In Alma, the opening and closing hours that you specify affect loan due dates and times. Hours are set up in the “Opening Hours” utility under the Advanced Tools menu for Fulfillment. IMPORTANT NOTE: Opening Hours applies only to due dates. It does not change the hours on the library website or set restricted door hours for your building.
You need “Circulation Desk Manager” role to be able to configure library hours.
Applied changes to the Opening Hours>Calendar Management calendar trigger a job (A scheduled or on-request process that runs in the background) which will update item due dates so that they fall on open days and adjust to times of closing. The job to update due dates runs once per day, so plan ahead.
Your calendar may include dates “inherited” from the institutional calendar (the Alma institution being Heard Libraries). For example, we may choose to add Thanksgiving Day as a closed day to the institutional calendar. The closing exception for Thanksgiving Day would be inherited by every Alma library’s calendar.
Three types of records can be created:
- Events: Events have no effect on due dates. Events only serve as Alma calendar reminders for staff.
- Standard opening hours: Your academic year opening or service hours for each day. A Standard opening hours record should be created for every day of the week you are open. All of your exceptions will be made in reference to your Standard opening hours.
- Exceptions: Exceptions made in reference to your entered Standard opening hours. Exceptions will be your most commonly created record
Here is an example of what Standard Opening Hours look like in Alma:
Creating Standard opening hours in Alma is straightforward. From Calendar Management, select Add Record, and choose Standard operating hours from the drop-down menu. Once you have added the week day and hours, click on the blue Add and Close button.
Exceptions are created in reference to Standard open hours. You will create exceptions for holidays and breaks, but also for summer breaks. When you add a record, select Exception from the drop-down menu.
Don’t forget to Apply Changes to the Calendar when you are satisfied with the records you’ve created! Also, select Save in the top right corner for good measure!
