Alma/Primo VE News and Highlights FYE 2021

Katie Utschig
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Katie Utschig
Wednesday, July 1, 2020 3:28 PM
All Switch Librarians
Alma/Primo VE - News and Highlights (July)

ALMA
New Layout
Ex Libris has developed a new Alma user interface that will go-live in September. After this month’s release on
July 5th, I will be enabling the new layout in SWITCH-managed Almas so that individual users can opt in to use
the new interface whenever they are ready. Switching to the new interface is as simple as editing User Details
and checking the box labelled “Enable New Layout”.

It is my understanding that this new interface will remain optional until January 2021 at which point the old
interface will be phased out completely. Circulation Managers, please review and decide if it is best to roll out
the new interface for your student workers in the fall or wait until the spring. If you have a manual or other
How To documentation for student workers, you will want to build in time to replace at least some of your
screenshots.
I encourage everyone to play around with the new features in the sandbox and review the information
available here:
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/010Get
ting_Started/050Alma_User_Interface_%E2%80%93_General_Information/045Usability_Improvements/Layou
t_Improvements#Turning_On_the_New_Layout_for_Users
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Instructions for accessing and logging into the sandbox are here:
http://switchlibraries.pbworks.com/w/page/140131569/Sandbox%20Access
Advanced Search Options for Users
User search in Alma just got a huge upgrade in the July release (post-July 5). You can now use advanced search
to create and save sets of users based on myriad criteria including user group, expiration date, purge date, has
block notes, etc. This is one of those upgrades that is sure to be a game-changer for anyone trying to create
sets of users.
Request Notes added to Pick From Shelf List
The June release included the addition of Request Notes in the Pick from Shelf list.

Digitization File Upload Limit
Ex Libris has increased the file limit for uploaded documents in digitization fulfillment from 10MB to 25MB. If
you have ever bumped up against this limit, you will recognize this as a huge improvement.
MD Editor
The new MD Editor will be available after this month’s release on July 5, 2020. The new editor will not be on
by default, but you can turn it on by clicking this button under Resources>>MD Editor

Catalogers, if you have not done so already, I encourage you to watch this brief video to see some of the great
features of the new editor: https://youtu.be/LUL_N8FzFIs

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ANALYTICS
IMPORTANT! Move material in My Folders to Shared Folder before fall
Ex Libris will be upgrading its version of Oracle BI and reports in My Folder will not migrate into the new
system. If you want to retain any reports that are currently in your My Reports folder, you should move them
into our institutions shared reports. You can create a subfolder in the Shared Folders>>Your
Institution>>Reports and call it “[Your Name]’s Reports” if they are still a work in progress and not ready for
general use.
Fun Tip

courtesy of SUNY (FROM https://slcny.libguides.com/training-analytics/tips)

A quick way to see the contents of a report is to use Preview. Instead of clicking on “Open” or “Edit” just click
on anywhere else in the row of the analysis you would like to know more about. You will then see the results
of the analysis displayed in the Preview window below the Catalog window.

New Loan Details Field
A new field in the fulfillment subject area allows you track data on which loans were the result of a hold
request.
 The dimension field Loans > Loans (Not In House) from Hold Request – the number of not in house
loans that came from a hold request provides a count of loans that meet that criteria.
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

Loan Details > Is Hold Request Loan – is a bit field (Y/N) that indicates if the loan was initiated by a hold
request

PRIMO
Export to Mendeley
This is not a new feature for July, but I wanted to highlight this option for libraries that include citation
management in patron instruction. Primo supports the export of citations to Mendeley and includes settings
that make it very easy for patrons to log into their Mendeley account. Free Mendeley accounts include 2GB of
storage and contain all the bells & whistles of subscription accounts, including folders, tags, text
annotation/highlighting, and monthly research recommendations that highlight new articles that match your
research interests. Mendeley desk top (which syncs with your online account) includes Microsoft Word
integration to cite as you write and generate bibliographies/works cited. Most importantly, patrons have their
own Mendeley accounts that stay with them after they graduate.
If you are interested in learning how to integrate Mendeley and Primo, read more here:
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Primo/Product_Documentation/020Primo_VE/025Display_Configuratio
n/Export_to_Mendeley_for_Primo_VE
OTHER
SWITCH Power Search Plugin
Special shout-out to Lori Gleed for finding and helping SWITCH adapt a plugin for searching all SWITCH Primo
production sites and Google Scholar with a simple Chrome extension available here:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/switch-library-consortium/jibghnpiodecibgclmholabkfkhcgdid.
You can read all about the plugin and two ways to use it in the SWITCH Wiki:
http://switchlibraries.pbworks.com/w/page/140591823/SWITCH%20Library%20Consortium%20Power%20Search

SWITCH Coloring Challenge
Join in the fun and print page 8 of this free coloring book from EBSCO’s Flipster:

https://www.ebsco.com/files/promo/downloads/Flipster_FreeGift_ColoringInTheCatalogs.pdf. It features a Welcome
Home sign on a library cart.

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Get creative and relieve some stress this summer. You can even get your children, grandchildren, or other
young friends involved. When you are done, scan your picture and send me the jpg. I will create and share a
gallery of your artistic endeavors in next month’s newsletter.
Katie Utschig
Consortium Coordinator
SWITCH Library Consortium
3401 South 39th Street
PO Box 343922
Milwaukee, WI 53234-3922
414-382-6710

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Katie Utschig
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Katie Utschig
Monday, August 3, 2020 5:10 PM
Alex Keimel; Ann Owen; Ben Teel; Carol Eberhardy; Carol Mittag; Christian Himsel; Craig Mueller; Cynthia Lynch; Dan
Vinson; Debra Butz; Dolores Skowronek; Don Scholzen; Dyan Barbeau; Elaine Gustafson; Hannah Schmidt; J Palmer;
Jason Palmer; Jena Sales; Jennie Bartholomew; Jenny Baker; Jenny Pinterics; Jerry Dutscheck; Julie Gates; Kathleen
Sielaff; Kathy Bailey; Kathy Harty; Kathy Malland; Katie Utschig; Larry Duerr; Laurie Swartwout; Lori Gleed; Marcia
Hayes; Marijo Zielinski; Mark Schrauth; Maureen Schinner; Molly Eddy; Molly Ostendorf; Nancy Siker; Neal Bogda;
Roberto Harrison; Ryan Parker; Sara Shutkin; Sarah Klippel; Shannon Millerick; Shannon Mueller; Shannon Stroud;
Stritch Reference; Suzie Bagley; Yang Zhuo
Sebastian O. Black
Alma/Primo VE - News and Highlights (August)

ALMA
Not much to report this month, but I do want to encourage everyone to spend some time in the sandbox
exploring the new Alma user interface and the new MD Editor. I currently have the settings enabled for the
admin user in the sandbox. Click here for access details:
http://switchlibraries.pbworks.com/w/page/140131569/Sandbox%20Access

