Recommendations to College Libraries for

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Data Planning and Information Gathering

The goal of this page is to focus on strategies for print and electronic data cleaning, with a focus on organization, tagging for migration and matching in what will be the Network Zone (NZ)suggest strategies that might help to streamline your migration efforts to Alma. For a broader understanding of the requirements needed to implement Alma and Primo visit Getting Ready for Alma and Discovery Implementation.

KEEP IT SIMPLE

The recommendations below contain tips or suggestions for ways to tidy up your data get organized before migration to Alma. This is not a ‘one size fits all’ guide – but a list of local considerations that you can begin to think about. Ex Libris suggests that local data cleaning may streamline the migration process and help to ensure to best possible outcomes. Read Getting Ready for Alma and Discovery Implementation, Appendix A - Fulfillment Simplificationto gain a fuller understanding of Ex Libris' suggestions. As you explore this information in the Ex Libris Knowledge Center, consider keeping the https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/120Alma_Glossary open in a new tab for quick reference.

Organization and Simplification of locations, patrons and item types:

Making sure that records and collections in your original source database are well organized is one thing you can do to ensure a best possible migration outcome. If there are small collections that no longer need to stand on their own, consider merging them into larger ‘locations’. Depending upon your system, you may choose to merge collections ahead of time OR simply choose to map two collections together upon migration. Note: In Alma, a location is defined as a “physical place where items are stored” that is “associated with a library.” Locationsthat have similar fulfillment (circulation) policies and blocks will become associated with your library’s fulfillment units.

• Consider categorizing Plan to categorize locations into about five “location type categories” that share common circulation policies: For example: regular loan; limited loan, short loan/reserve, closed stack, and media.

• Ex Libris expects that most locations should fit into one of the above categories and recommends that libraries restrict the number of ‘item type’ circulation exceptions to five. Item type circulation exceptions are only used in situations where items cannot circulate in the same way as the majority of items in their location, for any given user group. To read more about Item Exceptions, refer to the Alma Configuration Form Guide, pages 17-18; 21; & 52.

• The diagram below illustrates the relationship between the bibliographic record, libraries, holdings records, locations and item records.

  

• Visit https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/040Resource_Management/050Inventory/010Introduction_to_Alma_Inventory#Physical for additional information describing the relationship between ‘location,’ ‘holding’ and ‘item' in the institutional zone (IZ).

• Also consider amalgamating user groups that share common permissions

Tags and Identifiers:

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• It would be most helpful if all items belonging to a particular item group are consistently tagged with the same MARC field/subfield (e.g., subfield tag in 852 or 9XX). For some systems, this may best be accomplished upon export – other systems may need to have edits performed in advance.

• Through the migration process, Ex Libris maps these MARC tags to an Alma “location” specific to your Institution Zone (IZ). The migration form used will depend upon your source system. For more information read the https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Implementation_and_Migration/Migration_Guides_and_Tutorials/Generic_Alma_Data_Delivery_and_Migration_Guide OR https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Implementation_and_Migration/Migration_Guides_and_Tutorials/Symphony_to_Alma_Data_Delivery_and_Migration_Guide.

• Network Considerations:

  • Successful bibliographic matching in the Network Zone (NZ) is dependent upon accurate unique identifiers, such as SIRSI 035 | a; OCLC 035 | a, etc.

  • At the local level, Ex Libris recommends: “that the NZ use fields 900-949 and the IZ uses 950-999. This way the local NZ fields (900-949) are those that are local to the entire consortium where every institutional member uses them, and the local IZ fields (950-999) are those that are local only to the single institution. This is recommended because it is important to be able to retrieve groups of records based on data in specific local fields, and having the same local field used for two different data elements may cause problems in retrieval. During migration, if a 900-949 tag has $9 LOCAL subfield, it is removed and the tag is kept in the NZ.” For additional context, visit THE Local Extensions (MARC) https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Implementation_and_Migration/Migration_Guides_and_Tutorials/010Alma_Migration_Considerations_for_Consortia#Local_Extensions_(MARC) section of https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Implementation_and_Migration/Migration_Guides_and_Tutorials/010Alma_Migration_Considerations_for_Consortia.

  • Network Zone Resources:

    • https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/100Managing_Multiple_Institutions_Using_a_Network_Zone/01_Overview/01_Overview_of_Collaborative_Networks for an overview of Network Zone (NZ) functions.

    • https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Implementation_and_Migration/Migration_Guides_and_Tutorials/010Alma_Migration_Considerations_for_Consortia describes the process for providing and processing records into a shared consortial environment in Alma from various legacy ILS systems.

    • Videos to provide insight into functions available through the broader Network Zone (NZ): http://exl-edu.com/01_Alma/Alma_Collaborative_Networks_(Alma_Consortia)/Alma_Collaborative_Networks-Introduction/story_html5.html?lms=1 and http://exl-edu.com/01_Alma/Alma_Collaborative_Networks_(Alma_Consortia)/Shared_Bibliographic_Records_in_the_Network_Zone/story_html5.html?lms=1

    • https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/100Managing_Multiple_Institutions_Using_a_Network_Zone/Discovery_when_Using_a_Network_Zone provides insight into publishing records to Primo. According to https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/100Managing_Multiple_Institutions_Using_a_Network_Zone/Discovery_when_Using_a_Network_Zone/010Overview_of_Discovery_when_Using_a_Network_Zone, “availability and delivery for physical resources harvested from Alma are relative to the institution of the view.” 

