Embedded Files
OVERVIEW
Each Acquisitions sub-page includes a brief overview with workflow charts to provide a snapshot of the workflow, local documents created by the team to provide clarity, links to ExLibris documentation on relevant topics, and supplemental links to other helpful consortial websites.
The charts are color coded and designed to link workflows together. Colored circles at the edges of one chart are meant to be matched with the corresponding circle colors and circle numbers on the edges of other charts. Blue underscored text hyperlinks to relevant Ex Libris documentation.
Bright orange - Library Service Provider APIs (GOBI API)
Blue - Purchase Orders
Green - Inventory
Pale orange - Renewals
Purple - Electronic Resources
Red - Receiving
Yellow - Invoicing
The main Acquisitions page provides links to updates, consortial content standards, the glossary, roles, and tutorials that will help you use this site and stay abreast of the latest changes to Alma. Many terms are new and confusing to the novice Alma user, so noteworthy terms have been defined in the glossary section. All Acquisitions roles have been defined, but more detailed information can be found in the link.
FLOWCHART COMPREHENSIVE V8 POSTER VERSION.pdfIntroduction to Acquisitions - documentation from Ex Libris:
“Acquisitions is the process by which an institution acquires new items or services. "New" means either copies of items that already exist in the inventory, new items without holdings that are defined in the Institution, Community, or Network Zones, or extensions or additions to existing services (such as additional users for an electronic resource). Alma provides a step-by-step process that guides all acquisitions. Alma handles many kinds of acquisitions, including physical, electronic, and digital, and including standing orders, periodical subscriptions, and renewals.
After defining vendors and their parameters, such as how to communicate with them, the acquisition workflows include purchasing, invoicing, and managing trials. Alma can be configured to handle various special payments and processing due to added tax, returns, split invoice payments, and so forth.”
Disclaimer
Training included is generally not configuration details. Those can be found in the Project Wiki. Those at your institution who are Alma certified can make configuration changes required. In many cases, crossover training will be required for certain staff. The institution is responsible for identifying those individuals and building appropriate training. The training list put together in this wiki is not a definitive list of all available resources, but we hope it is a list of the main concepts. Some training links take viewers to other websites, beware.
WHAT'S NEW IN ALMA ACQUISITIONS
Acquisitions Webinar - 04/06/2017
(Webex app or software needed: Webex Viewer; WebEx for Android, Webex for Itunes)
CONSORTIAL POLICIES
Know your Funds...The funding scheme is slightly different from Voyager.
Fund — Budgets for funding acquisitions. Funds are aggregated in a ledger. An allocated fund represents an actual budget. A summary fund is a collection of related or similar funds. See Fund Transaction Terminology.
Summary funds — Funds that are used for aggregate reporting on the subordinate (child) funds. Summary funds can contain other summary funds or allocated funds. Summary funds are not used for ordering or invoicing. See Managing Funds and Ledgers.
Allocated fund — A representation of an actual budget used for purchasing. See fund, and also see Fund Transaction Terminology.
Reporting code — An attribute of a PO line or invoice line that codes a type of material within the ledger and fund system. For example: monograph, e-journal. This allows reporting on funds by attributes other than the funds hierarchy. See Configuring Reporting Codes.
Know your Types...For those that migrated Voyager data, there are many types to trip you up when determining what happened to your data. These may help.
Purchase order line type — Also purchase type. Defines the type of inventory and continuity (one-time or continuous) of the PO line. For more information, see Explanation of Purchase Types Workflow & Inventory.
Invoice Line types — Out of the box, the special invoice lines Shipment, Insurance, Overhead, and Discount automatically appear for each new invoice, and you can enable additional lines of these types, as well as lines of type Other or Regular. See Additional Charges in Creating Invoices.
Material type — Also Acquisitions Material Type. The type of material, such as a book or electronic journal collection, from which an item takes its form. Note that the material type does not control the PO line workflow and can be modified when creating/editing a PO line. Unless hidden, an item's material type appears in Primo’s Get It/Details tabs. Material types are system-defined, but they can be enabled or disabled and their labels can be configured. See Configuring Physical Item Material Type Descriptions.
