ULMS Guide

his page covers Display Logic only as it applies to General Electronic Services and Full Text Services. 

Step-by-step guide

You must have configuration privileges in Alma to complete this process. 

1. In Alma, go to Configuration > Fulfillment > Display Logic Rules. Click Add Rule to create a new rule.
2. Not all fields in the form are required! You may ignore the "users" option, for example.
3. Under Hide Service, choose either General Electronic Service (for services you have defined) or Full Text (for subscription databases/ecollections).
   1. For a GES: under with, choose Service.
   2. Under with value, choose the name of your GES
   3. For Full Text: under with, choose either Interface or Electronic Collection.
   4. Under with value, choose the name of your interface or ecollection. You can only choose Interfaces or Ecollections that are active in your IZ; no NZ resources will appear on the list.
4. In general, Interface is the more flexible option:
   1. Choosing an Interface allows you to impact multiple ecollections. For example, specifying EBSCOhost interface will affect all databases you have on that platform, even if those databases are only active in the NZ.
   2. You can have an active Interface in your IZ even if you do not have an active Ecollection from that platform in your IZ.
      1. In your Alma Vendors, any vendor you set as an Access Provider must include an Interface Name. These Interfaces are available for Display Logic!
5. Rules are constructed negatively. That is, they are basically phrased as "Do not display X if Y exists." There is no option to construct a positive rule like "Display X if Y is true." You can only construct enough negative rules to exclude every option but the result you want.

Important points

• Order matters. Rules listed first are applied first.
• Rules are immediately effective once you add them (Add or Add and Close).  Because the CSUs effectually lack a sandbox, you cannot test your rules anything other than live!
• You can deactivate a rule without deleting it by toggling its Active button to off.
• If the name of a service, interface, or ecollection changes, then you must update any Display Logic Rules that use the old name!

Use Case: Prevent duplication of full text databases in the services menu

This rule prevents multiple EBSCOhost databases from being listed in the online services menu when all of them offer the same full-text resource. (Other interfaces where this may be relevant include ProQuest and JSTOR.)

Text of the rule is: Hide service Full Text with Interface = EBSCOhost if exists service Full Text with Interface = EBSCOhost

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Use Case: Prevent display of one GES when a different one is available

Example: I have a GES that gives the user an option to search for free ERIC documents when the item has an ERIC ED accession number. In such a case, I do not want ILLiad to appear, because it may generate unnecessary ILL article requests.

Text of the rule is: Hide service General Electronic Service with Service = ILLIAD_JOURNALS if exists service General Electronic Service with Service = ERIC

Helpful information:

Display Logic Rules cannot be considered in isolation from the General Electronic Service Availability Rules!

General Electronic Services (GES) provide a variety of options to end-users in the Primo online services (aka "View It") menu. Most notable is ILLiad, but other common GES include "report a problem" forms, Google Scholar searches, ERIC searches, and ProQuest dissertation searches.

The initial display conditions of a GES are controlled its Service Details and Service Availability Rules. Display conditions may additionally be dependent upon your Display Logic Rules. 

Step-by-step guide

You must have System Administrator or Fulfillment Administrator privileges to complete this process.

1. In Alma, go to Configuration > Fulfillment > General Electronic Services.
2. Click Add Service. (To edit an existing service, click its title.)
3. Service Code and Service Name are used only internally, within Alma. Code identifies the GES for things like Display Logic. Name can be more descriptive.
4. Service Description is also internal-only and optional, but can be useful for recording notes.
5. Public Name is how the service appears to end-users in Primo.
6. Public Note is optional but can provide additional info to end-users. You may use basic html coding in this field, for example, to provide a web link.
7. Display Location can be Viewit (the online full text services menu), Getit (the physical library items menu), both, or none (effectively disabling the GES).
8. URL template is basically an openURL will vary depending on the type of service.
9. Enable without login -Yes means that this GES will display only after an end-user has logged in to Primo.
10. Disable service offers several basic criteria for display. 

After you create the initial GES, you must then edit its Service Availability Rules (SAR).

1. Go to the GES's Service Availability Rules tab.
2. The Default Rule, at the bottom of the page, is always IsDisplay=False
3. For a GES that needs no other display conditions, just edit the default rule. Click the ellipsis icon next to the rule and choose Edit.
4. Under Output Parameters, change IsDisplay to True, then Save.
5. On the SAR tab, click Save. Your rule is now being applied. 

Important points

• There is a limit of 25 total resources (including full-text databases and GES) on the "View It" menu.
• Order of the GES list here does not matter. Order is controlled under Configuration > Fulfillment > General Electronic Services Order
• Order of SARs does matter; rules listed first are applied first.

Understanding Service Availability Rules

The Default Rule, at the bottom of every new SAR tab, will always be IsDisplay=False 

• For a simple GES that you want to display all the time, simply change the default rule to IsDisplay=True.
• A GES that should display based upon specific criteria will require at least one additional SAR.
  1. If you leave the default rule set to IsDisplay=False, then most of your additional rules will have the condition IsDisplay=True.
     1. Another way to say this: Never display this service unless X condition is present.
  2. If you change the default rule to IsDisplay=True, then most of your additional rules will have the condition IsDisplay=False.
     1. Another way to say this: Always display this service except when X condition is present.
• Because the order of SARs matters, put the rule that will apply most broadly at the top of the list. The system will read rules until it finds one that applies, then stop.
• You can deactivate a rule without deleting it by toggling its Enabled button to off. 

Creating a SAR

1. On the SAR tab, click Add Rule.

2. Give the SAR a Name. The Description is optional.

   Because the conditions of an individual rule do not display on the SAR tab's rule list, it will make your life easier later to put the rule criteria into either the Name or the Description, as shown here:

    

3. Click Add Parameter
4. Name is the list of data fields.
5. Operator is the condition (contains, is empty, is not empty, equals, does not equal, etc.)
6. Value is what appears in the data field you chose.
7. Click Add Parameter
8. You may add multiple parameters; they will be treated as an AND operation (i.e., both parameters must be true for the rule to apply).
9. Make sure IsDisplay is set as you prefer; True will be the default.
10. Click Save.
11. NB when you are testing new rules: You must click Save on the SAR tab to make the rule live.

Tip for selecting fields and values to use in your parameters

1. In Chrome, right-click in the background area of the Viewit or GetIt menu (it's an iframe)
2. Select View Frame Source
3. Remove view-source: from before "http" in the URL field
4. Jump to the end of the URL, find svc_dat=getit and change it to svc_dat=CTO
5. Press Enter. An XML page displays with the OpenURL elements for this record.

The PNX bookmarklet and, in the case of the link resolver, the openURL, may also be helpful for inspecting records. 

Use Case: ILLiad

Theoretically, your could have a single GES for ILLiad, but there is good reason to divide ILLiad into at least two, articles and books. Primarily, ILLiad's parsing limitations mean that you should not include ISBN and ISSN in the same URL Template. Splitting into two GES also allows you to present more specific information or instructions to the user about the different types of material.

More than two ILLiad services are possible; however, you would need to carefully tailor the conditions for their availability via SARs. 

ILLiad Articles

My library uses EZproxy (locally hosted) to authenticate users of ILLiad (hosted with OCLC), so our URL Template is our proxy prefix, followed by our ILLiad base address, followed by:

Currently, we have only one SAR:

ILLiad Books

The URL Template is slightly different from the one for articles:

Several SARs apply:

The first rule is display=false, so that any results coming from our systemwide shared library catalog will automatically be excluded.

The next rules are display=true. So if a result is from somewhere other than our shared catalog, and it is a book or book chapter, the ILLiad book option will appear. 

We also use a Display Logic rule to hide the ILLiad Books GES if our systemwide Resource Sharing option is present. 

Use Case: Report a Problem

SFX had a built-in "report a problem" form, but in Alma you must build your own. Once you have a form, you can link to it via a GES.

The form grabs the OpenURL data (i.e. the citation information and the URL of the link resolver menu) and passes it along to you for troubleshooting

Sample code for building your own form: 

• From Ian Chan of CSU San Marcos (PHP based) This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.
• From Orbis Cascade (Drupal & Java based) [no longer available December 2024]

Please note that the forms above are customized for their local circumstances; you will want to test their output and edit them to reflect your library's needs.

Once you have a reporting form, create a GES for it, as shown in this example:

For URL Template, I have the address of my library's web form, plus the openURL data we want to include. YOU CANNOT JUST COPY AND PASTE THIS LINK! YOU MUST EDIT IT TO PROVIDE YOUR OWN FORM'S ADDRESS.

Display location is Viewit only because this GES is only for reporting link resolver issues. 

This GES has only one SAR, IsDisplay=True.

Use Case: Google Scholar Search

Grabs the article title and plugs it into a Google Scholar search. This is handy for locating articles that may be available free via Institutional Repositories or are otherwise open access. 

URL Template is: 

Display location can be just Viewit, or Viewit & Getit. If using the "both" option, you may wish to Disable service: When Resource is owned by institution

This GES has only one SAR, IsDisplay=True.

Use Case: ProQuest Dissertations Search

Grabs the dissertation title and plugs it into a search of the ProQuest Dissertations database(s). Since all CSUs have subscription access to at least one of the ProQuest disssertions products (Humanities & Social Sciences), make sure to proxy the URL so your off-campus users can get to the full text.

URL Template is: 

This GES requires some SARs so that it will display only on records for dissertations. 

My library uses a second Dissertations GES for dissertation references coming to the link resolver the PsycINFO and MLA databases. The SARs address conditions specifc to only those sources:

We use Display Logic rules to hide other service options, such as ILLiad, when a Dissertations GES is present.

Use Case: ERIC Documents Search

Our blended EBSCOhost results include results from ERIC. Many recent ERIC Documents are available free, so we wanted to offer an ERIC search rather than an ILLiad form.

URL Template is:

This GES requires some SARs so that it will display only for ERIC Document records. Notice that rule one has two conditions:

Use Case: Hide Resource Sharing (CSU+) on the Link Resolver Services Menu

Please see Sarina Sinick's original wiki post, Hiding the CSU+ link on your Primo Services page, option 2.

What follows is a condensed version:

FIrst, create a placeholder GES that appears only in the link resolver.

1. Give it a descriptive name, e.g. Hide CSU+
2. Put any fake URL into the URL Template field; display it everywhere, disable service never.

3. Change the default SAR to display=true, then create one additional SAR:

   If rfr_id contains primo.exlibrisgroup.com-01CALS_ALMA, display=false

The CALS_ALMA SAR should prevent your placeholder from appearing on the services menu for results from PCI or the CSU shared catalog. In other words, the Hide CSU+ GES should appear only in the link resolver. Test to verify before proceeding!

Then, create two Display Logic Rules, as follows:

1. Hide service Resource Sharing Request with Resource Sharing System = Alma if exists service General Electronic Service with Service = Hide CSU+
2. Hide service General Electronic Service with Service = Hide CSU+

The rules must go in this order! The first rule prevents resource sharing from showin up on any page where our placeholder GES appears.The second rule then hides the placeholder, so it won't confuse your users. 

Control the order in which full-text databases are presented to the end-user in your Alma services menu.

You do not need to account for every resource. If you have not specified an order, the default is alphabetical.

Step-by-step guide 

You must have configuration privileges in Alma to complete this process.

1. In Alma, go to Configuration > Fulfillment > Online Services Order.
2. Choose Add to Top or Add to Last Services. Entries in Top will always sort first on the list, and entries in Last will always sort at the bottom, Within each section, you can control relative order using the Move Up and Move Down buttons.
3. Your first choice is Service Type, but effectively, the only option there is Full Text.
4. The next option is Service Name. You have the option of choosing a specific Electronic Collection or an Interface.
5. In general, Interface is the more flexible option:
   1. Choosing an Interface allows you to impact multiple ecollections. For example, if you add the EBSCOhost interface to the table as shown below, all associated databases will sort to that position in the Top services table, even if those databases are only active in the NZ.
   2. You can have an active Interface in your IZ even if you do not have an active Ecollection from that platform in your IZ.
      1. In your Alma Vendors, any vendor you set as an Access Provider must include an Interface Name. These Interfaces are available for populating your Online Services Order!
6. Under Additional Preferences, choosing yes for Prefer Source Service overrides any other order rules. For example: if a record came from JSTOR, then a JSTOR service will automatically be the top choice on its list, even if your rules specify that other ecollections or interfaces would normally sort first. 

TIP: You can combine Interfaces and Electronic Collections in your lists. For example, you might choose to include the JSTOR Interface fairly low on your Top services list, but place JSTOR Current Scholarship Program Complete above that, so that current content appears first in a menu.

TIP: You may wish to construct a very robust Top services table. Certain ecollections commonly managed in the NZ (such as the Biodiversity Heritage Library) appear near the beginning of the alphabet, but you may not want them to show near the top of a menu. If it is only in the NZ, then you would not be able to add it to your Services to be placed last. However, if you specify the order for all of your important publisher and aggregator interfaces, then the Biodiversity Heritage Library would only appear after more desirable collections. Or the publisher or aggregator can be added as a vendor. Then it can be placed in the 'Services to be placed last".

Image

ER staff may need to consult with Systems, Fulfillment as well as Discovery to set up and maintain the processes described in this best practice document.  

The openURL, proxy, and Discovery Interface Display Logic are driving forces behind display and access of electronic resources.  It is essential to have recommendations and best practices that allow us to customize and maximize the system for the benefit of staff and library users.

OpenURL

• Alma's UResolver complies with 0.1 and 1.0 OpenURL (Sept 2016).  The goal of the Alma Link Resolver is to provide patrons access to electronic resources that they have identified using OpenURL-compliant discovery tools such as Google Scholar, PubMed, Primo, etc.
• As a link resolver, Alma provides services for searches performed in sources other than Alma. Alma’s link resolver uses the Services Page view  This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.(which is defined in Primo) in order to display these services.
• The Link Resolver Base URL consists of the following parameters:  https://<Primo_domain>/openurl/<Alma_institution_code>/<view_code>?   This same URL is also available in Alma by navigating to General Config menu > General Config > Other settings > Primo service page url.
• The Alma resolver augmentation function is a component of the Alma Link Resolver process that enhances OpenURL metadata with DOI, OAI, and PubMed information.  We recommend that you implement this, a one time only task.  Look under General Configuration > Integration Profiles > Add Integration Profile.  Note:  Ask Jessica at CO for CrossRef details.
• Alma supports the ability to check the validity of the full-text URL before presenting it to the end user through the View It services menu. This functionality is only available for EBSCOhost – The EBSCO Link Resolver Plugin.  In an NZ environment, the Link Resolver Plugin integration profile must be created for the network institution and for all the member institutions.  We recommend that you agree to let Jessica implement this plugin for you.
• If you need to provide an openURL when submitting support cases, this Ex Libris document (How to Extract OpenURL This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.) explains how to extract an openURL from Primo, Alma and Google Scholar.

Proxy

• Proxy is configured in Alma on the General Configuration page (Administration > General Configuration > Configuration Menu), click Integration Profiles under External Systems.
• Most institutions use a single proxy server, in which case one proxy profile should be defined. If an institution uses several proxy servers, a proxy profile should be defined for each proxy server.
• This chart is helpful in understanding the effect of proxy enabled at the collection, service and portfolio levels.  Portfolios inherit the proxy-enabled setting from the service-level, proxy-enabled setting to which they are attached. As a result, you do not need to set a portfolio-level proxy-enabled setting unless you want it to be something different from the service-level setting.
• Which proxy setting is best for you?  We recommend:  Selective – This proxy is used for resources where EnableProxy=Yes and this proxy is selected (this is equivalent to selecting Always for a non-default proxy).  This option takes into account that most of us have open access collections and thus, will not apply the proxy.

Discovery Interface Display Logic

 In Alma, most electronic resources configuration options having to do with display in Primo are found in the Fulfillment Configuration Menu > Discovery Interface Display Logic (image of menu below).   Most options/features/services/labels you see in the Primo View It and Get It windows are determined by how you configure and order the items you see in the menu below.

General Electronic Services

Some things to know:

• GES redirects the user to an external source whereas Display Logic determines what to show/hide in Primo.
• To configure these tables requires System Administrator or Fulfillment Administrator roles.
• Note:  View It is limited to 25 resources (services and databases). 