  • Extraneous identifiers

Additional Data Preparations (Ex Libris):

The additional suggestions below are from Getting Ready for Alma and Discovery Implementation, Appendix B - Optional Data Preparations. This appendix can help you decide which clean-up efforts are a priority for your library – not everything will be relevant to all libraries. Examples of other data cleaning could work include:

• Library and collection identification tags:

• Bibliographic, holdings and item data

• Enumeration

• Statuses and codes (as discussed under #1 above)

• Old/inconsistent data (includes old patron records, fines beyond a certain date and/or less than a certain amount; etc.)

• Review of old, unclosed orders

• Library and collection names

• Patron, vendor, library contact names

• E-resource and package resources

Electronic Resource Handling in Alma Migration:

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Electronic Resource Handling in Alma – Planning Considerations:

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• Ensure the links for locally catalogued eResources in your source system are active.

• Consistently identify/tag catalogued eResources in your source database (If not done already). You’ll be mapping these tags to ‘locations’ and identifying these locations as electronic resources on the Alma Location mapping tab. The bibliographic records for these collections will be sent to Ex Libris along with the rest of your collection.

• Creation of an input file (csv format) of bib record numbers that correspond to the eResource collections that you are migrating from your source system (e.g., from MARC 001). The migration specialists will match this file to the corresponding recently imported bibliographic records in Alma to create electronic portfolios.

• Once migrated, Ex Libris may guide you to run a job in Alma to update your proxy prefix if changes are made to local authentication policies. Running this job in Alma will update user access via Primo.

Analytics:

Consider running past loan/usage statistics/analyses prior to migration, as only key fields/subfields will be migrated. More to come….

ExLibris Migration Resources - Getting Ready

A selection of Ex Libris migration guides and tutorials can found in the links below – this additional information may help to further inform your data cleaning decisions.

• https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Implementation_and_Migration/Migration_Guides_and_Tutorials/Overview_of_Migration: migration phases in a nutshell

• https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Implementation_and_Migration/Implementation_Guides/02Getting_Ready_for_Alma_and_Discovery_Implementation: explains library and Ex Libris' roles and responsibilities; project team roles; technical migration requirements; cutover prep for third parties; data format requirements; training; fulfillment simplification; optional data preparations

• https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Implementation_and_Migration/Implementation_Guides/03Technical_Requirements_for_Alma_and_Discovery_Implementation

General Migration Guides:

The links below are a selection of guides and tutorials that may inform data cleaning decisions. Visit https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Implementation_and_Migration/Migration_Guides_and_Tutorials in the Ex Libris Knowledge Center to find all migration guides and tutorials.

• Video: http://exl-edu.com/01_Alma/Implementation_and_Migration/Migration_Guides/Tips_For_Completing_Migration_Form/#/

• Video: http://exl-edu.com/01_Alma/Implementation_and_Migration/Migration_Guides/Inventory/#/

• Video: http://exl-edu.com/01_Alma/Implementation_and_Migration/Migration_Guides/Generic_Acquisitions/#/

Symphony (SIRSI) Migration Guides:

• https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Implementation_and_Migration/Migration_Guides_and_Tutorials/Symphony_to_Alma_Data_Delivery_and_Migration_Guide: This guide includes information and links to forms used to map Symphony LIBRARY (999|M) AND HOME LOCATION to the Alma Library and Location (bibliographic, holdings, item, circulation and patron field/subfield data). A copy of the Symphony mapping form is included below.

Generic Migration Guides (Non-SIRSI)

• https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Implementation_and_Migration/Migration_Guides_and_Tutorials/Generic_Alma_Data_Delivery_and_Migration_Guide: This guide includes information and links to forms used to map legacy bibliographic, holdings, item, circulation and patron field/subfield data from systems other than SIRSI to generic Alma fields. A copy of the generic field mapping form is included below.

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Note: Insight into amalgamating St. Clair’s two Centriva databases into one IZ may be gained from this ExLibris Knowledge Center link: Combining Source Databases into One Alma Institution

Data cleaning hindsight - past experiences for review

Notes from Novanet

https://www.novanet.ca/adventures-in-alma-issue-2/

Cleanup Progress

The Advisory Group and members of the Acq, Cat and Access Service groups have been busy with the first round of Aleph Cleanup. As you’ll recall, the purpose of this work is to do as much as we can to the data in Aleph so that we’ll have less cleanup to deal with when we start on Alma.

Current cleanup projects include:

• Barcodes that cannot be searched or scanned in Aleph (and probably Alma) because they contain symbols, spaces and other oddities.

• Collections with multiple item statuses, these need to examined and edited so there is one collection per item status.

• No Collection – item records without collection codes

• Item Process Status report – these will be reviewed to identify item process statuses no longer in use and clean up records that have old item process statuses that may need to be removed or changed.

Clean up projects on the horizon:

• Suppressed records clean up – we’ve learned that suppressed records in Aleph can be migrated to Alma but we need to identify if there suppressed records that do not need to be retained.

• Unclosed Orders – Acquisitions Service Group are identifying what order statuses are used for closed order. We will then produce a report for all these orders for review.

• Electronic/print records split – We are working on identifying bib records that have both electronic and print items.

Posted on November 27, 2020 by Bill Slauenwhite

Work resumed in September and the small working groups, lead by the Implementation Advisory Group, have started meeting again. They have been busy cleaning up things collection codes, old orders, separating print and electronic holdings, fixing record formats and the like. A full list of cleanup jobs in the queue and those that are completed can be seen at: https://www.novanet.ca/clean-up-reports/