Alma April 2026 Release Notes
Features
New Subject Area and Data Visualization Dashboard for Collection Development Workflows Added to Analytics
April 2026 Analytics and Insights URM-321100 URM-318468
A new subject area, Rialto Collection Development, has been added to Alma Analytics. This enhancement introduces support for collection development workflows based on projects and recommendation lists. The subject area includes folders for project details, project measures, recommendation details, bibliographic details, and physical item details. It also incorporates user and date dimensions for comprehensive reporting.
This enhancement empowers institutions to monitor and optimize their collection development efforts with greater precision. Users can track project progress, measure outcomes, and analyze key metrics, including the number of active projects, recommendations acted upon, and overall workflow efficiency. These insights help ensure alignment with institutional priorities and broader strategies, including shared print initiatives.
For more information, see Rialto Collection Development.
Additionally, the new out-of-the-box Collection Development Workflow Projects & Recommendations Data Visualization dashboard is now available in Analytics > Access Analytics > Catalog > Shared Folders > Alma > Rialto Collection Development > Data Visualization.
It provides an overview of all collection development workflow projects and their associated recommendations. It includes metrics such as the total number of projects, project distribution by status and workflow type, and a detailed recommendations report with item and bibliographic information. This dashboard helps staff monitor project progress, analyze recommendations, and export data for retention and deselection workflows.
New Resource Sharing Request Fields Available in Borrowing and Lending Requests Subject Areas
April 2026 Analytics and Insights URM-320492
New fields, Tracking Number and VAT Fee Amount are now available in the Borrowing Requests (Resource Sharing) and Lending Requests (Resource Sharing) Subject Areas. These fields enable reporting on tracking numbers and VAT fees, providing institutions with more complete resource-sharing data.
For more information, see Borrowing Requests (Resource Sharing) and Lending Requests (Resource Sharing).
Country-Based Selection in the Compare To Section
April 2026 Resource Management URM-320716
The Compare To section for retention and deselection projects that include comparisons with external institutions has been enhanced to provide a more structured, country-based selection experience.
When creating a new project or editing an existing one, users can now browse comparison institutions using a country tree view. First, select a country to display all available institutions within it. You can then choose specific institutions individually, or select the checkbox next to the country name to automatically include all institutions within that nation.
This enhancement simplifies the process of selecting comparison institutions and makes it easier to locate relevant libraries without having to navigate a long alphabetical list.
Deeper Insight into External Holdings
April 2026 Resource Management URM-322033
To support deeper cross-institution analysis, Rialto now offers expanded bibliographic details in the Compare To section when inspecting individual recommendations in projects with external comparisons.
While the Compare To section itself remains unchanged in the main view, the sliding panel under View full list and additional information now displays expanded metadata for matching holdings. Newly added fields include:
Library
Publication Place
Edition
Material Type
Language
OCLC
These additional data points provide deeper insight into external holdings, enabling more informed retention and deselection decisions when comparing your collection to other institutions.
Additional Enhancements
April 2026 Analytics and Insights URM-324439
The field Public Note has been added to the following Subject Areas:
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Fulfillment > Physical Item Details
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Lending Requests (Resource Sharing) > Physical Item Details
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Physical Items Historical Events > Physical Item Details (Current)
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Requests > Physical Item Details
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Rialto Collection Development > Physical Item Details
For more information, see Fulfillment, Lending Requests (Resource Sharing), Physical Item Historical Events, Requests and Rialto Collection Development.
Upcoming Issues to Note
For more information, see Electronic Collection.
Collection Development Consent Updates to Include Item-Level Data
July 2026 Resource Management
In the August 2026 release, the Collection Development data‑sharing consent will be updated to include discoverable item‑level data.
This update follows a request from our Early Adopters group, who found that discoverable item‑level data can be valuable in specific scenarios when making collection development decisions.
This change will not affect existing opt‑in status.
Resolved Issues
| SF number | Area | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 07960448 URM-253925 | Acquisitions | Previously, the Keep in Department setting was ignored when receiving more than 20 items. This was fixed. |
| 08005526 URM-306104 | Acquisitions | In some cases, an error was generated when creating or saving an invoice from a PO. This was fixed. |
| 08271353 URM-322763 | Acquisitions | Previously, selecting the License Terms tab for a license generated an error. This was fixed. |
| 08351746 URM-324272 | Acquisitions | Previously, the text Test2 was displayed as the first header in the Purchasing Review Rules configuration (Configuration Menu > Acquisitions > Purchase Orders > Purchasing Review Rules) for the rule's basic details. This was fixed. |
| URM-317227 | User Experience, Accessibility and Infrastructure | Screen reader instructions were improved, and the Metadata Editor Advanced search query builder labels were added. The labels are customizable in display_field_labels_for_advanced_search_query_builder (Configuration > General > General Configuration > Other Settings) (default disabled). |
| URM-317221 | User Experience, Accessibility and Infrastructure | Long facet labels would wrap to the next line instead of being truncated with an ellipsis. This was fixed for pages that use the new UX, such as Borrowing Requests, Lending Requests, All Titles searches, etc. To implement the fix, the allow_ng_facets_text_wrap_display parameter (Configuration > Resources > General > Other Settings) must be set to true. |
| URM-317221 | User Experience, Accessibility and Infrastructure | When text spacing was adjusted, some content was cut off and could not be seen. This was fixed. To implement the fix, the text_spacing_extension_correction parameter (Configuration > Resources > General > Other Settings) must be set to true. |
| 08101202 08080066 URM-254026 | User Experience, Accessibility and Infrastructure | In some cases, there were multiple Primo login events in short succession. This was fixed. |
| 08191697 URM-317766 | User Experience, Accessibility and Infrastructure | For Bib records with double-space in the Originating System ID field, the double space was not displayed in Alma, a single space was displayed instead. This was fixed, and now a double-space will be displayed. Note: We have currently fixed only the Originating System ID field and only in the header of the "Record View" page, since white space collapsing is the default browser behavior and changing it system-wide might cause undesired behavior elsewhere. |
| 08265760 URM-320468 | User Experience, Accessibility and Infrastructure | Previously, the calendar to choose a date in a Staff Mediated Deposit field did not open. This was fixed. |
| 08166376 URM-317013 | Analytics and Insights | Previously, the Analytics report did not display items with provenance codes exceeding 64 characters in Alma. This was fixed. |
| 08240761 URM-322012 | Analytics and Insights | Previously, the Data Sharing Profile form did not allow free‑text entry when Other is selected for any question that includes this option. This was fixed. |
| 08222934 URM-322408 | APIs | Previously, the REST API update for digitization requests failed when page numbers were out of range. This was fixed; the API now behaves the same as the UI. |
| 8105010 URM-316820 | Fulfillment and Resource Sharing | Previously, staff could not set a shipped item to Lost when the lending request was associated with an NCIP partner. This was fixed, and a Lost action has been added that updates the borrowing request without sending a general message, enabling staff to set the item to Lost in these cases. |
| 07982690 08015756 08380365 URM-248092 | Fulfillment and Resource Sharing | Previously, when an item on loan had a Temporary Move Request and was checked in using the Return Items at the destination library, an error occurred, and the return was not processed. This was fixed, and the loan is now successfully returned. |
| 08117060 URM-254880 | Fulfillment and Resource Sharing | Previously, the Download Electronic Resource screen for lending requests did not display any results for limited-coverage portfolios or dateless lending requests. This was fixed. |
| 08163939 URM-316135 | Fulfillment and Resource Sharing | The patron workbench Fines and Fees list displayed an Oops error for corrupted fees where the fee owner (Library ID) was not found in the organization. This was fixed. Now, Alma displays the fee with an empty owner field. |
| 08219563 URM-317155 | Fulfillment and Resource Sharing | After canceling a booking request and loaning the item to a patron, the canceled request remained listed under Expired Hold Shelf. This was fixed. |
| 07941000 URM-318770 | Fulfillment and Resource Sharing | NCIP P2P ItemShipped messages were failing validation because the MonetaryValue element was sent with decimal values, while the NCIP specification requires an integer. The shipping cost value is now normalized before being included in the message, ensuring MonetaryValue is always sent as an integer. This aligns the message with NCIP requirements and prevents validation errors during processing. |
| 08274212 URM-320667 | Fulfillment and Resource Sharing | Previously, when an item's material type was changed while a request existed, the request was canceled without notifying the user. This was fixed, and a confirmation message now appears. |
| 08272545 URM-321364 | Fulfillment and Resource Sharing | In some cases, creating patron physical item requests with long notes did not work. This was fixed. |
| 08332647 08327345 URM-323394 | Fulfillment and Resource Sharing | Previously, when the ship digitally failed, lending requests were marked as shipped digitally, even though they were not actually shipped. This was fixed. |
| 08327393 URM-323817 | Fulfillment and Resource Sharing | Previously, when accessing Manage Patron Services via the On Loan Item > Borrower path, after selecting Done, an error was displayed. This was fixed. |
| 08386785 08388316 URM-323937 | Fulfillment and Resource Sharing | In some cases, the Rapido request form was not submitting. This was fixed |
| 08294270 URM-323989 | Fulfillment and Resource Sharing | Previously, the long DOI format did not populate when performing a manual borrowing request. This was fixed. |
| 08349298 08359155 URM-324181 | Fulfillment and Resource Sharing | Previously, Alma automatically rejected all RapidILL Lending requests. This was fixed. |
| 07867766 07826965 06785838 07824983 URM-213108 | Metadata Management | Under some configurations, it was possible that during an import job, a temporary record in the institution was not deleted when the institution record was linked to a network record. This was fixed. |
| 07932016 07888787 07887460 URM-242573 | Metadata Management | Previously, when viewing imported records (Import Job > … > Imported Records), the underlying query included the condition “linked institution not equal community.” This condition caused issues when attempting to change the search type. The CZ-related condition has been removed from the query, as it is no longer relevant. As a result, the search type can now be changed successfully while preserving the existing query conditions. |
| 07854586 URM-249966 | Metadata Management | In some cases, the Metadata Editor displayed different metadata for holdings than the value in MMS_RECORD and INVENTORY_HOLDING. This was fixed. |
| 08060469 URM-254146 | Metadata Management | In some cases, the Duplicate Title Analylsis job report didn't include all of the relevant institutions in the Held By column. This was fixed. |
| 08065708 URM-254702 | Metadata Management | When reloading an authority record from the NLI system (Authority Record Contribution integration profile: NLI), the external record's version was not updated in the Alma Community Zone. This was fixed. |
| 08156977 URM-315506 | Metadata Management | Previously, transliteration for special characters was incorrect. This was fixed. |
| 08208038 08255155 08245447 URM-318534 | Metadata Management | Previously, the Advanced Search > Modification Date reverted to the previous day when selected from a previous search. This was fixed. |
| 08229577 08281457 URM-319934 | Metadata Management | In some cases, when the Additional Authorized Fields were configured, the PTC job failed. This is fixed. |
| 08307962 URM-322203 | Metadata Management | Previously, the Field Information button on the Metadata Editor fields was linked to an outdated URL. This was fixed. |
| 08281738 URM-322679 | Metadata Management | Previously, when an XSL normalization contained a comment ( ) that included the word rule in it, it could not be saved properly. After saving, the editor cuts all text before the word rule. This was fixed. |
| 08331133 URM-323390 | Metadata Management | Previously, the Update Inventory import behavior was changed to apply Normalization before matching incoming records to existing records. This change caused issues for multiple customers who require normalization to be applied after the matching phase. A new customer parameter has been introduced to control whether to apply normalization prior to or after the matching phase. |
| 08328038 URM-323927 | Metadata Management | In some cases, when a title search contained multiple bibliographic records with related records, the Holdings tab displayed related holdings of another record. Those related holdings disappear when refreshing the search results. This was fixed. |
| 08158585 08013989 URM-252807 | Resource Management | Previously, when an Electronic Activation Task list included an electronic collection with thousands of portfolios, the Unsuppress action was non-responsive, resulting in a timeout. This was fixed. |
| 7928835 URM-253097 | Resource Management | Items List: When binding items that were in process and then selecting Create and Edit, when editing the bound item and saving it, the user was returned to the items list and the bound items were mistakenly displayed in the items list as blank rows. This was fixed. |
| 08179454 URM-317202 | Resource Management | Previously, the Primo VE link resolver was retrieving CZ-related records even when the Related Records for Serials configuration was disabled. This was fixed, and CZ-related records are now only retrieved when enabled by the user configuration. |
| 07939042 URM-318874 | Resource Management | Previously, the Representation was not imported for a record found as a single match with MERGE operation in the OAI import job. This was fixed. |
| 08221408 URM-319510 | Resource Management | When a general publishing profile with Profile Details / Content / Publish the entire repository selected, and Data Enrichment / Related Records Enrichment / Add related records information selected and configured, was executed, the published records did not contain the expected related records data. This was fixed. |
| 08165267 URM-320140 | Resource Management | When creating a new portfolio via the API that was defined as active (the value of the availability tag was 11), the portfolio was activated, but the activation date remained empty. This was fixed. |
| 08278680 URM-321962 | Resource Management | When a network member institution retrieved an electronic portfolio in the Community Zone tab, a network icon was displayed to the left of the title, indicating that a Network Zone portfolio was linked to this Community Zone, even though no portfolio in the Network Zone was actually linked to the Community Zone portfolio. This was fixed, and the network icon is only displayed if there is a Network Zone portfolio directly linked to the Community Zone portfolio. |
| 08303950 URM-322986 | Resource Management | Previously, an incorrect expiry date was displayed in a Long-Term Digital Loan expiry date field in the Digital Viewer. This was fixed. |
| 08322736 URM-323609 | Resource Management | Previously, when using the Item updater by Excel, the Replacement Cost field was updated even when it was not included in the file. This was fixed. |
| 08328567 URM-323660 | Resource Management | Previously, Extended Exports from the Community Zone portfolios list downloaded an Excel file in the wrong format (appearing as corrupted). This was fixed, and the export now downloads in the correct Excel format. |
| 08370008 URM-325152 | Resource Management | Previously, the file sorting did not work according to the sub-field 08 linking number. This was fixed. |
