Alma provides a letter system to send highly customizable messages to patrons, librarians, and vendors. Messages include warnings, confirmations, notifications, summary information, orders, fulfillment requests, and so forth. This includes overdue and item available notices, similar to the notices that Reporter generated with Voyager. Messages can be sent to a printer or an external system or sent by email, SMS, ISO protocol, or other means.

Configuration of letters can be a bit tricky, so we recommend viewing the training resources below to learn how to do this.

Change Address Form Label

• Change the “address from” email from Your.Department@organization.com to the library email address. This will need to be done for all patron-facing letter emails.

Procedure:

1. Click on Alma>Administration>General Configuration>Configuration Menu

2. Click on Letter Emails

3. Next to the letter that you wish to update (for example, the On Hold Shelf Letter), click on Actions>Customize

4. Click on Customize next to “address from” within the letter

5. Delete the Your.Department@organization.com and replace with the email for your library

6. Click on the Customize button on the top right or lower right of the screen

Change Default mailReason label

• Change the “mailReason.xml letter” to adjust the salutation(optional)

Procedure:

1. Select Alma > General Configuration Menu

2. Select "Letter Emails"

3. Select "mailReason.xsl Letter"

4. Change the "Description" field for the Code "dear"

For example, the out-of-the-box may contain: "Dear Sir/Madam".

Change Labels in Letter E-mails

Procedure:

• Change Labels in Letter E-mails > General Configuration Menu

1. Go to Alma > Administration > General Configuration > Letter Emails

2. Find the letter you want to edit > Click Actions > Edit

3. Save the change, then send the letter out again to the changes.

Create Link for My Account and Contact us

Procedure:

• How to create a "My Account" Link in emails in Primo.

1. Go to General Configuration > Configuration Menu > Other Settings

2. Find the email_my_account parameter and add the direct link to your log in page.

Note:

email contact: ex libris does not use this field for anything. In fact, if you try to edit it, it will tell you it can't save it.

email_contact_us: You can put an email or link in here. Example: Ask a Librarian page.

email_deposit_contact: Ex Libris does not use this field. Do not customize.

email_deposit_sender: Not in use.

email_my_account: this is what the My Account link in the footer will link out to in Primo.

Enable and Disable Letters

• Enable or Disable the Letters > General Configuration Menu > Letter Activity

Procedure:

1. On the LetterActivity mapping table page, click Customize to enable the settings for a letter to be modified.

The name of the button changes to Restore, which enables you to restore the default settings for the specific

letter type.

2. Click the check mark to the left of the letter’s name to enable/disable the letter.

3. Click Save.

Download Library Logo

• Change Logo: General Configuration -> Branding/Logo -> Alma Logo and Color Scheme

Temporarily Suspending Letters

• If you already have your letters configured, there is no need to disable the fulfillment jobs or letters.

• If you are still configuring your letters, the deadline is 5/25(4pm).

• If you do not want your letters to run at Go Live, you can disable the fulfillment jobs. The time frame for making this change is between 5/22(8am) and 5/25(3pm).

Click link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MeInniflMAcik-zAhTfOn7Ru1UunZFeHJxd_tVep5QQ/edit?usp=sharing

In rare instances, you may wish to temporarily disable certain (or all) notifications.

Procedure for disabling ALL notifications

• You’ll need to change fulfillment jobs configurations at the institution level (configuration\fulfillment\General\Fulfillment Jobs Configuration)

• Make the following jobs inactive:

  • Send overdue notices job

  • Fines fees notifications job

  • Loans – overdue and lost loan job

• Then (still at institution level), in configuration\General\Letters\Letters Configuration, disable letters that could be sent to a patron:

  • Courtesy Letter

  • Ful Lost Loan Letter

  • Ful Lost Loan Notification Letter

  • Ful Overdue and Lost Loan Letter

  • Ful Overdue and Lost Loan Notification Letter

  • Overdue Notice Letter

  • Shortened Due Date Letter