Alma Workflows

Training Videos

Learn more about the process by viewing the Library Inventory 101 Training Videos below:

PowerPoint Presentation

You can access a PowerPoint version of this presentation available for viewing online below:

• Library Inventory 101.pptx

Inventory Checklist & Timeline

I. Deselection & Weeding (March - April)

• Provide Age of Collection and Collection Usage reports to campus librarians no later than 4/1/23.
• Complete weeding no later than 4/28/23 and a Withdrawn Report provided to campus librarians.

II. Preparing for Inventory (May)

• Identify all possible collections and locations in your library
• Perform shelf-reading in all areas
• Assign staff to scanning areas
• Prepare flash drives, carts, barcode scanners, RFID pads (or barcode scanners) for inventory scanning

III. Scanning (May - June)

• Scan the Stacks (CIRC, REF, POPBK, GRAPH, MCN, OVERS, etc.)
• Scan Special Collections including Equipment (RESER, SPECC, etc.)
• Scan miscellaneous items (anything that might not be on a shelf, such as an office or processing area).
• Gather and Submit Scanned Files.

IV. Uploading Data (July - August)

• Review Reports & Locate Items with Errors
• Re-submit Addendum Files
• Review Items To Be Marked Missing
• Final Report is Generated (8/18/23)

IV. Post Inventory (Fall 2023 - Spring 2024)

• Review Post-Inventory Report
• Manually locate and fix items with incorrect information (missing information, wrong collection codes, wrong call numbers, etc.)
• Review Missing Items Report
• Attempt to locate and find missing and unaccounted items. If found, update their status in Alma.

Weeding Reports

This step is necessary to provide librarians the opportunity to deselect materials that are not longer relevant or used. It also provides librarians with insight to the usage of our collections and helps make decisions for budgets, replacements, updates, and enhancements to resources.

Age of Collection Report

1. In the Alma main menu, click on Analytics, search for "Age of Collection", and click on Age of Collection Report.
   
    
2. Select your Campus, Collection Code, and optionally, Library of Congress Classification (does not apply for items shelved by title). It is recommended that you run a report for each collection that contains Books, DVDs, and Blu-Rays. Consult with your campus librarians about what collections they want to analyze.
    
3. Scroll down to the bottom and click on Export, select Formatted, and choose Excel from the list.
   
    
4. This will produce a report that will give you the number of items in each collection and classification by 10 year range. It will also add up at the bottom the number of items in that 10 year range.
    
5. Save each excel report and label them accordingly and send them to your campus librarians.

Collection Usage Report

1. In the Alma main menu, click on Analytics, search for "Collection Usage", and click on Collection Usage Report.
    
2. Select your Campus, Collection Code, and optionally, Library of Congress Classification (does not apply for items shelved by title). The report will automatically select items created more than five years ago and with loans older than five years ago, which is recommended. However, you can change these dates. It is recommended that you run a report for each collection that contains Books, DVDs, and Blu-Rays. Consult with your campus librarians about what collections, dates, and loan ranges they want to analyze.
    
3. Scroll down to the bottom and click on Export, select Formatted, and choose Excel from the list.
    
4. This will produce a report that will give you all items older than the specified date and with loans older than the specified date.
    
5. Save each excel report and label them accordingly and send them to your campus librarians.

Withdrawn Report

1. In the Alma main menu, click on Analytics, search for "Withdrawn Report", and click on Withdrawn Report by Campus (Collegewide).
    
2. Select your Campus and specify a Withdrawn Date Range.
    
3. Scroll down to the bottom and click on Export, select Formatted, and choose Excel from the list.
    
4. This will produce a report that will give you all items that have been withdrawn in the date range you you specified along with the cost per item.
    
5. Save each excel report and label them accordingly and send them to your campus librarians.

Inventory Scanning Result Reports

Now that scanning is completed, each campus is responsible for reviewing the Inventory Scanning Result Reports to identify items as follows:

Accessing the Excel Overview Reports

1. Click on the blue button below labeled View Inventory Scanning Result Reports and login with your MDC Credentials.
2. Select your campus folder.
3. Navigate through each collection folder and review the included excel file labeled "YourCampus - CollectionCode - Inventory Analysis Result", for example "Padron - CHILD - Inventory Analysis Result".
4. This file contains an overview of the scanning results. The only barcodes included in the excel file is a tab for barcodes that were not found.
5. The remaining results that need action for the following metrics will need to be viewed directly from within Alma as an itemized report:
   • Missing items but marked in place
   • Items on shelf but marked not in place
   • Items on shelf but out of range/set

Accessing Itemized Reports for Remaining Items Needing Action

1. Log in to Alma.
2. From the navigation menu, click on Admin and select Manage Sets from the Manage Jobs and Sets area.
   
    
3. In the Name search, type in the name of your campus followed by the word "inventory". You can also specify the collection code or leave it out to see all the inventory reports for your campus. Under Scope, select All.
   
    
4. Next, select the report you would like to copy by clicking on ellipsis menu and selecting Duplicate.
   
    
5. This will make a copy of the set which you will be able to edit directly by clicking on Content.
   
    
6. You can remove items as needed after you have resolved any problems by clicking on Remove. Changes to this list are automatically saved when you click on Done and you can come back to work on these lists at any time and progress will be saved.
   

Important: If a "copy" version of the report above is not found for a specific situation and/or collection, it will be assumed that no changes were made or no issues were resolved for that particular collection scenario and the original report (if it exist) will be used to generate the final report.

As a reminder, you can use the Withdraw Guidelines to determine which items should be removed from Alma and which should stay. You can then manually make the changes or they can also be made in bulk. For example (but not limited to):

• Bulk withdraw
• Bulk returns
• Bulk marking as missing
• Bulk item changes to collection code
• Bulk changes to holding call number and call number type

Please email aherna19@mdc.edu with your request referencing the list you'd like to update and the action. Alternatively, you can send a separate list of barcodes with specific changes you are requesting as all lists and search results can be exported to an Excel file and easily tweaked there. Any list you have exported can replace the one that's in Alma by indicating it in your email request. See below example that shows how a list can be exported to Excel by clicking on the Export button: