Library Guides: Alma/Primo VE Migration: Record Structures

Record Structures

Introduction to Alma Inventory Models
Ex Libris documentation on inventory models.

Each category of inventory has a similar, but slightly different, record structure. 3 Categories of Inventory:

Print (i.e. everything physical: books, DVDs, microfilm, kits, etc.)
Electronic (ebooks, ejournals, databases, streaming media, etc.)
Digital (files owned by your library, e.g. institutional repository files, digitized archival records)

The inventory model for physical resources in Alma is structured with three levels: The bibliographic level, the holdings level, and the item level. Physical inventory, such as a book or a serial, will have a metadata record at each of these levels: The bibliographic record, the holdings record, and the item record. In fact, a bibliographic record could have more than one holdings record, and each holdings record could have more than one item record. The holding record provides the link between the bibliographic record and the physical inventory (items), as can be seen in the following diagram.

physical inventory record structure

Electronic resources hierarchy:

Electronic Collection – A collection of electronic resources that is either a package of electronic portfolios (i.e. aggregator package or selective package) or a database (which does not include portfolios or full text service and whose resources cannot be individually managed through an interface, e.g. ).
Electronic Services – Types of access to the e-resource, e.g. full-text or selected (partial) full-text and connection/linking information.
Electronic Portfolios – Serial or monograph titles that can be standalone entities or be part of an electronic collection. Electronic portfolios maintain the specific coverage (local or global), services, and link information relevant for a particular electronic title.

Digital Inventory follows the same general record structure as shown below:

digital record structure in alma