Email Partner configuration - Patron style (OLD)

There are a number of partners that do not have ISO (or Alma) compatible Resource Sharing available. We have come up with a method of sharing information with those partners using emails to transact. This is built into Alma, but did require some configuration. Our first draft used patrons to lend to, and partners to borrow from, but this was replaced by using partners to lend to, which required some more letter updates.

The Omni Network Zone Administrator creates email partners in the network zone (NZ) and pushes them to all Omni partners’ Institution Zones (IZ)

When we get an incoming email to loan one of our items to a partner who doesn’t have a resource sharing system (like a government library or a law library), this will come in to an email inbox monitored by your staff (not in Alma). You’ll then create a request for a specially-created patron for this email partner, and then ship the item physically or digitally to them.

When we want to borrow from an email partner, we’ll have exhausted all of our automated rotas (AFN/ISO…), and well need to manually search for the item, find it at one of the email partners, and then manually send the request to that partner via Alma. Alma will then send emails on your behalf to request the item from the email partner.

To enable Email Partners, configuration must be completed in both your local IZ by you, and in the network zone by the Omni NZ Administrator.

Documentation