Alma/Ex Libris Migration

NOTE: For additional information and details about Alma record structures, see the guide's main "Alma" tab.

Activation: The process of enabling or "turning on" access to e-resources for patrons. Includes confirming that the library does have access to the resource along with setting up technical information to provide access to patrons. Similar to "selecting" a title in EbscoAdmin holdings management.

Aggregator collection: An electronic collection for which the library typically selects the entire collection of portfolios.

Allocation fund: contains money that has been paid out or has been reserved for purchases. When a fund is created, it can be located in a ledger, or in a summary fund that has already been created in a ledger. 

ALMA: The library service platform (LSP) which will replace both Sierra and Ebsco holdings management (or other link resolver) functionality.

Alma Digital: A module in Alma (included in our OhioLINK package) that serves as an institutional repository for institution-owned resources. Files of digitized content can be hosted directly in Alma Digital, or on another server and linked to via Alma Digital. The contents are then searchable in Primo VE discovery.

Alma Link Resolver:  Alma component that responds to external requests with a menu of physical, electronic, and digital services. For physical resources, requests are offered; for electronic resources, context-sensitive links are provided; for digital resources, direct links to the digital object are provided. 

Alternative call number: The full call number of the item, containing both the classification portion for the set and the sequence portion (the unique portion of the item’s call number containing item volumes). The Item Call Number (Item Call Number=Alternative Call Number) field was populated for multi-part items at migration. In Alma, the sequence portion is intended to go in the item record Description field.

Booking request: this reserves an item (e.g. book, study room, equipment, etc.) for a patron for a specific period of time frame.  

Brief Record Level: Definitions of record levels are configured by your institution using Rules in the Metadata Editor (or you can use "out of the box" definitions). This does NOT correlate with OCLC MARC encoding levels. Also, it does NOT have to do with the length of the bibliographical record and does NOT necessarily indicate a "brief bib" or "stub bib" such as one we would suppress and have only an order record attached to in Sierra. Varying levels of brief records can be defined using rules that assign a brief level based on checking the existence of information in the metadata. Ten levels of brief records can be defined from 01 through 10, where 01 represents the most brief record and 10 represents a full record. Since there are varying standards for defining the criteria of a brief record (such as the MARC and OCLC standards), brief level rules provide you with the greatest flexibility and granularity for identifying the level of briefness of a bibliographic record that enhances your options for record updates.

Campus: an entity configured within Institutions. Campuses are not mandatory, and are not a hierarchical entity, but provide additional options for electronic resource fulfillment and physical item pickup locations. One or more libraries may be associated with a campus, but a library can only be associated with one campus. Libraries are not required to be associated with any campus, however.

Central Discovery Index (CDI): A searchable database of citations collected from scholarly e-resources including journal articles, e-books, legal documents and more. They are harvested from thousands of primary and secondary commercial publishers and aggregators, and from open-access repositories. CDI is also a relational database between citations rather than just an aggregated list of abstracts or citations. This enables linking features like those between a book review and the book in question or a book chapter and the entire book. CDI works together with your Alma instance to provide your users access to resources both within your holdings, and beyond if you so choose.

Central Knowledge Base:  The part of the Community Zone that contains information about electronic collections and portfolios, such as linking information and coverage. Information is updated by Ex Libris from vendor provided metadata. Similar to EbscoAdmin Holdings Management functionality.

Circulation Desk: the service point within Alma for physical inventory, configured at the Library level. There can be multiple circulation desks per location, as well as multiple locations served by a circulation desk (many-to-many relationship). The functions of the Circulation Desk are: check in, check out, and reshelve.

Collection (see "Electronic Collection")

Community Catalog: Metadata records for electronic resources stored in the Community Zone, which are updated as required by Ex Libris or by contributions from the community. An institution's electronic inventory can be linked to the current versions of these records, or can be copied to the institution and maintained locally. 

