclair; Jason
Palmer; Jena Sales; Jennie Bartholomew; Jenny Baker; Jenny Pinterics; Jerry Dutscheck;
Julie Gates; Katherine Pietrantonio; Kathleen Sielaff; Kathy Harty; Kathy Malland; Katie
Utschig; Larry Duerr; Lori Gleed; Maria Becker; Marijo Boushon; Mark Schrauth; Maureen
Schinner; Michelle Rekowski; Nancy Siker; Neal Bogda; Rachael Allison; Ryan Parker; Sara
Shutkin; Sarah Klippel; Sebastian Black; Stritch Reference; Tara Kron; Tiffany Kelly; Yang
Zhuo
Alma/Primo VE - News and Highlights - March 2023

PRIMO
Number of Results
Per Page

ANALYTICS
New UI for
Analytics

OTHER
Rachel Allison (SHSST) Thesis
Exhibition
SCELC Affiliate Membership and
Discounts
SWITCH Day Survey

ALMA
Customize Resource Sharing Display
With the February release, librarians can organize the display of information in the Resource Sharing queues.
Simply click the gear icon to modify the details, actions, or record view.

1

Details sections customization affects the details that appear when you click on whitespace in a request. I can set the
order in which the information is displayed AND hide elements that I do not need to see.

Action customization options include hiding actions you never use and ordering the actions so that the most relevant
actions appear toward the top. You can also change the main action (which appears without having to click the menu
(…) button. Record customization allows you to decide the column and order of the displayed information. You can also
choose to hide information that you do not find useful.
(Return to Quicklinks)

New Alert-CZ Collections to Review Widget
2

There is a new widget available for electronic resource librarians that should help alert you to CZ collections
that might have been deleted in the Community Zone.

Remember that the information from analytics is usually a day old (sometimes more).
The report is designed to identify electronic collections currently in your repository that were created by the
Community Zone but are no longer linked to the community zone. Typically, this will happen when a
community zone update deletes a collection.
The report also lists the titles that were associated with the collection. For free collections, this may help you
decide if you want to look for a newer version of this collection in the Community Zone.

3

If you determine that the collection is defunct, you should still follow best practice and:
1. Deactivate the service
2. Delete the service
3. Delete the collection
If you want to activate a newer version of this collection, you can search for it in the Community Zone and
activate it from there.

(Return to Quicklinks)

Simple Search
It is now possible to start typing a search entity for simple search rather than having to click the drop-down
button and scroll down to the entity (scope) on which you wish to search. This is a nice time-saving feature.

4

(Return to Quicklinks)

PRIMO
Number of Results Per Page
Patrons can now quickly modify the number of results per page at the top of the search results rather than
scrolling down to the bottom of the first page by clicking this drop-down button

And then selecting from 10, 25, or 50. 10 is the default. If the user is signed in, this setting is “sticky” and will
apply the next time they are signed in to Primo VE.

(Return to Quicklinks)

ANALYTICS

New UI available
A new UI for analytics is currently under development but available to turn on in Alma. The New UI allows
individual users to create their own list of favorite reports rather than just have to see a laundry list of reports
that are available based on user role. For example, rather than dealing with a list like this

5

you can select your own favorites and order them in a way that makes the most sense.

The new interface can be turned on by clicking the person icon and selecting Feature Rollout Configuration

6

After the May release, this interface will be on by default, but you can toggle back to the old interface until the
August release.
In addition to the information provided in Feature Rollout Configuration, Ex Libris has created a short,
informative video available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/sfKZ2Idd-zA
(Return to Quicklinks)

OTHER
Rachel Allison (SHSST) Thesis Exhibit

Rachel Allison, SHSST’s library circulation assistant, has her thesis exhibition on display now through April 1, 2023, at the
Emile H. Mathis Art Gallery at UW-Milwaukee. Here are some details courtesy of Rachel:
7

Body Bound traces the historically grounded and long-standing tradition of using bodily material as the basis for
bookmaking. This practice has not subsided entirely in its traditional form but has also branched off and
informed contemporary book-making practices. Contemporary books, specifically artist books, are a part of a
longer history of using and presenting bodies with books. This exhibition includes historical books and
contemporary artist books from the UWM special collections as well as the John Michael Kohler Art Foundation.
Hours:
Mon – Thurs: 10 AM – 4 PM
Emile H. Mathis Art Gallery
Mitchell Hall 170
3203 N. Downer Ave
Milwaukee, WI 53211
(Return to Quicklinks)