GES examples

1.  Look it up in Amazon (Note:  Consortial agreement to  turn off the Amazon GES in Primo Back Office)
2. Ask a Librarian
3. ProQuest Dissertations (should already be implemented)
4. ERIC
5. Search Google Scholar
    

You might choose to have Ask a Librarian for the Get It window and a separate GES Report a Problem that only displays for electronic resources (the View It window). The KB has some documentation about creating a web based form (How to create a "Report a Problem" link to be included in the "Get It" or "View It" menus, including the OpenURL? This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.) but we found this  Developer Network Tech Blog This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. by our own Ian Chan (CSU San Marcos) about creating a UResolver form to be really helpful.  Note that Ian’s form includes some information reflective of their local situation, where it sends an email to their ticketing system; so other campuses may not need all of that information.   SJSU and CSUSB for instance have the form emailed to the appropriate staff.  You can see CSUSB’s adaptation in action on any View It menu, where it is labeled as “Report a problem with this link.” Here is an example from SJSU This link will take you to an external website in a new tab..

See Adding a General Electronic Service for more information.

Another GES you may want to set up is Search Google Scholar.  Basically, it takes the article title and throws it into Google Scholar; this is handy for locating articles that may be available free via Institutional Repositories or are otherwise open access.  You'll need this URL to add This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. to the URL template in your GES.  
 

Display Logic

Display Logic Rules examples:
 

1.  ILLIAD or Resource Partner Sharing Request - when to hide or not show
2. Hid a particular electronic collection if full text available in another electronic collection
3. Get It Now
4. Hide Purchase link in Primo
5. Hide service Digitization
6. Hide a service for certain user groups.
    

Some things to know:

An institution cannot define display logic rules based on shared collections in the NZ. [An enhancement was submitted by Jessica at the Chancellor Office; Sept 2016; see ERM known issues.  FYI, rules that are enabled at the campus level (based on IP ranges) override all electronic display logic rules enabled at the institution level.  Probably not applicable to CSU.  Patron purchase requests is a service exposed from Alma to Primo. This service is initially hidden from users by default with the rule Hide Service Purchase Request.

A Display Logic Rule may have unintended consequences.  Best Practice in this order:

 

• To configure a rule, please follow examples available from documentation listed below, such as, Discovery Interface Display Logic This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. or ask for help using the ULMS TS listserv
• Test one rule at a time
• Test in sandbox before implementing a rule
• Questions?  Submit to ERM in Slack or ULMS ERM listserv
• Questions?  Use the Alma listserv
• Open SalesForce case

Display Logic Labels

The Discovery Interface Labels Code Table page (Fulfillment > Fulfillment Configuration > Configuration Menu > Discovery Interface Display Logic > Labels) contains predefined labels that appear on the Get It and View It tabs in Primo. You cannot add or remove these labels, but you can edit the label’s text to suit your requirements.  You may also change the font size and color as well as apply html code.  Here is an example of the table in which one of the labels has been modified.  The text was changed from the default "Not Loanable" to "Library Use Only". 

Here is what displays in Primo:

Integration Profile 

Integration profiles list page can be found:  Configuration Menu > General > External Systems > Integration Profiles, click Add Integration Profile.

Add EBSCO API Link Resolver:

1. Select Link Resolver Plugin from the Integration Type drop-down list.
2. Select EBSCO from the Vendor drop-down list.
3. Select Active.

4. Enter the API User ID provided to you by EBSCO. The API User ID is an EBSCO authentication string that is customer specific and consists of three parts, separated by periods, custid.groupid.profileid where:

   • custid is the EBSCO admin customer id
   • groupid is the Group ID in EBSCOhost where the database resides
   • profileid is the Profile ID in EBSCOhost where the database resides

   For example: s123456.main.eit. The structure of this authentication string is identical to the target Information for Z39.50 Connections.

   Contact your EBSCO representative if you do not already have this information.

5. See Documentation for more set up configurations needed in the e-collections after the Integration Profile is setup.
6. List of EBSCO e-collections This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. that do not use the API Link Resolver.

Licenses

Alma allows you to display an online resource's license information in Primo. The terms of the license are configured in Alma, as well as the license-related labels that display in the View It tab.  In order to view licenses in Primo, you will need to enable the license first and that is found:  Fulfillment Configuration Menu -> Discovery Interface Display Logic →Other Setting.  You may also change the labels and specify which license terms to display.  To set this up, please refer to Displaying License Information This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. document.  It also includes a helpful 5 minute video This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.

Related Records

Alma allows you to configure the display of records that are related (e.g., title changes) to electronic records by using the Related Record Services Configuration page.  Related Records is similar to Related Objects in SFX.  It displays in the Primo View It tab.

Options available: 

1. Enable Related Records services as part of original services
2. Enable Related Records services separately from original record services in Primo
3. Do not enable

We recommend #2 because it separates the two services thus avoiding potential problems and because it is visually easier to view in the window.
Direct Linking

Direct Linking says:  if only one fulltext service available, then take the user directly to the fulltext.  Specific instructions to enable this function are available in the Discovery Interface Display Logic This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. document.  Here is one forum thread arguing against using direct linking  This link will take you to an external website in a new tab..  Alma Product Management plans to implement improvements for when direct linking does not work (Sept 2016).  We recommend that this service is at the discretion of each campus.

Alma attempts to enrich the incoming URL using DOI. If this does not succeed, Alma attempts to enrich the incoming URL using the PMID. Similar to how CrossRef works. 

Note that if you do not include a PubMed API key, Alma continues to augment using the existing syntax; but there is no guarantee regarding how long PubMed will remain backward compatible.

Instructions

1. Login or Register with PubMed: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/account/ This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.

2. To create a key, go to the Settings which is located under your account name in the top right hand corner of the page.

    

3. Go to the API Key Management and click on Create an API key.

4. Copy the key and login into Alma

5. Go to: Configuration Menu > General > External Systems > Integration Profiles), select Add Integration Profile This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.

7. Go to Augmentation

8. Go to the Actions tab after clicking on the Edit link.

9. Scroll down to the PubMed Definitions and paste in the API Key from PubMed.

10. Save changes

• See this article in PubMed This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. about changes to linking on their end.

• PubMed Utilities Help This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.

Alma has the ability to autoload the holdings for SpringerLink journals and ebooks from Springer using a KBART file to update the holdings in Alma.  There are e-collections for both the SpringerLink Journals and E-books in the CZ. These e-collections must be used with the Integration Profile for Upload Electronic Holdings This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. configuration. 

Instructions

Create a step-by-step guide:

1. Go to Springer and read the section, Automated KBART Holdings Feeds This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.

2. Login to the Springer Admin (link on the Springer KBART page: https://librarian.springernature.com/organizations/content This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.)

3. You are on the "Your content" page and copy the token for Alma.

4. Then go into Alma and activate the appropriate Springer AutoHoldings collection

5. Do not activate the portfolios when activating the e-collection

6. Then go to Configuration > General > Integration Profiles

7. Add Integration Profile

8. Choose Integration Type > Upload Electronic Holdings

9. Choose Springer under Provider

10. Choose when to schedule the job and Save the profile

11. During the initial set up of the Integration Profile, run the job before saving all changes to make sure everything is working

12. After the job is finished, check the e-collection to see if all of the titles have been activated

Background: As more subscriptions are canceled, more information has been provided by SDLC about perpetual collections and what libraries can access after cancelation.   Coverage is not the same between the libraries because of when they added the collection and when it was canceled.  The NZ Wiley collections will be discontinued at the end of January 2025 and all libraries will need to set up the Wiley Autoholdings.  Please see below for instructions.

From Kirstie Genzel:

Because of the differences in coverage for Wiley, which has not been a part of the centralized negotiated collection since 2014, the Wiley NZ collections will be removed.  It is recommended to configure the Wiley AutoHoldings collections in the IZ.

Below are instructions for configuring the Wiley Integration Profile:

Configuring Wiley Autoholdings collections in the IZ: (Instructions provided by Nikki DeMoville)

• Autoholdings is quite easy to set up This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.
  • You need to have administrator access to Wiley Online Library (same as for setting up access, usage stats, etc.)
  • Alma Administrator role to set up the integration profile
  • Alma user role/permission to monitor Repository jobs
• Autoholdings is very useful for making sure that your journal holdings are up to date—users will see accurate portfolio information or links to ILL options
  • The downside of this is if Wiley decides to change your access, your portfolio coverage will reflect the changes, even if they are in error
  • You need to monitor the job and occasionally handle multi-matches or errors
• Autoholdings is useful for managing EBA programs
• Autoholdings often results in a LOT of record changes and churn
  • If you add local fields to CZ records, expect these to get overwritten frequently as records are deleted and reactivated
• If you have portfolio or bibliographic metadata or local fields you need to preserve, or want to distinguish purchased titles from EBA titles, I recommend creating a local collection for these portfolios.  You can name it Wiley Perpetual or whatever and add a Display Logic Rule so that only your local collection displays in Primo.  Autoholdings will continue to update these titles in the main collection, so you'll get full CDI indexing for these titles.

Description of Advanced Alma Queries and examples of advanced search queries in the NZ to locate shared electronic collections.  These searches can be adapted for IZ Repository Searches.

Step-by-step guide

Add the steps involved: 

1. Must use Electronic Collection or Electronic Portfolio to locate e-collections in Alma, not All Titles, Electronic Titles or Collection.

2. In the NZ, can use the Facets and Advanced Search to narrow down the search results. 

   1. Advanced Search for NZ e-collections for a specific library: Electronic Collection: Available for > Equals > LIBRARY_NAME

3. Click on Facets section and go to the Available for in either the Electronic Collection or Portfolio search results

4. Locate Electronic Collection

   1. Search by Electronic Collection > Electronic Collection Name > Enter in name of e-collection

      1. If searching for all of the EBSCO resources, enter in EBSCO or EBSCOhost

      2. Use Electronic Collection > Keyword search to locate a specific collection with or without the vendor name

5. NZ Electronic Collections

   1. Search by Electronic Collection and Electronic Collection Name and then click Advanced Search and

   2. Choose Electronic Collection: Collection Available For in Electronic Collection section > equals > Choose Campus from dropdown list

      1. This will list the e-collections and databases shared by your library

      2. If you want to weed out the OA e-collections to look at only subscribed collections first, add a condition to the Advanced search the Electronic Collection search: Internal Description > Not Contains Keywords > Open Access or OA

      3. If you want to weed out the Database-only e-collections (no portfolios), choose Electronic Collection Type > Not Equals > Database

6. Opt-in Electronic Collections in the NZ for a specific library

   1. Search by Electronic Collection and Electronic Collection Name and the click on the Advanced Search

   2. Choose Electronic Collection: Internal Description > Contains Keywords > "Opt-in"

   3. Add condition, Electronic Collection: Collection Available For in Electronic Collection section > equals > Choose Campus from dropdown list

      1. Both of these searches together will list the Opt-in collections for a specific library.

   4. If your library upgraded an ECC collection, i.e. EBSCO ACADEMIC ULTIMATE, it is notated as an Opt-in in the NZ but also as an "UPGRADE" in the NZ. 

7. ECC Electronic Collections in the NZ for a specific library

   1. Search by Electronic Collection and Electronic Collection Name and the click on the Advanced Search

   2. Choose Electronic Collection: Internal Description > Contains Keywords > "ECC"

   3. Add condition, Electronic Collection: Collection Available For in Electronic Collection section > equals > Choose Campus from dropdown list

      1. Both of these together will list the ECC e-collections for a specific library.

   4. If your library upgraded an ECC collection, i.e. EBSCO ACADEMIC ULTIMATE, it is notated as an Opt-in in the NZ but also as an "UPGRADE" in the NZ. 

8. Open Access Electronic Collections in the NZ

   1. Search by Electronic Collection and Electronic Collection Name and the click on the Advanced Search

   2. Choose Electronic Collection: Internal Description > Contains Keywords > "Open Access" or "OA"

9. IZ Full Text e-collections

   1. Search for a list of full text e-collections in the IZ.  The Advanced search conditions will narrow down the results to the available full text e-collections.

      1. Choose Electronic Collection > Electronic Collection in the IZ and then choose Advanced search 

      2. Locate Electronic Collection: Service Type > equals > Full Text and the second condition is Availability > equals > Available

         1. This will weed out collections that may be in the IZ but may not be activated

         2. Use Availability > equals > Not Available to locate e-collections that are in the IZ but not active for search in Primo

10. Electronic portfolio search

    1. Choose Electronic Portfolio > Choose search option from dropdown list > enter in search term

       1. In the NZ can narrow down results to specific library by choosing the library name under Facets

11. Inactivate Portfolios search

    1. Choose Electronic Collection > Electronic Collection Name > Leave search box empty

    2. Click on Advanced Search

    3. Choose Electronic Portfolio > Equals > Not Available

    4. A list of collections will appear in the search results

    5. Go to the Edit Service > Portfolios tab > Status = Unavailable

       1. Either reactivate the portfolio, remove it, or link it to a CZ bib record

12. BrowZine Query

    1. Browzine Set Query needed for Browzine.  *Can also be used for a general query of what a library is sharing for e-collections and e-portfolios in the NZ.

    2. Set Type Logical Where (Material Type equals “Journal” AND Collection available for equals “LIBRARY_NAME” AND Availability (Electronic Portfolio) equals “Available” AND Available for equals “LIBRARY_NAME”

    3. *BOTH E-collection availability and E-portfolio availability are needed in the query to account for portfolio-level sharing, not just e-collection-level sharing.  Some libraries share portfolios within an e-collection, for example, Oxford University Press. There are several libraries that have access to five portfolios in the subscription that other libraries do not subscribe to.

13. Provider Subscription Tool (My Electronic Resources by Provider)

    1. This tool This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. can help by creating a list of resources available by provider to determine if all of the available e-collections are active.  The Provider ID in the documentation is referring to the linking parameter for the e-collection. It is not the ID used in the vendor record or license.

14. Use NZ CDI login to view internal notes for e-collections.

    1. The CDI login for the Network Zone allows users to view the internal notes for the collections.  Users can see when the CDI settings were last updated. Also, users can check if the collection is OA, ECC, or Opt-in.

Searching for e-collections with a local public name in the NZ

Currently in the NZ, if I’ve updated the Public Name of an e-collection in the NZ, that name does not appear in a search from the local Alma search of the NZ tab.  For example, the CZ name for EBSCO e-books is EBSCOhost Ebooks. I have local public name of NetLibrary e-Books (EBSCO e-books) because our NetLibrary e-books were migrated to EBSCO e-books several years ago.  You can search the NZ for NetLibrary and the e-collection will appear in the search results but you will not see the local name, just the CZ name, EBSCOhost Ebooks. I’ve had a case open for about a year asking to display the local public name.  Unfortunately, Ex Libris does not have plans to change the current display. The Inventory tab of the NZ license does display both names if you are not sure which e-collection is being used in the NZ.

Note from Ex Libris about searching Alma NZ:

Instructions for the IZ:

Ask the NZ ERM Manager to copy NZ license templates to the IZ. 

Once the templates has been copied to the IZ, create a template from the NZ license. This template can be used to create licenses for the same vendor.

Go to the Licenses: Acquisitions -> Acquisition Infrastructure -> Licenses

• Locate templates, usually have a green check mark next to the license name.

• Go to More Options and click on View. 

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• Then choose Save as a Template.

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• This template can now be used to create licenses for the same vendor.

  • The license terms will copy over from the NZ license and can be edited.

• When adding a new license, choose Load from Template

• Pick the template created from the NZ shared license

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After saving the new license, go back into the new license and check the

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Background 

This best practice document applies to resources purchased and managed by individual campuses. Once electronic resources are activated within Alma, they need to be updated from time to time to reflect changes to access details and dates of availability. There is a cooperative element to this process due to the availability of information in the Community Zone and the likelihood of changes to affect multiple CSU campuses. However, centrally acquired resources will be managed and updated centrally, so individual libraries will generally only be editing collection and portfolio level information that applies to their own library's IZ.

Best practice recommendations

Updating date coverage for portfolio

When your dates of access don’t match the global statement, edit the portfolio’s Coverage Information tab and “Add Date Information,” leaving “Until” fields blank if access continues through the present.

