Session 1- Thursday October 20th, 10:30am
Amplifying Diverse Voices through Alma/Primo’s Collections Tool
Dom Bortruex, Nobue Matsuoka, Amanda Steadman
Yale University, American University
Slides
The focus of this presentation is creating CADIVO (Collections Amplifying Diverse Voices) using the Collections function in Ex Libris Alma/Primo to support the growing need for research/teaching materials that support diversity, equity, and inclusivity. This feature allows items to be grouped together into browsable and searchable collections without modifying item records. A team of three presenters, including a music librarian, access services manager and technical services representative, will talk about their roles in this project. The presentation starts with addressing issues and practical questions, such as ethical consideration on naming the collections, labeling the categories within the collections, and resources consulted to start the project. Next, we will address the process of finding materials matching our criteria within the library’s collection and our interim steps to make these items visible to faculty and students. Finally, we will talk about the technical aspects of adding these items to Collections in Alma/Primo for public browsing and searching, the technical issues we encountered and how we solved them.
Creating a DIY Room Reservation System Using Alma’s Booking Functionality
Jill Locascio
SUNY College of Optometry
Slides
Study rooms are one of the most popular parts of the Library and many institutions find the need to institute some kind of reservation system to make sure that they can be used by all. The Covid-19 pandemic has only amplified this need. However, in a time of shrinking budgets, not every Library can afford to purchase sophisticated room reservation software. In this presentation, Jill Locascio will outline how she set up a study room reservation system using Alma’s booking functionality. The presentation will include a step-by-step guide for configuration, tips for streamlining the process, and will also address potential pitfalls as well as limitations inherent in the system.
Work Orders Demystified
Kristen Fredericksen
The City University of New York
Slides
Work orders can seem baffling, but they’re useful tools for tracking workflows in Alma. This presentation will break down the aspects of work orders that make them seem confusing, then build up the attendees’ understanding with clear, real-world examples. Session attendees will also learn how to decide between a work order and more traditional method.
Session 2- Thursday October 20th, 2:30pm
Starting from Zero(-ish): Setting up Course Reserves in Alma from Scratch (with help from the API)
Rebecca Hyams
Borough of Manhattan Community College- CUNY
Slides
As the Fall 2021 semester was coming to a close, a few of us at the Borough of Manhattan Community College Library started discussing how to improve the management of and access to our print course reserves. We knew Alma had the functionality to do what we needed, but lacked both the resources to devote to repetitive data entry or the time to get integration set up with the college’s student information system. This presentation will discussing how we ultimately made use of of the Alma Courses API and the API platform Postman to get our courses, reading lists, and citations all set up for the Spring 2022 semester. The presentation will also discuss the many lessons I learned along the way and adjustments made for subsequent semesters.
Reaping Resources for Recommenders: Working with LibGuides, MarcEdit, and Other Simple Tools
Nancy Babb
University at Buffalo, SUNY
Slides
Primo VE’s Resource Recommender functionality allows libraries to present a variety of curated resources in response to selected keyword tags. Databases and Library Guides are two types of common Resource Recommenders. Resource Recommender entries can be manually created in Alma or imported via Excel spreadsheet — but the task may seem daunting for libraries who wish to include large lists of resources. The maintenance of these resources may also seem daunting, since the Alma Resource Recommender files are static and not automatically updated. Libraries that use LibGuides or another structured platform to host their library guides and database A-Z lists can use MarcEdit to harvest and process the OAI from their guides and A-Z lists and export the revised data for uploading to Alma. Excel and Notepad++ can be used for additional data cleanup and ongoing maintenance. This session will describe and demonstrate our process at University at Buffalo Libraries.
Building a COUNTER5 Usage Dashboard
Ben Andrus, Matt Gallagher, Mary Tuttle
Binghamton University
Slides
At Binghamton University Libraries, the canned Alma COUNTER5 Usage Dashboard was not meeting our data needs. In order to more closely analyze usage at the platform-, database- and title-level, we created a dashboard that attempts to leverage all the reports we’ve ingested to date. Some subject librarians then copied the top-level dashboard and tailored it to look at their own journal spends during review time. We’d like to share the results of this process and discuss how we will be using it to make collection development decisions moving forward.
Session 3- Friday October 21st, 9:00am
Bulk Updating Access Models With Python
Tim Dewysockie
Rowan University
Slides
The access model field enables users to see how many patrons can use eBooks simultaneously in Primo (one concurrent user, three, unlimited, etc.). While this feature provides valuable information, Alma currently does not offer a way to bulk update this field using Alma’s built-in jobs. Manually updating records to add this information would be prohibitively time-consuming for institutions with massive numbers of eBooks. However, it can be updated programmatically using Alma’s APIs. This presentation will explore how a novice Python user approached writing a script to bulk update access models, describing generally how to get started using Python to interact with APIs in Alma in general, and how this problem was addressed using Python scripting.
Library Mobile Implementation at Rutgers University Libraries
Chad Mills, Christopher Sterback, Yang Yu
Rutgers University Libraries
Slides
Rutgers University is currently offering the Ex Libris Library Mobile application to our students, faculty, and staff using both Apple and Android devices. Starting in September 2021, Rutgers University Libraries began implementing the Library Mobile application with Ex Libris as a development partner. We plan to present not only our current Library Mobile app that is being offered to students, faculty, and staff but also the process we went through implementing the application. We will also demonstrate how we configure the application capabilities along with the look and feel.