SCELC Affiliate Memberships for Atla members

Jennie Bartholomew shared information about the significant discounts SHSST has been able to procure on some
electronic resources/databases through an affiliate membership with SCELC (Southern California Electronic Library
Consortium, Inc.). Any library with an institutional membership to Atla (https://www.atla.com/about/institutionalmembership/) can secure an affiliate membership (https://scelc.org/search/affiliate) and take advantage of the
discounts negotiated by SCELC. Atla institutional membership fees start at a modest $100 per year and are calculated
based on the percentage of staff and collection devoted to theology/religion. Something to explore if you are not
already a member.
(Return to Quicklinks)

SWITCH Day Survey

We want to hear from you. Please take a few minutes to complete an anonymous survey about SWITCH events:
https://forms.gle/ymHgAK1PNL9r1FPo6
(Return to Quicklinks)

Katie Utschig

Consortium Coordinator
SWITCH Library Consortium
c/o 3401 South 39th Street
PO Box 343922
Milwaukee, WI 53234-3922
Office# 414-382-6710
Cell# 414-214-0134

8

Katie Utschig
From:
Sent:
To:

Subject:

QUICKLINKS
ALMA
Customize Resource Sharing
Display
New Alert-CZ Collections to
Review Widget
Simple Search

Katie Utschig
Wednesday, March 1, 2023 11:21 AM
Abbie Joranger; Ann Owen; Ben Teel; Carol Mittag; Christian Himsel; Craig Mueller; Dan
Vinson; Debra Krause; Dyan Barbeau; Hannah Schmidt; J Palmer; Jac Sinclair; Jason
Palmer; Jena Sales; Jennie Bartholomew; Jenny Baker; Jenny Pinterics; Jerry Dutscheck;
Julie Gates; Katherine Pietrantonio; Kathleen Sielaff; Kathy Harty; Kathy Malland; Katie
Utschig; Larry Duerr; Lori Gleed; Maria Becker; Marijo Boushon; Mark Schrauth; Maureen
Schinner; Michelle Rekowski; Nancy Siker; Neal Bogda; Rachael Allison; Ryan Parker; Sara
Shutkin; Sarah Klippel; Sebastian Black; Stritch Reference; Tara Kron; Tiffany Kelly; Yang
Zhuo
Alma/Primo VE - News and Highlights - March 2023

PRIMO
Number of Results
Per Page

ANALYTICS
New UI for
Analytics

OTHER
Rachel Allison (SHSST) Thesis
Exhibition
SCELC Affiliate Membership and
Discounts
SWITCH Day Survey

ALMA
Customize Resource Sharing Display
With the February release, librarians can organize the display of information in the Resource Sharing queues.
Simply click the gear icon to modify the details, actions, or record view.

1

Details sections customization affects the details that appear when you click on whitespace in a request. I can set the
order in which the information is displayed AND hide elements that I do not need to see.

Action customization options include hiding actions you never use and ordering the actions so that the most relevant
actions appear toward the top. You can also change the main action (which appears without having to click the menu
(…) button. Record customization allows you to decide the column and order of the displayed information. You can also
choose to hide information that you do not find useful.
(Return to Quicklinks)

New Alert-CZ Collections to Review Widget
2

There is a new widget available for electronic resource librarians that should help alert you to CZ collections
that might have been deleted in the Community Zone.

Remember that the information from analytics is usually a day old (sometimes more).
The report is designed to identify electronic collections currently in your repository that were created by the
Community Zone but are no longer linked to the community zone. Typically, this will happen when a
community zone update deletes a collection.
The report also lists the titles that were associated with the collection. For free collections, this may help you
decide if you want to look for a newer version of this collection in the Community Zone.

3

If you determine that the collection is defunct, you should still follow best practice and:
1. Deactivate the service
2. Delete the service
3. Delete the collection
If you want to activate a newer version of this collection, you can search for it in the Community Zone and
activate it from there.

(Return to Quicklinks)

Simple Search
It is now possible to start typing a search entity for simple search rather than having to click the drop-down
button and scroll down to the entity (scope) on which you wish to search. This is a nice time-saving feature.

4

(Return to Quicklinks)

PRIMO
Number of Results Per Page
Patrons can now quickly modify the number of results per page at the top of the search results rather than
scrolling down to the bottom of the first page by clicking this drop-down button

And then selecting from 10, 25, or 50. 10 is the default. If the user is signed in, this setting is “sticky” and will
apply the next time they are signed in to Primo VE.