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 When reviewing the Portfolio Coverage Updates in the Community Zone Updates Task List, if you notice the global date information has been updated to match your local information, you may wish to delete your localized version in favor the of the community zone information to make sure you continue to receive future updates. This is especially relevant for titles from aggregator packages, add-on titles in a Big Deal, and other portfolios likely to experience frequent changes in coverage information.
Activating new portfolio in selective title package e-collection

When selecting a small number of individual journals from a provider, you will likely activate these titles manually and individually.

If you’ve already activated the relevant electronic collection, that will be indicated with an icon in the community zone. You can search or browse within the portfolio list to locate the portfolio you need. Click “activate.” If any customization is needed, click the institution icon that now appears next to the portfolio in question, then click edit.

Alternatively, you can activate CZ portfolios from the collection service level in your IZ. When editing the full text service, enter the Portfolios tab and select Add Portfolios from Community.

If you've selected a large number of titles from the same provider, but your new holdings don't correspond exactly to any given collection, you'll likely want to use the Load Portfolios option in the Portfolios tab of the Full Text service.

Deactivating portfolio from e-collection

Search for the portfolio in your IZ. You can start your search at the portfolio level or go through the relevant collection first. Once you find it, you just hit “deactivate.”

If you deactivate a portfolio for an electronic resource, and that portfolio had been the only inventory associated with the bibliographic record for that resource, the record will no longer appear in Primo.

Updating the links, jkeys, bkeys, URLs, etc. in the parse parameters

Updating this information for article level linking can be quite tricky, as those parsers tend to be fairly complex. In those cases, it’s probably best to submit a case instead. However, updating journal or book level linking is relatively straightforward.

When editing a portfolio, enter the “Linking Information” tab. If you’re entering a journal level URL, you will probably need to use the Bulk::BULK parser, that is likely already selected. To update the link, enter a new parameter in the Parser Parameters (override) field with the syntax jkey=http://www.website.org This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.

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 Even with some vendor-specific parsers, an update to the parser parameter may be fairly straightforward. For example, for an ABC-CLIO ebook portfolio using the ABC::ABC parser, the parameter is just the ISBN. If you notice a typo in the ISBN, you might just correct it using the Parser Parameters (override) field and the following syntax: bkey=9781440829918

Adding notes to electronic collections, services, or portfolios

It's possible to add various types of notes at the collection, service, and portfolio level. At each level, there is a Public Note, an Authentication Note, an Internal Description, and a Note. Despite sticking with the same naming conventions, there are important functional differences for these notes at each level. For example, there are plans to include the Authentication Note in analytics at the collection and portfolio level, but not at the service level. Similarly, the Note at the portfolio label has its own search index in Alma, while that is not true for the Note at the collection or service level. See the table below to see the functional implications for using each type of note. Developing a systematic practice is important. For example, if entering notes about perpetual access, you should always use the same note field for that information.

Editing Alma Collection Notes.xlsx This link will open a Excel file.This link will open a Excel file.This link will open a Excel file.

(XLSX, 9.65 KB)

Instructions for creating licenses, updating license terms of use, and adding the RapidILL Lending Note to collections.

How to reconcile an electronic collection in Alma based on a list of available titles provided by the vendor/access provider

Scenario: There is an electronic collection in Alma. The vendor/access provider removed access to an unknown number of titles. You have a list of titles available for your library. 

Goal: Remove bibliographic records and portfolios in Alma for titles we no longer have access to.

Step-by-step guide

This How to Article was written by Marcus Jun, August 2018 in response to managing the dynamic JSTOR DDA collection

Reconciling an electronic collection in Alma based on a title list provided by the vendor.docx This link will open a Word document.This link will open a Word document.This link will open a Word document.

(DOCX, 56.94 KB)

HTML tags can be used to enhance electronic resources, such as, a public note in a portfolio or electronic collection.  View the TS Open Forum presentation This link will take you to an external website in a new tab..  Chat talked about using HTML for display labels, portfolio loader option for batch jobs. 

HTML Tags.docx This link will open a Word document.This link will open a Word document.This link will open a Word document.

(DOCX, 561.31 KB)

CRITERIA FOR California State University (CSU)  ELECTRONIC INFORMATION RESOURCES CORE COLLECTION (ECC)
(Revised 2021/2022 - November 15, 2022) 
 
    I. INTRODUCTION AND RATIONALE 
The Electronic Core Collection (ECC) is a collection of system-wide supported electronic resources that are essential to the academic mission of the CSUs.  These resources support the common "Core" of CSU curricula, including baccalaureate and master's programs that are offered by at least two-thirds of the CSU campuses in the general categories of Arts and Humanities; Life and Physical Sciences; Social Sciences; and Professional Programs, or two-thirds of the CSU campuses have opted-in to an SDLC-negotiated resource.  Electronic resources designated as "Core" support broad, interdisciplinary research and teaching, high-enrollment programs, and general education requirements.  
This document's purpose is to help evaluate resources for inclusion in the ECC. 
The creation of the ECC is based on the following rationale and principles:
* Equitable access.
The ECC ensures that all CSU students, faculty, and staff can access a basic and indispensable group of electronic information resources for research, study, and teaching across a number of Core disciplines. This principle does not preclude any particular campus from offering more than these basic resources as their local conditions permit. 
* Support for core curricular programs.
Every student enrolled in and faculty member teaching a core curricular program of the CSU should reasonably expect an adequate level of research/instructional support for that program. Programs qualifying as "Core" under the criteria below should receive system-wide support in the provision of electronic information resources.
* Cost efficiency.
The ECC enhances the ability of the CSU to leverage cost-efficient access to electronic resources. Leveraging costs includes two factors: 1) Using the combined bargaining power of all CSU campuses to secure the best prices from database vendors, and 2) Presenting a united front when approaching the CSU administration to request centralized funding for ECC resources.

II. CRITERIA FOR INCLUSION IN THE ELECTRONIC CORE COLLECTION (ECC)
The primary criteria for the inclusion of resources in the ECC are: 
  * Supports the CSU Core Curricula
  * Sufficient interest among campuses  
  * Affordability for all campuses
  * Alignment to campus curricula and meets the curricular needs of all campuses
  * Benefits the greatest number of users across the campuses

III. FUNDING CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE CSU ELECTRONIC CORE COLLECTION
To assure system-wide access, the CSU ECC will receive funding from the Chancellor's Office. The rationale for funding is outlined in Section I. Sufficient and stable funding to support the ECC is considered a priority by the libraries of the CSU.
In the event of insufficient central funds as reported by SDLC after the budget is approved by the State and Chancellor's Office, the CSU libraries will agree to adjust the scope of the Core.  Members of SRDC and other Collection Development library personnel will be informed of the proposed removal of resources.  Should no agreement be reached, the resource will be changed to an opt-in option.  
In addition, COLD shall advocate for additional funding on an annual basis.  The CSU libraries and COLD recognize that efficiencies can be realized through a greater number of statewide deals, but the ECC must be funded to withstand inflation and its base allocation must grow at the same rate as the rate of inflation, if not more, in order to remain sustainable.

APPENDIX: CSU CORE CURRICULA
Search Degrees at the CSU:
https://www2.calstate.edu/attend/degrees-certificates-credentials/Pages/search-degrees.aspx

Academic Master Plans:
https://www2.calstate.edu/csu-system/administration/academic-and-student-affairs/academic-programs-innovations-and-faculty-development/program-development/Pages/academic-master-plan.aspx
 

Background 

The purpose of this document is to provide an overarching framework for the CSU and its member libraries as they engage in both individual and consortia collection development decision-making. While each member library tailors its own collection development and access strategies to best meet local institutional needs, the document complements local policies and practices based on the recognition of the value of the CSU shared collections and work.

Electronic Core Collection (ECC)

The Electronic Core Collection (ECC) is a portfolio of core library educational e-resources acquired by Systemwide Digital Library Content (SDLC) on behalf of all CSU campuses and is funded by the Chancellor’s Office. Campuses do not contribute any of their own funds to the purchase of ECC e-resources. The e-resources contained in the ECC are selected by Shared Resources & Digital Content (SRDC) committee and approved by Council of Library Directors (COLD) in accordance with the following criteria:

• Supports CSU Core Curriculum (defined as those degrees or programs offered by at least 2/3 of the CSU campuses)
• Sufficient interest among campuses
• Balance of content and value between disciplines
• Benefits the greatest number of users
• Sufficient ECC funds

Opt-in

Opt-in e-resources are also acquired by SDLC on behalf of campuses. However, the Chancellor's Office does NOT pay for opt-ins using CO funds. Each campus chooses whether to “opt-in” to the available subscriptions and pay using their own funding. This collaborative acquisition of library resources allows the CSU system of libraries to leverage their buying power and minimize their administrative expenses. 

Additional ECC and Opt-in Documentation

• ECC Criteria This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.
• ECC and Opt-in evaluation and recommendation procedures This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.

Consortia Manager

The CSU is using Consortia Manager This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. to manage various collection development and acquisitions activities for all Shared E-Resources (ECC and Opt-In).

License terms for all the Agreements/Contracts managed through SDLC will be available to view and download from Consortia Manager!

CM Training Resources:

Link to Consortia Manager Help Section This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.

All training materials, including general manuals, additional CSU help articles, links to training videos, etc. will be posted to the Help Section within Consortia Manager.

Users must login This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. to Consortia Manager to gain access. (If you need an account, please check with your SRDC Member at your campus).

Selection and Acquisitions Process for Shared E-Resources

Electronic Core Collection (ECC)

• The SRDC committee is responsible for the review, evaluation, and recommendation of the content to be included in the ECC.
• The recommendation, once approved by COLD, is then negotiated, acquired, and paid for by SDLC on behalf of all 23 campuses.
• SDLC notifies the Electronic Resources Manager of new ECC e-resource acquisitions or cancellations.
• The Electronic Resources Manager activates/deactivates the corresponding e-resource collection in the Alma NZ for campuses.
• Note: ECC e-resources are regularly reviewed by the SRDC Collection Analytics committee to assist SRDC, SDLC, and COLD with decision-making. 

Opt-Ins

• Selection of new Opt-in e-resources for SDLC consideration may be initiated by SRDC Members through the ECC/Opt-In Vendor Liaisons (EVL) committee using their SDLC E-Resource Recommendation for EVL Form This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.. Please consult with your the SRDC Member for your campus if there is a resource you would like to put forward as a new opt-in!
• SDLC starts the renewal process with vendors at least 3 months before a contract/license expires. This process involves negotiating pricing, content, license terms, etc. with the vendors.
• Once available, pricing and subscription information is sent out to the campuses via Consortia Manager This link will take you to an external website in a new tab..
• Campuses interested in acquiring or renewing the e-resource will confirm their orders with SDLC via Consortia Manager. Campuses are usually given 2-3 weeks to confirm their orders.
• SDLC notifies the Electronic Resources Manager of new Opt-in e-resource acquisitions or cancellations.
• The Electronic Resources Manager activates/deactivates the corresponding e-resource collection in the Alma NZ for relevant campuses.
• The Chancellor’s Office bills (via IFT) the campuses for their portion of the Opt-in e-resource costs.

E-book providers use different language to describe their user limits (multiple user access, unlimited user access, 3 concurrent users, etc). This language was standardized across the different e-book collections in the Network Zone (NZ) to facilitate a better user experience. These public notes appear in the view it section in Primo as a Public Note. The standardized language used for the different access models are described below. 

Unlimited licenses with DRM (e.g., ProQuest Ebooks Central Academic Complete Collection, ACLS Humanities e-book)

This note is at the e-collection level in the Public Note field under the Notes tab. Notes at the e-collection level filter to all the portfolios within that collection.

Previous Public Note:

Revised Public Note:

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Unlimited licenses DRM-Free (e.g., JSTOR DDA, O’Reilly Safari E-books)

This note is at the e-collection level in the Public Note field under the Notes tab. Notes at the e-collection level filter to all the portfolios within that collection.

Previous Public Note:

Revised Public Note:

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Limited User Access (e.g. 3 users / 1 user licenses, NetLibrary/EBSCO e-books, ProQuest Ebook DDA Perpetual,)

This note is added to the e-collection at the portfolio-level. The note will need to be updated using the Portfolio Loader This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.. Export the portfolios from the e-collection and update the public note to standardize the user limit public note and then upload the edited file. EBSCO will send a spreadsheet with user limits for EBSCO E-books.

Previous Public Note:

Revised Public Note:

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E-book Purchases from Gobi:

This is the criteria used to activate a new Open Access electronic collection in the NZ.  When Ex Libris adds a new Open Access or Free electronic collection to the CZ, these are the criteria used to activate the new e-collection.                                                  

Step-by-step guide

Add the steps involved:

1. Check to see if the OA e-collection is predatory on Beall's List This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.. 

   1. Definition of Predatory Journals. This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.

2. Are the journals or e-books available from another e-collection?

   1. If there is a Wiley OA e-collection activated and a new e-collection is added, run an overlap comparison This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. to determine if a second OA e-collection is necessary

   2. If the new OA e-collection added is replacing a previous OA e-collection from the same vendor, activate the new OA e-collection and delete the older OA e-collection

3. Check if the content is truly full text not just abstracts or reviews or articles

4. Check the vendor's site for information about their OA titles

   1. Check if the articles are truly open access

   2. Doesn't require a institutional membership or a membership fee to gain access

5. Check if the OA resource requires a login

   1. Does the site require the user to login to gain access

      1. If user has to create an account on the site, do not activate this resource

6. If the OA collection contains content in a language other than English, check if the PDFs are translated to English

   1. Notify libraries the new OA contains content in another language and state what language the content is published

7. Libraries decide if the content is appropriate for their collection development purposes

   1. Notify NZ admin to set up the collection to be shared for the library

8. If the OA e-collection is activated

   1. Add internal description note so collection can be found in an Advanced Search 

      1. "This is an Open Access OA resource"

         1. Can create a query of Open Access resources in the NZ.  The default "Equals Free" query does not always return all OA e-collections in Alma

   2. Add Public Note

      1. "May need to re-submit the search in the journal or e-book.  Freely-available online resource is not maintained by the library.  Access may be inconsistent"

      2. Add "LocalOnly" to the Internal Description for the RapidILL lending note so that OA items do not trigger an ILL request

   3. The Proxy settings must be set to NO in each library's group setting

      1. Exception, if the OA is available because of an institutional subscription, like ProQuest, the proxy will need to be set to "yes" for each library

   4. Set up CDI settings and add note to Internal Description the date CDI was set up and notate any changes to CDI settings in the Internal Description

   5. Update collections that have odd naming convention

      1. Bacon American Association For The Advancement Of Science Global Openaccess $AAAS_GLOBAL_OPENACCESS

         1. Change to American Association for the Advancement of Science Open Access

• Related article This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.

Workaround for comparing an e-collection in the NZ to an e-collection in the CZ.  This will allow libraries to compare e-collections that are active in NZ to e-collections either in the CZ or the IZ.  The tool was reconfigured and works differently then when we went live on Alma.  There are two different configurations and procedures for the Network and for the Institution Zone.

Ex Libris has made a note that if the library is comparing two collections to determine and overlap and unique titles, begin with the larger of the two collections as the Source collection, to get an accurate result.

Steps:

• Start Overlap by going to Resources > Advanced Tools > Overlap and Collection Analysis and then click on New Analysis to start new comparison.

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• Choose the collection as the source, the collection being evaluated and compared to one other collection or multiple collections.

  • Click on Choose the Collection (source)

  • Locate the collection searching Electronic Collections

• To see which titles are unique and which titles have overlap between the two collections, the source collection needs to be the bigger of the two collections.  

• In the NZ, collections can be compared in the NZ or compared against collections in the CZ.  The NZ collections cannot be compared to IZ collections from the IZ.

• The tool in the IZ does allow for a comparison against collections in the NZ

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• Locate the collection and then click on Select.

• In the NZ, it will state the collection is for the IZ.  The NZ is known as an institution zone when in the NZ admin.

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• Example of the Source collection.

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• Click on Choose Target collection and locate target collection.

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• Check the box next to the Target collection.

  • More than one collection can be selected.

• Click on Done once collection or collections have been selected.

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• Click on Generate to create a new analysis report.

• Click on the View report button once the analysis is complete.

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• Quick look at the analysis between the two collections.  

• The reports can be downloaded.

• There are 376 titles in Oxford University Press Full collection.

• There are 176 titles in Oxford University Press Current collection.

• The reports show where the overlap is between the collection.

• There is also a report of the unique titles where this is no overlap.

