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Welcome to the Items & Holdings Intro class. In this class, we will look at viewing and editing items and holdings for physical materials across functional areas (acquisition, cataloging, circulation). This class will include time for hands-on practice.

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Please note that we have recently added a second 1-hour "Advanced" Items and Holdings class that will cover topics like moving, suppressing, and deleting (which Alma calls Withdrawing) holdings and items.  Please sign up for this class if you need to know these procedures.

• Prior to taking this class, we hope you were able to attend some of these classes:
  • Intro to Alma
  • Search & Sets
  • Resource Management – Intro to Metadata Editor video
    
    
• I want to provide a few notes about the training process:
  
  • We are all learning and working on Alma together.
  • This is a complex process, and many things won’t be perfect on Day 1.
  • Switching systems like this can be a challenging process, but the end results will be good and worth the effort.
  • No one expects you to be an expert in Alma right away.
  • Starting today, please use the LTS Alma Support form to ask questions and report issues with Alma data, workflows, or roles & permissions. Asking these questions, and working groups providing answers, is an important part of everyone learning more about Alma. You can find the link on the home page in Alma, in the Notifications widget; if you need to add the notifications widget, go to the Introduction to Alma wiki page link on your handout from that class.
  • We will all have the time we need to learn Alma – before and after go live – and the support you need to do your work.

• I want to share some logistics information: 
  
  • The nearest bathrooms are...
  • The nearest water fountain/supply is...
  • Please log in to your computers using the following username and password: (Whatever it is for those computers - if possible, put it into a Word document and project it on the screen)

• Quick recap of essential training elements:
  • This is Phase 1 of Training. We are trying to make sure people are prepared to do 80% of their job on day 1
  • We are training on the tool of Alma, not on specific workflows or local procedures
  • We will show you one verified way to do tasks – there are almost certainly several other ways to do the same thing, and possibly better ways – you can go back, practice and find out.
  • Please use fidgets – they can be helpful for focusing, relaxing, staying awake...and if you are feeling tired at any point, feel free to stand up in your area, stand along the wall, etc.
    
    
• Please ask questions when they come up; I will also pause between sections for questions and to make sure things are clear
  
  
• Let's start by introducing ourselves.

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• Holdings and items together are called "inventory" in Alma. 

  • To help understand how Alma Inventory is structured, Ex Libris has created these diagrams – you may remember seeing this structure of Alma inventory in your Intro or Search & Sets class.  

    • Trainer can show images on this page / draw something similar on the board, as needed: Items & Holdings

• In Alma, anything with a holding is referred to as a Physical Title or Physical Inventory.  
  • Most holdings and items represent physical pieces in our collection. 
  • A difference from Aleph is that most electronic resources will not be represented by holdings, instead they will be represented by Electronic collection and portfolio information. 
• In Alma, all items are attached to holdings. This is a core difference from Aleph, where creating a holdings was not required. 
  • Alma will not allow you to create an item without a holding. 
  • When creating an item, Alma will also create a holding if one does not already exist for that library/location.
  • You may be wondering – what about the things in Aleph that didn't have holdings?
    • Aleph items that were not attached to holdings were attached to holdings in Alma during data migration.
      • During migration, Alma either attached the item to an existing holding (when the library/location were the same) or, if they were not, Alma created a new holding.
• In Alma, a holding may or may not have an item.  
  • Examples of a bib that has a holding without items: are an analyzed monographic series, a multipart work, or an older serial.  (Trainer, 3 examples below if you want to show one, two or all)
    
    • • a monographic series: Conduct an "All Titles" search for MMS ID 990091802930203941 (Archaeological studies Leiden University) 
      • a mulipart work: Conduct an "All Titles" search for MMS ID 990074312040203941 (Oxford history of art) 
      • older serial tiles do not have items : Conduct an "All Titles" search for MMS ID 990051690120203941 (Quarterly digest of statistics (Accra, Ghana : 1959) 

• Alma allows setting of Temporary locations values, which can be helpful for some materials, such as Reserves and Serials.
  • When temporarily moving items from one location to another, staff have the option of inputting an end date for the temporary location in Alma. 
    • On this date an automated job will warn staff to return these items to their regular location.

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Holdings are different from items in an important way - we edit them in the Metadata Editor (MDE).  

• You may have seen already how if you open a bib or holdings record in the Metadata Editor, it will be locked to you for editing for 7 days unless you "release" it.  
  • This is the opposite of what we encountered in Aleph.  In Aleph, if you had an Item record open on your screen, other staff would get a pop up about the record being "locked by another user".
  • Item records will never be locked in Alma – but both holdings and bibs will be "locked" from editing if another staff member has it one open or hasn't released it yet.
• So in the case of holdings, it's important to note whether you want to just **view** a holdings (which won't open it in the MDE or lock it to you), or if you need to **edit** a holdings.

Viewing holdings

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I will use a different example than the title I created earlier, so you can see both an item with multiple holdings, and a holdings record that has fuller content that the brief one that was generated for my earlier title.

• First, note that there is no "Physical Holdings" search in our drop down.  There is no way to directly search for holdings.
• Also note: If I do a physical items search, I will be able to view the holdings, but I will not be able to move from there to editing – it's a dead end after viewing.
• For that reason, I'm going to do a Physical Titles search  (Trainer: search Bossypants)
  • You can see that several different libraries have holdings of this title.
  • If you click on the hyperlinked text in the Location column (Trainer click on the LAM FARNS holdings), you will get the MARC view of the holdings record.
    • I easily can move to editing by clicking "Edit" at the top.  
  • But before I click on that, let's go back a screen.
    • I can also click on the hyperlinked text "holdings" in the expanded view below or
  using the action button.
  • if there are multiple holdings, you will get a list.
  If I click on the holdings record number, I can view the holdings. 
  • In Alma, you can view a record or edit a record. 
    • in the ellipsis menu
    • Because there is more than one holdings,this will take me to a list of all holdings associated with this bib.
      • Having lots of holdings also means I get lots of options here: 
        • I can click on the hyperlinked holdings record number for the MARC view, 
        • (Trainer use the LAM FARNS holdings and click on the ellipsis) I can use the ellipsis menu to select View or select Edit, and 
        • I also have options at the top like: Add holdings and Delete holdings.
• If I click on edit, the Metadata Editor will open. This holds true for Bibs as well  I land in the same place as I would have if I clicked Edit earlier. 

Editing holdings

To be able to edit a holding, you have to be either currently viewing the full holding in view mode, or you have to be in the Metadata Editor.  You can click on "edit record" from the view mode to open the Metadata Editor.

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• If you are already in the Metadata Editor looking at a Bib record, you can click on the View Inventory icon, or type CTRL + (letter i)
  • here you will see the list of holdings, and you can either view or edit
  • Alma will keep also keep track of holdings that you are working on. These will display on the left hand pane. You can click on any holdings in your left pane to display and edit that holdings.
    • When you open things to edit (bibs or holdings) they become locked to you.  Make sure to release them when you are done.  Otherwise they are locked for editing (view-only) for 7 days after your last edit. More information about using the MD Editor can be found in the MD Editor Overview documentation.
• You can add or delete fields using the Edit menu. 
• Use the Save icon when your edits are done, and then release the record using the File menu. 

Deleting (withdrawing) an item - overview

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