(Return to Quicklinks)

ANALYTICS

New UI available
A new UI for analytics is currently under development but available to turn on in Alma. The New UI allows
individual users to create their own list of favorite reports rather than just have to see a laundry list of reports
that are available based on user role. For example, rather than dealing with a list like this

5

you can select your own favorites and order them in a way that makes the most sense.

The new interface can be turned on by clicking the person icon and selecting Feature Rollout Configuration

6

After the May release, this interface will be on by default, but you can toggle back to the old interface until the
August release.
In addition to the information provided in Feature Rollout Configuration, Ex Libris has created a short,
informative video available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/sfKZ2Idd-zA
(Return to Quicklinks)

OTHER
Rachel Allison (SHSST) Thesis Exhibit

Rachel Allison, SHSST’s library circulation assistant, has her thesis exhibition on display now through April 1, 2023, at the
Emile H. Mathis Art Gallery at UW-Milwaukee. Here are some details courtesy of Rachel:
7

Body Bound traces the historically grounded and long-standing tradition of using bodily material as the basis for
bookmaking. This practice has not subsided entirely in its traditional form but has also branched off and
informed contemporary book-making practices. Contemporary books, specifically artist books, are a part of a
longer history of using and presenting bodies with books. This exhibition includes historical books and
contemporary artist books from the UWM special collections as well as the John Michael Kohler Art Foundation.
Hours:
Mon – Thurs: 10 AM – 4 PM
Emile H. Mathis Art Gallery
Mitchell Hall 170
3203 N. Downer Ave
Milwaukee, WI 53211
(Return to Quicklinks)

SCELC Affiliate Memberships for Atla members

Jennie Bartholomew shared information about the significant discounts SHSST has been able to procure on some
electronic resources/databases through an affiliate membership with SCELC (Southern California Electronic Library
Consortium, Inc.). Any library with an institutional membership to Atla (https://www.atla.com/about/institutionalmembership/) can secure an affiliate membership (https://scelc.org/search/affiliate) and take advantage of the
discounts negotiated by SCELC. Atla institutional membership fees start at a modest $100 per year and are calculated
based on the percentage of staff and collection devoted to theology/religion. Something to explore if you are not
already a member.
(Return to Quicklinks)

SWITCH Day Survey

We want to hear from you. Please take a few minutes to complete an anonymous survey about SWITCH events:
https://forms.gle/ymHgAK1PNL9r1FPo6
(Return to Quicklinks)

Katie Utschig

Consortium Coordinator
SWITCH Library Consortium
c/o 3401 South 39th Street
PO Box 343922
Milwaukee, WI 53234-3922
Office# 414-382-6710
Cell# 414-214-0134

8

Katie Utschig
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:

QUICKLINKS
ALMA
SWITCH Plugin Update

Katie Utschig
Monday, April 3, 2023 4:22 PM
All Switch Librarians
Alma/Primo VE - News and Highlights - April 2023

PRIMO
505 $t (Table of Contents)
Relevancy

Include Madison in Search
External Resources

ANALYTICS

OTHER
Delivery Bins
Be Like Hermione

ALMA
SWITCH Power Search Plugin has been updated
Many months ago, Ben Teel suggested that I add a select all/deselect all option to the SWITCH Library Consortium Plugin
on Chrome.

1

If you don’t already use the plugin, it is a great way to search for electronic and physical materials across the consortium
and our resource-sharing partners. You can learn how to install and use it on the SWITCH Wiki: SWITCH Library
Consortium Power Search
(Return to Quicklinks)

Search External Resources to Manually Create a Borrowing Request for Madison
Alma includes the ability to retrieve free MARC records from 227 library catalogs by setting up one or more as an
external resource. The external resources can then be added to one or more search profiles that appear in both the
“Search External Resources” in the MD Editor AND “Search External Resources” when manually creating a borrowing
request. I mention this because UW Madison can be enabled as an external resource that you can use to create a
manual borrowing request for a physical title.
So imagine a scenario where your patron sends you an email or calls you asking if you can get them a copy of Sociology
of Religion in Turkey published in 2021. You would likely search Primo VE first to double-check to make sure it is not in
the consortium. Then you might Expand your Results to see if there is a record you could use to initiate a Resource
Sharing Request on behalf of your patron. If you still get no results, you might want to do a Power Search for the title at
Madison and Eau Claire (and maybe Google Scholar if you need more citation details).