Resource type — The type of item in the repository (based on existing bibliographic fields, such as the LDR and 008) or being ordered. A resource is physical, electronic, or digital, but may have a more specific type (not including its physical material type). See Introduction to Alma Inventory: Alma Inventory Resource Type Examples and Managing Import Profiles: Creating/Editing an Import Profile: Inventory Information.
Process Type — How a resource is currently being processed (processing stage or work order type). See Requests in Alma.
Work Order Type — A work order type indicates the type of library process to be carried out on a resource, such as binding or cataloging. Each department in your library is assigned to handle a specific work order type.
Know your Electronic Inventory...These definitions might help understanding what to label things.
Aggregator package — A type of electronic collection that includes all titles (as opposed to a selective package, which includes only some of the collection’s titles). See Adding a Local Electronic Collection.
Database — A type of electronic collection whose resources cannot be individually managed through an interface. See Working with Database Type Electronic Collections.
Electronic collection — A collection of electronic resources that can contain packages (which include portfolios) or databases (which include URLs). See Managing Electronic Collections.
Electronic resource — A digital object that is stored and managed externally from the local library or Institution Zone. See Managing Electronic Resources.
Portfolio (Inventory) — The specific coverage, services, and link information relevant for a particular electronic title within an electronic collection. May include administrative/access information. May be local or global. See Managing Local Portfolios.
Selective package — A type of electronic collection that includes only some of the collection’s titles (as opposed to an aggregator package, which includes all of the e-collection’s titles). See Adding a Local Electronic Collection.
Acquisitions/ERM/Serials Roles Spreadsheet
Know your Roles...
Acquisitions Administrator - Manages acquisitions configurations, such as PO review rules, reporting codes, and running acquisitions related jobs
Fiscal Period Manager - Manages copy ledger, rollover jobs, and editing of fiscal period tables when assigned in conjunction with the Acquisitions
Fund Manager - Manages all fund-related actions, including allocations and transactions, creating, updating, and closing funds
Invoice Manager - Manages invoice creation, review and approval activities, and assigning invoices to other operators. You can select a scope for this role.
Invoice Operator - Creates, edits, and reviews invoices, and assigns invoices to other operators. You can select a scope for this role.
Invoice Operator Extended - Has Invoice Operator privileges and can also delete invoices. You can select a scope for this role.
Ledger Manager - Enables creating and editing ledgers, adding funds and allocations, performing transactions, and updating ledgers and funds.
License Manager - Manages activities related to licenses and license amendments.
Purchasing Manager - Manages authoritative purchasing operations, such as reviewing and approving POs, activating electronic resources, assigning PO lines to purchasing operators, and linking licenses to PO lines. Can also view vendor data, ledgers and funds, and invoices.
Purchasing Operator - Manages all purchasing operations, including creating, reviewing, and updating PO lines, managing electronic resources, and linking licenses to PO lines. Can also view vendor data, ledgers and funds, and invoices.
Purchasing Operator Extended - Can delete PO lines. Must be combined with the Purchasing Operator role to enable accessing the Purchasing Operator’s components.
Receiving Operator - Manages the arrival of both physical and electronic purchased items, and can delete orders. You must assign a service unit when configuring this role.
Receiving Operator Limited - Has Receiving Operator privileges, but cannot delete orders. You must assign a service unit when configuring this role.
Selector - Manages selecting new resources for acquisition.
Trial Manager - Manages electronic resource trials and evaluations as part of preprocessing for acquisitions, and manages the Trial Operator.
Trial Operator - Manages electronic resource trials and evaluations as part of preprocessing for acquisitions.
Trial Participant - An individual invited to participate in an electronic resource trial.
Vendor Manager - Manages all aspects of the institution’s vendor records.
WebEx on how to use the Acquisitions section of this site (to come)
Alma Training Video Tracking Document - use this document to track your staff's progress through ExLibris' Acquisitions training videos.
E Resources and CZ Presentations and Documents - PowerPoint slides and Word docs of "How to".
SUPPLEMENTAL LINKS
Alma/Primo documentation from the CalState University System
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