Community Zone (CZ): Contains shared bibliographic records for electronic resources, authority vocabularies, and a knowledge base of vendor supplied information about electronic collections and portfolios (the Central Knowledge Base). Resources are available for all Alma institutions to use. Alma community members can update Community Zone catalog bibliographic records. Functions are similar to those of OCLC metadata and cataloging utility, and EbscoAdmin holdings management (for electronic resources only). 

Consolidated User Account: A named user account that serves a particular workstation or function in the library. E.g. "Circ1" or "Tech Services." Not assigned to a specific user. Similar to general logins in Sierra (catstaff, circstaff, etc.).

Database: In Alma, this is a specific term meaning a collection with no portfolios associated. Typically, this is an "abstract & indexing" or "citation" database, with no content available. In Primo, it will have a URL taking the user to the site.

Digital Resource:  A file or group of files with metadata, that exists on a local network, a server, or in the cloud. The files are owned/controlled by the institution. It may include, among other possible formats, streaming media, e-books, video, or images. Digital resource files can be stored and managed externally, with the metadata managed in Alma, or the digital files can also be stored in Alma Digital.

Direct linking: Allows the user to be taken directly to the full text of online resources, rather than the item's details page when the user clicks the "Available Online" link in the search results. Can also be enabled to go directly to the first database listed when there are multiple options available. This is configured in Alma Fulfillment.

Discovery:  The feature that allows a patron to find records and inventory from the Alma Repository. Primo is Ex Libris' system to provide discovery. 

Electronic Collection:  A collection of electronic resources that can be one of the following types: Selective, Aggregator, or Database. Each collection type will have a "service type" of full text, selective full text, or none (for database resources with no attached portfolios). Documentation will use the term "collection" but you may still often heard it referred to as a "package."

Electronic Resource:  A rather general term for licensed material to which the institution subscribes. This could be a single title, database, selective package, or content aggregator. These can be activated/deactivated, and have descriptive bibliographic metadata associated with them. After activating an electronic resource for your institution, you will be able to edit the Portfolio for individual ("standalone") titles, or the Service for database/selective/aggregator collections.

Embedded Order Data (EOD): MARC files from vendors with embedded order information. In Alma, you can create bibs, holdings, items, and POLs by importing files with EOD provided by your vendors. EDIFACT or Electronic Invoice Processing are other terms for this type of file.

External User Account: These user accounts are managed via an external database of information, that is imported either manually or on a scheduled basis. Information for a user will be updated via a matched field, or new users created and non-existent users in the file will be removed from Alma. If there is a match to an internally created user, that will be overlaid with the information from the imported file, and that user will become external.

Fulfillment:  The process by which patrons borrow and return physical resources, or access electronic or digital resources. Includes the current services of circulation, INN-Reach and Interlibrary Loan.

Fulfillment Unit:  (also sometime called "Location Type") One or more location(s) within an institution that follow the same loan rules. Exceptions for items within the fulfillment unit can be made using an "item policy rule." Fulfillment unit rules (similar to "loan rules" in Sierra) determine the loan policies that apply in different scenarios (e.g. different patron types). Locations grouped under a fulfillment unit do NOT have to be within the same library.

Fulfillment Network:  A  group of institutions that allow directly requesting hold and digitization requests from one another. Patrons of any institution can directly place requests of any type on items of any other institution in the network. OhioLINK would be our Fulfillment Network (similar to INN-Reach in Sierra).

Fund: A fund represents money in an account. There are "summary funds" and "allocation funds." You can move funds within a ledger hierarchy so that the fund is still nested under the same ledger, but is associated with a different summary fund within the ledger. You can also move funds from one ledger to another, as long both ledgers are in the same fiscal period, and are owned by the same organizational unit (the institution or a specific library). 

Import Profile: Parameters configured to load records into Alma, similar to a "load profile" in Sierra. It can be used to add, apply edits, merge, or delete records of various types (bibliographic, order, inventory, etc.). 

Indication Rule: A saved rule used for creating filtered sets. They are applied to already created sets, and result in an itemized set.

Institution: The highest level of the organizational hierarchy in Alma. There is only one institution in your instance of Alma. In the case of the OPAL consortium, the institution usually corresponds to the academic institution. When you log into Alma, you are logging in to your institution's instance of Alma. Libraries are the next lower level of organization, and there can be many libraries within the Institution, but there must be at least one. Institutions may also have Campuses, an optional

Institution Zone (IZ): The library's local inventory, including items, holdings, portfolios, orders (POs/purchase orders), payments (POLs/purchase order lines), vendor records, funds/ledgers. Bib records can be in the IZ only, or linked to bib records in the Network Zone (with some exceptions). When linked to the NZ, the bibliographic metadata exists in the NZ, but your institution's inventory exists in the IZ.

Interface: The vendor providing access to an electronic resource. E.g. JSTOR, Taylor&Francis, MIT Press, etc. This is part of the electronic collection details. 

Integration Profile:  Alma integrates with external systems such as vendor systems, Enterprise Resource Planning systems, catalog systems, remote storage systems, and so forth) using standard protocols (such as S/FTP). Some integration profiles create jobs that can be used to export information to, or import information from, an external system. Other integration profiles provide tokens and codes to use to configure external systems.

Inventory: The resources (physical, electronic, and digital) associated with a library. Represents items from Sierra and holdings in EDS.

Item:  The inventory level of a resource for fulfillment and usage. Items may include bar codes and other identification details. The item level of electronic inventory is called a "portfolio."

Item in Place:  The item is in place on its shelf. ("available" in Sierra)

Item not in place:  The item is not on its shelf ("not available" in Sierra). It is recorded as being somewhere else (for example, on loan, in transit, or in process of acquisition) and is not placed on the shelf yet.

Jobs: Routines created to perform actions on sets of records (similar to "global update," "rapid update," and "data exchange" in Sierra), or to perform global tasks with automated processes. Scheduled jobs are automatically run on a regular schedule, and don't require a set to be created in advance. They are set up during Alma implementation, and usually cannot be controlled by your institution. Workflow jobs are automatically run when a user performs a task that requires processes to be run by Alma (e.g. sending purchase orders to a vendor). These are not created manually or as a scheduled job, but do appear in the "monitor jobs" list. Many jobs can also be run manually on sets of records.

Ledger:  A collection of funds, either summary funds or allocated funds (or a combination). Ledgers have a fiscal period (they are relevant for a certain period of time, such as a fiscal year) which is inherited by the funds. A ledger can be created under an institution or a library. Once created, ownership of a ledger can be moved from a library to an institution, but not from an institution to a library, though different libraries can be assigned access to a ledger.

Libraries: the organizational level of Alma below Institutions and above Locations. There can be many libraries within the single institution, and each library can have many locations. Libraries are the "functional area" of Alma, including configurations for acquisitions, circulation desks, and locations. General System Administrators can delete or add libraries. Every library must also have a calendar that defines hours and exceptions for the purpose of determining due dates and fines.

License:  The contract between the library and a vendor for the lease or purchase of one or more copyrighted online resources, describing the rights/permissions granted to the signing parties. Management of licenses in Alma occurs in the Acquisitions functional area.

Loan Record: same as "checkouts" in Sierra, records of when/to whom/due date of items checked out. Associated with item inventory records.

Local Extensions: Consortia members who share bibliographic records may still want to maintain some local information in their IZ record. This can be accomplished through the use of local tags, i.e. the 590 tags currently used in Sierra with local institutions' notes in the bib record. If editing a record in the Network Zone, the local extension is only visible to the institution that created that extension.

Location: a "sub-entity" of libraries, defined at the library level. Locations contain physical inventory, and each library that has physical inventory must have at least one location. Items in the same location circulate according to the same policies. Locations are assigned to only one Fulfillment Unit at a time, which determines which loan rules apply to items in that location. 

Location Type: See Fulfillment Unit.

Manual jobs: These jobs are available to run by you as required. Some manual jobs first require you to create sets (of items, users, and so forth) for the job to process.

Mapping Table:  An Alma feature for configuring settings for a list of items, such as customer parameters. 