“Ooooh,I want to try that!”: Exploring Examples and Inspiration for Primo VE Local Customization
Nancy Babb, Jill Locascio, Heidi Webb
University at Buffalo, SUNY Optometry, SUNY Upstate Medical
Slides
Primo VE provides a number of routes for institutions to customize their local instances; some by default — such as Resource Recommender and Collection Discovery configuration in Alma — and others through local development in the custom CSS and JS files. Ex Libris provides support and documentation for default configuration, but localized customization of CSS and JS are understandably outside the range of Ex Libris support. Fortunately there are robust, friendly, and generous communities of users willing to share ideas and brainstorm solutions. Exploring different Primo VE instances throughout the community can reveal examples of great things that other institutions have accomplished that may inspire and provide examples that can be borrowed and adapted by others. This session will highlight some common customizations and unique exemplars, and share some simple tips for looking at sites, their files and code, and seeking assistance. Participants will be encouraged to share their own examples during the session.
Session 4- Friday October 21st, 10:15am
Redirect Searches to Resource Sharing Requests and Beyond
Kristy Lee, Tim Jackson
SUNY New Paltz, SUNY OLIS
Slides
Due to the mold infestation, more than half of the physical items were inaccessible at SUNY New Paltz library. Working with SUNY Libraries Support team, we are able to fill those physical material requests via our Alma Network Zone and Resource Sharing within the SUNY Library Consortium network and other participating libraries. In this presentation, we will show the step-by-step instructions on the configuration changes and setup in Alma and Primo VE, with analytics reports.
Alma-D for digital collections: Initial lessons learned
Jared Cowing
Williams College
Slides
Williams College is presently moving its digital collections from Islandora 7 to Alma-D. Though we found many peer institutions using Alma-D for smaller collections, few were using it at a scope that replaced their separate digital collections repositories. As a result, information on how well Alma-D could scale to our specific needs was often difficult to come by, particularly as it pertained to the level of support for MODS metadata. This presentation will offer initial reflections and help answer questions one might not think to ask when considering Alma-D as a replacement for a dedicated digital collections repository.
Marva BIBFRAME editor and Alma: the incorporation of native BIBFRAME descriptions to Alma
Jim Hahn
University of Pennsylvania Library
Slides
The Library of Congress Network Development and MARC Standards office has been engaged in standards redevelopment for BIBFRAME and in the re-engineering of cataloging tools such as the Marva metadata editor for native BIBFRAME description. The code for the Marva BIBFRAME editor is available in the open source by way of GitHub (https://github.com/lcnetdev/marva-frontend; https://github.com/lcnetdev/marva-backend ).
Using the Mavra linked data editor, along with ExLibris catalog APIs that interface with Alma, metadata research outputs from the University of Pennsylvania Library produced a reusable data flow such that BIBFRAME in its native Library of Congress structure ( BIBFRAME in XML/RDF) can now be directly posted into Alma.
This presentation will detail how the incorporation of native BIBFRAME descriptions in Alma was accomplished by way of RESTful web services and Marva configuration. Catalogers at the University of Pennsylvania library are able to use a locally configured and locally hosted Marva system for creation of BIBFRAME descriptions that post directly to Alma as native BIBFRAME.
The downstream discovery effects of BIBFRAME resources in the Alma system will be considered, particularly within the frame of IFLA-LRM user tasks for bibliographic systems.
Session 5- Friday October 21st, 11:30am
NoCLC: Moving from ILLiad and WorldShare ILL to Rapido and ISO
Drew Parker, Dzintra Lacis, Emily Hartman, Evan Smith
Brandeis University
Slides
This presentation will describe the extensive changes Brandeis University made to its interlibrary loan and document delivery processes when it not only migrated to Rapido, but decided at the same time to do away with WorldShare ILL entirely in lieu of using Rapido, Rapid and ISO connections between Brandeis and other libraries. We will discuss the logic behind our decision, the implementation process, and workflow and user experience changes that came with this migration and provide what we see as the pros and cons of choosing to go down this route in the fall of 2022.
ETL with Python for Esploro Migration
Casey Koons
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Slides
Migrating from one repository to another is a daunting task. Chief among the many challenges is matching the metadata format from the source to the standards of the new repository. The standard approach to such problems is to create a migration cross-walk that pairs the fields together. In this presentation, I will share how I developed a different workflow, which transformed the source data in order for it to fit into our new Esploro instance. I will share several python-based techniques for working with xml files, csv, and parsing and transforming text. Together, these straight-forward scripts can make the migration of metadata automatic and solve many of the typical problems with such migrations.
E-Resource COUNTER Data Visualization from Concept to Reality
Qiaoyi Liu, Heidi Webb
Syracuse University, Upstate Medical University
Slides
Alma’s capability to harvest COUNTER data through SUSHI brought visions of easily collected data with handy charts that were only a few clicks away. Knowing that systems are often more complex than they appear on the surface and after diving deeper, the pre-built Ex Libris dashboards did not quite suite our library’s needs. So, we set out to create one dashboard that provided both summaries and details without feeling overwhelming. This presentation will focus on taking the concept of data visualization and working through all the initial brainstorming, whiteboarding, and other planning aspects needed to make a completed dashboard a reality.