Alma Training

"Getting Started" from Ex Libris - Note: this is not very helpful to new users, aimed more at those implementing the system.  More useful is the Alma Essentials section of training.

The PDF version - more helpful than the "Getting Started" link above, especially pages 91-102 for critical understanding of search logic and Alma home page widgets and icons.

• To become familiar with the Alma Home Page
• To Manage your Widgets and Quick Links
• To perform simple and advanced searches
• To begin to see how the institution, network, and community zones appear in the system

The first four "Alma Essentials" videos:

Orientation

        01 Introduction to Alma Training
        02 Introduction to Alma

Navigation and Searching

        01 Navigating in Alma
        02 Searching in Alma

Alma is designed around workflows.  A workflow is a series of steps to complete an end-to-end process. Workflow tasks are intended to be managed through the persistent menus and your home page widgets.

Whenever possible, functionality and functional workflows are cross-format, e.g. consistent and efficient workflows for ordering or cataloging regardless of whether you’re working with print, electronic, or digital resources

Generally speaking, in Alma:

• Acquisitions encompasses ordering, receiving, and invoicing.
• Resource Management includes cataloging, physical inventory maintenance and control, and electronic resource activations tasks.
• Fulfillment is a broader term to mean not just circulation, but also requesting, course reserves, and access control
• Administration means user management and general administrative tasks

The persistent blue menu bar at the top is arranged around these areas. Which menus display to a staff user are based on the roles assigned to the user. 

Widgets are a small pane on information or actions that are relevant to your user role and Alma's current status. Example widgets include a task list, a library calendar, and the status of scheduled jobs.  Widgets are managed using the "plus" sign icon on the far right of the Alma home page.

To return to the Alma home page from anywhere in the system, click on the institutional icon in the upper left hand corner.

A second significant issue is your location. In conjunction with your user role settings, this also determines what you do, and do not, see.

The Alma Quick Links menu is the star icon on the top left of the persistent menu bar - after the institutional and Alma logos, it is the first functional item in the persistent menu bar.  Each user determines for themself what will be in the quick links menu by "starring" any favored choices in the other menus.  Your starred items ARE your quick links menu.  The two starred items below from the Aquisistions menu will appear in the quick links menu.

The persistent search bar is present on all Alma pages and has a two-tiered search set-up.  It can search across the entire Alma system, so the determination of what category of thing you are searching (the blue box) determines the fields that will show up as search possibilities:

• Searching "User" will allow searches of First Name, Last Name, e-mail, primary identifier, etc.
• Searching "Invoices" gives secondary choices for PO lines and vendors
• Searching for Physical Titles gives Creator (not Author), Title, Barcode, ISBN, etc.

For a good review of search capabilities, see the help for "Repository Search, Indexing".

For an exhaustive coverage of search capabilities, see "Searching in Alma".

Note: boolean OR is not supported in simple search. 

The Alma Advanced Search is available from any screen by clicking on the "advanced" link to the right of the simple search box.

The initial choice of category (blue box) determines what field choices are available for searching in the left side box(es).  Which field you are searching determines the choices of the middle box.  For example, a numerical field might allow for greater than, less then, or is equal to in the middle box.

The Alma system is set up to search unlike any other system you might be familiar with.  Particularly important is to understand how boolean does, and doesn't, work in Alma.  From page 92 in the "Getting Started" PDF:

How your search results are presented depends upon what category you searched.  Remember that Alma is arranged around workflows.  So for each category you search, it is making assumptions about the useful things that would go with the workflows for that category. For example, compare the differences between the same search terms for physical titles vs. physical items.

Physical Titles search results:

Note that even though the institution tab is highlighted, the network icon is next to the brief record.  This indicates that the record for that title which is owned by the institution was pulled from the network zone. 

Physical Items search results:

More information is presented about the item level, such as barcode, call number, permanent location and status.

Home Page practice

1. Locate the links to the Alma Sandbox and the associated usernames. Choose sandbox 1 or sandbox 2 (not the network sandbox), select a username (coordinate among the group to be using different usernames for this practice), and log in.
2. Add a widget. 
3. Remove a widget
4. Change your location
5. Select menu items by starring them for your quick links menu
6. Open your quick links menu
7. Close your quick links menu
8. Explore the icons to the upper right of the persistent menu bar
9. Choose something from a menu, then return to the homepage by clicking the upper left institution icon location (in the sandbox, it will say something catchy like "member 1" or "member 2")

Simple Searching practice

1. Do a simple search for  physical titles - title for Hamlet
2. Notice and consider why you get what you get when you click on:
   • the title,
   • physical (1),
   • other details.
3. Notice and consider why you get what you get when you click through the three gray boxes at the upper right of the brief record
   • edit record,
   • holdings,
   • ... (this means click on the box with the three dots.  Alma training and documentation refers to these as "ellipses")
4. Now do a simple search for  physical items - title for Hamlet
5. What elements were sticky and what changed when you went from the first search to the second?  Did you get the same number of results?
6. Click on a barcode link in a brief record and review the screen for the physical item editor.  Notice the series of tabs.
7. Return to the results list of brief records.  Explore the three gray boxes at the upper right.  Compare and contrast how they are the same and different from the first search.
8. Return to the results list of brief records. Click on the "save query" box to the upper right and save the search.

Advanced Searching Practice

1. Choose a category (blue box) and click on the "advanced" link to the right of the simple search box.  Not all categories are supported by advanced searching (e.g. Users and Invoices), but most are. 
2. Explore the fields available for searching.  Notice how the middle box changes with different fields.  Attempt to search using multiple lines, recognizing the limitations of fewer records in the sandbox environment.
3. Do a search with at least three lines using a combination of And and Or connectors between the lines.  Did it work as you expected?