Remember that the UW-Madison search is run on their Article index so you will need to click Catalog to see the results
there.
If you get a hit at Madison

2

You can create a manual request in Resource Sharing Borrowing searching external resources in UW-Madison. This
search can be done by keywords (in this case, title is best) or ISBN/ISSN.
I searched by ISBN and retrieved this record:

Then add requester, change status to Ready to be Sent, and Add Partner

3

Once the partner has been selected, you can Save the request. Alma may still go through a locate routine, but you
should still be able to send the request to Madison once that process has run:

Is this a huge time-savings? Maybe not. It only works for physical title (i.e. book) requests. This trick is no help for
articles, but if you are looking for a book and you know Madison or Eau Claire has it, you can quickly get the metadata
you need to ensure a quick response from Madison.
If you think this is anything you might want to have in your back pocket, we just need to enable UW-Madison as an
external search resource AND add it to a search profile. Feel free to submit a ticket to support@switchinc.org to set this
up.
(Return to Quicklinks)

PRIMO
505 $t (Table of Contents) Indexed as Additional Title
With the February release, $t in an enhanced table of content note (505) is now indexed to the Alternate Title Index
rather than the Title index. This change helps to ensure that records that match keywords in the table of contents do not
rank higher than records that match keywords in an actual resource title. Because this change occurred after the semiannual re-indexing, only titles created or modified after February 5th are affected. The next full re-indexing will occur in
August. If you would like to manually re-index records with enhanced content notes so that you can take advantage of
this change before August, just submit a ticket to support@switchinc.org.
(Return to Quicklinks)

OTHER
Delivery Bins
Special shout-out to Sebastian Black and Jac Sinclair for designing and printing new labels for our delivery bins.
Additional thanks are due Jenny Baker for laminating and distributing them. SWITCH purchased 6 replacement bins. Four
have been put into service and Jenny Baker is storing the remaining two at Wisconsin Lutheran College for future use.
(Return to Quicklinks)

Be Like Hermione Music Video
In case you missed it on the Alma list, a Norwegian librarian wrote a song about librarians titled “Be Like Hermione”.
Here is a link to her music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cwKwpAebnQ. Hope it brightens your day.
(Return to Quicklinks)

Katie Utschig

Consortium Coordinator
SWITCH Library Consortium
c/o 3401 South 39th Street
PO Box 343922
Milwaukee, WI 53234-3922
Office# 414-382-6710
Cell# 414-214-0134

4

Katie Utschig
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:

QUICKLINKS
ALMA
Stats and Workflows
Borrowing Requests – Ready to
Be Sent

Katie Utschig
Monday, May 1, 2023 10:19 AM
All Switch Librarians
Alma/Primo VE - News and Highlights - May 2023

PRIMO
Login Display

ANALYTICS
Analytics
Workshop

Resource Type Facet Bar

ALMA
Circulation/Article Fulfillment Stats – Best Workflows
I have built an all-inclusive set of statistics to cover all lending sources:
 Patron library inventory
 Alma instance partner library inventory
 Other SWITCH library inventory
 UW-Madison
 UW-Eau Claire
 ILL
PHYSICAL CIRCULATION

Physical Circulation Details FAQs
How do you determine the owning library?
1

OTHER
Omeka New Plugins
Omeka New Theme

Physical lending statistics come from Analytics>>Fulfillment to accommodate direct fulfillment and resource sharing. As
such, only loans are counted (not holds or requests). I derive the lending library from one of the following:
 Bibliographic MMSid IF your library uses a generic Interlibrary Loan Bib to record the circulation of materials
received through ILL.
 SWITCH barcode prefix patterns.
 Item policy created during Resource Sharing receiving
Why do SWITCH stats differ from the stats in Worldshare management?
 SWITCH stats are based on an actual loan event. If an ILL partner sent you materials, but your patron never
checked it out, it does not count for the SWITCH stats
 If you had a problem with your queue and received an ILL book on a different partner, the item policy I use to
identify the loan as ILL would not be applied to the item
 The “time-stamp” for the stats is the date of the loan NOT the date you requested, the date sent, or the date
placed on hold.
Why might SWITCH stats differ from the circulation stats I pull from the reports I run for my circulation desk?
 If your patron checks out your books from your partner library’s hold shelf, the event is registered at the
partner’s circulation desk.
 If your patron walked into a SWITCH library and checked something off the shelves, that event is registered at
that library’s circulation desk.
 SWITCH stats are designed to exclude equipment
NOTE: SWITCH gathers monthly circulation reports from every Alma instance to create a single, all-inclusive statistics
report
ARTICLE REQUESTS

