Assigning Roles in Alma for Student Workers and Other Temporary Staff
As soon as possible before each semester begins, library staff should submit an INFORM listing the student workers that will be working in the libraries for the coming semester. Information included should be full name, VUnetID, the roles needed and corresponding Circulation Desks.
Edit the student’s record in Alma to add the roles needed:
Search for the student’s user record and click to Add Role and add the needed roles and whatever scopes and parameters are needed for each role. There are some Profiles set up for some of the libraries and these can be used to set up basic roles and then those can be fine-tuned.
NOTE: If the student has a VUnetID, but has not yet been added to Alma, create a user record and assign the appropriate User Group (Graduate Student, Undergraduate Student, etc.) and set the record as External so that it will be overwritten by the feed. Roles can be added when the record is created, since the feed will not affect the roles assigned. Interns should be assigned to user group: System-Wide Courtesy Borrowers.
For each role added, be sure to choose the scope and any parameters/circ desk assignments needed for that role, fill in an expiration date (depending on the semester, this will be January 30, June 30 or September 30), then set the role to Active.
Click on Save Role.
Once all of the roles have been added, scroll down in the user record General Information and make sure all roles are correct and activated.
At this point, you can add any notes about the user in the Notes tab using the Library notes category. These notes can be viewed by staff and will not be overwritten by the user feeds as long as the “As an external” box is NOT CHECKED.
CLICK SAVE to save the user record changes.
NOTES: It was decided that student workers at circulation desks will be given the Circulation Desk Operator –Limited role, so that they will not be allowed to deal with fines and fees. The one exception is the Central Default Circ Desk, which can have the Circulation Desk Operator role instead, so that they can handle fines and fees there. If they need to work at GIMS desk as well, then a separate role for that needs to be created with Circulation Desk Operator –Limited role.