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Alma Fulfillment Resource Guide

This guide covers all aspects of the fulfillment process. This includes maintaining all patron records, loaning materials, returning/renewing loaned materials, managing lost items dealing with fines and fees as well as course reserves.

Bulk Updating Courses

Bulk Updating Courses

The Course Bulk Update Job is a useful way to update a lot of courses at once. If you have the Course Reserve Manager Role scoped to the institution level you will be able to access it at Admin -> Run a Job. 

Steps

  1. Create a set of courses
  2. Run the Course Bulk Update Job

Create a Set of Courses

There are a couple of ways to create a set of courses. 

Create a set with an Alma Search:

  1. Start by clicking on Admin -> Manage Sets
  2. Click on Create Itemized Set button at the top right
  3. Give the set a name, choose "Courses" as the content type, click Create
  4. Click the boxes next to the course you would like to include in the set OR Run an Advanced Search based on Course Code, Course Code (include section), Course End Date, Course ID, Course Name, Course Notes, Course Start Date, Instructor Name, Searchable Id, Section, or Year and then select all the courses you would like to add to the set.
  5. Click the "Add Selected" button at the top right
  6. Click the "Done" button at the top right

Create a set using a file:

If you want to create a set of courses based on whether the course is Active, the Academic Department, or the Processing Department, this would be the best way to create it. 

  1. Go to Fulfillment -> Courses
  2. At the top of the Course page click on the Export icon and click "Excel (all fields)"
  3. Save and open the file
  4. Delete all the rows that contain courses that you do not want to modify
  5. Delete all the columns except the column with heading "ID"
  6. Update the heading ID to say COURSE_ID - make sure this column is the first column in the spreadsheet
  7. Your spreadsheet should look like this:                                                                                                  
  8. Save the spreadsheet as type .xslx
  9. Click on Admin -> Manage Sets
  10. Click on Create Itemized Set button at the top right
  11. Give the set a name, choose "Courses" as the content type, click the "From File" radio button
  12. Upload the spreadsheet file and click Create - give Alma a few minutes to add all the courses to the set. 

Run the Course Bulk Update Job

ExLibris Course Bulk Update Job Documentation

Once your set is created and you've had a chance to review the contents of the set to make sure it is what you want to update:

  1. Go to Admin -> Run a Job
  2. Search the list for "course"
  3. Select "Course Bulk Update" and click the Next button
  4. Select the set you created in the last section and click Next
  5. Choose and enter the parameters that you would like to update in the job form and click Next
  6. Verify your choices and click Submit

Note: Keep in mind that if you are updating inactive courses with a new start and/or end date, the course will not be be Active until the "Activate/Deactivate Courses" job runs at 3 or 4 AM.