If you find a discrepancy between records in Aleph and how they converted to Alma or in how records display in Primo, FALSC and Ex Libris would like you to report it. FALSC staff will need to determine whether the problem lies with the data in Aleph or in the migration process with Alma. What's more, problems that are found in one institution's records may show up in other institutions' records as well. Errors that are found in the Full Testload Phase can be corrected in the final dataload for Go-Live in June/July 2013.
To report an issue, please follow the steps below:
The following issues have been confirmed by FALSC staff and/or Ex Libris and will affect the Full Testload data. If a solution is available, it is noted. Every effort will be made to address these issues during the final Go-Live phase. This document will be continually updated by FALSC staff.
| Category | Date | Description of Problem | Possible Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| System | 09/15/2020 | With an older version of a browser, some or all functionality in Alma is lost. For example, staff member was unable to add an address to a vendor record. An uneditable gray box appeared. | Browsers need to be updated to meet Ex Libris' requirements. | Update browsers. |
| Primo VE | 10/21/2020 | Possilby FSU only. The URL text in the full record view has subfield 3 and subfield y concatenated. | Configuration | Salesforce ticket submitted; Ex Libris will fix. |
| Course Reserves | 10/22/2020 | Instructor migrates to Notes field in Alma. | Since instructors in Aleph are just a text field, there is no way in migration for the instructor to be populated in Alma. | This will have to be cleaned up after go live to add the instructors to the Course Reserve records by going through each Course record and adding the instructor. |
| Course Reserves | 10/23/2020 | Material Type is always Book when exporting Reading Lists to Excel. | ExLibris confirms this is a known issue with no clear fix date. | Waiting on Ex Libris to fix. |
| Cataloging/BIB Migration | 10/23/2020 | Loss of BIB fields from Aleph in NZ record when subsequent fuller record matches initially establish NZ record. | Records are sequenced in a specific institutional order when loading to the NZ. Generally the order is set by the size of the institution with larger going first. Whatever record comes in 1st gets established as the NZ record. The linked IZ records will differ only in added locally marked fields. | Determined by NZ creation process. No solution. |
| Fulfillment | 10/29/2020 | Duplicate Item Policy descriptions in Item Policy drop down and/or wrong Item Policy Description displaying in item records in university items. | Item Statuses in ALEPH have the same code but different descriptions across multiple sublibraries. | Item status clean up and deduplication is ongoing. FGCU, UNF, FAU, FIU, FL Poly are complete as of 10/29/2020 in time for the data extract on 10/30. FSU, UF, FAMU, UWF, USF, UCF, and New College may notice this issue in Alma in January until deduplication is complete and the next data extraction is complete. |
| Course Reserves | 11/04/2020 | Processing Department says COURSE_UNIT or other erroneous information instead of the sublibrary/library the course is associated with. | Sublibrary/campus designation was not defined in Aleph correctly as Unit. Either the Unit designation wasn't used at all in Aleph so the Course in Alma became the default COURSE_UNIT or Unit was used in ALEPH for Academic Department etc so erroneous information displays. | Send in a help desk ticket to have campuses/libraries populated under Unit in ALEPH and manually fix each course in Aleph or wait until after go live and manually fix each course in Alma. |
| Fulfillment | 11/19/2020 | Cash transactions that have been sent to A/R do not show up in Alma. | Closed cash transactions are not migrated. | Aleph will be frozen but available for 12 months after go live. FLVC is investigating how to retain the information after one year but it is currently unknown what that would entail. |
| Cataloging/BIB Migration | 1/28/2021 | Suppressed Bibs from UBorrow in Alma. | UBorrow request transactions are not migrated. | There are a few bib records that were attached to UBorrow requests that migrated to Alma as suppressed. Please ignore them. They will be removed, and not migrated at go-live. |
| eResources and P2E | 2/2/2021 | Ex Libris requested that FALSC identify bibs on the P2E file we submit to them as portfolios, packages or databases.. The default after using SQL to create the list of system numbers was portfolio. For the Full Test Load phase, UF and FIU's Databases A-Z list was used to identify bibs that are considered databases or packages instead of portfolios. | Time constraint in being able to use the Databases A-Z list for all institutions. | Continue reviewing Databases A-Z lists to create a more comprehensive list for Go Live. |
| eResources and Cataloging | 2/2/2021 | Error on the P2E tab of the Testload migration stats spreadsheet of “No record was found for HOLDING”. | Records do not have attached ADM records in Aleph. | Re-rRun p-manage-50 in Aleph PROD and the clone server. |
| eResources and Cataloging | 2/2/2021 | Error on the P2E tab of the Testload migration stats spreadsheet of “No record was found for BIB”. |
In some cases (SUS primarily), bib records had been deleted between the time Ex Libris extracted the bibs and FALSC produced a list of electronic bibs for Ex Libris to use in the P2E process. On the college side, bibs in the COC ADM were not migrated. COC contains bibs shared by all colleges, such as for Films on Demand and EBSCO eBooks. |
