Printing in ALMA concerns any workflow process within ALMA that results in a physical piece of paper being printed (e.g. transit slip, hold slip, etc.) It is NOT printing screenshots or records directly from the browser. The print view of these slips is configured via something called Letters. These letters are generated within Alma and can be viewed and edited under the Alma Main Menu -> General Configuration Menu -> General Configuration. If you wish to change these letters, you will be required to have the General Administrator role for your user account.

Two video tutorials have been made that will take you through a simple setup of a circulation printer. Links are below:

• • Setting up a Circulation Desk printer (note that you can disregard the "allowed emails" section, since Alma now allows all email addresses)

  • HPePrint Troubleshooting - This can also apply to other troubleshooting problems.

Below is a detailed description of each printing solution that has been presented to us so far in implementation of Alma. We would like if USG can be as uniform as possible in how printing is implemented so support can be uniform as well, but we realize that, due to size of the institution, budgetary concerns, and other factors, the Namtuk solution detailed below may not be the best fit for your particular library(ies). This document will continue to evolve as we learn more about each solution detailed below.

2. Namtuk:

• • http://www.namtuk.com/auto_email_manager.aspx

  • https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/blog/numtuk

  • You have a 30 day free trial to see if you can use it. After that, it is $89 per license.

  • This is the solution that UGA will be using for our printers. We have set up a simple email server on Windows and assigned email addresses to around 20 printers. throughout our campus, with Namtuk monitoring these emails.

  • Namtuk supports IMAP4, POP3, Hotmail, Gmail, Office 365, Yahoo!, Exchange server, and ICloud.

  • Workflow proceeds like this:

    • Alma sends emails to a dedicated email account used only for this purpose.

    • Server receives the email.

    • Namtuk checks the emails every so often (for testing we’ve been using 1-2 minutes so we can see the whole process work, but it can be set in the software to a matter of a few seconds.

    • Based on filters (e.g. Subject, To, From, what attachments, etc.)that are also configured in Namtuk, the software then decides what action to take. You can set Namtuk up to print the email body or attachments, save the email, delete the email, forward the email, etc.

  • As discussed above, it should be possible to set up all your printers on one instance of Namtuk. If you have multiple campuses, you may need more than one liscence as they might be on a different network. Talk to your IT personnel to determine if this is the case.

4. GMAIL (manual) option:

• • This is similar in many ways to the Thunderbird solution, but the email is printed manually (by pressing the print button) through whichever email service you use (Gmail or otherwise).

  • There is no add-on, as this is not an automatic workflow.

  • If you have multiple printers, everyone would need to be logged into the email account. Failing that, you would need specific accounts for each printer.

  • As with the Thunderbird option detailed above, you would need the email up all the time. Staff could inadvertently shut it down.

  • As always, check with your IT department and Information Security personnel to determine if this is a viable solution.

  • Note: This was experimented with when we first tried setting up printers, but we could not get the email to send to the address properly. This may be due to a security issue, or we had incorrect settings

  • When to use:

    • If you do not have email capable printers, or have any plans to get such printers before ‘go live.

    • If you do not mind printing everything manually.

  • When not to use:

    • You want an automatic process to handle printing in Alma

    • Your Firewall/Information Security rules would not allow such a solution to be implemented.

There are 2 simple ways to test whether your printer setup is functional.

1) Create a physical request:

• • Create physical requests in Alma. If you have multiple locations, you will want to have each location/circulation desk have a physical request to test.

    • • Do a Physical Items Search in the repository.

      • When you find an item, click the Request link.

      • Select Patron Physical Item Request - complete the form with the patron info and pickup location and click “Request. It will now show up in the Pick from Shelf menu. If you have multiple locations, you will want to have each location/circulation desk have a physical request to test

  • Make sure you are at the correct circulation desk. If you do not see your ciculation desk under “Currently At”, you may need to have yourself added as an operator for that department.

    • • The "Currently at" drop-down is different for each operator. You add a work order department to the list as follows:

        1. Go to the General Configuration Menu.

        2. Select "Work Order Departments".

        3. Select your desired department and click Actions > Edit

        4. Go to the "Operators" tab

        5. Add the relevant operators, and they will get access to the department in their drop-down list.

      • You add a circulation desk to the list as follows:

        1. Go to the Fulfillment Configuration Menu.

        2. Change the scope ("You are configuring") to a library.

        3. Select "Circulation Desks".

        4. Select your desired desk and click Actions > Edit

        5. Go to the "Operators" tab

        6. Add the relevant operators, and they will get access to the desk in their drop-down list.

           • Go to “Pick from Shelf” under Alma -> Fulfillment -> Resource Requests and find the request you made.

           • Hit “Print Slip”. You should get something like “Successfully printed slip” show up on your screen. If not, there is most likely something wrong with your printer configuration.

2) Run a “Resend Printouts/Emails” Job

• • Go to Alma -> Fulfillment -> Advanced Tools

  • Chose "From" and "To" Dates.

  • Choose a Printer Owner and Printer you want to test

  • Choose ‘Print’ in the letter send format

  • It is preferable if you have a job id that has run that you know resulted in a print out *but did not change any data in Alma*. Otherwise, choose a letter from the selection box that will have been printed. Make sure that for the letter, you don’t have more than a couple of days between the To and From dates so you don’t overload your printer.

  • Click the “Run Resend Printouts/Emails" Job. You will get a summary on if anything was emailed or printed. If everything is at ‘0’, you most likely ran a job where no printout or email was sent in the first place.