The current schedule calls for the NEW Alma UI to be exclusive in January 2021; however, it is supposed to be
turned on by default next month. During the fall semester, we will be able to turn it off for individual users, so
I recommend we turn it off for student worker accounts so that we do not need to retrain circulation workers
this fall.
The current schedule calls for the new Metadata Editor to be exclusive in March 2021; however, you will be
able to enable it in Alma in January. There are a lot of great features in the MD Editor so I encourage
catalogers to get comfortable with the new MDE and take advantage of the new layout in January.
PRIMO
The SWITCH Discovery Working Group – a group comprised of representatives from each SWITCH library – has
worked hard over the past several months to identify improvements in our Primo interfaces. We are putting
the finishing touches on our work this week and then hope to push those changes out to each library’s Primo
view (first in a Test site and then in your full production views). To get a sneak preview of the design changes,
please take a look at our prototype site: Sandbox Primo - MSOE View
NOTICES GROUP
Now that the SWITCH Discovery Working Group is wrapping up, I am putting out the call for volunteers from
each library to join me in working on patron-facing notices in Alma. We will be focusing on developing a style
sheet for the notices (to ensure a similar look and feel) and then considering the content and language of the
notices.
Some people signed on for this group when it was first announced many months ago, but circumstances may
have changed since then. Please visit the SWITCH Wiki Page on Working Groups and add (or remove) yourself
from the Notices group. We will shoot for having our first meeting in late September. Circulation managers are
encouraged to join this effort since most notices pertain to loans, fines, etc., but any and all staff are welcome.
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Katie Utschig
Consortium Coordinator
SWITCH Library Consortium
3401 South 39th Street
PO Box 343922
Milwaukee, WI 53234-3922
414-382-6710

2

Katie Utschig
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Katie Utschig
Wednesday, September 2, 2020 2:14 PM
All Switch Librarians
Alma/Primo VE - News and Highlights (September)
Discovery Working Group Modifications August 2020.pdf

ALMA
Digitization workflow improvement from the August Release
A refresh button has been added to the Attachments screen. Staff managing digitization processes may recall
having to click one of the sort options to confirm that the upload was complete before clicking Done. Now the
Refresh button provides a more intuitive option for making sure the upload status has changed from Pending
to Uploaded. Better still would have been a failsafe that would prevent you from clicking Done if the Upload
Status was pending, but we will take what we can get

DARA Recommendations – Missing Items
While many of us have written off DARA as the latest reincarnation of Microsoft’s Office Assistant (aka Clippy),
I did discover that DARA has a useful category for missing items.
Just click on the DARA icon in the upper left of your screen and then limit to Missing Items and your library (if
you share an instance) to see how many items from your library are currently marked missing.

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If you click the More Info button, you have the option to View the underlying report.

For the instances managed by SWITCH, I have modified the report so that shared instances will be prompted
to select their library.

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The report is ordered by shelving location/call number with the option to print the report:

You can then send your student workers on a hunt to find the missing items. There are even three columns
you can use for tracking your search so that you can do your due diligence before writing the missing copies
off.

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Scanning a missing item in is all that is needed to clear its missing status so consider sending the students out
with a laptop/scanner OR Alma Mobile 2 app on their phones to streamline the process as much as possible.
ANALYTICS
Important Reminder!
Ex Libris will be migrating our analytics to a new version of Oracle in November. All of the shared folders will
migrate, but My Folders will not. It is very, very important that you move/copy any content currently saved
under My Folder to the Shared Folder for your instance.
My Folder is literally that – your personal folder based on your Alma login. No one else sees the content
of your folder so it is often used as a testing space before you are ready to include a report for the
general use of others in your instance. On a side note, it is also worth mentioning that your reports only
capture data from your instance. They do not capture any data from other SWITCH libraries – even if
you run a report from the Shared Community>>Consortia>>SWITCH Consortium folder. This is why
SWITCH needs to run reports in each instance and combine the data to gather SWITCH-wide circulation
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statistics and why you should always check filters on reports from the Community because they may be
unique to the instance that created the report.
If we examine My Folder in analytics from the Sacred Heart/Saint Francis instance:

None of these reports will migrate in November. Best practice?:
 Delete the reports in My Folder that you are no longer using:

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

Open the Reports Folder within my Shared Institution Folder and create a new Folder



Name the Folder “[Your Name]’s Private Folder

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

Use Shift + Enter (Shift Click) to highlight the reports you want to move and then use your mouse to
drag them into the new folder. This copies the reports into the folder.



Confirm that a copy of each report is now in the new “private folder” in your institution’s shared
reports



Delete the original reports in My Folders (optional)

PRIMO
Discovery Working Group
After months of work and user experience testing, the Discovery Working Group settled on a recommended
set of changes to optimize user experience in Primo. Special thanks to the following library staff for their
participation (in alpha order):
 Jenny Baker (WLC)
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 Dyan Barbeau (CSU)
 Jennie Bartholomew (SHSST)
 Lori Gleed (CUW)
 Sarah Klippel (MMU)
 Hannah Schmidt (MIAD)
 Mark Schrauth (SFS)
 Nancy Siker (MIAD)
 Ben Teel (AC)
Four libraries - Mount Mary, Saint Francis, Sacred Heart, and Wisconsin Lutheran - have already implemented
the recommendations so feel free to play around in their production Primo environments to see the changes
in action. I have also highlighted the major changes in the attached PDF.
Our plan is to freeze these changes until next summer; however, we may consider minor changes after fall
term.

Katie Utschig

Consortium Coordinator
SWITCH Library Consortium
3401 South 39th Street
PO Box 343922
Milwaukee, WI 53234-3922
414-382-6710

8

Katie Utschig
From:
Sent:
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Subject:

Katie Utschig
Wednesday, September 30, 2020 3:22 PM
All Switch Librarians
Alma/Primo VE - News and Highlights (October)

ALMA
New Alma User Interface
If you are ready to start using the new Alma User Interface, I can enable it for individual users (rather than
enabling it for all staff at this time). Just submit a ticket to support@switchinc.org, and I will get you set up.
The new layout is currently slated to become the default with the November release (you will still be able to
toggle back to the old layout for a period of time), but consider being an “early” adopter!
Resource Sharing Lending – New Shortcut
If all the planets align (article request, electronic resource, the right vendor, AND enough metadata), there is a
new shortcut in Resource Sharing lending using Manage Fulfillment Options.

