1. Acquisitions Advantages
Using alma to improve acquisitions workflows

2. University of Kentucky
ARL Library with over 4 million volumes, approximately 450 licensed databases, 71,000 full text e-journals, and 1,127,500 ebooks
10 libraries including W.T. Young, Medical Center, Special Collections, Agriculture, Design, Education, Equine, Fine Arts, Science and Transportation
Regional Depository for Kentucky and a Center of Excellence for WPA materials and Appalachian Regional Commission
Materials are housed offsite at Kentucky Underground Storage
Collections budget for FY17 is $7,4 million state funds with an additional $3 million in endowments

3. Voyager Acquisitions Using Voyager since 2000
Exported invoices to an interface which uploaded to the University SAP system daily
Used Embedded Order Data with several vendors
Received Shelf-Ready Materials
EDI invoicing with several vendors
Using Access to create regular fund reports

4. Migration to NexT Generation System
Explored all available options for several years
Desires
Work well with a discovery interface
Incorporates the electronic resources workflow
Provides for inventory and management of physical items
Provides data for decision making

5. Migration to alma
All the Acquisition data migrated over to Alma, so we still have our history.
The line item type for most of our electronic resources particularly e- journals migrated as print journal.
Local license database was also loaded into Alma to connect the vendor and a pdf copy of our license. The license fields in Alma were not populated

6. Migration to alma
Decision was made to migrate Voyager reporting funds as allocated lines. There is an option to migrate them as reporting codes.
We elected to use the reporting codes for a local expenditure code which enabled us to track ARL expenditure categories.
Test setups for EDI invoices and EOD file loading prior to migration, but still needed to do the setup in Alma production.

7. SNAGs ENCOUNTERED SPRING 2016
All POLs except about 200 closed during migration
OCLC changed its platform in March 2016 for Promptcat & Techpro files
Import profiles worked differently
Fund Structure as migrated was labor intensive in Alma
Struggle to get Alma Analytics working to produce reports

8. STARTING FY17 (July 2017)
Worked with Library IT, Campus IT and Dean’s Office to get Alma to SAP transfer working
Reworked the fund structure to leverage the advantages in Alma
Recreated or reopened all continuation POL lines
Continued to make improvements on file loading processes

9. FUND STRUCTURE
Major difference between Alma and Voyager was that Voyager allowed reporting lines below the allocated line.
Update our fund structure to reduce the number of ledgers and funds
Alma allows fund names to be much longer and could use entire full name without abbreviations
Retained the fund codes and naming conventions that have been in place even prior to Voyager

10. PURCHASE ORDER LINES
Reopened the ones we needed to finish the fiscal year. We got a lot of practice taking care of duplicate inventory, since Alma is hardwire to insist if you order a physical item there must be an item.
Did not roll the continuation POL lines for subscriptions or standing orders from FY16 to FY17
Decided to evaluate each POL line and reopen those with the correct line item type or create new POL lines when the line item type needed updating

11. POL PROJECT FALL 2016 Started in August 2016 to March 2017
Started with print and print plus online
First Priority for POL lines needed for check in
Second Priority to get titles for the EBSCO renewals done first
Third was everything else

12. POL Line PROJECT BENEFITs
Staff learned a lot about orders, templates, moving POL lines, etc.
Continuations are now aligned in Alma meaning less work arounds
Online POL lines are connected to their licenses
Memberships have all the pieces associated with the payment POL
Standing orders use the Alma standing order line type
Making full use of the Alma technical POL to show relationships

13. AUTOMATIC FTP OPTIONS Automatic FTP pick up and delivery is an option
Alma needs read/write access to the server to make this work. For some vendors, this is OK and for others not.
Establish a local server that can fetch from the vendor site, then have Alma fetch from the local server
Some local scripts may be required to manage timing or do a little preprocessing

14. EBSCO EDI INVOICES
First, we were using an outdated but functioning process in Voyager based on title number and account which would not translate to Alma.
Set up the configuration in Alma and tested it and it worked
Added the EBSCO order number to all the POL lines to create the new match point
Automatic ftp is not an option with EBSCO

15. HaRRASOWITZ EOD AND EDI
Good documentation from Harrassowitz on how to setup the ftp
Tested files
Order records load into Alma 24 hours after ordered on OttoEditions
EDI invoicing has been a little more hit or miss. Still working on all the issues

16. GOBI/YBP EOD AND EDI Good documentation on making the transition
File loading was done manually
Coordinate with OCLC Promptcat files
Merged Main Campus and Medical accounts
Have not setup EDI invoicing with GOBI

17. MArCIVE SHIPPING LISTS
Again Marcive was very helpful about working through the issues
Files are fetched from Marcive server to local server
Alma fetches the files on Saturday evening
Shipping list records load weekly
Very few issues and most of them correct by adjusting our profile with Marcive

18. Marcive Full Level Records
Receive two files from Marcive – one for physical items and one for electronic
Load monthly using the local server method
The non match file from the physical items is manually loaded
There are some duplicate holdings showing up

19. GOBI API – FALL 2016
Alma API allows GOBI to communicate directly with Alma bypassing the file loading process and creating orders in real time
Get the Alma API key from Ex Libris
Work with GOBI Technical Services to make the changes in the account, templates, etc.
Flip the switch
Minor issues with locations, watch for funds running out of money, glitch in February

20. Alma Analytics
Remember the first rule of cataloging, borrow before creating your own
Voucher report
Automatic monthly fund report to academic liaisons
ARL statistics
Fund expenditures

21. Lessons Learned Review what you are doing and why?
Take full advantage of the sandbox, listservs and documentation
Understand the match points, overlay, deduping process of your file loads
Check with vendors to see if there is documentation about how to handle files with the new system

22. Lessons learned
There will be a period of regression and frustration as you master the new system
If it is system dependent, then check to see if the new system handles it differently?
Alma changes monthly, so check the new releases and just be aware the system updates may mean you need to make changes

23. Future improvements Get the EDI invoicing working with GOBI/YBP
Use the new abilities to setup SUSHI and load Counter Reports into ALMA
Return payment information from SAP to Alma
Populating the license information fields in Alma
Take more advantage of the information in Alma Analytics

24. More Information (ELUNA 2017)
Flattening Funds: Using Alma Fund Structure & Reporting Codes:
 Monograph Ordering in Alma:
              

25. Contact information
Kate Seago
Director of Acquisitions
2-21A Young Library
University of Kentucky
401 Hilltop Ave.
Lexington, KY
Tel: