[Wactclc-alma] Just a thought - ctcLink/Alma - Preferred Language

Tue Nov 17 17:38:46 PST 2020

I included the following in the notes from today’s meeting, but thought I’d share here as well.

After the meeting today, I did a quick, anecdotal survey of webmail clients, and MS outlook traditional email client.

In their web interfaces, both Gmail and Outlook offer easy ways of translating an email in your inbox to a different language.

And, I know that the traditional Outlook mail client allows you to translate a message to another language. (You can try this yourself if you’re reading this message in outlook, but right-clicking in the message body and selecting translate. You’ve probably got that option.)

So, it’s possible that ESL patrons are already using these techniques, or the more general browser and OS-level translations, to translate English content to their preferred language.

Just something to be aware of, in case you’d like to think about re-enforcing one of those techniques, rather than embark on an Alma-specific solution.

The advantage of pushing the email and browser techniques is that they would have usefulness to patrons beyond the context of the library.

Wade Guidry
Library Consortium Services Manager, WACTCLC
wadeg at bigbend.edu<mailto:wadeg at bigbend.edu>
(509) 760-4474
http://www.wactclc.org

From: Wactclc-alma <wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu> On Behalf Of Guidry, Wade
Sent: Monday, November 16, 2020 3:56 PM
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>
Subject: Re: [Wactclc-alma] Just a thought - ctcLink/Alma - Preferred Language

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Thanks, Lesley. Interesting question.

To answer the Alma letters part…

Yes, Alma does provide for delivering letters in different languages, based upon the “preferred language” set in the user record.

Letters are constructed from a combination of label strings and direct XML customization, so you can provide versions of a letter based on a user’s preferred language by adding language specific labels and customizations.

Note that patron load jobs currently set the preferred language to ‘English’ for all external users. I don’t know if PPMS / ctcLink tracks a preferred language field. But I believe the one in Alma could be manually set so that it isn’t subsequently overwritten.

So, yes, alternate language letters are doable, it would just take some work to get the letters set up

I can talk a bit about this one on tomorrow’s call.

Wade Guidry
Library Consortium Services Manager, WACTCLC
wadeg at bigbend.edu<mailto:wadeg at bigbend.edu>
(509) 760-4474
http://www.wactclc.org

From: Wactclc-alma <wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu>> On Behalf Of Lesley Caldwell
Sent: Friday, November 13, 2020 10:02 AM
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>>
Subject: [Wactclc-alma] FW: Just a thought - ctcLink/Alma - Preferred Language

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Hello,

Is anyone sending out Alma letters in multiple languages?

Bobby, one of our star student workers – now part-timer, has been working really hard during Covid to support our Spanish-speaking students. I think he was working with about 30 students this fall who had borrowed technology – it’s been amazing.

Beyond Alma letters, if anyone has tips about supporting English Language Learners in their library right now, we’ll take those too.

Thanks so much!
Lesley

From: Robert Garcia <ROGarcia at pierce.ctc.edu<mailto:ROGarcia at pierce.ctc.edu>>
Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2020 10:47 PM
To: Lesley Caldwell <LCaldwell at pierce.ctc.edu<mailto:LCaldwell at pierce.ctc.edu>>
Subject: Just a thought - ctcLink/Alma - Preferred Language

Lesley,

do you know if we have the Preferred Language option in Alma?

My thought is....

Students would be able to have a Preferred Language other than English.  This is either done in ctcLink then carried over to Alma in an overnight process, or we would have to manually flag their accounts in Alma to their preferred language.

Then when we send out Alma letters, Alma would refer to their Preferred Language and would send them a letter in their preferred language to their preferred and/or alternate email address.

We would have to set up letters in the different languages, and probably have to do some programming behind the scenes that would connect a Preferred Language of Spanish with Spanish letters, and a Preferred Language of Russian with Russian letters, etc...  But I do recall reading something about translating in Alma.

We had something like this when I worked in the hospitals in Boston, and it worked great.  It did take me a little time to set up, but once done it was easy to maintain.  We would just have to remember that when we created or change a letter in one language we would have to also create or change it in the other languages.

This link refers to Preferred Languages in ctcLink.

9.2 Communications - Running the Communication Generation Process

http://ctclinkreferencecenter.ctclink.us/m/79545/l/1016263-9-2-communications-running-the-communication-generation-process

This link refers to Alma Letters and Other languages.

Configuring Alma Letters

https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/050Administration/050Configuring_General_Alma_Functions/070Configuring_Alma_Letters

I know this isn't my job, and I don't mean to overstep, I'm just trying to see if we can get more bang for our buck with our computer system(s).

Bobby

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