Metadata Editor (MDE):  The tool for editing and creating bibliographic, authority, and holdings records in Alma. MARC21 or Dublin Core records can be edited, as well as some other metadata schema record types.

Metadata Management System ID (MMS ID):  The record ID number for most record types in Alma. The MMS ID can be 8 to 19 digits long (with the first two digits referring to the record type and the last four digits referring to a unique identifier for the institution). The MMS ID is usually the best way to communicate a specific record example to Ex Libris.

Merge Rules: Configured in the Metadata Editor and provide instructions on how two records are to be merged. When merging two records, the primary record is the record that will contain all of the merged information. The secondary record is the record whose information will be merged into the primary record. Merge rules either remove information in the primary record or copy information from the secondary record to the primary record. Merge rules do not affect the secondary record, which may remain after the merge; although it is typically deleted.

Named User Account: A user in Alma with any assigned roles other than Patron, Instructor, or Trial Participant. Basically, a staff user that can access data to some degree in Alma itself. 

Network Zone (NZ):  A management tool used by a collaborative network to centrally manage certain features, such as configuration tables, licenses, and records. A virtual institution (in our case OhioLINK) is used as the management interface and central repository and catalog. Bib/metadata records can be located in the NZ (with some exceptions, e.g. suppressed bib records). The NZ can include physical and electronic resources.

Normalization Process: Normalization Rules that have been grouped together to be performed on a set of records. They can also be applied to records upon importing them into either the Institution Zone or Network Zone via Import Profiles (similar to a load profile in Sierra).

Normalization Rules:  Rules that can be built and applied to bibliographic records in order to apply changes or enhance the record (similar to macros that perform processes that need to be repeated many times in the same way). These rules may add fields, remove fields, or make changes to fields. The rules can be applied to an individual record (e.g. during cataloging an individual item in the MDE), or grouped into a Normalization Process to apply to a set of records that has been created. 

P2E (Physical to Electronic) Process: Occurs during migration. A file of bib records is provided to Ex Libris to create electronic records from the traditional catalog records in Sierra for electronic resources. These will be local records only, and not linked to the community zone.

Portfolio (Electronic Portfolio): Electronic resource (inventory) that maintains the specific coverage (local or global), access controls, and link information relevant for a particular electronic title. Portfolios can be "standalone" or part of an electronic collection. A parallel in EDS holdings management would be the title details screen (though there are some differences).

Portfolio Loader: A tool for adding, updating, or deleting portfolios for an electronic collection in batch mode by uploading an Excel spreadsheet or a KBART file that contains a list of portfolios.

Primo/Primo VE: Ex Libris' discovery system for patrons. A single search interface that provides a gateway to a wealth of scholarly content, including print, electronic and digital collections. Our product is Primo VE

Primo Central Index:  Primo's central database. A mega-aggregation of hundreds of millions of scholarly e-resources of global and regional importance. These include journal articles, e-books, reviews, legal documents and more that are harvested from primary and secondary publishers and aggregators, and from open-access repositories.

Privileges:  Permissions to perform certain actions in Alma, or to access specific pages, fields, or options in Alma. A user role is defined by the privileges that it grants the user

PO / Purchase order: an order composed of one or more Purchase Order Line(s). 

Purchase Order Line (POL): The equivalent of "order" in Sierra. Can be one-time or recurring.

Reading List:  A list of citations for resources (physical, electronic or digital) for a specific course. Corresponds to course reserve items in Sierra.

Reporting code:  Codes used for analyzing acquisitions in reporting in Analytics to track aspects not captured in the funds hierarchy. These codes appear in Alma in drop-down lists on the PO line Summary tab. Each POL can have up to 5 reporting codes. Reporting codes are configured at the institution level.

Repository:  All information that Alma has about library material, including inventory, such as physical titles and items, electronic titles, electronic collections and electronic portfolios, digital titles and representations, deposits, management collections, and authorities. The repository title record (located via an All titles, Physical titles, Electronic titles, or Digital titles search) is the bibliographic record for the title (sometimes called the "intellectual entity").