Click the Electronic Collection hyperlink

A new tab will open that provides the available services. Click one:

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A third tab will open with the article which you can download (or print to pdf):

At this point, return to the initial tab and continue with Document Delivery

OR go back to the queue. Because you started touching it, you will have go into the Assigned to Me tab to find
it. But from there, you can select Ship Item Digitally

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The user interface is very bad, but it is a shortcut. You click on Add File

Select the file to upload

Once the file has uploaded, check the box for Complete the Request. If you are using the old Alma interface,
you click and OK button next to the scan request id. If you are an early adopter of the new Alma UI, that
button is actually missing  so just put your cursor at the end of the Scan Request ID and click Enter.
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The requester (not the library) will get an email with the pdf attached.
You may find that this workflow saves you time having to change location to the digitization department. The
only caveat is that the patron does not get quite as much information from the digitization request as they do
when you go through the formal document delivery workflow.
This:

compared to this which includes additional information about the request which could be parsed and
formatted for a more patron-friendly email:

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So you can decide which workflow works best for both you and the patron.
New MD Editor
As I have noted in the last few News and Highlights, Ex Libris has been rolling out a new cataloging interface.
You can start using it now exclusively or toggle back and forth between old and new using this button:

Ben Teel shared this link to a recent video about the new MD Editor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQCljsI_nuQ&ab_channel=ExLibrisLtd
Alma Mobile 2
If you were intrigued about installing Alma Mobile 2 on a smartphone or iPad for circ staff workers, you may
have run into some problems figuring out how to set it up. After going to the app store and installing the
device, you need to enter your Alma URL. Use the following based on your instance:
 AC/MIAD = https://switch-am.alma.exlibrisgroup.com
 CSU = https://switch-cs.alma.exlibrisgroup.com
 MMU/WLC = https://switch-mmwlc.alma.exlibrisgroup.com
 SFS/SHSST = https://switch-sfs
Alma Mobile (both the original version and Mobile 2) is not a remote circulation desk, but it has Scan-in
functionality that can be used to register in-house use, restore items (e.g. temporary displays), and pick from
shelf. The Pick From Shelf feature is a mixed bag for us because SWITCH relies on the pick slip to serve as a
transit slip for the bins and a hold slip at the borrowing library. However, you may find it useful for scanning in
items from a quarantine shelf if you do not want to bring them all to a circulation desk.
PRIMO
APA (7th Edition)
A recent post on the Primo list serve tipped me off that the OTB APA citation style in Primo Discovery is now
APA 7th edition and apparently has been since the May release. Information about this was included in the
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May release for Primo BO, but was not included in the release notes for Primo VE.
After checking the metadata in the GitHub and checking for key differences in APA 6th edition vs 7th edition, I
feel confident that the OTB citation style is, in fact, APA (7 th edition). For all Almas managed by SWITCH, I have
updated the description associated with the citation style in Alma configuration AND added the
code/description for APA (6th edition) in case some instructors have specified APA 6th edition.
If you would rather not display the 6th edition, you can remove it in Configuration>>Discovery>>Citation Styles
CUW’s Primo
Carol, Elaine, and Lori recently made some fun changes to CUW’s Primo. Most striking, is the full record
display that now appears with content in white boxes on a blue background. They also removed the navigation
pane in this section so that the record details take up the full display.

I also noticed a new label they deployed in place of “Check for Available Services”. It is now the much more

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promising “Find & Request”

OTHER
Niche Book Bar
Recently the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel featured a covered story on Cetonia Weston-Roy, a local Black
businesswoman and children’s book author who operates a bookstore on wheels:

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2020/09/15/niche-book-bar-peddles-black-literature-milwaukee-via-bikecetonia-weston-roy/5401449002/
Ms. Weston-Roy hopes to open a bricks-and-mortar book shop-cum wine bar in Milwaukee’s Bronzeville neighborhood.
Until then, she curates a wide variety of books that she sells through her Niche Book Bar online store:
https://shop.aer.io/NicheBookBar.
I was so intrigued by her story that I reached out to see if she might be willing to provide a discount to SWITCH member
libraries AND arrange for personal delivery to avoid shipping costs. Happily, she was amenable to both. So, if you would
like to support this local Black book seller, the promo code SWITCH will get you a 15% discount on your purchase. Books
typically arrive 3-5 days after you place your order and Ms. Weston-Roy will coordinate with me to deliver your purchase
through the SWITCH delivery bins.

Katie Utschig
Consortium Coordinator
SWITCH Library Consortium
Alverno College
FO 237A
3401 South 39th Street
PO Box 343922
Milwaukee, WI 53234-3922
414-214-0134 (M-Th)
414-382-6710 (F)

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Katie Utschig
From:
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Subject:

Katie Utschig
Thursday, October 22, 2020 4:20 PM
All Switch Librarians
Alma/Primo VE - News and Highlights (November)

ALMA
New Alma Layout Automatically Turned on
With the November release, Ex Libris has turned on the new Alma UI by default. NOTE: This is not the same as
the new Metadata Editor which is also available for staff use.
I encourage you to give the Alma UI a try – there is no better way to get comfortable with it than trying to
perform your everyday tasks. Ex Libris has a short, sweet video that gives a great overview of the configurable
features of the new UI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXrWOVB1BNo
If you run into issues with the new UI OR if you discover that a menu option is missing in the new UI, you can easily
switch back to the old layout by clicking on the person icon in the upper right and selecting Disable new layout.

Disable POL and Invoice Alerts
Great news for libraries using Alma Acquisitions – you can now turn off alerts that you generally ignore. See
some examples below:

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To turn alerts off, simply go to Configuration>>Acquisitions>>General>>Manage Acquisition Alerts and toggle
them off.
DARA Recommendation – Unavailable Portfolios
DARA now includes recommendations for cleaning up unavailable portfolios. Simply click on the DARA icon in
the upper right corner of your Alma:

Then select Unavailable Portfolios from the category drop down:

If you click on the number of portfolios (underlined above), you are taken directly to the filtered Portfolios tab
for the electronic service.

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PRIMO

ANALYTICS
If you participated in last January’s Alma Analytics workshop at Alverno, you may recall that Hannah Schmidt
gave us a quick tour of some of the dashboards she has created for MIAD. If you would like to learn more
about creating dashboards, please consider signing up for the following free Ex Libris webinar
Thursday, November 19th
Alma Analytics Master Class: Creating and Managing Dashboards
Presented by Connie Braun
APAC (Sydney) 11am | Register
AMERICAS (Chicago) 9am, EMEA (London) 3pm | Register

OTHER
SWITCH Staff Vacations

In an effort to make it easier to see when Jason and I are on vacation, we have started entering our days off on the
SWITCH calendar embedded on the SWITCH Staff Support Site: https://support.switchinc.org/. There is a password for
logging onto the site so if you have forgotten it, please consult the SWITCH Wiki:
http://switchlibraries.pbworks.com/w/page/141832572/SWITCH%20Staff%20Support%20Site%20(Wordpress)

Katie Utschig
Consortium Coordinator
SWITCH Library Consortium
3401 South 39th Street
PO Box 343922
Milwaukee, WI 53234-3922
414-382-6710

3

Katie Utschig
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:

Katie Utschig
Tuesday, December 1, 2020 5:25 PM
All Switch Librarians
Alma/Primo VE - News and Highlights (December)

Happy Holidays from SWITCH!
ALMA
ProQuest Ebook Central Upload Electronic Holdings
Ebook Central holdings can be automatically updated in Alma on a daily basis. In the past, this integration only
worked for purchased titles, but now titles in your EBook Central Academic Complete subscription are
included as well. If you purchase a fair number of eBooks or want to ensure that the titles displayed in Primo
are as up-to-date as possible in your subscription collection, you may want to enable this feature during the
semester break. Several libraries set this up during integration, but never actually deployed it. If you would like
to go ahead with this integration, please submit a ticket to support@switchinc.org.
Advanced Search Options for Users - Reminder
While I reported on the improvements in User searching back in July, I wanted to highlight these changes
again in case circulation managers want to do some clean-up during the semester break. Fields that can now
be used for advanced search include:
 Expiration date
 Fine/Fee total sum
 Has block type
 Has identifier type
 Has note type
 Last activity date
 Note
 Purge date
 Statistical category
 User group
So, for example, it is now fairly easy to create a set of users who expired before the beginning of this past
semester

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and then export the list to send to the registrar’s office or create a set to batch update the expiration date or
apply a purge date.

Patron Welcome Letter
With the upcoming December release (December 6, 2020), Alma is now equipped to send a welcome letter to
any new patron added to Alma. The letter can be configured to skip external patrons. However, some libraries
may like the idea of sending a welcome letter to specific types of new patrons (e.g. Community Users) to
reiterate services or policies. If your library would like to explore sending a welcome letter to all new patrons
or a subset of patrons, please submit a ticket to support@switchinc.org.
On Hold Shelf Reminder
Also with the December release (December 6, 2020), Alma can now run a job to send a new letter – On Hold
Shelf Letter Reminder – at set intervals after an item has been placed on hold and before it has been checked
out or the hold has expired. If you would like to configure a hold shelf reminder for your patrons, please
submit a ticket to support@switchinc.org.
PRIMO
Citation Issues
There is no resolution yet on citation issues in Primo. As reported earlier, the citation generator can have
problems generating a citation with multiple authors due to inconsistencies in the underlying metadata. For
example, this article has four authors, all of whom should appear in the citation, but the generator only
displays a single author and conflates the last name with the first initial of the second author’s last name.

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The current disclaimer – “Remember to check citations for accuracy before including them in your work” –
may not be enough. If you wish to tweak this information, please submit a ticket to support@switchinc.org.
Libraries in shared instances will need to agree on the language.
ANALYTICS

Mapping Additional Bibliographic, Holdings, or Patron Details to Analytics
Local parameters and additional identifiers can be mapped to analytics to enhance reports. Adding local
parameters to your Bibliographic details, in particular, could allow a deeper dive into your data because Alma
analytics does not permit us to extract data from the Marc record the same way we could under Koha. For
example, while Ex Libris now allows searching with LDR and 008 fields, there may be specific Marc fields that
you would like to capture in a report that are not currently available or are only available in an aggregated
field (e.g. Subject or Publisher).
If you have been struggling to do an effective search on your data or wish you could easily see additional user
information in fulfillment or request reports, give me a call. If we cannot find a workable solution within the
existing fields in analytics, we can submit a ticket to Ex Libris to map that information to analytics. For more
information, please see Mapping Additional Data to Analytics in the SWITCH Wiki.
OTHER
SWITCH Day - January 2020
SWITCH is planning a brief, virtual SWITCH Day in January. The agenda will include a brief slide show
introducing all current library staff, a highlights tour of the new Alma interface, and a few lightning talks in
which staff can share a brief presentation (5-10 minutes) on something new and interesting happening in their
library (for example, Nancy Siker has agreed to present a lightning talk on a video MIAD created to introduce
Primo and how she uses it to enhance instruction). In lieu of sharing lunch, SWITCH will be sending out swag
bags with some treats and raffle off some small prizes.
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To help make this day a success, I have a few requests:
1. Please go to https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1C9E-bvHJcgD4OZ6BKljT0BKl3COtxBG?usp=sharing and fill in some information about yourself on the spreadsheet titled
“Let me introduce you” AND then upload a photo of yourself to the staff pictures folder. Please use
your name as the file name for the picture.
2. Let me know if you are willing to do a lightning presentation. Topics are completely wide open, but
here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing:
a. Tell us about a new project you have undertaken in your library or archives.
b. Tell us how you have adapted instruction during Covid and share any lessons learned.
c. Tell us how you integrated Alma with Gobi or Oasis.
d. Tell us how you redesigned your library website recently.
e. Tell us how you have used Alma analytics to aid in collection development or weeding.
3. Let me know if you have any allergies

Katie Utschig

Consortium Coordinator
SWITCH Library Consortium
3401 South 39th Street
PO Box 343922
Milwaukee, WI 53234-3922
Office# 414-382-6710 (M)
Cell# 414-214-0134 (T-F)

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Katie Utschig
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:

Katie Utschig
Wednesday, January 6, 2021 11:29 AM
All Switch Librarians
Alma/Primo VE - News and Highlights (January)

Happy New Year!

For this first News and Highlights of 2021, I am actually going to focus on some goodies in the December 2020 release.
No doubt, the January release on the 10th will usher in additional changes, but for now let’s get caught up on some of
the more interesting features of last month’s release. Cheers!

ALMA

Deliver Digital Documents
Alma has a new interface for uploading and delivering digital documents that can bypass multiple steps in the
digitization workflow. The new interface is a dream and can be accessed directly from Fulfillment>>Resource
Requests>>Deliver Digital Documents

OR by clicking Ship Digitally in the Resource Sharing Lending queue.
If you start from the Fulfillment main menu, you will need a request ID to process the request (Resource Sharing Ship
Digitally bypasses this first step):

This feature does require scanning in a Request ID so I have updated the Fulfillment Resource Sharing Request Slip (aka
Pick Slip) in all instances managed by SWITCH to include a scan-able Request ID.

1

You can also copy the ID from the Monitor Requests and Item Processes screen:

2

From there, you simply drag and drop or browse for the file.

You will get confirmation of the upload (or a warning if your file exceeds the 25MB limit).

This feature can be a real time-saver because you can by-pass the digitization department. If you are the only one
managing physical to digital requests, you can also by-pass scanning in the retrieved item and go straight to uploaded
the digitized material. Be warned, though, items will remain in the pick from shelf queue until they are scanned in OR
the request ID is scanned in at Document Delivery. If you will have multiple cooks in the kitchen, you will want to
develop a clear and consistent workflow to minimize confusion.

