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Alma Acquisitions Resource Guide

This guide covers all aspects of the Acquisitions process, which includes setting up funds, ordering, receiving physical items, activating e-resources, and invoicing. This guide also covers Serials patterns and arrival/check-in.

Receiving One-Time Orders

Receiving an Item (Invoice Created Separately)

How you manage items during the receiving process and what you fill in these screens will differ depending on your local unit’s practices. Confirm with your manager how to properly receive materials in your location.

 

Receiving Items as Part of the Invoice Process vs. Receiving Materials

If you want to also create an invoice, begin the invoice process (see the Invoicing page in this guide) and choose Handle receiving as part of invoicing on the invoice creation page. Once the invoice is done, follow the instructions below to receive.

 

Receiving Without Invoicing

  1. Set your location to the correct Receiving Department (Location)
  2. Go to Acquisitions >> Receive
  3. Answer the questions presented:
    1. Keep item in department? If yes, click the button and choose the area that you want the item to end up in after you’ve received it.
    2. One item or multiple?
      1. Multiple: click on the tickyboxes and then click on Receive on the upper right.
        • Note that you can’t edit individual items this way, just do a blanket receive. Set all to Keep in Department if you have a group of items that all need extensive record work and will be edited later.
        • Turn off Keep in Department for a group of shelf-ready materials that can just go into transit.
      2. One: Click on the row action item icon and choose either Receive or Manage Items if it requires editing.
  4. If you choose Manage Items, you’ll be taken to the Received Items List – a list of all items available to be received on that POL.
    1. PO line items include all the copies of that title ordered on that POL
    2. Bibliographic information is the brief bib reference used to identify an order in a list
  5. Do we edit the item during receipt process?
    1. Just barcode: You can edit the barcode right from this list. Click on the tickybox to the left of the item, scan in the new barcode, then click Save to go back to the big list, or Save and Receive to receive this item.
    2. More than barcode: Choose Edit Inventory Item from the row action item list and update the fields on the Physical Item Editor page, then click Save to go back to the Received Items List
  6. Click Save and Receive
  7. A pop up will tell you that the item has been received
    1. If you turned on Keep in Department, physically move the item to the department you chose (through your usual workflow)
    2. If you turned off Keep in Department, the item will be marked in Transit. Send the item to the owning library/location.

To check your work, copy the POL number, use the persistent search bar to find the order, and see in the snapshot that it was received. If you kept the item in the department, copy the barcode and search for the physical item record, where you’ll see where it is in in the Technical Services workflow.

Unreceiving Items

You can unreceive any item you just received by clicking on the row action item icon next to the received item and selecting Unreceive.

Note that you can only unreceive items if:

  • They are still in your department
  • There are no interested users