  • In this example, there are 202 titles in the OUP Full collection that do not appear in the OUP Current collection.

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More information This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. about Overlap Analysis and Comparison tool.

IZ Overlap Analysis resources:

• YouTube training webinar recording This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.

• IZ/NZ analysis This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. - starts about half way down the ExL article

Managing the Free or Miscellaneous Collections in the NZ 

There is a list of 15 collections where the content is managed by the community, instead of Ex Libris Content. The recommendation is for the community to update the linking, coverage, deletion, or addition of the problematic portfolio in the CZ. Since many of these collections are in the NZ, they will need to be updated by the NZ ERM admin, Jessica Hartwigsen (jhartwigsen@calstate.edu).

• The library can update the CZ portfolio and does not need to contact Ex Libris Support when they update the portfolio.

• Please email the NZ ERM admin to update the NZ collections, if the collection is available in the Network Zone.

Note from Ex Libris Support:

We are excited to update you with a new feature regarding "Miscellaneous" collections. "Miscellaneous" collections are now managed by the community, and customers are able to edit the contents in the collections below. Please note that Content Operations will no longer be handling such cases when there are fewer than 15 changes to be made.
Please feel free to open a case with Alma Support if you would like instructions on how to edit the collections.

Knowledge article This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.

These collections include:

Free E- Journals – collection ID 61110976638852340
Miscellaneous Ejournals – collection ID 61111016833201000
Miscellaneous Free eBooks – collection ID 611000000000001091
Miscellaneous eBooks – collection ID 611000000000001090
U.S. Government Documents – collection ID 613170000000000069
Freely Accessible Business Journals – collection ID 615280000000001780
Freely Accessible General Interest Journals – collection ID 615280000000001781
Freely Accessible Arts & Humanities Journals – collection ID 615280000000001779
Freely Accessible Social Science Journals – collection ID 615280000000001783
Freely Accessible Science Journals – collection ID 615280000000001782
Freely Accessible Medical Journals – collection ID 614910000000003147
http://NewspaperARCHIVE.com This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. – Collection ID: 613780000000001293
Universal Library - Collection ID: 613790000000001215

Guidelines for opening a case with EBSCO. 

When reaching out to EBSCO Support This link will take you to an external website in a new tab., it is helpful if you provide the following information. (If you don’t have an EBSCO account yet, scroll to the bottom of this page for instructions)

Steps taken that results in the error or issue including:

• What database are you searching?

• Where you started the search (EBSCO database link, EBSCO discovery service or other vendor discovery, etc.)? 

• What search was performed?

• What record was trying to be accessed (title of the article/publication name and provide AN number from detailed display, if possible)?

• If possible, provide test credentials so that we can test the issue as a user of your library.

• Include screenshots of the error or issue is helpful as well. 

• Videos showing the steps taken are always welcome.

 This is the ideal information for a faster resolution.

After logging into EBSCO Connect, there is a Live Chat option. Support is Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET.

Click on Live Chat Button: 

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If you do not have an EBSCO account, go to EBSCO Support This link will take you to an external website in a new tab., choose Sign In, and you will have the option to ‘Request Account’. You will be prompted for your institution name (all CSU campuses are in the list, you might have to try a few different campus names to find yours), then add your name and email and an account will soon be delivered to your email. Then you can choose a password and start entering cases.

Introduction 

Electronic resources are managed very differently than physical resources in Alma. While physical items rely on item records to provide access and availability information, Electronic Portfolios are used to manage this information for electronic resources.

The IZ, NZ, and CZ also play very different roles with electronic resources compared to physical items. Electronic Collections and Portfolios will generally only reside in the NZ for centrally purchased or negotiated resources.

For resources that are purchased individually, Electronic Collections and Portfolios will reside in the IZ, even if several different CSU campuses own the resources.

Additionally, while some localization may occur, the CZ will be the source for most Electronic Collection and Portfolio information.

Best Practice for Electronic Resource Management

These documents provide best practices and procedures for selecting and activating new e-Resources in the Institution Zone (IZ) as it relates to IZ: Local Only.   These resources will continue to be locally acquired, licensed, and managed by the individual libraries.  SDLC and the Electronic Resources NZ administrator will activate, maintain, and in some cases, order e-resources that will be shared by some or all of the libraries in the NZ.  These procedures and best practices are for Network Zone - ECC and Network Zone - Opt-in resource management and acquisitions in the NZ admin instance.  Please Note:  E-Books and Media This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. will have a different policy.

These are also best practices for maintaining and updating e-resources and portfolios that are already activated in Alma. This would be for updating date thresholds, activating or removing portfolios, updating parse parameters (jkeys/bkeys/URLs) and updating linking parameters.

Often it is necessary to make local changes to linking and availability information for e-resources when the information from the community zone is either inaccurate or does not match local details. While this localization is sometimes required, always keep in mind that updates to the CZ information may come later, so be sure to look carefully at update notes when localized information is involved.

When discussing electronic resource management, it’s important to keep in mind the types acquisitions available, local IZ and NZ:

• Institution Zone: Local Only
  The local acquisition, licensing, and e-resource management by the individual libraries. Libraries will continue to manage acquisitions of their own e-collections in the IZ.  
• Network Zone: ECC (Central Only)
  The centralized acquisition, licensing, and e-resource management of the ECC e-resources in the NZ. The Chancellor's Office will manage the acquisition and payment for the e-collections included in the ECC.
• Network Zone: Opt-ins (Mixed Central & Local)
  The centralized negotiation and management of the Opt-in e-resources in the NZ and local acquisitions by libraries in the IZ. License terms and fees are negotiated by the Chancellor's office and purchasing and invoice processing is done by the individual libraries. Libraries will need to create a vendor for the Chancellor's Office in the IZ for the Opt-in e-collections. The library will use the CO as a vendor to pay for the Opt-in resource. 

Electronic Collections: The following example illustrates a single title that is offered by two vendors. (ERM)

Physical Record: The following example illustrates an ongoing serial with three issues with holdings in Periodicals. (Cataloging)

Workflow of Catalog items and ERM items:

Catalog:

• OCLC imported to NZ. Master Record is in the NZ.
• CSU-wide library catalog is in the NZ.
• Local fields, holdings and items, located in the IZ.
• NZ and IZ records linked.

ERM:

• NZ linked to the CZ for ECC/Opt-in e-collections.
• IZ linked to the CZ for local subscriptions to e-collections.
• NZ and IZ e-collections are not linked. Shared e-collections will not appear in the IZ.
  • There is an option to display subscribed ECC/Opt-it collections, residing in the NZ, to appear in the IZ.  Combined Search Results will display subscribed NZ collections in the IZ tab.

Related policies:

Provider-Neutral Records & Use of Database-level records

Instructions for logging into the Ex Libris System Status page and choosing which product can be subscribed, to receive alerts. The CSU is on the NA03 server for all subscribed products, except for CDI and RapidILL which are on the CR01 server. North American server service reports This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. 

1. Go to this page: https://status.exlibrisgroup.com/system_status This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.

2. There are TWO places to login but one of them does not work! Use this one:

3. Click on the portal button here (“Continue with Ex Libris Support Portal”) and login:

4. If it worked, you should see your name here:

5. Now you can subscribe to any of the updates you want. We are on NA03 for everything except CDI and RapidILL, which are on CR01.

b. And you can limit it to NA03 or search CDI:

6. Just click on the bell for each one and then you will start getting the updates for all of those in email. You can see that I subscribed to all those relevant in NA03 and the RapidILL and CDI CR01 updates.

7. For each one, there is the option to just view (what you would see when you came to this page under My Services, vs. view & notifications – that’s the one where you get the email.

8. Here’s what I subscribed to and what I see on My Services:

You can see the wrench and click on it to see what happened:

9. If you want to unsubscribe to any of the emails, just click on the bell icon for that product/server:

Click on the ‘trash can’ icon to remove your subscription:

And Unsubscribe at this dialog:

When you return to the list of your products/servers, you will see a bell with a line through it to indicate you are not getting that subscription.

Shared e-Resources (ECC and Opt-in) - Problem Reporting Best Practices and FAQ

Background 

Shared e-resources are negotiated, and in some cases paid for, by the Chancellor's Office Systemwide Digital Library Content (SDLC) department. E-collection and portfolio activations for shared e-resources are maintained in the Alma Network Zone by the Chancellor's Office Electronic Resources Manager. 

• The Electronic Core Collection (ECC) is a portfolio of core library educational e-resources acquired by Systemwide Digital Library Content (SDLC) with funds from the Office of the Chancellor on behalf of all CSU campuses. Campuses do not contribute any of their own funds to the purchase of ECC e-resources. The e-resources contained in the ECC are selected by Shared Resources & Digital Content (SRDC) This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. committee and approved by Council of Library Directors (COLD) This link will take you to an external website in a new tab..
• Opt-in e-resources are also negotiated and acquired by SDLC on behalf of campuses. However, the Chancellor's Office does NOT pay for opt-ins using its own funds. Each campus chooses whether to “opt-in” to the available subscriptions and pay using their own local funding. This collaborative acquisition of library resources allows the CSU system of libraries to leverage their buying power and minimize their administrative expenses. 

More information: Collection Development and Acquisitions Overview for Shared E-Resources (ECC and Opt-in) This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.

Problem Reporting Recommendations

The chart below outlines problem reporting guidelines for various types of ERM issues, particularly as they relate to Shared E-Resources, and are intended to help you get support and a resolution to the problem as quickly as possible!

When in doubt, you may also email eresourceshelp@lists.calstate.edu directly and we will help you identify the best course of action and/or will help escalate your existing case!

The eresourceshelp@lists.calstate.edu email reaches 3 people at the Chancellor’s Office, all of whom have various roles in the acquisition or management of Shared E-Resources: i) Jessica Hartwigsen, the Electronic Resources Manager (SDLS), ii) Kirstie Genzel, the Systemwide Digital Library Content (SDLC) Program Manager, and iii) Christina Hennessey, Systemwide Digital Library Services (SDLS), Director, Unified Library Management System (ULMS)

Quick Help Links

• CDI tips and tricks This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.
• Vendor Support Contacts This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.
• Overview of Collection Development and Acquisitions for Shared E-Resources (ECC and Opt-in) This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.
• EBSCO Support Case guidelines This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. (can be applied to other support cases with other vendors)
• Tips for submitting SalesForce cases to Ex Libris and ProQuest This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.
  • Working with SalesForce cases This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.
• An overview of problem reporting workflows and guidelines for handling shared e-resources (Kirstie Genzel & Jessica Hartwigsen/CO) This link will take you to an external website in a new tab., presented at the Technical Services Open Forum, March 21, 2024

FAQs

• Q:   What makes something a Shared E-Resource (ECC or Opt-in) vs. a local e-resource?
• A:   The main factor that determines whether something is considered a “shared e-resource” is how it’s ordered/paid for:
  • Electronic Core Collection (ECC) e-resources are negotiated and purchased by the Systemwide Digital Library Content (SDLC) team based on decisions from the Shared Resources and Digital Content Committee (SRDC) This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. and the Council of Library Deans (COLD) This link will take you to an external website in a new tab., AND are paid for by the Chancellor’s Office (CO) on behalf of all 23 CSU campuses. Campuses do not contribute any of their own money for ECCs!
  • Opt-in e-resources are also negotiated by SDLC on behalf of campuses, but the CO does NOT pay using central CO funds. Each campus chooses whether to “opt-in” to the available subscriptions and pay using their own funding. Campuses place their order(s) through SDLC and transfer money to the CO for the subscription fees instead of paying the vendor directly. SDLC then uses the funds received from “opt-in” subscribers to pay the corresponding invoice from the vendor.
  • More information: Collection Development and Acquisitions Overview for Shared E-Resources (ECC and Opt-in) This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.

• Q:   Are “NZ Managed E-Resources” the same as “Shared E-Resources”?
• A:   Mostly….but with a few caveats.
  • While the NZ managed e-resource activations are generally based on order information received from SDLC (for both ECC and Opt-In “shared e-resources”), any campus can choose to be added to an existing NZ e-collection at any time, even if they purchased the resource locally! The “NZ managed e-resources” are NOT restricted to just the campuses that “opted-in” and ordered through SDLC.
  • There are also many Open Access e-collections managed in the NZ. More information on NZ Open Access Activation Criteria This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.
  • There’s also going to be a shared Cal Docs collection in the NZ.
• Q:   What about “Chancellor’s Office Managed E-Resources?” Is that the same as “Shared E-Resources?”
• A:   This term has been used interchangeably with “Shared E-Resources” and “NZ Managed E-Resources” over the years, but its meaning has often varied depending on who you ask. Official description of this term:
  • This is an umbrella term to describe the main activities the CO is involved in related to shared e-resources (acquisitions and NZ management).
  • It does NOT mean that all aspects of these e-resources are managed centrally by the CO, especially when it comes to troubleshooting and access.
  • While the CO team is always available to assist with a number of access issues for shared e-resources (as outlined in the chart above), campuses are still responsible for the general administration of their shared e-resources beyond the acquisition and NZ activation stages. Each campus should establish and maintain their own institutional administration accounts for their e-resource subscriptions, even for Opt-Ins and ECCs! This is the only way to manage local platform configurations (i.e. OpenURL resolver, branding/logos, discovery/search settings, IP addresses, etc.) and also allows allowing for on demand access to information about their subscriptions (i.e. complete usage stats, SUSHI info, access entitlement lists, MARC records, etc.).

Examples of scenarios described in the chart above: 

Included are scenarios and answers for various troubleshooting issues for electronic resources. 

Bad linking for ebook or journal: 

When linking for an ebook or journal are reported, there are several steps that can be done.

• Check the linking (parser parameter of the item)
  • Is the link up-to-date?
  • Is the jkey or bkey correct?
    • Look up journal or ebook on the publishers site.
    • If the bkey or jkey do not match what is in Alma, update the portfolio linking and report to ExL Support.
  • Is the book or journal available in Google Scholar? (This is good for finding OA book or journal URLs)
    • Could be that the ebook or journal are now available from a different publisher.
      • Report the portfolio to ExL Support and remove the portfolio.
      • If the item is available from a new publisher and is not in Alma, add the portfolio, add the new link to the correct collection and report it to ExL Support.
  • Example: Harm reduction [electronic resource] : pragmatic strategies for managing high-risk behaviors / edited by G. Alan Marlatt, Mary E. Larimer, Katie Witkiewitz. 
  • JSTOR Public Health (Research Reports Only): Full Text
  • Portfolio ID: 53721374740002901
    • The title is no longer available from JSTOR, could not locate the title in JSTOR.
    • Looked in Google Scholar and it appears the item may be available from a different provider, no records appear for JSTOR.
    • Reported the portfolio to ExL support and removed the portfolio.

Ahead-of-Print/In Press articles:

Example: Imposter phenomenon and experiences of discrimination among students at a predominantly White institution This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.

When there are articles that are Ahead-of-Print or “In Press,” and the full text is not available, a Public Note should be added to the portfolio stating that articles labeled Ahead-of-Print are not available. There is currently no functionality in Alma or PrimoVE that will suppress the link to full text. Ex Libris has plans to add functionality in the second half of 2024 but there are no specifics available yet.

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Adjusting coverage for gap year:

Example: The Journal of Gerontological Nursing as hosted by Gale (present in General, Academic, and Health and Medicine Onefile, and Health and Wellness) has a coverage exception for the year 2020, which is not reflected in the availability dates in Alma.

*Gale is known to have gaps in coverage that is not reported in the files they send to Ex Libris.

Make local changes and report to Ex Libris Support. Watch for future Alma weekly updates for changes to the global coverage dates. Local date can be removed after global update.

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Adding public notes for different volume numbers:

This usually happens with ebooks or reference materials, there are multiple volumes for the title. Ex Libris does not include the volume number in the description so it appears to the user that there are multiple links for the same item. In reality, the link is going to a different volume, each portfolio with a unique link. Solution: This means clicking on each full text link in PrimoVE (OneSearch) to locate the volume number and then add that number to the Public Note in Alma.

Example records:

• Encyclopedia of philosophy / Donald M. Borchert, editor in chief. Macmillan Reference USA, Detroit 2005 [0-02-866072-2]
• American Governance Macmillan Reference USA Farmington Hills, MI 2016 [1-4103-3904-1]
   

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DOI Error Message:

When the “DOI not found” message appears, this usually means the DOI has not been registered for the article. The DOI issue can be reported at DOI.org This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. or CrossRef.org This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.. CrossRef Support appears on the vendor contact page. This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.