Course Bulk Update Job

A new job is available for Course Reserves – Course Bulk Update. This job enables you to delete a set of courses or
change some parameters for a set of courses (e.g. Term, Start/End Date, instructor). Depending on how you manage
your courses, you may find this new job useful. In conjunction with the job, there is a new set parameter (courses) that
enables you to create either an itemized or logical set of courses on which to run the job. Unlike some other areas of
Alma, you cannot create these sets by starting with an Alma query. Instead, you need to Add a Set from the Manage Sets
interface:

3

and identify the set content type as Courses:

If you end up using this job, please consider documenting your workflow and use cases to share with other SWITCH
librarians.

PRIMO
FeedGrabbr

Just a reminder that SWITCH has purchased a 30 widget license to FeedGrabbr. FeedGrabbr can be used anywhere you
want to display a feed from your library’s blog, Facebook, or Instagram. Sacred Heart currently uses FeedGrabbr to
provide important news of library updates. Their feed is designed to only pick up posts on their WordPress site with the
word “Update” in them. As a result, they get 1000 characters to highlight important updates on their Primo page
without having to modify and reload their customization package. You can see their approach here: https://switchshsfds.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/search?vid=01SLCO_SHSFDS:SHSST&sortby=rank
MIAD has just incorporated a feed from their Instagram account which we have embedded in a tile. You can check that
out here: https://switch-am.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/search?vid=01SLCO_AM:MIAD&sortby=rank
4

They also considered a version that would display posts in a grid. That version can be seen on a test site built off of the
MMWLC instance: https://switchmmwlc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/search?vid=01SLCO_MMWLC:MIAD_TEST_2
QR Code
I suspect you have all seen the QR icon that started to appear in Primo with the December release. Clicking the icon,
pulls up a QR code that can be scanned by a mobile phone or device:

It records the current URL so that a patron can replicate the current search results. This can be a useful tool if you have
been working with a student on a library computer. Once you have helped them refine their results, they can snap a
picture of the QR Code and open those search results on their phone or other mobile device. NOTE: You also have the
option to simply copy the link and sent it to them via email.
However, where this feature might really come in handy is creating displays with QR codes that allow patrons to quickly
scan the code to bring curated content straight to their phone or mobile device. For example, if you set up a display
focusing on the Bauhaus movement, you could include a QR code to books on the subject.

5

If you prefer not to display the QR code, feel free to disable it in your Discovery view:

Additional fields on the digitization request form
If your library does not display individual issues of physical journals in Primo, you may be interested in the additional
fields that are now available on the digitization request form: Volume, Issue, Part of, Publication Date, and Manual
Description. I have experimented with adding volume, issue, and publication date to the form, but lack of control over
the order of the fields produced less than satisfactory results.

However, if you do not need a “date needed by” or the “manual description field” (highlighted box above), you would
have a form with reasonable flow that allows your own patrons to supply the volume and issue in separate, distinct
fields. If you think these additional fields would be beneficial, simply submit a ticket to support@switchinc.org. We can
6

get them turned on and make sure that the new fields are captured in the Pick From Shelf notice. Libraries in shared
instances, please confer with your partner library because these changes are made at the instance level.

ANALYTICS
Static text

If you have ever wanted to add some explanatory notes that would display in an analytics report, Oracle Analytics
includes a feature for Static Text. Formatting options (including HTML markup) allow you to create text that can appear
above (or below) tables or pivot tables in a compound view. While the static markup text is entered in a text box, you
can see the formatted version immediately below if you click in any of the white space outside the text box.

To create Static Text, select this option under Add a View>>Other Views>>Static Text in the results tab:

Then be sure to add the view to your compound layout.

It will be added at the bottom of any other views in the layout, but you can simply drag it up to the top. You may also
want to format the container to make adjust the alignment. Once you have saved the report, the static text will appear
at the top whenever you run it.
7

OTHER

Reminder that SWITCH Day is next Wednesday, January 13, 2020 at 9:30AM. An appointment invitation with details
went out yesterday, but I will be sending out a reminder email with the Zoom link next week. In the meantime, I wish to
encourage everyone to upload or send me a photo of themselves as well as add a little information about yourself in this
spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TR9b8SSPl5EchJZEe5pvD2kzUiwGcGy6JfHTo2QlHY/edit?usp=sharing. I believe Jennie B. may have added another great category to the
spreadsheet – Favorite Video Binge. If you have already filled in your details, feel free to add your response to this fun
category as well.

Katie Utschig
Consortium Coordinator
SWITCH Library Consortium
3401 South 39th Street
PO Box 343922
Milwaukee, WI 53234-3922
Office# 414-382-6710 (M)
Cell# 414-214-0134 (T-F)

8

ALMA
New Upload File Option in Resource Sharing Borrowing
There is a new option in Resource Sharing Borrowing to upload a file which sends an email
notification with a link to download the file within 30 days. The files are stored temporarily on
Ex Libris servers. Patrons receiving the email must use their Primo credentials to access the
document which is automatically downloaded to their computer.
For instances managed by SWITCH, I have modified the notice so that each patron gets the
correct login method:
 AC – LDAP
 CSU – LDAP
 MIAD – SAML
 MMU – SAML
 SFS – LDAP
 SHSST - SAML
 WLC – LDAP
How might this be useful? If you are able to secure a copy of an article through Google Scholar
or an open access repository, you can fulfill and complete the patron’s borrowing request
immediately without having to send them a link to the resource. This method can also be used
if you receive a copy of the article through WorldShare ILL.
Example:
Simply click on Upload File from the Borrowing Request menu options:

Uses drag or browse to upload the file which will then appear in the list below. Once the file(s)
have been uploaded, click Send.

The patron receives an email:

Which opens the appropriate login page based on the Job Description associated with the user.
In this example, the patron belongs to MMU, so when he/she clicks “Click Here”, they get
MMU’s SSO login screen:

LDAP users would get this screen instead:

The email is now stored as an attachment in the patron’s record. For 30 days, it can also be
viewed or resent from the Resource Sharing Borrowing completed request.
New Inventory Fields Available for Import Profiles
If you batch import OCLC records, you will be thrilled to know that additional inventory fields
will be available for mapping with the February release (February 7, 2021). Noteworthy
additional fields include:
 Copy ID
 Receiving Date
 Replacement Cost
Watch this brief video for more details: https://youtu.be/WFX3wlCpRtU
If you require help updating your import profiles to accommodate any/all of these new fields,
please submit a ticket to support@switchinc.org.
PRIMO
Remove (Online) after Journal titles
Tired of seeing (Online) after journal titles from Community Zone records? A simple update to
the normalization display rules for title will transform this:

Into this:

without having to alter the underlying metadata. If you would like to strip out the (Online) in
your Primo display, simply submit a ticket to support@switchinc.org.
This change applies at the institution level, so please clear this change with your partner library
if you share an instance. Because (Online) is applied so inconsistently in CZ records, this really
should be a win-win for everyone.
OTHER
Weekly Drop-In Zoom Session
In an effort to assist libraries in maximizing their use of Alma/Primo, I have created a recurring
Zoom meeting on Tuesdays from 9-10AM. Consider this a drop-in period for any kind of
question or nagging issue that has not been vexing enough to prompt a support ticket or email.
Here is the link to the recurring meeting: https://alverno.zoom.us/j/99648281159.
SUNYLA Midwinter Virtual Conference 2021
I really enjoyed SUNYLA’s conference last February and wanted to spread the word that this
year’s conference is once again virtual and free.
Looking Forward: Creative Library Responses to Crises
Friday, February 12, 2021 (10:00 a.m. - 3:40 p.m. EST)
Cost of Attendance: Free to all!
Registration is open! Register at:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0Hfc3titRAagS8uqa-zbPA
For more details on the conference sessions, please see their information page:
http://sunyla.org/sunyla-midwinter-2021/

ALMA
IMPORTANT!
Please be advised that as of March 7, 2021, the new Alma layout will be the only layout available. This means
that you will no longer be able to switch back to the old layout. This does not apply to the new MDEditor. You
will still be able to toggle back and forth between the old and the new editor until the June release.
Be sure to take advantage of some of the perks of the new layout.
You can still star favorites:

and they will appear directly below the persistent search bar:

Under the Alma menu, you can customize the menu

and then drag and drop menu links to only display those you use most often or in order by what you need to
use the most:

Click the more menu options in the upper right corner and click customize:

to drag and drop to customize the display of those menu options:

Click the person icon and change the display density (if desired):

From any screen, Click Ctrl + Alt + F to open a pop-up to search for any link in the main menu

Resource Management – New MD Editor
Ex Libris continues to roll new functionality into the New MD Editor (e.g. “Add Inventory” now includes
Holdings – what took them so long?), but the important news for the March release (March 7) is that the New
MD Editor will be the default cataloging interface. You can still toggle back to the old interface for a while
longer. If you catalog, but still have not taken the plunge to use the new editor, please consider dropping in to
my open Zoom session on Tuesday mornings from 9-10: https://alverno.zoom.us/j/99648281159. I would be
happy to give you the $10 tour.

For those who like hotkeys, the New MD Editor can be opened and closed using Alt + M.

Notices Working Group
Later this month, I will be hosting the kick-off meeting (date/time TBD) for a new Alma Notices Working
Group. This group will meet virtually over the next few months to review and customize both patron-facing
and staff-facing notices in Alma. We will be considering style (consistent look/feel), content, conditions under
which the notices are sent, and retention policies. Any and all are welcome to join. Just reply to this email if
you would like to be part of this collaborative effort.
Limit Loan Renewal Time
If your library does not auto-renew loans and you would like to force patrons to renew their loans before they
are due, there is a new feature that allows you to set the number of days before the due date that a loan can
be renewed. I, personally, think this is going to set you up for more trouble than it is worth, but if this sounds
like a feature you would like to deploy, please submit a ticket to support@switchinc.org.
Acquisitions
Changing POLs from one electronic portfolio or collection to another does not happen too often, but when it
does, it can be a bit of a pain. Coming with the March release, there is a new option with the PO Line to
Replace the Resource.

If you are replacing a collection, you will need to confirm that you understand that the collection itself will not
be deleted. If you are replacing a portfolio, you will have the option to delete the existing portfolio or not
before you confirm that you want to continue with the replacement process.

Search for the new collection (or portfolio). You can search within your institutional repository or the
Community Zone. Click anywhere in the white space of the collection/portfolio you want to use as the
replacement. It turns yellow when you mouse-over it.

Voila! The PO Line is now associated with the selected replacement resource.
OTHER
Library Chat
Several SWITCH libraries now use a chat service (e.g. LibraryHelp or HelpOnClick) to supplement email or
phone reference. If you have been toying with the idea of subscribing to such a service (pricing ranges from
$86-$400/annually depending on FTE or type of plan), SWITCH can help you embed a widget on your Primo
page to make it easy for your patrons to connect with you at point of need. Let us know if you are
contemplating a chat service (or have one and want to embed a widget on your Primo).

Katie Utschig
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:

Katie Utschig
Thursday, April 1, 2021 8:50 AM
All Switch Librarians
Alma/Primo VE - News and Highlights (April)

ALMA
Internet Explorer no longer supported
If you still use Internet Explorer, please be advised the Ex Libris no longer supports that browser for use with
Alma. Please migrate to one of the currently supported browsers: Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google
Chrome.
Applying bibliographic and holdings templates in the new MD Editor
If you are used to applying templates in the course of your cataloging workflow, you may be wondering where
they are hiding in the new MD Editor. If you click on New in the editor’s top menu bar, you will see a list of the
templates that are currently on display with the option to further configure that display.

You will see a list of all the current templates and can scroll down the list to toggle on bibliographic or holdings
templates to which you want easy access. Click Save.

1

Enabled templates will appear in alphabetical order under their appropriate category and can be applied to
either create a new bibliographic record or (in the example highlighted below) create a new holdings record
with the template.

Those same holdings templates are also now available from the Add Inventory menu in the MD Editor

General Message to User
If you need to send a general message to a patron – perhaps communicating that you found their keys OR you
located the book they had asked about – you can send a General Message to the user from the User Details
page:

2

Simply click Compose and fill in the form:

The patron gets the email – even clicking enter starts a new paragraph – and they could reply directly to you, if
necessary.

AND that letter is now under their attachments tab so other staff would be able to see that someone had
communicated with the patron. Viewing the actual content of the notice is not as slick. You need to download
it

3

and then I recommend saving it right away with the .txt extension.

Then you will be able to open it right away in your default text editor (e.g. Notepad) to see the content

For this reason, it may be prudent to cc (and/or “send from”) your generic library (reference or circulation)
email account when you create the General Message. That way everyone is in the loop.
Google Scholar Plug-in OR SWITCH Power Search Plug-in
Just a reminder that staff managing Resource Sharing borrowing requests have two tools at their disposal to
ensure that they are not passing on requests for articles that are freely available on the internet. The Google
Scholar button (Chrome users: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/google%20scholar OR Firefox:
Google Scholar Button – Get this Extension for   Firefox (en-US) (mozilla.org) ) makes it very easy to search for the
article title in Google Scholar. Simply highlight the title in the borrowing request and click on the button.

4

Once you have verified that the article is freely available, you can Cancel the request and send the patron a
URL to access the article OR download the article and upload it using the method described here:
http://switchlibraries.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/143139333/2021_02.pdf.
The SWITCH Power Search Plug-in (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/switch-libraryconsortium/jibghnpiodecibgclmholabkfkhcgdid) is another Chrome extension you can use to help identify
possible partners if you suspect that Alma has not built a good Rota. It is designed to run an “Everything”
search on one or more SWITCH Primo environments AND Google Scholar. You can review how to download
and use this tool here:
http://switchlibraries.pbworks.com/w/page/140591823/SWITCH%20Library%20Consortium%20Power%20Sea
rch
Resource Sharing Lending – Ship Digitally
Just a reminder to be sure to check the Request Completed box when shipping digitally from the Resource
Sharing Lending queue:

This will help keep your active queue tidy. If you have lending requests with the status “Shipped Digitally”, you
can manually complete those requests to clear them from your queue. You should also check for digitally
supplied requests with the status “Received by Partner” that have a Supplied Format of “Undefined” and
manually complete those requests as well.

5

There appears to be some hiccup in the order in which ISO messages are sent and processed that are leaving
the supplied format undefined. If you notice this happen as you process a request, please generate a
performance tracking file (as opposed to a tracking ID) and send the file in a support ticket to
support@switchinc.org so that I report it to Ex Libris.

Internal Users – Job Description
Also a gentle reminder to use the proper values for User Job Description when you create an internal user
account (e.g. a Community User). The correct value (99% of the time) is “[Library_Code] Patron” so if you are
creating an internal user for Mount Mary, you would enter MMU Patron; Sacred Heart, SHSST Patron. The
6

following SWITCH Wiki page explains how and why we use this field in SWITCH circulation reports:
http://switchlibraries.pbworks.com/w/page/143721978/Job%20Description
PRIMO
CDI Search and Ranking
I don’t typically promote Ex Libris videos because time is precious and we spend entirely too much of it
plugged in these days; however, if you want a better understanding of how CDI retrieves and ranks query
results, this particular Ask the Expert video is pretty interesting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22lKAtLIWh0. There is also a Knowledge Article on this topic that is
worth the read if you have not come across it already:
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Primo/Content_Corner/Central_Discovery_Index/Documentation_and_
Training/Documentation_and_Training_(English)/CDI__The_Central_Discovery_Index/080Search_and_Ranking_in_CDI
Only display pick-up libraries in the request physical item form
We can add custom CSS to your Discovery view to hide Pick-Up Institution and Pick-Up Location Campus from
the form patrons use to place a hold on an item in your institution.
Currently the form requires patrons to select institutions and then the library within the institution

And when you select the pickup location you see the strange NO CAMPUS designation first

The new CSS will only display the pickup location (i.e. the library)
7

and the drop-down options will not be labelled NO CAMPUS.
NOTE: The first locations displayed are the library/libraries in your institution followed by all other SWITCH
libraries in alphabetical order.

If you would like to deploy this in your Primo display, simply submit a ticket to support@switchinc.org.
If you prefer to manage your own customization package, simply add the following CSS to the Custom CSS file
(and send me a quick email to let me know that you have updated your package):
/*Primo Request Physical Item Form - Hides the institution selector*/
prm-request > div > div> form > div > div > prm-form-field [name="pickupInstitution"]
{display:none;}
/*Primo Request Physical Item Form - Hides the institution selector*/
md-optgroup > label
{display:none;}
/*Primo Request Physical Item Form - Hides the asterisk in front of the pickup location selector */
.md-required::before {
display: none;
}

Katie Utschig
Consortium Coordinator
SWITCH Library Consortium
3401 South 39th Street
8

PO Box 343922
Milwaukee, WI 53234-3922
Office# 414-382-6710 (M)
Cell# 414-214-0134 (T-F)

9

Katie Utschig
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:

Katie Utschig
Monday, May 3, 2021 11:20 AM
All Switch Librarians
Alma/Primo VE - News and Highlights (May)

ALMA
Authority Control – Push set to MD Editor
If you have been working with the Authority Control task list in Alma (and don’t fret if you have not even
thought about authority control), you can now filter the task list and push a set of records to the MD Editor. In
the example below, I am working on records in the task list from the current year filtered by 100 field, Not
suppressed from Discovery, and Not Linked to the Community Zone.
I clicked the box in the blue table headings bar to select all
NOTE: When you select all, you are selecting all on the page that loaded – not all records that match the filter criteria

1

After I click edit selected, the MD Editor opens with access to that set. Click on a record in the set

Click Function F3 (on some laptops, you will need to select fn+F3)
You can view options from the controlled vocabulary. If you find the correct record, click Select to apply it to
your bibliographic record

The 100 field is now under authority control and you can Save & Release the record

2

NOTE: Releasing a record from the MD editor does not release it from the authority control task list. To avoid
confusion, you may want to return to the Authority Control Task List (by exiting out of the MD Editor by
clicking the MD Editor icon in the sidebar menu)

3

then either Dismiss All or Select All and Dismiss Selected to remove those tasks from the list

As I mentioned, no worries if authority control is the least of your concerns right now. One of my goals for the
coming fiscal year is to create a working group to determine how we might manage this work as a consortium.
Waive All Fines/Fees in User Record (Fines and Fees Tab)
Ex Libris has added a “Waive All” option in the Fines/Fees tab. Previously, you had to first select all (which only
checked all the fines on the current page) and waive selected. This Waive All feature allows you waive all
fines/fees on a patron’s account regardless of the number of pages of fines/fees. Proceed with caution or first
filter the list by the specific type of fine to avoid accidentally waiving more than you intended.
User Results List – More Sort Options
The results of an Alma search for users can now be sorted by expiry date or purge date.
Resource Sharing Lending and Borrowing Created Date and Update Date Timestamp
In case you had not noticed it, the Resource Sharing queues now include full date and time stamp for created
date and update date. This should improve list sorting and troubleshooting (if a patron has duplicate active
requests in the queue).

Clearing out negative balance on accounts
It seems like every once in a while, a patron ends up with a negative balance on their account (this can occur if
a lost replacement is paid or waived and then the “lost item” is subsequently found, causing Alma to refund
the lost item replacement cost). In the past, the only solution seemed to be creating a new fine to offset the
4

negative balance. However, this has only ever been a less than perfect solution, because the negative balance
and the new fine are still “Active” in Alma and appear on the borrowing activity reports.
I recently changed a setting in configuration that allows the libraries actively managed by SWITCH to waive
credits. Now if you have a negative balance due to a credit, you can waive the credit.

If you created a fine to offset the credit, you should waive that fine as well. NOTE: Waive each item separately.
If you waive them at the same time, the amount waive will equal “$0.00” and Alma will not record the
transaction.
I imagine all or our circulation desks will run into this problem at some point in the future, but for now, here
are a couple active patrons whose fines/fees can be cleaned up with this approach:
Alverno - AC0450335
Mount Mary - MMU241427
PRIMO
Page Titles Include Tab IDs
Just an FYI that Ex Libris has been making incremental changes to comply with web accessibility standards.
One of these changes may affect the appearance of your web tabs if you added html tags to your Links Menu
labels

5

The home page (labelled “New<br>Search” in the example above) is not affected by this change.
Deduplication Improvements
Ex Libris has now added Marc 776 $z as a match point for non-serial records. Marc 776 $z stores the ISBN for
the additional physical format of an electronic book and is a crucial match point for identifying print and
electronic manifestations of the same title. If a match exists and your Primo is configured to dedup records,
patrons will see a single bibliographic record for a title with both View It and Get It options. We will not be
able to see the fruits of this upgrade until the semi-annual full re-index scheduled for July, but I am very
excited for this improvement.