Shorten the timeframe between bib extract and submitting the list of records for the P2E process. Turn on Alma eResources collections in the Network Zone corresponding to COC bibs, such as Films on Demand and EBSCOHost eBooks. Use "available for" settings to add each institution. Alternatively, load files of MARC records into Alma after cutover. |
| eResources and Link Resolver | 2/9/2021 | Bibs with "EBZ" as link resolver prefix for SUS included in migration. | Bib records including the string "EBZ" were not skipped. They are link resolver records and should be deleted. | FALSC will delete these records in Alma prior to cutover. |
| UF/FLARE | 2/9/2021 | Duplication of LKR fields in 77x fields for UF. | There are duplicates of the 77x fields of the merged UF and FLARE records. | FALSC will set FLR50 to LKR location mapping to "No" prior to cutover to Alma. |
| eResources and Cataloging | 2/9/2021 | Bibs with 856 and no subfield 5's were not migrated. | Migration of electronic bibs was based on subfield 5. | FALSC will extract bibs without subfield 5's and Ex Libris will load them into Alma. |
| Cataloging and eResources | 2/9/2021 | Some 856 fields with proper institutional $5 remain in NZ record and are therefore passed down to IZ records of other institutions. | The institution was the 1st to contribute the record to the NZ and its 856 was kept. | Use jobs in Alma, normalization rules,to strip the 856s from NZ records. Ex Libris will let us know what our options are. |
| P2E | 2/9/2021 | FAU, Poly, UNF, and USF only. Records with item material types indicated on the P2E-ItemMT tab were flipped from physical to electronic. | Error on Migration spreadsheets, P2E-ItemMT tab. Item Material types were listed instead of the tab left blank. Only those items were flipped from physical to electronic. Leavingthe tab blank ensured as many items as possible were flipped. | Leave tab blank for Cutover. |
| Acquisitions | 2/12/2021 | Record rejected (Migration stats spreadsheet): Cannot find vendor_account to PO. Z68: [ADM/seq]. Order ignored. | Order record is missing a vendor number | add vendor to order record or delete order |
|
Acquisitions & serials
|
2/12/2021 | Record rejected (Migration stats spreadsheet): Cannot find vendor_account to subscription. Z16: [ADM/seq.]. Subscription ignored. | Subscription record is missing a vendor number | add vendor to subscription record or delete subscription |
| Acquisitions | 2/12/2021 | Record rejected (Migration stats spreadsheet): Fund is pointing to a non existing parent. Budget-Number: [budget_code-FY]. Parent-Budget-Number: [budget_code-FY]. Fund ignored. | Parent budget specified in the budget record does not exist | Update budget record with valid parent budget, or clear current value |
| Acquisitions | 2/12/2021 | Record rejected (Migration stats spreadsheet): Invalid transaction type. Z601-REC-KEY: [budget code]. Z601-TYPE:. Transaction record ignored. | Remnant of an encumbrance from a bad p-file-90 load | ignore |
| Acquisitions | 2/12/2021 | Record rejected (Migration stats spreadsheet): Invoice header with empty status and date. Invoice-line rejected: [vendor/invoice/line]. | Invoice line rejected because general invoice is missing invoice date & payment status | set invoice date to a valid date; set invoice payment status |
| Acquisitions | 2/12/2021 | Record rejected (Migration stats spreadsheet): Invoice without lines. [vendor/invoice_no]. Invoice ignored. | General invoice has no lines attached | delete invoice or add invoice lines |
| Acquisitions | 2/12/2021 | Record rejected (Migration stats spreadsheet): library id not found for library code = [sublib] | Sublibrary is missing/incorrect in subscription record | update sublibrary in subscription record |
| Acquisitions | 2/12/2021 | Record rejected (Migration stats spreadsheet): Migration Loader Reject: The total_price field is 0 and all of its invoice line prices are 0 | Zero-amount invoice | update invoice total with a non-zero value (e.g. $0.01 for gifts), or delete invoice |
| Acquisitions | 2/12/2021 | Record rejected (Migration stats spreadsheet): PO related to a deleted adm/bib. PO ignored. | Original ADM and/or bib record was deleted | FALSC will move order records to a provisional bib & ADM in a batch operation; If the correct bib can be identified, order record may be manually moved from the provisional bib/ADM to correct bib. |
| Acquisitions | 2/12/2021 | Record rejected (Migration stats spreadsheet): PO vendor_code is empty.Vendor code origin: Z68-VENDOR-CODE. PO ignored. | Order record is missing a vendor number | add vendor or delete order |
| Acquisitions | 2/12/2021 | Record rejected (Migration stats spreadsheet): Subscription related to a deleted adm/bib. Subscription ignored. | Orphan subscription record (no ADM or bib) | ignore |
| Acquisitions | 2/12/2021 | Record rejected (Migration stats spreadsheet): Unable to read order for encumbrance transaction.Orig-sum: [99.99].Active-sum: [99.99].Local-sum: [99.99]. Transaction record ignored. | Orphan transaction (transaction should have been automatically deleted when order was deleted) | ignore |
| Acquisitions | 2/12/2021 | Record rejected (Migration stats spreadsheet): Invoice with empty payment status and invoice date. Record ignored. | General invoice is missing invoice date & payment status | General invoice is missing invoice date & payment status-- set invoice date to a valid date; set invoice payment status |
| Acquisitions | 2/12/2021 | Record rejected (Migration stats spreadsheet): The PO's bib cannot be found. PO ignored. | Orphan order record from NERDC-->Aleph migration | ignore |