FYI: CrossRef is a good source for finding which publisher “owns” the DOI and article. If a record in PrimoVE (OneSearch) has incorrect metadata and there is a DOI available, searching CrossRef will display the metadata the publisher has indexed. This can be used to report metadata issues to Ex Libris Support.

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Unable to access e-book from JSTOR EBA or ProQuest Ebook Central:

In most cases, when a user see the message that the library does not have access to the ebook from either JSTOR EBA or ProQuest Ebook Central, it means that the e-book is no longer available from the vendor or the ebook is not included in the CSU subscription. ProQuest does not send separate files to Ex Libris Content, for Ebook Central, so the collection include ebooks the CSU may not be able to access. Report the ebook to Jessica Hartwigsen, requesting the ebook be removed.

ProQuest Ebook Central: "Sorry, this book is not available. Please contact your librarian about purchasing it, or search for another book." This message usually means that this ebook is not included in the subscription due to territorial reasons (only available outside the U.S. territory).

JSTOR EBA: There can be a delay in JSTOR sending the latest file for JSTOR EBA to Ex Libris. E-books appear in PrimoVE (OneSearch) when the e-book is no longer available. Report the e-book requesting it be removed.

FYI: Each library should receive a list of e-books, from JSTOR, that the library has selected. These are owned by the individual library and should be activated locally in the IZ.

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CDI - Settings and configurations to check before opening ExL Support Case:

• CDI in the Network Zone can be updated by the library CDI liaison, using the NZ CDI.
  • Update CDI settings/activations
• Ex Libris has a useful Tips and Tricks This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. document that helps troubleshoot where links are originating, see what records are in a CDI collection, and the source of the CDI record.
• If the CDI collection(s) require link configuration or proxy, check the settings in the Discovery module:

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• After troubleshooting the settings, the configurations, analysis and the link still does not work, open an ExL SalesForce case.
• Example below: The CDI link for Gale is has a bad link (sid=summon&u=xxxx) since the sid should be “primo” and the “u=” should be the Gale ID for the library. In this case, the same library ID is being applied to all libraries, causing a linking issue.

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CDI Inheritance:

If your library sees this message: "This institution is not inheriting Network Zone CDI activations,” this indicates that the library is not inheriting CDI Databases (zero-title collections) from the Network Zone. All libraries are inheriting CDI collections that have portfolios. CDI settings can be updated in both the IZ and NZ. There is a CDI login for the Network Zone that will allow the CDI liaison to update settings This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. for the library.

CDI Tips and Tricks: This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. The Ex Libris Tips and Tricks page is good for troubleshooting records that originate from CDI.

CDI/Alma Availability This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. -coverage date:

There is an important note in the Publishing to CDI page, when CDI checks for holdings in Alma, it looks at the year/month/day, but is not looking at the year/volume/issue, which can lead to linking issues or missing full text links in PrimoVE. Solution: Add year/month/day to portfolio when linking issue arises.

Example: Link to Gale did not initially appear. The coverage needed to be updated to include month/day as well as volume/issue. After a local coverage was added to the portfolio, the link to Gale This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. appeared.

For portfolio coverage information from Alma, only the From/Until Year, Month and Day fields (not the Volume and Issue fields) are used for CDI availability calculation.

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CDI Activation Analysis - Missing CDI links or CDI links that should not appear:

Example: Link to Gale was appearing but the library does not have access to that particular article, it is not included in the subscription. Where is the full text link coming from?

Use Activation Analysis tool to check if the full text link should be available and where the full text link may have originated. The tool  This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.is easy to set up and use. The results state there is full text but doesn’t mean that you will see a full text link for every resource listed. It gives you a place to start adjusting CDI settings. Can take up to 48hrs for changes to be reflected in PrimoVE/OneSearch.

Second scenario: If a full text link is missing, the tool can let you know where the full text is available and CDI settings can be adjusted so the full text will appear.

CDI settings can be updated in both the IZ and NZ. There is a CDI login for the Network Zone that will allow the CDI liaison to update settings This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. for the library.

Sample record This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. (screenshots below for example record):

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Quicklink Issues:

The PDF and Read Online link were initially going to Emerald instead of ProQuest Ebook Central. Ex Libris Support suggested setting the Link Prioritization This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. for the Quicklinks This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.. Report issues with Quicklinks to Ex Libris Support.

• The PDF is being proxied This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. (when it shouldn’t be) or not proxied (when it should).
• Quicklink is going to incorrect publisher
• Quicklink is not working - broken link

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Springer Nature Debug links:

Springer has provided two debug links to test access and linking issues for both Springer and Nature.

Open a case with with Springer if there are issues with access journals or articles:

If you are still experiencing this problem, and have not already done so, please provide us with a hyperlink to the content you cannot access along with a screenshot of the results of clicking on the appropriate debug link below.

The debug results will give us the information needed to determine if the cause of the issue is your access setup.

Springer Content: https://idp.springer.com/debug This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.

Nature Content: https://idp.nature.com/debug This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.

Cloudflare IP Whitelist:

This was posted to the EZProxy listserv and this is the current list of vendors to contact if there are EZProxy access issues, the library may have to register their IP ranges on the vendor’s whitelist.

      My institution will have an EZproxy server IP address change.  I remember (may not be accurate) sending our EZproxy IP address to some publishers/vendors listed below to whitelist.   Are there any other vendors/publishers?

• American Physical Society
• IEEE
• ProQuest
• Sage
• Tayor & Francis
• Wiley

Recommendations for video titles and other titles matching erroneously in PrimoVE records. 

April 2024: Video titles and other titles matching erroneously in PrimoVE records

After migrating to PrimoVE, we noticed that services for ebook titles, generally from NZ collections, were matching on IZ streaming video records. Also, some IZ and NZ videos with similar titles matched, too. The “nodedupe” rule we were able to use while in Primo Back Office could not be used in PrimoVE.

Many support cases were opened. Some of our cases have been resolved but w/o any understanding as to what Ex Libris did. Ex Libris is still investigating a solution.

Here are some examples:

Why this is happening:

It has to do with Uresolver/link resolver matching and the algorithm used to determine matching.

Documentation: This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.

"If there was no search by identifier (no identifier as part of the Context Object), a search is performed by "title" only.”

From the chart, it is searching 245 $$a, b, and so. Yet, it seems to be ignoring $$b from our experience since incorrect matching occurs. Also, this matching does not seem to understand that videos do not have typical identifiers such as ISSN, ISBN, etc.

Then, in August 2023, Ex Libris provided a possible solution, something to do with fuzzy logic.

August 2023 Alma release notes This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.: (This was supposed to help with the problem; but it does not seem to be doing much).

Currently, when Alma gets an open URL from Primo, it tries to find resources according to three main methods:

Match by identifier

Match by title and author

Search by title only ("Fuzzy Match")

If the open URL contains only a title, Alma attempts to find a match, since there are no other elements by which to search.

Control Ability to Ignore Title Based Link Resolving

Alma enables institutions to prevent "Fuzzy match" attempts based on title-only matches when patrons search for resources. By default, this option is disabled, and in instances that the URL had "Identifier + Author + Title" and there was no match on the "Identifier + Author", Alma tries to find a match by "Title". However, when the option is enabled, patrons no longer receive wrong search results based on title matches only. This option is controlled by the following customer parameter: avoid_fuzzy_search_resolving.

Several CSU enabled this functionality but still saw that videos and ebooks were matching on title and sharing a bib record. So, it didn’t seem to solve much.

Recommendation:

The ULMS ERM committee suggests 2 possible solutions to implement. You may also choose to do nothing until Ex Libris provides a working solution.

Option 1: If you use vendor supplied records, you may add a 020 field. For example, you might add a Kanopy number. This will stop ebook titles from appearing in streaming video records. Keep in mind, using the 020 field which is generally reserved for ISBN/ISSN is not adhering to standard cataloging rules. Also, this is probably not sustainable if you have many records in which the problem occurs. Do not use this solution for CZ records.

Ex Libris explanation to Bakersfield:

“I've investigated the issue, and unfortunately the behavior you are seeing is expected due to the way Link Resolver matching is done for View It. For records/titles without any standard identifiers such as this one, the Alma Link Resolver matches can be based on title alone. This is because when there are no standard identifiers in the IZ record, the Link Resolver will perform a generic search using the metadata sent in the context object from the member institution, which would in this case is the title. In this case, the 'Gather : Richard Van Camp on the Joy of Storytelling' from the NZ is being returned because this record also has 'Gather' in 245 $$ a:”

Their suggestion: “Alternatively, adding identifiers if they exist would help. For titles which do not have standard identifiers, you can also try adding a dummy identifier. For example, if you add a 020 MARC field with $$&nbsp;, you will see that services for portfolios from the NZ are no longer returned.”

Option 2: Add Display Logic Rules. This is what some CSU are doing.

You can add a broad Display Logic Rule that will prevent other collections appearing on the streaming video title. You may add just one rule or individually. Here is an example of just adding one rule.

This hides all collections including streaming collections. Do not worry, the records for those collections still appear on their own in PrimoVE.

You may also choose to refine and add specific collections:

The Member Library settings in Rapido are the foundational settings determining what pods you are in, how they are prioritized, and what items can be physically loaned to other libraries. To access the settings go to Alma Configuration  > Resource Sharing > Configuration > Members and select your Resource Sharing Library. 

Member Attributes 

This section allows you to add or change the basic information about your library. You can change your address, library name, or set your status to inactive in Rapido from this tab. While you can set your library as inactive here, that is not the same as setting your library to non-Lending. 

Physical Items and Lending Policies

The Physical Items and Lending Policies tab is where you set your library as an active Lender, set what items can be physically sent to each pod using Participating Items rules, and attach those rules to specific Rapido pods. To receive Lending requests you must have Supplies Physical Items checked. While unchecking this box will stop Lending requests, it is not recommended to uncheck this setting as a way of going non-Lending because doing so will cause issues with requests that have already been shipped to your library. 

Participating Items Rule

The Participating Items rule determines which items can be shared in Rapido. Everything that can be shared through ILLiad should be included in the these rules. You may make one rule for all pods, or multiple rules to share certain items in certain pods. For example, you may choose to only loan DVDs to other CSU libraries. 

To make a Participating Items rule click +Add Participating Items. In the resulting pop up you can make the rule using several filters. You can choose to only include or exclude certain Material types, include or exclude items with certain Item Policies, and/or include or exclude certain Locations. You may make rules that use multiple filters, for example: Materials Type Equals Books, Item Policy Not Equals Non-Circulating, and Location Equals 2nd Floor South.

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You may also choose to only use some filters. For example: Location Equals 2nd Floor South. 

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While you can make several Participating Items rules, you can only attach one rule to a pod at a time. 

Physical Items Lending Policies

The Physical Items Lending Policies section lists all the pods your library has joined using the Rapido Pod  This link will take you to an external website in a new tab.form. Joining the pods lets you borrow items from them, but you will not receive requests from libraries in those pods until you attach a Participating Items Rule, like the one created in the previous step. 

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To attach a participating items rule click the ellipsis (...) next to the pod and select Edit. Click the drop down menu for Participating Items and select the rule you want the pod to use. Do not select All Items because that will mark every item in the catalogue as okay to loan to libraries in that pod. Each pod can only use one rule at a time, but they don't all need to use the same rule. With different rules libraries can choose to loan certain items to specific partners only. 

In this section you can also create a Physical Lending Policy for libraries not in a pod in a geographic region. These policies do not impact partners in your pods, but can be used if the library chooses to use the Find Partner feature in Rapido.

To create a new Physical Lending Policy click +Add Physical Lending Policy. Select the Participating Items rule like you did with the pods and then select if the Supply Term For is country or state and then specify the country or state. Lastly add the policies you want the system to follow for the region. 

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Override Pod Policies for Specific Hybrid Pod Partners

A new section was added to the Lending Policies tab to allow libraries to make specific rules for individual libraries in a Hybrid Pod (a pod with both Rapido and Alma Resource Sharing partners). No libraries in the CSU currently use this feature. 

Borrowing Policies

The Borrowing Policies tab is where you set the pod priority for Borrowing. In the Pod Priority chart, the pod at the top of the list will always be checked first when a patron requests library materials. If none of the partners in the highest priority pod are able to fill the request the next pod on the list will be checked. Pods should be ordered with the California State Network pod at the top followed by pods in the western United States, then US wide pods, and lastly international pods. 

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To rearrange the pods click and hold your courser on the small columns of dots next to the pod. Drag the pod to the desired location. 

Library Patrons should start their search for library materials in OneSearch using their library's website. Through OneSearch, patrons can find materials in their library's collection, the other CSU collections, and even expand the search to explore collections outside the CSU library system. To use OneSearch, patrons will generally search a keyword, title, or author to start looking for materials. For this module, we are going to follow along with a patron requesting the book Educated by Tara Westover. 

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The patron searches for the title Educated and the first result is the book the patron is looking for. Patrons may need to use the advanced search to add more information, such as author, or use filters to narrow their search to specific formats, languages, or publication years to find less common items. 

While the first result is the correct book, text appearing below the title says the local copy is currently unavailable. The book is probably checked out, so it will need to be requested through Rapido. If the patron clicks into the record they can access the Rapido Tiles where they can easily request a physical copy of the book or a digital copy of a single book chapter. These tiles appear side by side and are large rectangles with local institution instructions and the estimated delivery time and checkout period of the item. The Rapido physical offer tile and the Rapido digital offer tile can be configured to appear only when the item is not available to prevent patrons from requesting items held in the library. The patron can click Get It on either tile to bring up a simple form to request the item with a few additional clicks.

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There may be some slight variation between campuses, but for the most part the physical item form will ask for the desired pickup location, if the patron wants a specific volume, and the date where the item is no longer needed. The form does not ask for the item title, author, ISBN, etc. because that information is pulled from the item record. In most cases the patron will want to pick up the item at the main library and wont specify a volume. In that case they can simply click Send and the request will be placed. 

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The Rapido digital offer form will have a few more options than the Rapido physical offer form. This form will ask patrons for the book chapter, author, volume, and page range. This information is important for Resource Sharing staff at the library where the item is held to know what section to scan. Most libraries adhere to the Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works (CONTU) guidelines and will only scan or download a single chapter or ten percent of a book for the patron to keep for their research. Because the entire book is not sent digitally, library staff need to know what section to send.

The Rapido digital offer form may also have a paragraph of text with a copyright statement letting patrons know requests may be cancelled if library staff believe the request breaks copyright law. The statement also warns that making additional copies may make them liable for copyright infringement. 

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The patron adds any additional information to the Rapido offer form if necessary and can click Send to submit the request. The patron has now placed a request through Rapido. 

Requesting an article is similar to requesting a physical item or book chapter. A patron will search a keyword, title, or author in OneSearch until they find an article they want to use in their research. At most CSU libraries, patrons will only see articles available through the library by default, so the search needs to be expanded beyond the CSU collections. If a patron doesn't find the materials they need they can click expand your search to search the Global Title Index of records uploaded by other Alma libraries. The expand function can be used for articles and for physical items. 

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After the search is expanded, results from outside the library will be accessible below the search box. These items will often have a link saying "Get it for me from other libraries". If a patron clicks that link, or the anywhere on the item record, a page will open with more information. The Rapido Article Offer Tile will display on this page if the patron can request the item from another library. 

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Clicking Get It inside the Rapido Offer Tile will open the Article Request Form. This form should have very few visible fields because all the citation information is added automatically, but the patron can add a note or specify a Not Needed After date. The article request form will have the same copyright statement as the book chapter request form described earlier. 

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After the patron clicks Send the request will be submitted. 

Once a patron requests an item the request will appear in their library account. They can view the request status in their account by clicking Sign In, followed by clicking their name, in the upper right hand corner the OneSearch website. Under the Requests Tab patrons can review the items they have requested through Rapido alongside items they requested from their home library. Patrons can see the status of physical requests and Download Articles and Book Chapters once they have been delivered.

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Patrons can also Cancel requests they decide they no longer want or need. If the item has already been shipped they will not be able to cancel the request. Once a request has been cancelled it will disappear from the Requests Tab.