ANALYTICS
Add Filters to Measure Attributes
This feature is not new, but I thought others might not be aware of it yet. If you have a measure attribute in
your analysis, you can apply a filter just to the measure through Edit Formula.
Measure attributes have the rule icon:
6

For example, in a recent analysis, I wanted a count of all active, unsuppressed bibliographic records held by
a library along with a count of their active, non-periodical items. Typically, you apply all your filter criteria to
the report, but in this case, I wanted the non-periodical filter to only act on the item count measure. To
achieve this, you edit the formula for the measure:

Select filter

Locate the field you will be using for your filter criteria and double-click.

7

The standard filter dialogue box will appear. Enter your criteria and click ok.

Your criteria will be rendered in SQL for your review. Click OK to apply it (you may have to move the dialogue
box to see the OK button).

8

Click OK to save the edited formula

NOTE: Be sure to edit the column properties so that the label appears in plain English in your report.

9

OTHER
Primo LibGuide

If your library currently uses LibGuides, I wanted to highlight an interesting use of the LibGuides Gallery Box carousel
option to highlight different features of Primo. University of New Hampshire in Durham recently shared their Primo
LibGuide on the ELUNA Primo list service (https://libraryguides.unh.edu/librarysearchbox_unhdurham). If you scroll
down the page to the What’s New section, you will see how they deployed an animated gallery box populated with both
still images and video clips to advertise different search options/strategies in Primo. Clicking on an image stops the autoadvance and allows you to manually scroll through the content.
I typically think of using gallery boxes for displaying new titles so I wanted to highlight a different way to use this feature
to great effect. If you currently use gallery boxes in your LibGuides, share with me how you like to use this feature. I
would love to publicize it in a future News and Highlights email.

Katie Utschig

Consortium Coordinator
SWITCH Library Consortium
3401 South 39th Street
PO Box 343922
Milwaukee, WI 53234-3922
Office# 414-382-6710 (M)
Cell# 414-214-0134 (T-F)

10

Katie Utschig
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:

Katie Utschig
Tuesday, June 1, 2021 8:28 AM
All Switch Librarians
Alma/Primo VE - News and Highlights (June)

ALMA
Cloud App – Appointment Scheduler
I have been exploring some of the Cloud Apps that are now available through Alma and want to highlight a
simple Appointment Scheduler that could be used to reserve Study Rooms, schedule research appointments,
or appointments to pick up holds should you have to restrict access to your library in the future. The app has
some limitations:
 Only one scheduled and cancelled notification message can be configured by institution so it currently
cannot be used to handle multiple purposes or even different purposes by different libraries that share
an institution
 You only get a daily view of the calendar
 Only one Alma user can be attached to each appointment
 Only library staff can make appointments
Use Case #1: Study Rooms
Your library has two study rooms available in 1-4 hour increments. A patron calls to see if a room is available
from 9-11 on June 3. Staff can access the app from Alma and use the calendar to navigate to the schedules for
June 3.

1

SHSST Study Room A is booked at 10, but Study Room B is available.

Click on calendar block on SHSST Study Room B at 9AM to make the appointment. Modify the duration and
then search for the user by First Name, Last Name, Primary ID and select the user.

2

Click Save

The patron will receive a formatted notice informing them of the reservation:

Clicking Reply uses the email address you configure for replies. For example, you might want to use your
generic circulation email address.

3

If a patron calls wanting to know when they have appointments, you can search by the user and pull up
everything scheduled on their behalf:

You can use Delete to cancel an appointment

And the patron will get a notification that the appointment was cancelled.

If desired, daily calendars can be printed for each study room so that the reservations can be posted at the
study room. However, any appointments made after the calendar was printed will not be reflected on the
schedule.
4

Use Case #2: Research Assistance Appointment
Your library offers individual research appointments in the context of specific courses. Students will be
working with a librarian for research assistance at the start of their project to help them refine their topic and
identify search strategies. The students are responsible for contacting the library to select a 20-minute time
slot.
In this scenario, you can configure the app to allow 20 minute blocks by default and choose the librarian’s
name as the location. Since you will likely only be scheduling appointments over a 2-3 week period, you can
even create a dummy user record for OUT OF OFFICE to indicate when a specific librarian is not available for
appointments during certain blocks of time on a given day.

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When an appointment is scheduled, you can configure the app to send this notice:

Cancellation notices could be configured like this:
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If you have a use case for this app and would like to enable and configure it in your instance, please submit a
ticket to support@switchinc.org so we can set that up for you.
Spring Cleaning
With the spring semester behind us, now is a great time to do a little spring cleaning in Alma. Just go to
Analytics>>Design Analytics. Click Catalog and then navigate to:
/shared/Community/Reports/Consortia/Switch Consortia/SWITCH Recommended Clean-up. The reports are
fairly self-explanatory, but libraries in shared instances will both need to run the reports and share the cleanup. Let me know if you have any questions.

MD Editor Update
The classic MD Editor will be available a little longer - until the October 2021 release. However, if you have been using
the classic version because you have not yet got the hang of the new MD Editor, please let me know. I will be starting a
regular rotation at member libraries soon, and I will be sure to spend some time walking your through all the features of
the new editor.

PRIMO
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More results per page
Coming in the June release, a new Discovery configuration setting will give patrons the option to display 50 results per
page (rather than the OTB 10). Patrons will not be able to set this as a personal default, but the settings will remain
throughout their search session so they will not have to select the option with each new query during the session. The
results per page option appears at the bottom of the page.

.
Feel free to play around with this feature in one of our sandbox views: https://sandbox01na.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/search?query=any,contains,Gospel&tab=Everything&search_scope=My
Inst_and_CI&vid=01SLCO_1_INST:WLS&lang=en&offset=50
In a few months, this pagination feature will be the new default, but each instance can elect to turn it on
sooner by submitting a ticket to support@switchinc.org.
OTHER
Bluegrass User Group (eBUG) Conference
Just a reminder that the Bluegrass User Group is hosting a virtual conference June 14-16 th. This conference is
free and open to all with presentations from 8-12 each day. For those of you wanting to do more in analytics,
check out the training sessions on Monday (Creating and Managing Dashboards) and Wednesday (Data
Visualization with Oracle Analytics Server).
2021 eBUG Annual Conference Info
2021 Conference Registration
2021 Conference Program

Katie Utschig

Consortium Coordinator
SWITCH Library Consortium
3401 South 39th Street
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PO Box 343922
Milwaukee, WI 53234-3922
Office# 414-382-6710 (M)
Cell# 414-214-0134 (T-F)

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