Ex Libris Alma is great for the basics and for integration
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We used Ex Libris Alma to track and manage our physical and digital collections across four WSU campuses. We also used it for analytics features like generating circulation statistics. I personally used Alma for basic circulation functions (checking books in and out, placing holds, renewals, etc.) and for doing collections research to put together reports (investigating which of our physical journals we also held digitally and under what types of contracts, etc.).
Pros
- Integrates smoothly with other Ex Libris products (like Primo for patron-facing searching and Esploro for a research repository) and Springshare
- Works well across multiple connected library locations
- You can set many different levels of permissions for different users
- Easy to create and save fairly complicated advanced searches
Cons
- When you conduct an advanced search, there are some of the data points that simply won't export to a .csv, making external analytic work tedious or impossible
- UI is not the friendliest - there is a lot of clicking on subtabs to get the information you want
Likelihood to Recommend
I think Ex Libris Alma is well suited to any library, including those with multiple locations, that is looking for a back-end collections management solution and a front-end discovery website for patrons (Ex Libris Primo) that will play together seamlessly and require little work to synchronize. It might not be the best fit for libraries that regularly evaluate their collections in depth using digital information that is not provided in Alma's own analytics package. I would recommend carefully evaluating what Alma's analytics can do vs. your library's needs before committing, but otherwise it does the job well!