Article Requests Details FAQs
How do you determine the owning library?
Article lending statistics come from Analytics>>Borrowing Requests. SWITCH derives the owner from the Active Partner
on requests where the supplied format = digital.
2

What about patron digitization requests?
Patron digitization requests are not captured by this report. However, you could capture them if you did one of the
following:
 Have all requests originate as Resource Sharing requests and assign yourself as the active partner (CUW has
gone this route)
 Convert patron digitization requests to Resource Sharing requests and assign yourself as the active partner
How can I make sure my ILL article requests are also captured by these stats?
To properly capture statistics for ILL article requests, you can do one of the following:
 Download the article from Article Exchange and then manually upload it in the request using the Upload File
menu option.



Alma will send a notice to your patron that they can access the file by logging in to Primo. Alma will also mark
the request complete with the supplied format = digital.
Fulfill the request via article exchange, but then indicate in Alma that the supplied format was Digital before you
mark the request complete.

What about articles that are freely available through Google Scholar?
Once you have done the legwork to find open-access articles for your patron, you might as well get credit for the work. I
suggest you capture those stats by downloading the free article, assigning your own library as the first active partner,
and then uploading the file to complete the request as supplied digitally.
(Return to Quicklinks)

Borrowing Requests – Ready to Be Sent Now in Task List
After May 7th, the Alma Task List widget will now include Borrowing Requests – Ready to be Sent. This seems like such an
obviously useful task alert that I wonder what took them so long. 

3

(Return to Quicklinks)

PRIMO
Hide Partner Library’s login link
Thanks to a tip on the Primo list, we can hide irrelevant login-in options based on your Primo view. For example, if you
are MMU, we can hide the WLC Warrior ID login option so instead of displaying this:

You can display this:

4

In theory, we could also create a separate staff view for librarians and further limit which options display to your
patrons. If you are interested in exploring these options, submit a ticket to support@switchinc.org.
(Return to Quicklinks)

New Resource Type Facet Filter Bar
After the May release (May 7, 2023), you will have the option to add a facet filter bar to your Primo view. It will appear
directly below the search bar, enabling your patrons to quickly drill down to books, articles, journals, etc.

5

Notice that this does not apply a resource type filter in the same manner as the resource type filter in the sidebar. You
also cannot select multiple types. However, if you would like to enable this feature in your Primo view, you can go to
Discovery>>Configure Views>>Edit your view>>Brief Results Tab and scroll down to Resource Types Filters Bar.
If you wish to modify the default settings, you will need to click Customize. This will allow you to toggle types on or off

6

You can also add additional resource types and determine the order in which they will appear

If you would like assistance with enabling this for your Primo, simply submit a ticket to support@switchinc.org.
(Return to Quicklinks)

ANALYTICS
Analytics Workshop
7

I plan to offer an analytics workshop at Sacred Heart on May 22, 2023.
9:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Intro to Analytics (Basic Instruction with plenty of hands-on exercises for those with limited
experience in analytics)
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Lunch – Bring your own bag OR buy a delicious all-you-can-eat lunch from the cafeteria for $10 (I
will need a count one week in advance)
1:00 PM – 3:30 PM
Advanced Analytics (I will cover some advanced techniques in the first 30 minutes, but the
majority of time will be spent working through your own projects)
I will send out a formal invite later this week.
(Return to Quicklinks)

OTHER
Omeka – New Plugins
Collection Tree: Create Parent/Child Relationships for Nesting Collections (Details)
Embed Codes: Share an Omeka item in an <iframe> on another site, such as a blog. This would be a great way to direct
traffic and interest to your Omeka collections. (Details)
File Paginator: Useful if you load multiple files for a single item. Allows end-users to “page” through them in a PDF
viewer. Single multi-page PDFs still require scrolling.
PBCore: Adds additional metadata elements from, a cataloging standard for the description of audiovisual content.
(Details)
Redact Elements: Replace content that you define with RegEx with defined text (e.g. REDACTED). Cannot be used to
Redact files you upload. (Details)
Timeline: Create an interactive timeline in your Exhibits (Details)
VRACore: Adds additional metadata elements from the VRACore, a standard for works of visual culture. (Details)
(Return to Quicklinks)

Omeka – New Theme
Omeka.Net has added a new theme – Foundation. One feature of the new theme is that it allows you to create a fullheight sidebar navigation element. If you have not gotten too far down the road in styling your site, you might want to
check it out.

