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 Vanguard Phase can be corrected in the Full Testload Phase later in the project.
To report an issue, please follow the steps below:
If you are a Working Group Member:
If you are a staff member from a Vanguard library:
The following issues have been confirmed by FALSC staff and/or Ex Libris. Every effort will be made to address these issues when the full testload is done later this year. This document will be updated regularly by FALSC staff.
| Category | Date | Description of Problem | Possible Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Circulation | 09/02/2020 | UF only - Items held in FLR for UF do not have duplicate item records; only the item record in FLR was created | Alma will not create an item record if there is an existing record with the same barcode. Because FLR is a part of UF and the FLR records were loaded first, the item records in UFL were not created. | This will be fixed in the full 40 testload. |
| General | 09/03/2020 | FSU Only - Primary identification number for patrons is the Aleph system number instead of the university ID number. | Mistake on the migration form. EmplID does exist in Alma under additional identifiers. | This will be fixed in the full 40 testload. |
| EResources | 09/03/2020 | Ex LIbris automatically turns on ProQuest databases and packages if an instituion subscribes, even if the product was not selected on the eresource activation spreadsheet. Due to a technical issue with the auto-activation tool, UCF, FSU and FIU do not have Proquest auto-activated. ProQuest was auto-activated for the other Vanguards and they each have a spreadsheet listing the resources. | Technical issue with the auto-activation feature. | Pending fix at Ex Libris |
| EResources | 09/03/2020 | For the Vanguard phase, UF's Databases A-Z list was used to identify databases/packages that had been cataloged in Aleph. The P2E process used this list to flip the corresponding bibliographic records in Alma from print to electronic records for each of the Vanguards that had holdings on the corresponding Aleph system numbers. | Time constraint in being able to use the Databases A-Z list for all Vanguards. | All databases A-Z lists are being reviewed now to create a longer list for Go Live. |
| eResources and Cataloging | 09/03/2020 | 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. | Run p-manage-50 in Aleph PROD and the clone server. |
| eResources and Cataloging | 09/03/2020 | 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. In other cases (FCS), records are in COCEB and are FMG records that are out of date. | Shorten the timeframe between bib extract and submitting the list of records for the P2E process. Delete and fully reload FMG records on Prod. |
| eResources and Acquisitions | 09/03/2020 | FIU only - Error on the P2E tab of the Testload migration stats spreadsheet of “PO_LINE with PO_LINE_REFERENCE…references wrong MMS_RECORD” | Item records in Aleph attached to a bib that also has an attached order record has a different order number recorded. | Clean up item records in Aleph before Full Test Load. |
| 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/Cataloging | 09/24/2020 | Items that are linked to suppressed holdings are showing up in Primo VE even though item in Aleph has an item process status of SP which Mango treats as suppressed. | Alma doesn't have item process statuses like Aleph does. They need to be configured in Alma. | The setting for suppressBibWithSuppressedHol needs to be set to True in Alma. |
| Cataloging/Primo VE | 10/7/2020 | Government documents records are showing up as physical, even when they are electronic. | The bibs in Aleph don't have an 856 $$5. | FALSC will adjust how the list of system numbers is derived during our part of the P2E process so that these records are included on the list provided to Ex Libris. |
| Cataloging | 10/7/2020 | Some 690 fields did not migrate | Omitted on the mapping table for the migration. | FALSC will add 690 to the mapping table. The 690 fields will migrate as local fields. |
| Primo VE | 10/7/2020 | 690 fields that are present don't appear in the full record view in Pirmo VE. | Not included as a display field for Primo VE | Must be added as a display field per documentation. The Discovery WG is creating a list of fields that do not currently display and need to. |
| Acquisitions | 10/19/2020 | 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 Aleph parent budget fiscal year; 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 Aleph, see report of Aleph budgets where FY of parent budget does not match FY of child budget |
| 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. |
| Primo VE | 10/21/2020 | The locations facet (some have renamed this facet) has multiple occurrances of entries such as circulation, reference, and general collection. | Configuration. Different locations in the institution (e.g. sublibraries in Aleph) have collections with the same name, such as two campuses or two libraries, each with a collection named circulation. Both values of circulation show up in the facet. | An External Name can be added in Alma or to the configuration spreadsheet to distinguish between these entries. The facet can also be hidden/not used. |
| 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. | Wait for ExLibris 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. |
| Cataloging/BIB Migration | 10/23/2020 | Some of the old Aleph system numbers for the FCS Aleph database were not preserved in Alma. |
During the NZ creation the old Aleph system number is preserved in an 035 field as (aleph)xxxxxxxxxXXX01 [i.e., (aleph)012345678FCC01]. When a subsequent record matches the initial NZ record loaded no data is added to NZ record. The IZ record differs from the NZ record by added local fields. | Add the Aleph system number to field 001 during the migration extract for FCS records and the old system number will be preserved in the IZ record as local field 998. This will be done with a script for FCS and SUS records. |
| 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. |
Last Updated: November 04, 2020
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.
From Ex Libris:
This spreadsheet contains statistics on the number of entities migrated into Alma, for each functional area. Customers 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.
| Vanguard Library | Migration Statistics File (Excel) |
|---|---|
| Daytona State College | Daytona Migration Stats and Errors |
| Florida International University | FIU Migration Stats and Errors |
| Florida State College at Jacksonville | FSCJ Migration Stats and Errors |
| Florida State University | FSU Migration Stats and Errors |
| Santa Fe College | SFC Migration Stats and Errors |
| Tallahassee Community College | TCC Migration Stats and Errors |
| University of Central Florida | UCF Migration Stats and Errors |
| University of Florida | UFL Migration Stats and Errors |
Below are links to the Primo VE views for the eight Vanguard libraries and a link to the Union View, which is catalog of all records for the Vanguard libraries. Please remember that these views will change as the institutions, working groups, and FALSC experiment with the various settings and configurations of the discovery tool.
| Daytona State College | Primo VE Link |
| Florida International University | Primo VE Link |
| Florida State College at Jacksonville | Primo VE Link |
| Florida State University | Primo VE Link |
| Santa Fe College | Primo VE Link |
| Tallahassee Community College | Primo VE Link |
| University of Central Florida | Primo VE Link |
| University of Florida | Primo VE Link |
| Union Catalog | Primo VE Link |