Repository Search:  The search function within Alma that staff uses to search all forms of resources – print, electronic and digital, and across the Institution, Network, and Community Zones. Unlike the Sierra basic catalog search, advanced searching combining multiple parameters is also available (more like the create lists functionality). Results in searches vary significantly depending on subtle factors. For detailed searching information see: Searching in Alma

Request Record: Same as a "hold" record in Sierra.

Resource Sharing: Borrowing or lending of materials (electronic or physical) between distinct institutions.

Role Profiles: Sets of user roles that are already defined to include scopes and parameters. These can make assigning roles to a large number of people easier.

Rota:  List of potential lenders that a borrower library assigns to a borrowing request.  The functionality of this includes creating Rota Templates and Rota Assignment Rules that automatically determine these lenders.

Rules: Can be of four types, and are created and edited in the Metadata Editor. The types are Normalization, Merge, Indication, and Brief Record Level rules.

Scheduled jobs: Scheduled jobs run at predetermined intervals or dates. Many of these jobs are scheduled by Alma, and set up during implementation. For manually scheduled jobs, you can configure the schedule using predefined job scheduling options. Note that scheduled jobs run as close as possible to their scheduled time. Some jobs can run in parallel, but part or all of a job may wait until a server has available resources. You can add people to be notified when these jobs run.

Selective Collection: an electronic collection for which the library typically activates specific portfolios and not necessarily the entire collection (though it may be). 

Service Type: The linking or full text information for an electronic package or database. A service can be full text, selected full text, or no full text (e.g. A & I databases). 

Sets: Batches of records created with queries (similar to "create lists" in Sierra). Logical sets are created with logical queries, and are "dynamic" and can be refreshed by rerunning the search. Itemized sets are created either by using "create itemized set" and adding specific items, or by converting a logical set into an itemized one. They can also be created by uploading records from a file on your computer. The member records in the itemized set cannot be updated except by manually adding or removing items.

Summary fund:  Not used for ordering and invoicing, but provides aggregate reporting on subordinate funds within a ledger. You can add other funds to this type of fund. Summary funds can be structured into multi-level hierarchies. However, note that during the migration phase only one level of summary funds can be created and mapped to from Sierra. See also: reporting codes.

Title: a unit of inventory (physical or electronic) that has bibliographic metadata describing it. A physical title could have one or multiple items (usually with individual barcodes) attached. An electronic title could have one or multiple portfolios related to it.

User:  A person with an Alma user account: a staff user, an instructor, or a patron. Users can be "external" or "internal." External users' data are maintained in a database outside Alma (such as Banner/university database) and imported/updated regularly. Internal users are created from within Alma, such as a vendor representative's contact info, a walk-up guest that isn't in the system, etc. The vast majority of users are "external."

User Group: These are defined at the institution and/or the library level in Alma. Examples of user groups could be "undergraduate student," "faculty," etc. These groups are used to help determine loan policies and other services available for the group.

User Record Type: There are 3 kinds of user record types: Public, Staff, and Contact. Public users are usually patrons, or users of the library, and are typically external user accounts. Staff users are library employees, whose roles are assigned in Alma. Contact users could be vendors or other contacts with no actual permissions in Alma; they are just informational.

User Role:  The privileges that a user has to work on Alma, that can be assigned with library or institutional scope. A user's roles (actually, the roles' privileges) determine a user's access to certain pages, fields, options and areas on certain pages, as well as the ability to run certain jobs and processes. Similar to "permissions" in Sierra. There are 4 general categories of user roles across an Alma functional area(e.g. acquisitions): Viewer (view only), Operator (select day-to-day operations), Manager (all day-to-day operations), Administrator (can configure others' roles, but may not have access to operational abilities in that area). Users can have multiple role categories in multiple functional areas.

Workflow jobs: Workflow jobs that run automatically when they are required. For example, after submitting a purchase order, the job "Export Orders (PO) Job" runs in order to send the PO to the vendor. In some cases, you can also run or rerun these jobs at any time—for example, if the original run failed.