8

(Return to Quicklinks)

Katie Utschig

Consortium Coordinator
SWITCH Library Consortium
c/o 3401 South 39th Street
PO Box 343922
Milwaukee, WI 53234-3922
Office# 414-382-6710
Cell# 414-214-0134

9

Katie Utschig
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:

QUICKLINKS
ALMA
Alma Menu Additional Details

Katie Utschig
Thursday, June 1, 2023 3:10 PM
All Switch Librarians
Alma/Primo VE - News and Highlights - June 2023

PRIMO
Extend Session Time-Out
Broaden Availability Status in Brief
Results

ANALYTICS
Analytics Workshop Slide Decks Available
June Analytics Challenge

ALMA
Alma Menu Additional Details
The Alma menu now includes an option to see additional information. If you expand the additional information at the
bottom, you can see details about each menu item as you hover over it.

NOTE: This feature is not yet available for the configuration menus
(Return to Quicklinks)

PRIMO
Extend Session Time-Out
Primo sessions for signed-in users are set for each Primo view. Currently, most views allow 30 minutes before a patron
who has signed in to Primo is signed out. There are new settings that will allow the user to stay signed in. You have a few
options:
1. Leave things as they are: The user session will time out in 30 minutes and will be logged out of Primo.
2. Enable extending the session: The user will get a message 60 seconds before the timeout and the patron can
extend the session by another 30 minutes.
1

3. Enable extending the session to the maximum: The user will get a message 60 seconds before the timeout
and can extend the session to 7 days or they close the browser, whichever comes first.
4. Enable the user to automatically extend the session (#2 or #3 must be selected first): The user will have a
new option in their Library Card to automatically renew sessions until they log out or close the browser.
If you would like to enable some of these options for your patrons, please submit a ticket to support@switchinc.org
NOTE: Libraries in a shared instance would both have to agree that they want to enable one or more of the features so
please confer with your partner library.
(Return to Quicklinks)

Broaden Availability Status in Brief Results
If you would like to offer your patrons more detail upfront about why a particular item is not currently available, we can
configure your Alma to provide additional information.
Currently, an item on loan would appear this way in the brief results:

If you were to configure this feature, it would appear like this:

If you would like to enable this feature, please submit a ticket to support@switchinc.org.
NOTE: This configuration is set in Alma so please confer with your partner library if you are in a shared instance.
(Return to Quicklinks)

ANALYTICS
Analytics Workshop Slide Decks Available
Many thanks to those who attended the Analytics Workshops at Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology last
week. The slide decks from those presentations are available on the wiki. We did not get to all of the material in either
workshop, but you can refer to the slide deck if you want to refresh on the material we did cover (or want to try
techniques we did not get to).
Analytics Workshop – Beginning Analytics
Analytics Workshop – Advanced Analytics
(Return to Quicklinks)

June Analytics Challenge
2

SUBJECT AREA: FULFILLMENT
(https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/080Analytics/Al
ma_Analytics_Subject_Areas/Fulfillment)
TECHNIQUE: FILTERS (https://switchlibraries.pbworks.com/w/page/136768551/Filters)
EASY
How many loans did your library patrons make during the current academic year (August 2022-May 2023)?
Hint: To limit by patron group, you could filter using either “Borrower Details”.”Job Description” OR “Patron
Details”.”Patron Group” using a basic operator and values
(https://switchlibraries.pbworks.com/w/page/136768551/Filters#UsingBasicOperatorsandValues)
ADVANCED
How many loans did your library patrons make during the current academic year (August 2022-May 2023) broken out by
semester?
Hint: Review filtering a measurement
(https://switchlibraries.pbworks.com/w/page/136768551/Filters#FilteraMeasurementField)
(Return to Quicklinks)

Remember: To enter the drawing, you must reply to me by the 15 th of each month with the following:
 A snapshot of your criteria
 A snapshot of the prompts tab (if applicable)
 A snapshot of the run-time criteria you selected when you ran the analysis (only applicable if you included a
prompt)
 A snapshot of the results of your analysis
Feel free to send in an entry for both the Easy and Advanced challenge question (up to 2 entries per month; 6 entries for
the summer).

Katie Utschig

Consortium Coordinator
SWITCH Library Consortium
c/o 3401 South 39th Street
PO Box 343922
Milwaukee, WI 53234-3922
Office# 414-382-6710
Cell# 414-214-0134

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