| Acquisitions & Serials | 2/12/2021 | Serials subscription records not migrated for institutions that don't use Aleph acquisitions: Chipola College Daytona State College Florida Gateway College Gulf Coast State College Pasco-Hernando State College Pensacola State College |
Alma requires PO lines, funds, vendors, and acquisitions departments to be configured in order to receive & claim print serials, and to generate check-in items. | FALSC is working with Ex Libris to configure acquisitions records, departments, and staff roles for serials check-in for these institutions |
| Acquisitions | 2/12/2021 | Various budget errors--Migrated budget code retains -YYYY fiscal year extension, incorrect fiscal period, incorrect budget status, etc. | Aleph budget fiscal year does not match the fiscal year of the specified parent budget, or parent budget is not defined; Budgets migrate with fiscal year of the parent budget rather than the FY of the budget itself (see budget mapping rules and assumptions on the Alma Migration Guide) | Delete or update parent budget in the Aleph budget record, see report of Aleph budgets where FY of parent budget does not match FY of child budget |
| Primo | 2/17/2021 |
ebook and evideo links won't authenticate. This affects the following: |
These libraries switched to OpenAthens after the Full Testload extract was done. | All links to these records have been updated in Aleph. When the Go-Live extract is done in June, these records should work correctly in Primo. |
| Fulfillment | 2/19/2021 | Some items don't circulate correctly or else have other circulation policies that are incorrect - wrong replacement cost, etc | Fulfillment configuration was very limited in the configuration forms. We still have to go through and fully set up all the policies that you have in Aleph. This is going to take some time. | Each institution received a document from us letting you know which item statuses were set up in the configuration form and should be correct - those are the ones that you can troubleshoot right now. We will be contacting you regarding any questions we might have for fulfillment configuration and also when we have completed your institution. |
| Acquisitions | 2/19/2021 | Vendor EDI information tab missing required fields: Vendor EDI attributes; Per Organization Unit EDI; EAN per account code | Vendor EDI information did not migrate properly from Aleph | Vendor EDI information will need to be updated manually in Alma; FALSC is working on documentation & reports |
| Fulfillment | 2/23/2021 | staff accounts not showing under staff tab | externally managed users receive a record type of public | Alma Analytics can be used to capture library users that have been assigned staff roles |
| Cataloging/HOL Migration | 2/24/2021 | Holding added for outside institution in Alma with Location = UNASSIGNED. | It appears that if a HOL record does not have an 852 field or if the 852 field lacks a $$b with Sublibrary code that a HOL is loaded in Alma for each institution that has an ADM attached to the BIB. A library is assigned and the location = UNASSIGNED. | We need to get a report for such HOLs and try to clean them up before cutover. |
| Acquisitions | 3/3/2021 | Migrated invoices not viewable/editable |
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| Fulfillment | 3/04/2021 | Passwords for external users do not migrate from Aleph to Alma | Per Aleph to Alma Migration Guide passwords do not migrate. | Passwords for all external users must be set after cutover. Possible solutions include sending letters to affected patrons or adding a link in Primo VE to reset password. |
| System | 4/20/2021 | Slowness in Alma | Whenever you experience slowness in Alma, please submit a Performance Tracking File to the Help Desk. To do this, go to: Alma help menu > Generate Performance Tracking File. | |
| Acquisitions | 4/23/2021 | Empty search/wildcard search "?" for invoices does not return all invoices | Inconsistent behavior for empty/wildcard searches in Alma |
Per Ex Libris, if you need a list of all invoices, use Alma Analytics; If your institution uses apfeed/ERP finance invoice export (FIU, UF, UNF), you can search: invoices-->all-->waiting to be sent to return a list of invoices that are queued for export to ERP |
| Primo | 5/21/2021 | Did you mean isn’t working. | An internal job populates the "Did You Mean" index. | Ex Libris ran the job around 5/18 and it will run regularly after Go Live. |
| Primo | 5/21/2021 | Auto-complete isn’t working | Ex Libris Tier 2 needs to update a setting. | Ex Libris Tier 2 needs to update a setting. |
| Primo | 5/21/2021 | Record actions are displaying in the opposite order as configured | Unknown, not just an FLVC problem | Reported to Ex Libris tecnical support. |
| Primo | 5/21/2021 | Subject headings are not displaying in the same order as in the bib. | Unknown | Reported to Ex Libris technical support. |
| Primo | 5/21/2021 | Browse search by subject is very slow or does not return results. If results are returned, cannot always click on a record to view. | Unknown | Reported to Ex Libris technical support. |
| Primo/Cataloging | 6/4/2021 | URLs retained in NZ bibs appear in Links section in Primo for all other institutions that have holdings on the same record. | Records are sequenced in a specific institutional order when loading to the NZ. Generally the order is set by the size of the institution with larger going first. Whatever record comes in 1st gets established as the NZ record. The linked IZ records will differ only in added locally marked fields. | Determined by NZ creation process. No solution. Will need to be cleanup in Alma. |
The following documents are from Ex Libris and detail what issues to look for in performing data review.