Sometimes patrons know the exact title they want but are unable to find it through OneSearch. A link to the Rapido Blank Request Form will appear directly under the OneSearch search bar in the expanded Global Title Index search. The text of the link will say Still didn't find what you need? Click here to send a request.  

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Clicking this link will open the Rapido Blank Request Form where the patron can manually request anything through Rapido. This form has many fields and is very customizable, so it may appear slightly different at every CSU library. The form will generally have fields for patrons to add all the citation information needed by staff to find the requested item.

Links to the Rapido Blank Request form may be added to other parts of your library website, such as on the Resource Sharing unit page. I recommend all CSU libraries replace any remaining ILLiad Request Form links with the Rapido Blank Request Form link. 

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The Rapido Blank Request Form will also have the same copyright notice that is included in the article and book chapter forms.

Now that you know the basics of how a patron places a request it may be helpful to know a bit about what happens behind the scenes. When a patron requests an item it goes through the Rapido Pods your library has joined to see if any of your partners can fill the item. A Rapido Pod This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. is a group of libraries with shared policies who agree to share with all the other libraries in the pod. For example, the CSU Pod will share items with other CSU pod partners and will deliver it within 3 days and patrons can check the item out for 112 days. Pods are also ordered behind the scenes based on priority starting with the CSU Pod, so all requests will go to the CSU Pod first if possible, followed by the Western Pod, then US Pod, etc. 

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Rapido has real time availability, so it knows if a specific book attached to a specific record is available in a pod used by your library. This is why the Rapido Offer Tiles can give an estimate on an item. The estimates listed in OneSearch are the shared pod policies of the highest priority pod that currently has the item available to loan. For example, an item available from another CSU will say it will be delivered within 3 days and can be checked out for 112 days.

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Other pods may have different pod policies and therefore different Offer Tile estimates. The US Pod that can be joined by any library using Rapido in the United States as a 7 day delivery time and a checkout length of 112 days. 

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If an item is not available through any Rapido pod it can still be requested, but no estimate will be shown. These items may be switched to a duplicate record to request through Rapido or pushed to another Resource Sharing system to be filled outside Rapido. As more libraries start using Rapido this will be less and less common. 

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Rapido is integrated into Alma, the Library Management System created by Ex Libris. Knowing how to navigate and organize Alma can make using Rapido faster and easier. This section will look at various areas in Alma and tips you can use to organize the system to meet your needs. 

Alma Dashboard

After logging into Alma you will be at the Alma Dashboard where you can navigate to all the different parts of Alma. Depending on your user roles you will have access to different areas of the system, but there are several areas you may want to remember:

• The vertical toolbar on the left side of the screen lets you access many areas in Alma, but only a few areas are useful for Resource Sharing. You will frequently use the following sections:
  • Fulfillment
    • This area is where you will check books out to patrons, check books in, receive books from other libraries, and upload scans or downloads of articles or book chapters.
  • Analytics
    • Various reports are available for tracking Rapido analytics.
  • Configuration
    • Everything in Alma is configured in the configuration section. This section requires advanced roles you may not currently have. By the end of Rapido 201 you will receive a recommendation for those roles. 

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Quick Links Menu

You can add a vertical Quick Links menu across the top of the screen in Alma with a few easy steps. To activate the toolbar click the icon labeled Alma Production. Select Pin Quick Links Menu from the list of options. This will make any section you favorite with a star appear as a vertical menu.

It may be helpful to favorite the most used tasks for Rapido workflows in Fulfillment. If you click into the Fulfillment section in Alma you can star your most used sections to add them to your Quick Links toolbar. The areas you will likely use frequently in Fulfillment are:

• Manage Patron Services
  • To check out books to patrons
• Return Items
  • To check in items
• Deliver Digital Documents
  • To deliver articles and book chapters
• Receiving Items
  • To receive items from other libraries
• Shipping Items
  • To ship items to other libraries

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Rapido, Location, and Cloud Apps

Along the top right of your screen is the main vertical Alma toolbar. This toolbar has icons for Location, Rapido, and the Cloud App Center.

By default, the first icon is for Location. This icon is similar to the location icons used in Google Maps and other GPS apps. By clicking the Location icon you will open the Location tab. In this tab you can change which area of the library you are working at, choose which printer you will print with, and toggle Quick Printing on and off. 

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The Rapido icon is a picture of a document with the symbol for sharing in front of it. Clicking this icon will open the Resource Sharing Requests tab where all your Borrowing and Lending Sets are located. This will be one of the most common places you navigate to in Alma so it may be a good idea to pin the tab so it always remains open. To pin the tab click the small icon that looks like a push pin. 

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The third icon you will commonly use is the Cloud App Center icon which is four squares arranged to look like a single larger square. The Cloud App Center is where you can add and use cloud apps developed by Ex Libris or librarians and library staff at other libraries. The the two recommended apps were both made by Ex Libris. These are the Printing Multiple Slips Per Page and the Article Galaxy Add-On apps.

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Now that you know how to navigate and organize Alma you should be able to use Rapido quickly and efficiently.

What Are Sets?

Rapido lets users save "Sets" of filters so they can organize their workflows and find requests in need of processing. Sets can be created for private use or for the entire Resource Sharing unit to use. Each user has their own setup, with different users having different active sets. It is important for staff to have certain sets active to ensure requests don't get missed and sit for days without processing. This module will show you how to manage existing sets, create new sets, and ensure you have all the recommended sets active at your institution.  

Managing Sets

Ex Libris created several default sets for Rapido. Some of these sets meet the needs of CSU libraries while other Sets aren't as useful. Thankfully, Rapido users can manage what Sets are active for themselves. Every user should make sure they have all the Sets used for their own workflows. To manage your Sets click the gear icon on the Rapido Menu in the top right corner of the Alma screen to access the Manage Sets page.

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On the Manage Sets page you can turn Sets on and off, edit their settings, or even delete them. By default all Sets are inactive.

The following default Sets will likely be useful for most Resource Sharing staff:

Borrowing

• New:
  • Awaiting Copyright Clearance
  • Awaiting Request Mediation
  • Awaiting Patron Information
• In Process:
  • Article Requests - Bad Citation

Lending

• New:
  • Requests that will expire today and tomorrow

All Rapido users should check their settings to ensure the above Sets are active. 

Creating Sets

Some Sets necessary to the CSU workflows are not included as a default Set and must be created from scratch. Thankfully, it is easy to make new Sets. To create a Set for Borrowing go to Rapido > Borrowing > All active borrowing requests. To create a Set for Lending go to Rapido > Lending > All active lending requests. You will now be in the base view of Rapido Borrowing or Lending where all active requests are accessible. From here you can refine your results and save your filters as a Set.

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To filter the requests open the Facets menu on the left side of the screen. Select the filters you want for your Set and select Save as a New Set. Name the Set and add a description to let your colleagues know the purpose of the Set. Once it is named, add the Set to the New, In Process, or Closed group to keep the Sets organized. Sets can then be marked as private or public. A private set will not appear in the Manage Sets settings for anyone except the person who made the Set, so only choose this option if the Set will not be useful for anyone else. Lastly, you can mark a Set as Permanently Active for All Users to activate it for everyone processing Rapido in your library. 

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Directions 

In this section please check all your Lending Sets and make sure all the correct filters are saved. Correct any Sets with missing filters and add any Sets missing at your institution. After you complete this assignment you should have all the custom Sets necessary to catch and organize all the Lending requests at your institution. 

Lending Sets

The following CSU-created Sets should be active in your Institution Zone. Please make sure all Sets are active and that they have the correct filters selected. If you need to add a missing filter to an existing Set, add the filter, click Apply, and Save Changes.

If a Set is missing at your library, add it by going to Rapido > Lending > All active lending requests. Select all the filters needed for the Set, click Apply, and Save as a New Set. 

Print Pull Slips

This Set is to group together print items that need their pull slips printed.

• Filters:
  • Activity Status: Active
  • Status: Being Processed and Created Lending Request
  • Request Reported: No
  • Requested Format: Physical
• Save Set As:
  • Set Name: Print Pull Slips
  • Group: New
  • Private: No
  • Permanently Active for All Users: (Check)

Article/Book Chapter Pull Slips

This Set is to group together Articles and Book Chapters that need pull slips printed.

• Filters:
  • Activity Status: Active
  • Status: Being Processed and Created Lending Request
  • Request Reported: No
  • Requested Format: Digital
  • Inventory Type: Physical
• Save Set As:
  • Set Name: Article/Book Chapter Pull Slips
  • Group: New
  • Private: No
  • Permanently Active for All Users: (Check)

Locate Failed

This set will group together requests where the Alma locate processed failed. Items in this Set need to the locate process run by clicking the ellipses (…) and Locate Resource.

• Filters:
  • Activity Status: Active
  • Status: Locate Failed
• Save Set As:
  • Set Name: Locate Failed
  • Group: New
  • Private: No
  • Permanently Active for All Users: (Check)

RapidR Reject eBooks

This set is only for libraries who have decided to reject requests for physical copies of eBooks that appear due to an issue with the RapidR Pod. Libraries may instead prevent these requests by updating RapidILL Harvesting Sets.

• Filters:
  • Activity Status: Active
  • Status: Being Processed and Created Lending Request
  • Requested Format: Physical
  • Inventory Type: Electronic
• Save Set As:
  • Set Name: RapidR Reject eBooks
  • Group: New
  • Private: No
  • Permanently Active for All Users: (Check)

Print In Process

This Set is to group together items that have been printed and are currently being searched. If items remain in this set after everything is shipped, they may need to be reprinted and searched. Select the following filters:

• Filters:
  • Activity Status: Active
  • Status: Being Processed and Created Lending Request
  • Request Reported: Yes
  • Requested Format: Physical
• Save Set As:
  • Set Name: Print In Process
  • Group: In Process
  • Private: No
  • Permanently Active for All Users: (Check)

Article/Book Chapter Scanning

This Set is to group together items that have been printed and still need scanning. Select the following filters:

• Filters:
  • Activity Status: Active
  • Status: Being Processed and Created Lending Request
  • Request Reported: Yes
  • Requested Format: Digital
  • Inventory Type: Physical
• Save Set As:
  • Set Name: Article/Book Chapter Scanning
  • Group: In Process
  • Private: No
  • Permanently Active for All Users: (Check)

Article/Book Chapter Downloading

This Set is to group together items that need to be downloaded and sent through RapidILL. You may print these, but it is not necessary. Select the following filters:

• Filters:
  • Activity Status: Active
  • Status: Being Processed and Created Lending Request
  • Requested Format: Digital
  • Inventory Type: Electronic
• Save Set As:
  • Set Name: Article/Book Chapter Downloading
  • Group: In Process
  • Private: No
  • Permanently Active for All Users: (Check)

Expired

This set will group together requests that have expired in Alma but have not automatically moved on. These items need to either be immediately processed or rejected.

• Filters:
  • Activity Status: Active
  • Status: Expired
• Save Set As:
  • Set Name: Expired
  • Group: In Process
  • Private: No
  • Permanently Active for All Users: (Check)

Lost By Borrowing Patron

This set will group together all requests that the Borrowing Library has marked as Lost. Items in this Set need you to add a lost item fee by clicking the ellipses (…) and Lost.

• Filters:
  • Activity Status: Active
  • Status: Lost
  • Update Date: Older
• Save Set As:
  • Set Name: Lost By Borrowing Patron
  • Group: In Process
  • Private: No
  • Permanently Active for All Users: (Check)

Lost and Fee Communicated

This set will group together all requests where you have sent the lost item fee to the Borrowing Library. When the Borrowing Library pays the fee change the request status to Request Completed for items in this Set.

• Filters:
  • Activity Status: Active
  • Status: Lost and Fee Communicated
  • Pod: Select all pods except California State Network
• Save Set As:
  • Set Name: Lost and Fee Communicated
  • Group: In Process
  • Private: No
  • Permanently Active for All Users: (Check)

Lost CSU

This set will group together all requests where you have sent the lost item message to the Borrowing CSU Library.

• Filters:
  • Activity Status: Active
  • Status: Lost and Fee Communicated
  • Pod: California State Network
• Save Set As:
  • Set Name: Lost CSU
  • Group: Completed
  • Private: No
  • Permanently Active for All Users: (Check)

Directions 

In this section please check all your Borrowing Sets and make sure all the correct filters are saved. Correct any Sets with missing filters and add any Sets missing at your institution. After you complete this assignment you should have all the custom Sets necessary to catch and organize all the Borrowing requests at your institution. 

Borrowing Sets

The following CSU-created Sets should be active in your Institution Zone. Please make sure all Sets are active and that they have the correct filters selected. If you need to add a missing filter to an existing Set, add the filter, click Apply, and Save Changes.

If a Set is missing at your library, add it by going to Rapido → Borrowing → All active lending requests. Select all the filters needed for the Set, click Apply, and Save as a New Set. 

Conditional

This set catches the requests where the Lending library has specified conditions to loan. You can accept or reject those conditions within this Set.

• Filters:
  • Activity Status: Active
  • Status: Conditional
• Save Set As:
  • Set Name: Conditional
  • Group: In Process
  • Private: No
  • Permanently Active for All Users: (Check)

Physical (4+ Days)

This set lets you see physical items that have been at a partner longer than the standard expiration date. This could be for multiple factors including: Lending Library doesn’t have expiry enacted or a bug in the system.

• Filters:
  • Rapido Indicator: Yes
  • Activity Status: Active
  • Status: Request Sent To Partner
  • Requested Format: Physical
  • Update Date: 4-7 Days Ago and 8-30 Days Ago and Older
• Save Set As:
  • Set Name: Physical (4+ Days)
  • Group: In Process
  • Private: No
  • Permanently Active for All Users: (Check)

Digital (4+ Days)

This set lets you see Digital items that have been at a partner longer than the standard expiration date. This could be for multiple factors including: Lending Library doesn’t have expiry enacted or a bug in the system.

• Filters:
  • Activity Status: Active
  • Status: Request Sent To Partner
  • Requested Format: Digital
  • Update Date: 4-7 Days Ago and 8-30 Days Ago and Older
• Save Set As:
  • Set Name: Digital (4+ Days)
  • Group: In Process
  • Private: No
  • Permanently Active for All Users: (Check)

Returned Today

This set will show all the requests that were returned by the patron today. The purpose of this set is to make it easy to find items that need a return label printed.

• Filters:
  • Activity Status: Active
  • Status: Returned Item To Partner
  • Supplied Format: Physical
  • Update Date: Today
• Save Set As:
  • Set Name: Returned Today
  • Group: In Process
  • Private: No
  • Permanently Active for All Users: (Check)

Returned Yesterday

This set will show all the requests that were returned by the patron yesterday. The purpose of this set is to make it easy to find items that need a return label printed.

• Filters:
  • Activity Status: Active
  • Status: Returned Item To Partner
  • Supplied Format: Physical
  • Update Date: Yesterday
• Save Set As:
  • Set Name: Returned Yesterday
  • Group: In Process
  • Private: No
  • Permanently Active for All Users: (Check)

Returned 1-3 Days Ago

This set will show all the requests that were returned by the patron 1-3 days ago. The purpose of this set is to make it easy to find items that need a return label printed on Mondays.

• Filters:
  • Activity Status: Active
  • Status: Returned Item To Partner
  • Supplied Format: Physical
  • Update Date: Yesterday and 2-3 Days Ago
• Save Set As:
  • Set Name: Returned 1-3 Days Ago
  • Group: In Process
  • Private: No
  • Permanently Active for All Users: (Check)

Lost Communicated

This set will group together all requests where you have sent the lost item fee to the Lending Library. When they respond with a fee the request will disappear from this set and appear in the Lost Fee Amount Received Set. If items are in this set too long you may want to consider emailing the Lending Library.

• Filters:
  • Activity Status: Active
  • Status: Lost Communicated
• Save Set As:
  • Set Name: Lost Communicated
  • Group: In Process
  • Private: No
  • Permanently Active for All Users: (Check)

Lost Fee Amount Received

This set will group together all requests where the Lending Library has sent a fee in General Message. Items in this Set need the fee added to the Patron account.

• Filters:
  • Activity Status: Active
  • Status: Lost Communicated
  • General Messages: Active General Messages
• Save Set As:
  • Set Name: Lost Fee Amount Received
  • Group: In Process
  • Private: No
  • Permanently Active for All Users: (Check)

Lost Item Cleanup

This set is for cleaning up requests after configuring the automatic lost charging.

