[Wactclc-alma] [EXTERNAL] - Re: ALMA Locations Question

Wed Feb 8 17:02:50 PST 2023

Like Amy, I suspect someone may have mixed up Wade telling us to limit fulfillment units during migration.

I think there was also a thing where Ex Libris staff recommended limiting the number of fulfillment rules within our fulfillment units to 10 rules, just to make things easier to manage. But you can definitely have more than 10 fulfillment rules in a single fulfillment unit.

We create new locations all the time. I just created a new location for Picture Books at South Seattle College past week.

I'm a big fan of having as many locations as you need to reflect all the different collections within your library. If something is confusing your patrons, change what you're doing!

Seattle Central College has 81 physical locations in Alma-Primo. That's not even counting the locations at their 2 branches.

One thing to be aware of is that once you've created a physical location in Alma, you probably shouldn't delete that location from the Physical locations table in Alma config even if you stop using that physical location. Those location names and codes get used as values in Alma Analytics reports. If you delete the location names and codes in Alma config, I think you lose that location as a label in any of your reports showing historical data.

When we stop using a physical location, we add "(OBSOLETE)" to the beginning of the location name. This way we know not to use it anymore but we still have the location label in our Alma Analytics reports.

We create new locations often enough that I had to save notes about all the steps in my OneNote notebook. We have a lot more complicated structure than other folks, so some of these details may not apply to your library.

Physical location settings to pay attention to:
Holdings Configuration section
Call number scheme
Suppress from Discovery check box

- Add location to 1 or more circulation desks (all circ desks must be within the same library)
Fulfillment Configuration -- [Library] -- Locations -- Physical Locations -- [Location] -- Actions/Edit -- Attach Existing Circulation Desk

- Add location to Overdue and Lost Notice profiles
Fulfillment Configuration -- [Seattle Colleges] -- Physical Fulfillment -- Overdue and Lost Loan Profile -- [Profile]

For "regular" materials, add the location to:
- Lost Notice ([branch]) profile

For equipment owned by IT, add the location to:
- Equipment Overdue ([Campus] IT Services)
- Equipment Lost ([Campus] IT Services)

For Reserves and/or Equipment, add the location to:
- Reserves & Equipment Overdue ([branch])
- Lost Reserves & Equipment ([branch])

For ultra short-term and/or in-house use items that aren't Reserves, add the location to
- In-House Overdue ([branch])
- Lost In-House Loans ([branch])

- Add location to appropriate Loan Anonymization Rule Editor
Alma Configuration -- [Seattle Colleges] -- Fulfillment -- General -- Fulfillment Jobs Configuration -- Anonymization Job -- Loan Anonymization Rules

6 month retention - expensive equipment like Chromebooks, everything in North Student Media Center, everything in the IT Services libraries

2 day retention - South reserves, short term Circ Desk materials, and equipment

7 day retention - North and Central reserves and inexpensive equipment
14 day retention - "regular" locations with materials that can be transited between libraries

- Add location to any Loan Limit rules if necessary
Alma Configuration -- [Seattle Colleges] -- Fulfillment -- Patron Configurations -- Loan Limits

IT Equipment - 1 of each type of equipment per patron (e.g. 1 hotspot, 1 Chromebook, 1 headset, 1 webcam)

- Create holding and item records with new test items on appropriate Test bib for [Library]
Use the TEST BIB and TEST HOLDING templates when creating new test records in the MD Editor --
Open bib record
Select Templates tab
Select MARC21 Holdings > Shared > TEST Holding > New -- Right click and select New Record from Template

Remember to suppress bib and holdings records

[cid:image001.png at 01D93BDC.50857DF0]

To create the test item records

Make sure the holdings record is the active record in the display.  It will have a blue header if it's active
Select Add Inventory

If you don't have access to barcodes, set the barcode in the test item record for date + time of record creation: YYYYMMDDHHMM
example: 202105251838

I recommend creating at least 2 test item records for anything that has a loan limit to be able to confirm that the loan limit restriction is working as expected.

- Create Terms of Use and Fulfillment Unit Rules (best to do when the library is closed)
May need to create new Fulfillment Units

It will be ok!

Kirsti S. Thomas
Library Technical Services Manager & Systems Librarian
Seattle Colleges
kirsti.thomas at seattlecolleges.edu

From: Wactclc-alma <wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu> On Behalf Of Herman, Amy
Sent: Wednesday, February 8, 2023 15:21
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>
Cc: Julie Nurse <julie.nurse at centralia.edu>; Meredith Tummeti <meredith.tummeti at centralia.edu>
Subject: Re: [Wactclc-alma] [EXTERNAL] - Re: ALMA Locations Question

Agreed, I don't remember him saying anything to us about limiting locations, although we were warned by EL to severely limit the fulfillment units when we migrated from Voyager.  Perhaps that's where some confusion is?

It's been very handy to have separate locations for all of our different collections (Main Collection, Biographies, Fiction, Reference, Oversize, Graphic Novels, New Books and various book displays which we use as temporary locations, special collections, etc.  We have 46 locations at our main campus library, and 10 and 15 locations at our two branch campus libraries.

In contrast, we only have 5 fulfillment units total (General stacks, Reference/Closed Stacks, Reserves, Short Loans (periodicals, media), Electronic).

Amy Herman, Library Faculty
Olympic College
Bremerton, WA
aherman at olympic.edu<mailto:aherman at olympic.edu>

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From: Wactclc-alma <wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu>> On Behalf Of Miller, Cassandra
Sent: Wednesday, February 8, 2023 3:08 PM
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>>
Cc: Julie Nurse <julie.nurse at centralia.edu<mailto:julie.nurse at centralia.edu>>; Meredith Tummeti <meredith.tummeti at centralia.edu<mailto:meredith.tummeti at centralia.edu>>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] - Re: [Wactclc-alma] ALMA Locations Question

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Honestly, I'd just suggest creating permanent physical locations for each collection, under your library. I'm really surprised Wade would have suggested you not do that. I don't remember him saying anything like that to us.

Cassandra Miller
Pronouns she/her/hers
Library Technician II
Cassandra.Miller at lwtech.edu<mailto:Jonathan.Miller at lwtech.edu>
Lake Washington Institute of Technology
11605 132nd Avenue NE
Kirkland, WA 98034
(425) 739-8100, ext. 8632

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From: Wactclc-alma <wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu>> On Behalf Of Kyle Sutton
Sent: Wednesday, February 8, 2023 2:31 PM
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>>
Cc: Julie Nurse <julie.nurse at centralia.edu<mailto:julie.nurse at centralia.edu>>; Meredith Tummeti <meredith.tummeti at centralia.edu<mailto:meredith.tummeti at centralia.edu>>
Subject: [Wactclc-alma] ALMA Locations Question

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________________________________
Good afternoon,

I have a question regarding physical locations in ALMA. According to some of the library staff here at Centralia College when we migrated to ALMA, Wade recommended that we limit the number of "physical locations" in ALMA.

We've been operating under this principle for some time now, and consequently, young adult, graphic novels, children's books, and temporary locations like new books and seasonal displays do not have their own physical location in ALMA.

Currently at our library, items shelved in separate spaces are all designated as located in the "Main Stacks" due to this ambiguous advice to limit locations.

However, as you can imagine, students have a hard time finding items because according to primo the item is supposed to be shelved in the main stacks by the call number while the item is actually shelved separately.

I have been tasked with seeking the collective wisdom of this community about the possible adverse effects of creating and using a limited number of additional locations that match the physical space where an item is kept.

I would appreciate any feedback you all may have about why we may not want to create a small number "physical locations" in ALMA to assist students, staff, and faculty in finding items in our library.

I would also appreciate any feedback about how your library has successfully used locations to assist users in locating items.

Thank you,

Kyle Sutton
Instruction & Systems Librarian
Kirk Library, Centralia College
(360) 623-8121

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