Alma accounts for users without faculty, staff or student affiliation
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Who does this apply to
- 3 Who does this not apply to
- 4 Before starting: Check for an existing Alma account!
- 5 Patron does not have an existing library account
- 6 Patron has an existing library account
- 7 Directions for creating accounts for recent Duke alums
- 8 For User Administrators: Merging accounts
Introduction
We create library accounts frequently for users who are not active Duke faculty, staff, students, or sponsored individuals. These library patrons do not have active netid/passwords, but they need to be able to access their library accounts online.
With Alma, we will use Duke OneLink (https://oit.duke.edu/service/onelink/ ), which is a service offered by OIT where individuals can register for an online login that we can then use to give them access to log into their account.
Important links
https://accounts.oit.duke.edu/onelink/sign_in - test portal for OneLink services. When the patron logs in, they’ll see their unique ID listed.
https://accounts.oit.duke.edu/onelink/ - register for a new OneLink account, or check for an existing account
https://idms-web-selfservice.oit.duke.edu/ - OneLink patrons can use the self-service portal just like folks with netid/password.
Who does this apply to
This procedure applies to any user that does not have a current, active netid.
It assumes you have verified that the person is eligible for a library borrowing account.
Examples:
An alumn/ae;
Borrowers from UNC-Chapel Hill, NC State, or NC Central;
Borrowers from a BorrowDirect institution;
A member of the Friends of the Library who has donated enough to get a borrowing card
Durham Community Borrowers
Who does this not apply to
This procedure does not apply to sponsored researchers, who should receive Duke NetIDs as part of their sponsored affiliation. Use their netid as their primary ID for their Alma account; a OneLink account is not necessary.
Before starting: Check for an existing Alma account!
If the user has an existing Alma account - follow the directions here.
If the user does not have an existing Alma account, follow the directions here.
Patron does not have an existing library account
Check for an existing OneLink account
If the patron does not have a OneLink account, have them create one, and note their unique ID - https://accounts.oit.duke.edu/onelink/
If the patron is unsure if they have a OneLink account, have them go to https://accounts.oit.duke.edu/onelink/sign_in and attempt to log in. If they have a OneLink account, they will be shown their unique ID after they log in.
Most OneLink accounts are created through an automated identity management process managed by OIT, that checks for existing affiliation with the university and for pre-existing accounts. Generally, this automated process takes no longer than a few minutes.
For a small percentage of accounts, the automated process fails because the OIT system cannot determine if the person has been at Duke before and may already have a unique ID. In those cases, the OneLink ID must be manually created by staff, and can take one-two business days.
Create their Alma account
Before you do this process, the patron’s OneLink account must be created, and you must have their unique ID number.
Start from Fulfillment > Manage Patron Services > Register New User
For the Primary identifier, set it to their OneLink account unique ID.
For the Patron group, set it to the appropriate group based on their affiliation.
For the Statistical Categories, set the Patron type to the appropriate type based on their affiliation.
Do not set an Alma password. It will not work for their account, and is not needed.
Set an appropriate expiration date. If you leave it blank, it will be set to 365 days in the future.
Have the patron test their account
Go to https://library.duke.edu/my-accounts and have the patron log in with their OneLink account and verify that their Alma information loads.
Patron has an existing library account
Type of Affiliation and When They Left Duke - how to proceed
What type of affiliation did they have? | How long ago did they graduate or otherwise leave Duke? | Process |
|---|---|---|
Recent Duke alum | Less than one year ago | If they are a recent alum and graduated less than a year ago, you can’t set up a library account with OneLink access yet. Their netid must be deactivated before they can begin using OneLink, and the Libraries cannot control when that happens. Go to Directions for recent Duke alums to continue. |
Duke alum | More than one year ago | You can continue with setting up an account - go to Check for an existing OneLink account. |
Sponsored Researcher | N/A | Do not use this procedure - follow the process for sponsored researcher accounts. |
Other (TRLN visitor, BorrowDirect visitor, Friends of the Library, etc.) | N/A | These patrons should have never had Duke Netids - go to Check for an existing OneLink account |
Check for an existing OneLink account
If the patron does not have a OneLink account, have them create one and note their unique ID, which should be the same as the one they had as a Duke affiliate - https://accounts.oit.duke.edu/onelink/
If the patron is unsure if they have a OneLink account, have them go to https://accounts.oit.duke.edu/onelink/sign_in and attempt to log in. If they have a OneLink account, they will be shown their unique ID after they log in.
Remove their unique ID as an identifier
Review their existing Alma account and go to the identifiers tab. If their unique ID is listed there as a type of identifier of “unique id”, deactivate it or delete it. You will need to do this before creating the new Alma account in the next step.
Create a new Alma account for their new patron affiliation
Start from Fulfillment > Manage Patron Services > Register New User
For the Primary identifier, set it to their OneLink account unique ID.
For the Patron group, set it to the appropriate group based on their affiliation.
For the Statistical Categories, set the Patron type to the appropriate type based on their affiliation.
Do not set an Alma password. It will not work for their account and is not needed.
Request to have the old account merged with the new, just created account
The old account they had needs to be merged into their new account.
Submit a ticket to the Alma queue at https://support.lib.duke.edu with the name and primary ID of the old account and the name and primary ID of the new account, and request for those accounts to be merged.