• Filters:
  • Activity Status: Active
  • Status: Loaned Item To Patron
  • Due Date: 8-30 Days Ago and Older
• Save Set As:
  • Set Name: Lost Item Cleanup
  • Group: In Process
  • Private: No
  • Permanently Active for All Users: (Check)

Introduction to Printing

Printing in Alma, and therefore Rapido, has changed a lot over the years. Printing used to be nearly impossible for Resource Sharing, so staff developed a program to generate pull slips using data from spreadsheets downloaded from Alma. Unlike the early days of Alma Resource Sharing, Rapido has Print Slip buttons and several ways to print items, but it still isn't as intuitive as it is in most word processing programs.  

Roles

To be able to print in Alma faculty, staff, and student assistants need specific roles. Users will need one of the two following roles to print:

• Printouts Queue Operator
• Printouts Queue Manager

Both roles can print items, but the Printouts Queue Manager role is required for reprinting items printed by other users and using the Printing Multiple Items Per Page cloud app. Since the manager role only lets users reprint things they can already print it is safe for users at all levels to use. Everyone who processes Rapido should have the Printouts Queue Manager role. 

Activating The "Printing Multiple Items Per Page" Cloud App

Before printing anything in Rapido, it is recommended staff add the Printing Multiple Items Per Page cloud app. This app streamlines the printing process and saves paper by printing multiple slips on a single sheet of paper. To add the app, go to the top right corner of the screen in Alma and click and icon of four squares grouped together making one larger square. This will open the Cloud App Center. Click Available Apps and search Printing Multiple Items Per Page to find the app. Click into the app and select Activate. The app will now appear on the Activated Apps list in the Cloud App Center in the future. 

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Printing With The App

Now that you have the Printing Multiple Slips Per Page cloud app added to Alma you are ready to print. Printouts will be generated automatically during certain points in your daily workflow or when you click Print Slip in Rapido. These printouts do not immediately print (unless quick prints is enabled), but are put in the printing queue and still need to be sent to the printer.

Once a printout has been sent to the print queue it can be released by going to the Cloud App Center and selecting the Printing Multiple Slips Per Page cloud app. The Pending printouts will appear automatically at the top of the list of items to print in the app. Check the box next to Check/Uncheck All or select individual items to print. With the items selected, click Mark As Printed followed by Print X Records (X being the number of selected records). A new page will appear with the printouts ready to go. These printouts will look very large, but they will resize when you print. Right Click anywhere on the page and select Print.

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Printing Without The App

While it is possible to print without using the Printing Multiple Slips Per Page cloud app, it is not recommended. When the CSU went live with Rapido the cloud app did not exist. Many different workflows were used including the Quick Printing feature and the Printouts Queue section in Alma under Admin > Printing > Printouts Queue. Both methods proved confusing or required many more clicks to use. It is recommended faculty, staff, and student assistants disable Quick Printing and access the Printouts Queue through the cloud app and not directly through Alma. 

Quick Printing

Faculty, staff, and student assistants can enable or disable Quick Printing for their Alma login by clicking the location symbol in the top right section of the Alma toolbar on the main page of Alma. After opening the Location Settings, a checkbox to enable or disable Quick Printing will appear. It is recommended this stay unchecked.

Enabling Quick Printing will make items print immediately when you click Print Slips in the Borrowing and Lending sections of Alma. Unfortunately, it will also make items print immediately when an item is checked in or out, making them all print with one slip per page. This uses up more paper and the slips were designed to print two per page.

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Printouts Queue

The Printouts Queue can be accessed in Alma under Admin > Printing > Printouts Queue. The Printouts Queue is similar to the Printing Multiple Slips Per Page cloud app but it does not resize the prints to print multiple items per page. 

The majority of requests that come from other libraries will automatically connect to an item in the library stacks with a call number to be printed on the Lending pull slips. Occasionally, requests will fail to locate and need a little help moving to the next step.

Processing

The majority of items with the Locate Failed status are easy to process. Go to the Locate Failed Set (see Creating Lending Sets) and select the ellipsis (...) next to a request you want to process. Select Locate Resource. In most cases the item will be automatically located and the status will be updated so the request appears in the Print Pull Slips Set. 

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If an item matching the citation information is still not found, a page for the Repository Search will appear. Click the citation information link to edit the search until you find a match or confirm this item is not held at your library. If you find a match, select the desired record and click Select to attach the request to that record. The request will then be updated and appear in the Print Pull Slips Set. 

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If a matching record is not found, exit the search and click the ellipsis (...) and select Reject. The request will then move on to another library that may have the item. 

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Printing Pull Slips

Before items can be loaned to other libraries they need to be pulled from the library shelves. All incoming items will come into the Print Pull Slips Set to make them easy to find and print. This Set looks for items at two statuses: Being Processed and Created Lending Request. These two statuses are functionally the same and can be processed together without issue.

To print the pull slips in shelving order for easy sorting change the default Sort By setting from Creation Date to Shelving Location. Items will now appear in call number order. You are now ready to print. Select all the requests and click the Print Slip button on the right side of the screen. This will generate the prints and send them to the Printing Multiple Slips Per Page cloud app. Click the Cloud App Center icon (four small squares making one larger square) and select the Printing Multiple Slips Per Page cloud app. Use the app to release the prints to print two pull slips on every page. Cut the slips and pull the corresponding books from the shelves.  

Shipping Materials

Once the items have been pulled from the shelf it is time to process them as shipped. In Alma, go to Fulfillment > Resource Sharing > Shipping Items to begin processing. Scan the item's barcode and the item will be moved to the Shipped status. Use the Pull Slip as a Book Band, package the book, and send it to the library that is borrowing it. 

Returning Materials

Once the patron at the Borrowing library is finished using the item borrowed from your library they will return it. To scan the materials back in go to Fulfillment > Checkout/Checkin > Return Items. Scan the item's barcode to return the book. The item can now be returned to the shelf and any accompanying paperwork can be recycled. 

Troubleshooting

While shipping materials you may encounter an item that cannot scan. In this scenario, go to the All Active Lending Requests Set and search for the request for the item that will not scan. Select the ellipsis (...) on the request to open a list of options and select Ship Items Physically. Scan the item barcode on the following page to check it out. 

Printing Pull Slips

Before you can lend a scan of a book chapter or article from a print journal you need to pull the book or journal from the shelf. Go to the Article/Book Chapter Pull Slip Set in the Lending section of Rapido. Items with the Being Processed and Created Lending Request status that are held physically, but the requested format is digital, will appear in this set. Change the Sort By selection from Creation Date to Shelving Location to order the items by Call Number. Select all the requests in this Set, click Print Slip, and release the printouts from the Printouts Queue using the Print Multiple Items Per Page cloud app.

Once the pull slips are printed, use them to find and pull the book or journal from the shelf.  

Scanning

Once the book or journal has been pulled it is time to scan the pages requested by the Borrowing library. There are many different scanners used by libraries in the CSU, and they all work slightly differently. Regardless of which scanner you use, scan the requested pages and save them in PDF format in a drive or folder where you can easily access the files to upload them to Rapido. When you save the file, you should save it as the Internal Identifier using the barcode printed on the pull slip used to find the book in the library stacks. 

Deliver Manually

Go to Alma > Fulfillment > Resource Requests > Deliver Digital Documents to start delivering scanned items. Scan the External Identifier barcode on the pull slip and upload the file from your shared drive or folder. Check the preview to ensure you attached the correct item and click Done. The request will now be delivered to the Borrowing library.

Deliver Automatically

Rapido can use a scheduled job to deliver articles automatically. This requires a drive hosted on a server connected to Alma. Once the connection is made, save all scanned article and book chapter PDFs in the drive as their Internal Identifier. The Alma job will match open requests to files with a matching Internal Identifier, upload them to Alma, and deliver them to the Borrowing library automatically. 

RapidILL

When a request is scanned or downloaded and delivered it uses a service called RapidILL. This service predates Rapido and many libraries on other systems connect to each other using RapidILL to share digital copies of articles and book chapters. RapidILL was purchased by Ex Libris and became the basis of Rapido, but it still exists outside of Rapido and is used by libraries around the world on other systems. All requests in Rapido are delivered using RapidILL. When a Rapido request goes through RapidILL the Rapido External Identifier, which starts with 01 followed by a seven letter library code, will be replaced by a RapidILL Number, an eight digit number. 

Libraries subscribe to thousands of articles available online through OneSearch and the library databases. Rapido users can share PDFs of these articles and eBook chapters through Lending without needing to print any pull slips. To process these requests, go to the Article/Book Chapter Downloading Set in the Lending side of Rapido. All the requests in this Set will be items in the Being Processed or Created Lending Request status, the requested format is Digital, and the inventory type is Electronic. Because these items are held electronically, they can be downloaded and delivered. 

To process requests in this Set, click the ellipsis (...) and select Download Electronic Resource. The resulting page that will open will have a link to the resource which should open in a new browser tab. Search for the article or book chapter and download it. Return to the previous page and click Browse to search your folders for the article or book chapter, or drop the file in the space beneath the Ship Item Digitally header. Click Send to send the file to the Borrowing library through RapidILL. 

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Many libraries scan articles or book chapters for their own patrons and deliver them digitally through a service traditionally known as Document Delivery. In previous systems this service was a separate area of Resource Sharing to go along with Borrowing and Lending, but in Rapido the requests live simultaneously in Borrowing and Lending, but are processed using the Lending workflows.  

If your library offers a Document Delivery service your patron can request a scan of an article or book chapter from materials available in the library. From the patron’s perspective this is no different from requesting a scan from another library. They simply request a digital copy of the article or chapter and it appears in their library account a short while later. 

Things work a little bit differently on the staff side of Rapido. When the patron places the request, Rapido creates a Borrowing request just like it would if the item was not held by the library. Since the library owns the material, Rapido requests the article or book chapter from your library before sending it to another library through RapidILL. The Borrowing request will show your own library as the partner and the request status will change to Request Sent To Partner. This all should happen automatically and almost instantaneously when the patron places the request. 

On the Lending side of Rapido the request will appear nearly identical to requests from other libraries. It will appear in the recommended printing and processing Sets, so the Lending staff do not need to do anything different to process the request. It can be pulled, scanned, and delivered using the current Lending Sets and workflows. The only indication that this is a Document Delivery item will be that the External Identifier is an formatted as an Rapido External Identifier instead of a RapidILL Number and the Borrowing library will be your own library.

If the item is available it can be scanned/downloaded and delivered along with all the other Lending requests. The request will be delivered to the Borrowing side of your Rapido instance and delivered directly to the patron as if it came from another library. Both the Lending and Borrowing versions of the request will then automatically move to a completed status.

If the item is not available to lend, you can reject it on the Lending side, just like you would with any Lending item. When the item is rejected in Lending, the Lending version of the request will be move to the Rejected The Borrower Request status. The Borrowing version of the request will send the request to RapidILL to get a new potential Lending library and a RapidILL Number. This is done automatically without staff mediation.

Sometimes a request comes in that you might be able to fill, but there are conditions. Some examples of conditions include requests for the whole ebook but you can only supply a single chapter or maybe you can fill the request but the book is in off site storage and will take slightly longer to fill. Marking an item as Conditional lets you communicate with the Borrowing library before filling or rejecting the request.  

When you want to mark an item as Conditional you should first add a Conditional Label.  Open the request and add or create a Label saying Conditional. This will let you know you previously marked this item as Conditional if the Borrowing Library accepts the conditions but does not add a note.

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After adding the Label go to the request and click the ellipsis (...) on the request and select Conditional. On the resulting pop up select a Reason for the Conditional and possibly a Date for Reply and Note with additional information and click Send.

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The request will now have the status Conditional and will go to a Conditional Set if you have it set up.

If the Conditions are accepted by the Borrowing library the request will come back to your library with the status Being Processed. If the Borrowing library did not add a note the request will look like a new request. This is why the Conditional note is so important. If you see an item in the Print Pull Slips Set with the Conditional label the Borrowing library has accepted the conditions. Process the request and send it to the Borrowing library.

If you do not remember why an item was marked Conditional you can check the reason in the request history. Go to the request and click Edit. In the resulting page click the History tab and look in the New Value column for a value reading:

• Conditional message was sent to (Borrowing library) with reason: (reason the request was marked Conditional)

If the Borrowing library selected No to your conditions then the request will automatically get the Rejected status and move on to another potential Lending Library. There are no actions for you to take. 

Sometimes you will receive requests that cannot be filled. Maybe the book is missing from the shelf or the online journal servers are currently down. Regardless of the reason, items can be Rejected and automatically sent to another library to fill the request. While it is preferred to fill every request that comes to our library, if an item cannot be filled within the standard four day expiry period it should be Rejected so the patron at the Borrowing library can access the item as soon as possible. If a bug develops that makes it impossible to fill requests they should be reported using the Resource Sharing Report form This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. (CSU only) or SalesForce and then rejected. Since rejecting a request removes it from the system, make sure you take screenshots if you are making an error report.  

The process for rejecting a request is the same regardless of the requested material type, so you can follow the same workflow for physical and digital items. Go to the request in the Lending side of Rapido and click the ellipsis (...) and select Reject. 

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Select a Reject Reason in the resulting pop up and click Reject. The request should now go to another library who may be able to fill the request. Items should be rejected quickly so patrons can get the item they need for their research. Lending requests should expire after 4 days, so if requests are found that were last updated longer than 4 days ago you should reject them. 

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After you click Reject the request will move on to another library and disappear from your Rapido set. 

If a request is successfully filled by a Lending library they will send a copy of the item for you to process and loan to your library patron. Before you can hand the item to your patron you must first receive the book in Rapido. In Alma, go to Fulfillment > Resource Sharing > Receiving Items to receive items and place them on the hold shelf. 

Scan the External Identifier on the Rapido paperwork to receive the item. A pop up will appear where you can add a temporary barcode. Scan the barcode from inside the item and make sure Automatically Print Slip is marked as Yes. Click save to receive the item. Because Automatically Print Slip was selected, the printouts for the Borrowing Book Bands will be triggered and sent to the Printing Multiple Slips Per Page cloud app. If Automatically Print Slip was not selected, you can still print the slip by clicking the ellipsis (...) next to the request and select Print Slip. Go to the cloud app and print the book bands using the Printing Multiple Slips Per Page workflow. Tape the slips around the book and place them on the hold shelf for the patron to retrieve. 

Once the patron is done with the item they will return it to the library. To return the item in Rapido go to Alma and select Fulfillment > Checkout/Check-In > Return Items. Scan the item barcode to return the item. Returning the item will automatically trigger the shipping label printing. Go to the cloud app and print the book bands using the Printing Multiple Slips Per Page workflow.

Since Borrowing Digital Items uses RapidILL there are no workflows for requests that do not have errors or require copyright processing. The majority or article and book chapter requests will go to a Lending Library with the item available in their collection for scanning or download. When the Lending Library fills the request, Rapido will send it directly to the patron without staff mediation. 

Requests with errors, requests that trigger any custom Borrowing Mediation Rules, and requests that trigger the Copyright Mediation Rules will need staff processing. The next few sections will go through those processes. 

There may be rare cases where a request needs to be delivered manually. Maybe the Lending Library couldn't send the file through Rapido so they emailed it, or maybe the article was purchased through an outside vendor. Requests where library staff have the article file can be uploaded and delivered to the patron quite easily. Find the request in Rapido and click the ellipsis (...) and select Upload File From Partner. This will open a page where you can drop the file from your computer and deliver the file by clicking Send. This will send the file to your patron. 

The Awaiting Request Processing Set in Rapido is a default Set made by Ex Libris to catch all requests needing mediation. The Set will show any request with the Created Borrowing Request, Ready to be Sent, or Local Holding status. The status of the request will appear directly below the Title and Author on the request.  

The following workflows show how to process the requests at those statuses. The Set will contain requests for physical and digital items by default, but you can add filters to make a separate Digital and Physical version of this Set. While it is possible to update the Set to make it catch different items, for the purpose of this course we will look at the default Set. 

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Many requests end up in the Awaiting Request Processing Set because they were stopped by a Borrowing Mediation Rule set up at your library. Borrowing Mediation Rules are rules made to stop or cancel requests meeting specific criteria.

