Configuring ILLiad as a resource sharing partner of last resort
Alma offers the ability to configure ILLiad as a resource sharing “partner of last resort” so that a request that starts in Alma but cannot be filled (e.g., book is missing) can be rolled into ILLiad and then sent into TRLNDirect or BorrowDirect.
ExLibris documentation (blog post):
https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/blog/setting-up-the-alma-illiad-partner-of-last-resort-integration/
May 2025 testing notes
We had hoped that setting the external identifier match in ILLiad to the badly named “SSN” field would cause it to find the Alma account and match it, since the SSN field just has the netid in it (matching the Alma primary identifier.) However, that’s not the behavior we see - instead it creates a new account with the username of the primary identifier. I added “khn717@duke.edu” as a fake ID to Karen’s account in the sandbox and tested it and that worked, so that shows that if the identifiers actually match, it works fine. So it may be that we end up either having to get “netid@duke.edu” added as an Alma identifier, or we have to get the ILLiad user identifier changed en masse.
Converting a request to Borrowing Request requires Fulfillment Services Manager scoped to the Resource Sharing Library to work. That should be something we can ask Ex Libris to adjust
One of the open questions is whether we can turn off the Request cancelled email when we do this - it appears that we cannot. That might be why Wisconsin (in the blog post) elected not to cancel the request as part of the workflow.
This configuration is in progress as of May 2025 - screenshots below are pasted from the premium sandbox prior to the February 2025 refresh to help with recreating work.
