Week 1 Implementation: User Management

Video Trainings

User Management (in Alma Essentials)

1. Day-to-Day User Management (10 min)

2. Additional User Management Workflows (7 min)

User Management (in Administration Fundamentals)

1. Basics (11 min)

2. Creating and Updating User Records (11 min)

3. Exporting Blocks, Fines and Fees (9 min)

Exercise 1: Search for a known user

Search for a known user and find their email address, letters/notices (if any), and checkouts. There are 3 ways to do this:

1. Admin >> Manage Users

Search for a user of your choice

To find their email address, go the Contact Information tab

To find letters/notices (if any) and what you can do with them (resend/download), go to the Attachments tab

To find Fines/fees info, go to the Fines/Fees tab

To find checkouts, returns, etc. click the Manage fulfillment activities

1. Search Users in persistent search box menu: similar to Manage Users in #1

2. Fulfillment >> Manage Patron Services  

(Make sure your location is a library with circulation desk for example "Graduate Library - Graduate Library Circulation" to see "Manage Patron Services" option)

Open

Scan patron's ID or search for patron: Search for a user of your choice

Open

Here you see user notes and circulation related information: loans, returns, requests information

To find other information, go to user record by clicking the link in the ID field

To find their email address, go the Contact Information tab

To find letters/notices (if any) and what you can do with them (resend/print), go to the Attachments tab

To find Fines/fees info, go to the Fines/Fees tab

Exercise 2: Add an external user account

Scenario: A new student goes right from registration office to library, they have their primary ID but their account is not in the campus system yet someone new to the institution/library, hasn't been added to Alma by the SIS load, need to check something out - create record manually and will be updated by the SIS load

Fulfillment >> Manage Patron Services >> Register New User

1. Enter required fields

2. Manage Patron Services is only place to create an external user!! Make sure Patron has institutional record = Yes (this is the only way to create an external user outside of the SIS load) + enter value in Identifier Type - Value/SIS match point identifier so the record will be updated by the SIS.  This creates a temporary record for the user, enabling them to borrow items, and ensures that the temporary record will be merged with the master copy of the patron record in the external system.
   
   

3. Click on hyperlinked ID.  This will take you to the full "Find and Manage Users" screen to edit the record.  Click on the General Information Tab.
   Note: The password section disappeared because this user is external. "Patron" role has automatically been added to the user based on user registration rules 

4. Click "Open for Update": Note that there are certain fields that CAN be owned by Alma (i.e. if you click "Yes" to the prompt, they won't be overwritten by the SIS load: User group; Title; PIN; Job category; Campus; preferred language; resource sharing library, Cataloger level, selected patron letters 

5. Click "Yes" and change the user group. 

6. Additional addresses/emails + Note: will not be overwritten if you don't choose "external" when adding

 Exercise 3: Toggle Account Type 

In the external account created in exercise 1, click Toggle account type to toggle from External to Internal

Note: Password field becomes available. 
After your test load is delivered on Alma production environment, your user account will be External, because authentication is not set up, you will need to toggle account type from External to Internal, enter the password so you can start using Alma. When authentication is set up, toggle Account type again to change the account from Internal back to External . 

Exercise 4:  Add an internal account for community borrower
Fulfillment >> Manage Patron Services >> Register New User

1. Enter required fields
   Note - the primary ID is auto-generated.  We can enter your routine into this field (User ID Generation) - only helpful if someone has barcode and being registered at the circ desk.  

2. For Internal User such as community borrowers: enter password (requirement: 8 character min, 1 uppercase, 1 lowercase, 1 number). This will be the account these patrons will use to log into Discovery.  

3. If you select the ‘Force password change on next login’ check box to ensure the patron selects a new password every time they log into Alma (relevant for Alma only).  When done, Update User. 

4. Click on the hyperlinked ID.  This will take you to the full "Find and Manage Users" screen to edit the record.  Click on the General Information Tab. 

5. Note that the "Patron" role has automatically been added to the user based on user registration rules 

Exercise 5: Add a role

1. If you log into Alma with the internal user account created in exercise 4 above, you will not succeed as the user only has a Patron role, which only allows them to access their Primo account but not Alma.
   
   

2. Add a non-circulation related role:

   1. Log into Alma with an admin user on a sandbox environment that has permission to assign role (username: “AlmaUser01”), add a non circulation related role such as cataloger for the same internal user created in exercise 3 above. 

   2. Log out of the admin user account 

   3. Log into Alma with the internal use account, you’ll be able to access Alma this time and see the appropriate menu with limited relevant options, in this case the option to create Purchase Request in the Acquisitions menu, options under Resources to perform cataloging activities, and option to Manage Sets under the Admin menu. However, no library appears in Choose Location because the user doesn’t have a circulation desk role assigned to.

3. Add a circ desk role to the user record to enable user to work at the Main Library’s default circ desk. 

   1. Use the “AlmaUser01 ” account to add the circulation desk manager/ operator role, scope to the internal user account above: Main Library, attached to a cir desk: the DEFAULT_CIRC_DESK. 

   2. Log in with the internal user account to verify that Main library appears as an available option to choose from now.

Exercise 6: Add role from a role profile

1. Alma Configuration > User Management> Profiles : click Add Profile: include a group of roles

2. In a user record, click Add from Profiles, choose the profile to apply the roles to

Extra credit: Why can you change the primary address on an internal user's account, but only add an address to an external users's account?