Alma-VDX batch clean-up process

@Joseph Ferrie @Alison Ray (CDL)

Background

The Alma resource sharing system is integrated with the VDX ILL broker using NCIP 2. When a patron creates a resource sharing request that goes out to VDX, an Alma resource sharing borrowing request is created. This borrowing request is visible to the patron in their Primo account, which enables them to check the status of the request.

When the requested item is received in VDX, the NCIP integration creates a new Alma borrowing request, and the original borrowing request is no longer needed. These unneeded requests need to be cancelled, then removed from Alma.

Similarly, if a request is created in Alma and sent to VDX, but is never filled in VDX and completed, the original request remains in the patron account until it is cancelled.

What It Does

The Alma-VDX batch clean-up process runs in the early morning each day. It looks for any requests that were received in VDX the previous day, or which were completed and not supplied the previous day, and cancels the corresponding original borrowing request in each institution’s Alma IZ. The status of the requests when it the job is finished will be “Cancelled by staff.” The patrons will no longer see the cancelled requests and instead will see the new borrowing request created by the NCIP integration.

The cancelled requests are intentionally not removed from Alma, in case the library staff need to examine them for any reason when processing the new requests created by NCIP.

Note that this batch process is optional: any campus can opt out of the batch process and handle the extra requests locally.

How to Clean up the Cancelled Requests

Cancelled requests can be removed from the system using the Alma Completed Borrowing Request Cleanup job. This job is run by Ex Libris on a fixed schedule.

The job can be configured to remove any requests with a status of “Cancelled by Staff” and activated.

Problems and Question

The Alma-VDX batch clean-up process is managed by the SILS Operations Center at CDL. If you find requests that have not been cancelled as expected, or if you have other questions or concerns, contact SILS operations at sils-sysops@cdlib.org.