Staff members receive new print material into the system using a dedicated receiving “workbench”. They locate the relevant purchase order lines with the material received, and then receive the items. Additionally, at this stage staff can add barcode information, perform copy cataloguing, etc. When relevant, they can also indicate whether further work must be performed (i.e., it needs to remain in Technical Service) before the material is available to the library for which it was ordered.

For single-title monographs, checking-in an item triggers marking the PO line as received, as well as routing the item to the appropriate next step (cataloging, physical processing,shelves, or patron pickup if a request has been placed). For standing orders (serials and serial monographs), the same actions will be triggered, but the PO line will remain open.

Follow this path to navigate to ALMA Receiving : Acquisitions>Receiving and Invoicing>Receive; Verify that your "Currently at" location is correct for the material you are receiving; Select from the One Time or Continuous tab. See links below under ExLibris Documentation for additional information.

Know your dates - the dates in various PO line fields have different effects

Expected receipt after ordering - After the PO line is sent, the Expected receipt date is set to: the date that the order was sent + this value.

Subscription interval - If you are not using prediction patterns (see below), then, after any item in the holdings associated with this PO line is received, the PO line's Expected receipt date is updated to: the item's Receiving date + this value.

Expected receipt date - You can manually override either of the two previous fields by setting this field to a specific date. When this date is changed, the Receiving dates of the items associated with this PO line are changed.

Claiming grace period - This value is added to the Expected receipt date in any of the above cases. The PO line is sent to claims after the grace period elapses: Expected receipt date + Claiming grace period.

Receiving date - This is the date that the item was received. When the Expected receipt date of the associated PO line is changed, this date is changed to match.

Expected receiving date - An item only has its own Expected receiving date if you are using prediction patterns. This field is set by the prediction pattern configuration. When there is a value for this field, the Expected receipt date of the PO line is ignored. Just like the Expected receipt date in the PO line, the PO line is sent to claims after the grace period elapses: Expected receipt date (of the item) + Claiming grace period (of the PO line).

Individual libraries may develop receiving procedures that are specific to their institution based on local practice, workflow, and staffing organization. Below are some institution level print receiving procedures. Keep in mind these procedures are institution specific, so some aspects may not apply to your institution. Also, they may go out of date as Ex Libris modifies Alma.

California State University

• CSU Order-Acquire-Disseminate

University of Rhode Island

• Receiving Print Subscriptions

• Indicating Enumeration and Chronology in Alma

• Claiming Serials Issues