Items at the Created Borrowing Request status are items that were stopped by a Borrowing Mediation Rule before they could be sent to any potential Lending Library. Many of these kinds of rules will stop requests because important information is missing from the request. For example, one mediation rule stops requests missing an ISSN and another stops requests missing an article title.

When a Borrowing Mediation Rule is triggered it will generate a Rapido Label to let staff know which rule was triggered. 

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Most Borrowing Mediation Rules concern missing information. You can find and add the information in a few ways. The most obvious way to find the missing information is to search for the item in OneSearch. For example: If the Missing_ISSN Label appears on a request for an article titled "The Impact of Information on Attitudes Toward E-Mental Health Services" you can copy the title and search for it in OneSearch. The record in OneSearch may contain the missing ISSN.

Another way would be to search for the missing information using Alma. Go to the search bar at the top of the Alma page and set it to search the Global Index. Then search the article or book title from the request. If the correct record doesn't appear you can add more information to the search by clicking the magnifying glass with the plus sign next to the search box. 

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Once you find the information, go to the request and click Edit to open the request record. Add the missing information and click Save. The request will automatically be sent through Rapido or RapidILL to be filled by another library. 

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Override The Borrowing Mediation Rule

Sometimes the information doesn't exist or you just want to push it through as it currently is. You can override the Borrowing Mediation Rule by adding the Escape Label created by your library when the Borrowing Mediation Rule was made. At most libraries this Label is the Approved or Approved_by_Staff Label. To add the Label click into the request to open the request information pane and click Add Label and search for the appropriate Label. Click the check mark and wait a few seconds for the request to save. The request will automatically send through Rapido or RapidILL without manually sending it. 

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Items at the Ready To Be Sent status are items that are being prevented from being sent to a specific partner by the Enrich From Global Index Borrowing Mediation Rule. In most cases the partner the request is trying to send to is your partner of last resort, aka ILLiad or WorldShare. You can process these items using the Enrich From Global Index workflow. This workflow is slightly more complicated than the other workflows in the Awaiting Request Processing set, so they will be covered as their own section on the next page. 

Items with the Local Holding status are items that are marked as owned and available for Resource Sharing in Alma. Many CSU libraries will scan articles or book chapters from items in their collection for their library patrons. Setup for scanning materials for library patrons requires a Borrowing Mediation Rule, but for now, lets look at the workflow created by the rule.

Digital Requests

Most of the requests for digital items will automatically be processed if you have a Borrowing Meditation Rule for scanning items held at your library set up. Even with this rule, there will be an occasional request that slips through and ends up with the Local Holding status. To process these requests, click the ellipsis (...) on the request and select Fill Locally and Create Lending Request to send the request to your own library as the Lending Library. The request will now appear in the Lending side of Rapido with all the other Lending requests. It can be filled or rejected as normal, there are no changes in workflow from other Lending requests. If the request is rejected because the item is not on the shelf, it will go to the next library in the Rapido pod automatically. 

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If the request gets stuck and still appears in the Awaiting Request Processing set you can manually push it to the next library by clicking the ellipsis (...) and selecting Override Local Holding. This will send the request to the next library in the pod. 

Physical Requests

Physical requests with the Local Holding status are even less common than digital request because Display Logic Rules should prevent patrons from requesting items you own. It is still possible if the patron uses the Rapido Blank Form to place a request, so it will happen occasionally. Unlike digital requests, physical requests cannot currently be pushed to Lending for processing. To process physical requests you can transform them into hold shelf requests or cancel them.

If your library pulls items from the book stacks to place on the hold shelf you will want to change these requests into hold shelf requests. Click the ellipsis (...) in the request and select View Local Resources to see a record of the item being requested. On this page you can check the holdings information to make sure the request isn't in Special Collections or Course Reserves. Once you are confident the item can be checked out click Request. On the final page check the box next to Cancel Resource Sharing Borrowing Request to ensure the request is cancelled as it is copied as a hold shelf request. Click Submit to create the hold shelf request and cancel the Rapido request.

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If your library does not have a service to pull locally held items for your patrons and place them on the hold shelf you will want to check the book stacks to make sure the book is actually available. If the book is on the shelf you can Cancel the request. Click the ellipsis (...) next to the request and select Cancel to cancel the request. Make sure to check the box to notify the patron so they will get the cancellation message.

If the item is not on the shelf you will want to send the request to another library so they can send a copy of the item. Click the ellipsis (...) and select Send to send the request to another library. If there are any colorful labels attached to the request it may not send until you add the Approved label to override any Borrowing Mediation Rules. Add the Label and then click Send. 

Requests marked Conditional by the Lending library will have the Conditional status and will appear in the Conditional Set on the Borrowing side of Rapido. Go to the Conditional Set to reply to the conditions.

The Lending library may have attached a note saying why the item was marked Conditional. To see the note click the link to the note in the request. Information in the note may help you decide whether or not to accept the Conditional. After reading the note, if there is one, click the ellipsis (...) on the request and select Conditional Reply. A pop up box will load with the reason the item was marked Conditional by the Lending library. You should mark the Conditional Answer as Yes or No based on the Conditional Reason and any attached Notes and add a Note of your own confirming you accept the terms. It is very important to add a Note because the request will go back the the Being Processed status at the Lending Library and the lack of notes may make the Lending library mark the request as Conditional again. 

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Conditional Answer: Yes

If you answered Yes the request status will move back to Request Sent to Partner. The Lending library should then fill the request and you should obey the conditions you agreed to when the item arrives. 

Conditional Answer: No

If you selected No as the Conditional Answer the request will automatically move on to the next potential Lender through Rapido. This library may fill the request without conditions. 

When searching for materials in Primo, patrons are often presented with multiple records for the same item but with different holdings. If patrons select a record with a Rapido Offer tile with loan periods and delivery times listed the request will go to a Rapido partner, but if they select a tile with no listed terms the request will be pushed to ILLiad. Staff will then process the request in ILLiad and may end up requesting from the same partners who would have filled the request in Rapido if the patron had simply selected a different record. The Enrich from Global Index workflow will stop requests from automatically going to ILLiad so staff can attach the request to a different record and process the request in Rapido.

A Borrowing Mediation Rule can be set up to stop requests trying to go to ILLiad for mediation. These requests will appear in your Awaiting Request Mediation set and will have the Enrich label from the Borrowing Mediation Rule Output Parameters and they will be at the Ready to be Sent status.

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To attach the request to a record with potential partners click the ellipses (…) and select Enrich from Global Index.

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After selecting Enrich from Global Index you will see a screen with the current information being searched in the Global Index for the request. Click the blue search text to edit the search. Some of the information in the search may be specific to the record currently being used to request the item. Since we want to use a different record for the same item we can delete some information that may not be listed in every record. Hover over a search item you want to delete and click X and Search.

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You may want to remove multiple lines that some catalogers may not add to a record. Subtitles like the one listed above are also sometimes absent in a record, so they can be removed. For example, If I were looking for a copy of the book Ariadne by Jennifer Saint I would remove all the fields except Title and Author. I would also remove any subtitles if present, so if the search was for “Ariadne: A Novel” I would change it to just “Ariadne.”

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Once you click search new results will now appear. To further improve the search you may use the filters on the side to limit the results to the correct Resource Type, Language, Publication Year, etc. For example, if the patron requested the book and not the audio book of Ariadne it can be filtered to only show results for the physical copy of the book. It can also be filtered by language, so if the original request was for a copy in English you can filter show only records in English. By selecting Resource Type = Books and Language = English and then clicking Apply I know all the results will match the patrons original request while still possibly showing multiple records.

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Clicking a record will show what pods have a book attached to that record and if it is currently Available. If a record has holdings in the California State Network, US West, or US Pod I know it will likely be filled quickly, so I would choose that record over any other.

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If a record is not held by a pod you are currently part of, no pod information will be displayed. If a request with no pod info is selected then the request wont go to any pods and will continue to be stopped by the Borrowing Mediation Rule, so don't select any records without pod information.

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To use a record with pod terms, Check the Checkbox for the record and click Select. This will populate Information from the new record to the Rapido request. At this stage it is recommended to remove the ISBN from items with multiple ISBNs to get the broadest access to results on the record because Rapido will only send the request to libraries using a specific ISBN if an ISBN is present. Click Recalculate Partner to send the request to the new record. A few things may happen at the next step.

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If the record you chose had Rapido partners with an available copy of the item the request will automatically go to that partner. Nothing left to do except wait for the item to arrive in the mail.

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Request Still in Mediation

If the request still appears in the Awaiting Request Mediation Set the selected record did not have any Rapido partners with an available copy. Click the ellipses (…) and Enrich from Global Index to try a different record until a Rapido partner is found or you feel all potential partners have been exhausted. This should happen less frequently as more partners join Rapido.

Push to ILLiad

Once you feel no Rapido partners are able to fill the request it is time to try partners outside of Rapido. Add the label you configured as the escape label in the Borrowing Mediation Rule and refresh the page. At most libraries this label is ILLiad or WorldShare. The request should be sent to ILLiad.

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If your library does not use the Borrowing Mediation Rule the requests are cancelled instead of being pushed to ILLiad or WorldShare, but the rest of the process will be the same. 

The Awaiting Copyright Clearance Set gathers all the requests with the Pending Approval status. These requests triggered the Borrowing Copyright Rules set up at your library and need to be approved, marked as not needing payment, purchased, or cancelled. 

The first step to processing copyright is to determine if the item should be processed or cancelled. Staff should use the same criteria for determining if an item needs copyright payment as they did in other Resource Sharing systems such as ILLiad. The most common determiners are to look for duplicates, requests for more than ten percent of a book or journal, and requests that fall within the CONTU Rule of 5.

Duplicates

Look for duplicate requests by the same patron. These will likely be rare because Rapido prevents patrons from requesting duplicate requests in quick succession, but if a duplicate slips through for the same patron, cancel one request and process the other.

Some libraries like to check for duplicate requests for the same patron over the course of a year. To do this, copy the article title from the request and select Analytics from the far left Alma toolbar. Search for Rapido Request Search and search the article title for duplicates. 

Requests For More than 10 Percent Of A Book

If a request for a scan of an entire book, or multiple book chapters in a single request, appears in the Awaiting Copyright Clearance Set the request can be cancelled with a message saying the request violates copyright rules. To cancel the request, click the ellipsis (...) and select Cancel. Select a reason for cancelling the request or add a custom message. If you find you often add the same custom messages a new cancelation reason can be added to your configuration. 

Rule of Five

The CONTU Rule of Five is used to determine if a library should pay copyright according to the CONTU Guidelines. The rule says libraries should pay copyright on articles or book chapters if:

• The article was published within the last five years.
• The library has received at least five articles or book chapters from this book or journal that were published within the last five years. The first five articles do not require copyright payment. 

In essence you get five recently published articles from a journal per year for free and the rest should be paid for under the Rule of Five. The Rule of Five is preconfigured in Rapido, so any article or book chapter that appears in the Awaiting Copyright Clearance Set has already triggered the rule. The rule can be edited in configuration if your library follows different copyright guidelines. 

Once you have determined a request needs copyright payment you have several options on how to pay copyright. The easiest and most convenient way to pay copyright is to purchase the article from a document supplier through a Cloud App in Alma. There are currently two available apps: the Article Galaxy Add-On and the Get It Now Add-On. Currently, most CSU campuses use the Article Galaxy Add-On and none currently use the Get It Now Add-On. Regardless of the add-on you use, your library will need to make an account. The workflows between the two systems are nearly identical, but this course will focus on the Article Galaxy Add-On.

Go to the Awaiting Copyright Clearance Set and look at the request to determine if it is indeed an item you need to purchase or pay copyright on using your libraries copyright policies (such as CONTU). If you need to pay copyright, select the Cloud App Center icon (four squares making a large square) and the Article Galaxy Add-On app. The app will instantly search all the requests on the page and display the price for a PDF copy. If you want to purchase a PDF click Request PDF $XX.XX. If you refresh or reload the webpage the request will disappear because the app will automatically update the request status to Request Sent to Partner.

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Reprints Desk will process the request and send it to Rapido where it will automatically be delivered to the patron the same way articles are delivered from other libraries. There is no need for further processing. An invoice will be sent to the email attached to the Reprints Desk account each month for payment. 

Another option for copyright payment is to mark an item as needing payment to add to a report to send to a copyright clearinghouse such as the Copyright Clearance Center or Reprints Desk for payment. These requests will be marked as needing payment but prices are not available through Alma and Rapido. It is recommended to purchase the article if possible to pay copyright immediately with a known price for easier tracking. Some articles will not be available through the apps at this time and will need to go through this process.

If a request needs copyright payment, but isn't available through the Article Galaxy Add-On app, you can mark it as needing copyright payment by clicking a request to open the right hand information panel and scroll to the Request Attributes section. Click the check box next to Agree to Copyright Terms to mark the request as needing copyright payment in the future. 

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Sometimes a request will sneak into the Awaiting Copyright Clearance Set that doesn't need a copyright payment. Maybe the request is for an article published more than five years ago, or maybe its an article from a journal you subscribe to, regardless of why the request doesn't need copyright payment the workflow is the same. To push a request through without marking it for copyright payment click the request to open the right hand information panel and scroll to the Request Attributes section. Click the pencil to expand the options and select No Copyright Restriction from the drop down menu and then select Save. The request will now be sent to a Lending Library for processing.

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The other two options are Copyright Approved and Copyright Not Approved. Selecting Copyright Approved will mark the request as needing payment in the future and Copyright Not Approved will keep the request in the Awaiting Copyright Clearance Set for processing. 

To see the Copyright Report go to Alma > Analytics > Reports > Rapido Copyright Dashboard. This report has three tabs of information for you to use. The first tab is the Articles Unpaid tab. This tab lets you view all the articles that have the Copyright Approved status, were successfully filled, and were not purchased through a vendor. These would be items you still need to pay by submitting the report to Reprints Desk or purchasing each article through the Copyright Clearance Center.

The second tab is very similar to the first tab. This is the Book Chapters Unpaid tab. These are items where the amount or scans from the book triggered the CONTU guidelines. Since students or faculty have been requesting scans of the books on this list it may be a good idea to purchase a copy for your library.

The third tab is the Purchased Items tab. This tab shows all the requests that were purchased through a cloud app such as the Article Galaxy Add-On or the Get It Now Add-On. Copyright for these items have already been paid, so this is more of an informational report. This shows the price for each article and the total amount spent so far this calendar year.

The final tab is the Purchased Monthly Totals tab. This tab shows the total approved copyright per month, total approved with your vendors, and total combined. Along with this information in tables, a graph was added to this page to show the totals visually. All three items on this tab are also available as Dashboard Widgets for easy tracking when you sign in to Alma.

Sometimes requests come in with the wrong format. Usually, this is a patron requesting a whole digital copy of a physical book, but it can also happen if a book is cataloged in the Global Title Index incorrectly. Changing the requested format is thankfully easy at this point, but there are a few steps you will want to take note of.

In Borrowing you may see a request for a digital copy for an entire book in your Awaiting Request Mediation Set. To switch the requested format from Article/Book Chapter to Book click the ellipsis (…) and select Convert Request Type.

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A menu will pop up asking what format you want the request to be. Select the appropriate format and click Convert.

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A request page will appear for you to update any necessary information and request the item in the correct format. If the information is correct click Recalculate Partner. It would make sense to click Save, but this will leave the request in RapidILL if it is a physical item instead of Rapido. This could lead to no partners being found or the item being filled through the RapidR pod instead of a higher priority pod.

After clicking Recalculate Partner the request will start over and go through your institution’s priority Rapido pods.

Sometimes an item is accidentally returned in Alma and it needs to be un-returned so it can be checked out to the patron. You can revive a returned request with just a few steps. The first step is to manually change the status to Request Completed. Afterwards, refresh the page.

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Once the request has a status of Request Completed a new option will appear under the ellipses (…) menu. You can now select the Reactivate option to revive the request to a point before the book was checked out.

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Selecting Reactivate will cause a pop up to appear with options for how you want to revive the request. You will want to leave Reactivate Loan unchecked. Checking this will check out the item to the patron, but will not change the status to Loaned Item To Patron. You will want to leave Send General Message checked. This will send a General Message to the Lending library to notify them the request has been reactivated.

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The request is now Reactivated and can be checked out to the patron using normal workflows.