Fulfillment 03 – Infrastructure Welcome to this session of the Alma Administration Fundamentals Training. In this session we will discuss configuration considerations related to fulfillment infrastructure.

Agenda Fulfillment Units Fulfillment Rules TOU and Policies In this session we will discuss considerations and concepts related to configuring patron loans and requests, specifically: Fulfillment Units Fulfillment Unit Rules Terms Of Use and Policies

Fulfillment Configuration Location Location-based approach Assumption: items shelved together circulate more/less same way per user group Item-level policies used for exceptions Advantages: Lowers costs: easier to configure, easier to maintain Improves service: Standardizes policies, reduces confusion and misunderstandings Alma takes a location-based approach to fulfillment, the assumption being that items which are shelved in the same location circulate in more or less the same way for a given user group. If there is an exception to this assumption, Alma can use the item policy to define exceptional circulation policies. All other items will circulate according to the policies defined for their location, without reference to item policy.

Location Type = Fulfillment Unit General Stacks Limited Media Short Loan/Reserves Closed Stacks (Fulfillment Units) Locations of the same type, for example, open stacks, or media, or short term course reserves…<animate> …are grouped together into a Fulfillment Unit. The fulfillment units in your production environment correspond to the Location Types you used when completing your Configuration Form.

Location Type = Fulfillment Unit You have a distinct Fulfillment Unit for each type of location in your institution.

Location Type = Fulfillment Unit Each Fulfillment Unit contains all the locations of the same type across the institution, regardless of what library the location belongs to.   (Fulfillment Rules) Once we have our Fulfillment Units, we are able to manage our fulfillment much more efficiently than if we were to manage it on an item-per-item basis. The Fulfillment Unit contains all items in all locations of the same type, across the institution.

Location Type = Fulfillment Unit We can now apply fulfillment rules to the fulfillment unit, and these rules will apply to all the items in all the locations in the fulfillment unit.

Fulfillment Unit – Rules General Stacks Limited Faculty = TOU 6 months Staff = TOU 3 months Students = TOU 1 month Visitors = TOU 2 weeks Faculty = TOU 1 day Staff = TOU 2 hours Students = TOU 1 hour Visitors = TOU 1 hour Media Faculty = TOU 7 days Staff = TOU 7 days Students = TOU 7 days Visitors = TOU no loan Course Reserves Closed Stacks Faculty = TOU no loan Staff = TOU no loan Students = TOU 4 hours Visitors = TOU no loan Faculty = TOU 6 months Staff = TOU 3 months Students = TOU 3 months Visitors = TOU 1 month Each Fulfillment Unit Rule applies to a specific scenario, as defined in the rule – for example: a faculty member wants to check-out an item owned by the Main Library’s Open Stacks location. The rule determines the set of policies that will be applied to that scenario – for example: the item can be loaned for 6 months, renewed for up to another 6 months, is not subject to recall and has no overdue fine.

Location Type = Fulfillment Unit Fulfillment Units have different rules to define different scenarios. Typically, scenarios are defined according to user group and, for any exceptions, according to item policy. <animate> There are also different rules for different types of transactions: requesting, loaning and booking. All rules have in common that they apply to all the items in the fulfillment unit,…

Fulfillment Unit – Rules they define a fulfillment scenario as an input, and… <animate> …as an output, the set of policies – or Terms of Use – that are applied to the input scenario.   (Terms of Use (TOU) and Policies) So a TOU is a list of pre-defined policies relating to a patron transaction – either a patron hold request, a loan or a booking. Each type of patron transaction has its own type of TOU and each type of TOU contains types of policies which are relevant for that type of transaction.

TOU Details (Loan) For a loan, the TOU contains policies such as due date, overdue fine and grace period.

TOU (Request) ` For a request, the TOU contains policies such as whether the item is requestable, where it may be picked up, and how long it will be kept on the hold shelf.

Scenario Let’s put this all together with a brief example. A staff member walks up to the Main Library circulation desk with an item from the Reference location, wanting to borrow the item.  The circ desk staff scans the patrons id and then the item’s barcode. Alma first checks the item’s current shelving location to determine the Fulfillment Unit, in this case, the Limited fulfillment unit. Once there, it begins checking the loan rules, beginning from the top, and stops at the first rule that applies.  First rule: Is this item of policy ‘Special’, ‘Manuscript’ or ‘Restricted’?  No.  Next rule: Is this user of group ‘Faculty’?  No.  Next rule: Is this user of group ‘Academic Staffs’ or ‘Staff’?  Yes.  Apply the ToU ‘2 Hours Staff Limited’.

Fulfillment Unit – TOU (Request) Implementation Considerations The most important recommendation we can make concerning fulfillment infrastructure is to simplify and consolidate your fulfillment policies. Reduce item policy exceptions by defining homogeneous locations. Combine similar item policies into a single item policy. Consolidate due date periods and user groups. By doing so, not only will your fulfillment infrastructure in Alma be easier to configure and maintain, but, we believe, you will increase the satisfaction of your patrons by providing greater transparency and uniformity, and less room for confusion and misunderstanding.

Session Review Agenda In this session, we learned that: Alma is location-based, which assumes that items in the same location have similar fulfillment polices. Locations of the same type are gathered together into a Fulfillment Unit. Fulfillment Unit Rules – based on, for example, user group or item policy exceptions - determine the set of policies (or TOU) which will be applied to the fulfillment transaction at hand – either a request, loan or booking. Best Practice is to simplify and consolidate your fulfillment policies.

Thank you! Thanks for listening today. If you have any questions about anything covered in this session, please contact your Ex Libris project team. We look forward to seeing you in our next session of the Alma Administration Fundamentals training.