Spine Labels

OVERVIEW

There is not currently a good native way to print spine labels in Alma. There is however a PC application provided by the Ex Libris Developer Network that integrates with Alma, called SpineOMatic. Note that you'll need to obtain an API key from GIL support to configure SpinOMatic. You can do this by creating a ticket, or requesting access to this document. Note that if your .edu email is not associated with Google then GIL will not know if you are associated with a USG institution, so if this is the case, the best bet is to create a ticket. While highly unlikely, API keys could be used by bad folks to do nefarious things. Another option for spine label printing is OCLC Label Print. See the resources section at the end of this page for more information in OCLC Label Print.


SPINEOMATIC INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS

1) Download SpineOMatic by going to: https://github.com/ExLibrisGroup/SpineOMatic/releases. Click on the most recent version (v8.0.0 or higher) to download the program.

2) Download the file named spinelabeler.exe. When you attempt to install the program, Windows Defender may give you a popup like this.

Click on more info link, and then click on Run anyway, and you and the spine labeler software starts with no issue.




3) SpineOMatic should now be open. Click on the small arrow in the corner to see more options :

4) Click on the “Alma Access” tab:

5) Select “Use RESTful API” and paste “https://api-na.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com” into the ALMA URL field:

Paste your GIL-provided API key into the API Key field

Click "Save", then click "Load"

6) To set up a printer, select this button on the “Print Setup” tab:

7) In the pop-up window:

  1. Click on the printer you want to use

  2. Click on “Print” to save your selection

Now SpineOMatic should be ready to use this printer

8) Scan or paste in a Barcode from a book in Alma into this field and then hit Enter on your keyboard.

You can then select “Send to desktop printer” to print

SpineOMatic Troubleshooting

Error messages in SpineOmatic are not very helpful. For example, this seems to be the standard error message whether you have an invalid API key or an invalid item barcode:

We've found that the best way to troubleshoot is to re-create the API call that SpineOmatic is using for the label you're trying to generate. All you need to do is insert your API key and the item barcode you're working with into this URL, and paste it into your browser:

https://api-na.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/almaws/v1/items?view=label&item_barcode=123456789&apikey=12345678abcdefghijklmnop1234567890

Using this method you may get a more useful error message and then can correct the issue in SpineOmatic. Again, be sure to insert your api key and barcode. If you paste this into a browser as is, you'll of course get the "Invalid API Key" error message.

If you get this specific error message, it may be due to having spaces at the end of your Alma URL:

RESOURCES

OCLC Label Print install instructions

Instructions and download info from OCLC for the OCLC label print program