These exercises were provided by Ex Libris and modified by FALSC to help staff become familiar with working in Alma. Each document has step-by-step instructions on how to do many of the basic functions in each area. While many of the functions can be done in the vanguard Alma environment, the documents recommend using the FALSC sandboxes instead, since all library staff have access to them. If you need assistance in accessing the sandboxes, please contact your institution's ILS Coordinator or the FLVC Help Desk.
These checklists outline the functions a staff person should be able to perform in each area.
This spreadsheet contains statistics on the number of entities migrated into Alma for each functional area. Libraries should compare the counts of records migrated to the number of records initially provided. For example, if you think you had 1M bibliographic records but only 500K were migrated, and the missing bibs are not accounted for in the error reports, then further investigation is required.
Identifiers are provided for records that were rejected during the migration process, along with a brief description of the reason for rejection. Since the records were not migrated into Alma, the identifiers are from the previous ILS. These error messages should be used to check migration.
This spreadsheet contains a listing of all records that were not loaded correctly or at all in the Physical to Electronic record conversion process. Most are all or a part of a collection of ebook records that need to be addressed.
Below are links to the Primo VE views for all libraries as well as a link to the Union View, which is catalog of all records for all libraries. Please remember that these views will change as the institutions and FALSC experiment with the various settings and configurations of the discovery tool.
| Broward College | Primo VE Link |
| Chipola College | Primo VE Link |
| College of Central Florida | Primo VE Link |
| College of the Florida Keys | Primo VE Link |
| Daytona State College | Primo VE Link |
| Eastern Florida State College | Primo VE Link |
| Florida A&M University | Primo VE Link |
| Florida Atlantic University | Primo VE Link |
| Florida Gateway College | Primo VE Link |
| Florida Gulf Coast University | Primo VE Link |
| Florida International University | Primo VE Link |
| Florida International University Law | Primo VE Link |
| Florida Polytechnic University | Primo VE Link |
| Florida Southwestern State College | Primo VE Link |
| Florida State College at Jacksonville | Primo VE Link |
| Florida State University | Primo VE Link |
| Florida State University Medical | Primo VE Link |
| Florida State University Music | Primo VE Link |
| Gulf Coast State College | Primo VE Link |
| Hillsborough Community College | Primo VE Link |
| Indian River State College | Primo VE Link |
| Lake-Sumter State College | Primo VE Link |
| Miami Dade College | Primo VE Link |
| New College of Florida | Primo VE Link |
| North Florida College | Primo VE Link |
| Northwest Florida State College | Primo VE Link |
| Palm Beach State College | Primo VE Link |
| Pasco-Hernando State College | Primo VE Link |
| Pensacola State College | Primo VE Link |
| Polk State College | Primo VE Link |
| Santa Fe College | Primo VE Link |
| Seminole State College | Primo VE Link |
| South Florida State College | Primo VE Link |
| St. Johns River State College | Primo VE Link |
| St. Petersburg College | Primo VE Link |
| State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota | Primo VE Link |
| Tallahassee Community College | Primo VE Link |
| University of Central Florida | Primo VE Link |
| University of Florida | Primo VE Link |
| University of Florida Law | Primo VE Link |
| University of North Florida | Primo VE Link |
| University of South Florida | Primo VE Link |
| University of West Florida | Primo VE Link |
| Valencia College | Primo VE Link |
| FPALN Statewide Catalog | Primo VE Link |