FAQs

Ex Libris defines a named user as any user whose account has been assigned a role other than "Patron." In order to avoid an Alma/Primo price increase, SUNY needs to keep its total number of named users below a certain threshold, so libraries should remove non-patron roles from staff and student employees once they are no longer employed at the library. Steps for cleaning up your library's named users are below.

1. Run the Staff Login Report and save results as an Excel file

2. Create a set of users who have not logged in to Alma recently

3. Manually remove roles from individual named users

4. Remove roles in batch

5. Batch Deleting Users

6. Deleting Individual Users

To do this work, you will need the General System Administrator and User Manager roles. 

 

Run the Staff Login Report

Alma's Staff Login Report lists the last date each named user logged in to Alma. By default, Alma keeps this data for 90 days. If you would like to change the amount of time Alma retains staff login information, you can go to Configuration > User Management > General > Other Settings and change the value of the staff_login_ip_address_retention setting.

1. Go to Configuration > General > General Settings > Staff Login Report. You'll be taken to a list that displays the user name and last login date of each named user.

 

2. Click the export list button and then click the Excel (current view) link. That will generate an Excel spreadsheet containing the information listed in the Staff Login Report. Delete all named users with recent logins and any other named users you know you want to keep from the file and then save the file to your PC. 

 

Create a Set of Users

1. Go back to the main Alma page and then go to Admin > Manage Jobs and Sets > Manage Sets. 

 

2. Click the Add Set link and then click the Itemized link.

 

3. Enter a name for the set into the Set Name field, select "User" from the Set Content Type dropdown, change the Private setting to No if you want other people to be able to use the set, upload the file you created from the Staff Login Report, and then click Save. A job will run to create the set. 

 

4. To view the members of the set, click the ellipsis next to the set you created and then click the Members link. You'll be taken to a list of users in the set. If that list is empty, you'll need to wait for the set creation job to finish running (that shouldn't take more than a minute). 

 

5. Remove named users you know you want to keep from the set by checking the box next to their name, clicking the Remove Selected button, and then clicking the Save button. 

 

Manually Remove Roles from Individual Named Users

If your number of named users with no recent logins is low, the easiest way to clean them up may be to manually remove roles from individual named users. 

1. View the members of the set of named users with no recent logins you created (see step 4 in previous section) and then click on the name of the individual named user you wish to clean up. You'll be taken to their user record.  

 

2. Scroll down to the User Roles section, check the box next to each role you wish to remove (it may be easier to check the Select All box at the top of the role list and then uncheck the Patron role), and click the Remove Selected link. A Confirmation Message window will open. Click Confirm to remove the role and then click the Save button.

 

3. Once you've finished removing non-patron roles from a named user's account, remove them from the set you created by checking the box next to their name and then clicking the Remove Selected button (see step 5 in previous section).

 

Remove Roles in Batch

The Update/Notify Users Job can be used to remove user roles from sets of users. This job cannot remove multiple roles at once, so you will need to run it multiple times on the same set of users to batch remove multiple user roles. The Update/Notify Users Job cannot be used to remove the following roles:

• Circulation Desk Operator
• Circulation Desk Operator - Limited
• Circulation Desk Manager
• Requests Operator
• Work Order Operator
• Receiving Operator
• Receiving Operator Limited
• Fulfillment Services Operator 

For information on removing circulation roles in bulk, please see the Managing Circulation Desk Operators section of this Ex Libris documentation on Managing User Roles.

 

1. Go to Admin | Manage Jobs and Sets | Run a Job

 

2. Select "User" from the Content Type dropdown, check the button next to the Update/Notify Users job, and then click the Next button.

 

3. Click the button next to the set of users you wish to run the job on and then click the Next button.

 

4. Scroll down and check the box for Remove Role, select the role you wish to remove, and then click the Next button.

 

5. Review the parameters of the job you're about to run to make sure you haven't made any mistakes and then click the Submit button. A Confirmation Message window will open. Click the Confirm button. The Update/Notify Users job will then run and remove the role you selected in step 4 from all users in the set you selected in step 3. 

 

Batch Deleting Users

Users with a Purge Date in their user record can be batch deleted from Alma. If you have named users you wish to delete, you can use the Update/Notify Users Job to add a Purge Date to batch delete those users (see previous section for how to use the Update/Notify Users Job). 

Note: When purging named users, you could potentially be purging other users as well. We recommend reviewing an Analytics report of users with purge dates in their records prior to running this job. If that report contains users you do not want to purge, use the Update/Notify Users Job to either update or delete their purge dates.

1. Go to Admin > User Management > Purge User Records

 

2. Click the Add Job link. The Add Job window will open. Enter "1" in the Number of Days After Purge Date to purge any user with a purge date in the past, enter "0" into the Waive Threshold field to avoid purging users with fines/fees attached to their accounts, and then click the Add and Close button. A Confirmation Message window will open. Click the Confirm button to run the Purge Users job. 

Note: If you wish to limit the job to users with a specific record type or users in a specific user group, select the appropriate values from the User Record Type and/or User Group dropdowns. You cannot select a user group unless you first select a specific user type. 

 

Deleting Individual Users

If using the Purge Users job to batch delete users isn't an option, you can manually delete individual users.

1. Do a Users search for the user you wish to delete, click the ellipsis next to their account, then click the Delete link. A Confirmation Message window will open. Click the Confirm button to delete the user.