Withdrawing materials from Alma: Two approaches

Abstract

Libraries are forever withdrawing items from their collections: items lost, missing, damaged, superseded, or even deliberately deselected, aka weeded. Yet librarians often want or need to retain information about these items, whether to conform to state statutes, to follow university policy, or just because we’re librarians and that’s how we do things. In this presentation, we’ll look at two processes for withdrawing materials from Alma. One is modeled after a legacy ILS procedure, and the other is Alma’s native method of handling withdrawals; both have been used in Alma by the presenter. Both single-item and batch procedures will be covered, from identifying barcodes to deleting holdings from OCLC. The intended audience is Alma users, those migrating to Alma, and those interested in Alma. Attendees should leave the presentation with an understanding of the pros and cons of each process and the groundwork for making their own decisions about which process to choose.