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• 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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• 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 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.  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.

  There are other ways to open a holdings records.

  • 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

  A withdrawal is the process of deleting items from the catalog to ensure that the catalog is up to date and represents only those items that are actually in the collection.

  Although withdrawn items do not appear in Alma and are not published to Primo, staff can view a historical record of these items in Analytics reports.

  While withdrawing an item, you can delete or suppress holdings records that do not have any other items.

  Withdrawing one or more items - steps

  Search for the item(s) that you want to withdraw.

  Depending on the type of search that you initiated and what's available in your inventory, clicking Items may display different results.e  For example:

  If you selected an All titles search or a Physical titles search and there is only one holdings record – example: Nefertiti's face

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  Click on "Items" in the expanded view below, or in the row action item (ellipsis) menu.

  You can either withdraw one item at a time by selecting "withdraw" from the ellipsis menu at the end of each row; or you can check off multiple items and select "withdraw" at the top of the page.

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  If you selected an All titles search or a Physical titles search and there are multiple holdings records – example: Bossypants

  • Click on "Items" in the expanded view below, or in the row action item (ellipsis) menu.

  • You can withdraw one item at a time by selecting "withdraw" from the ellipsis menu at the end of each row.

    • It is not possible to check off multiple items.    

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  • You will get a pop-up confirmation message.
  • Select "confirm".
  • You will see a confirmation message "Item has been successfully deleted".
    • If the item is currently on loan, Alma will ask you to address the loan before withdrawing the item.

  If the last item was removed from a holdings record, the Last Item dialog box appears.

  Image Removed

  Best practice is to choose: Delete bibliographic records that have no other holdings . 

  • This option will delete the bibliographic record with which the item is associated if the bibliographic record has no other holdings. 
  • In this case, both the holdings record and the bibliographic record with which the item is associated are deleted.

  Practice time (show instructions on screen): Let's try deleting the items you create during the quick cataloging process.

   

  Adding a new holdings

  When you place an order for a physical item, Alma will automatically create a holdings and item for you.  There may be some workflows where you need to create a holding record manually, perhaps when processing a gift book.

  • To add an additional holding to a bib that already has a holding, first search for the bib record. 
    • From the search result, click the Holding link. Then click Add New Holdings. 
    • This will open the new holding in the MDE.
  • If the bib record is already open in the MDE, click on the Add holdings icon, or type CTRL + ALT + H.
    • This will open a holdings workform in split screen mode. 
  • Once you are viewing the new stub holding: 
    • Type in the 852 $b and $c which are mandatory. You can also use Control+F in this field to open a Form Editor to choose from a drop down list of libraries and locations.
  • Click the Save icon or CTRL + S
    • When you save the record, Alma will copy the bib 050 into the holding 852 $h $i, if both these conditions were present: 
      • 1) subfield h and i were blank 
      • 2) the library/location is configured to default to LC classification. 
  • Alma has a default 852 1st indicator set up for each library/collection (i.e. 852 $b $c combination) so you don't have to enter the indicator. 
    • If your location does not have a default, indicator 8 will be autopopulated. 
    • Contact LTS to set up a different indicator for you location if needed.
    • Note: you can choose the icon highlighted to the right to display the holdings as a full screen.
      

  This has been an overview of editing holdings.   More information about working with holdings in Alma, including duplicating existing holdings, is available on the wiki: https://wiki.harvard.edu/confluence/x/3Z5dDQ

  Practice time: Now let's try working with holdings.  Following the instructions on the screen, find a holdings to view.  Then add a new holding for this title.  

  Suppressing holdings

  Unlike Aleph, in which a MARC STA (status) tag was used to indicate record suppression, Alma has a workflow for suppressing a holding.

  • Search for a title
  • In the results list, click “Holdings” on the right.
    • A list of holdings appears; 
    • choose a holding, and click on “Edit.”
      • You are taken to the MD Editor with the holdings record visible.
      • Click on the Tools drop down menu in the MD Editor.
      • Click “Set Management Tags” from that Tools Menu
      • Click on “Suppress from Discovery” – which is a check box that has a toggle function.
      • The holdings record is now suppressed – you can see this by looking at how the blue house icon in the left pane of the MD Editor turns into the “evil eye” icon (gray circle with red slash through it). 
      • Big difference from Aleph: when you suppress a holding in Alma, all attached item records are also suppressed from discovery (e.g. HOLLIS) 

  UNsuppress holdings

  It is easy to remove record suppression in Alma.

  • With the holdings record open in the MD Editor, click on the Tools drop down menu.
    • Click “Set Management Tags” from that Tools Menu
      • UNcheck “Suppress from Discovery”. 
        • you should see the evil eye go away.

  This same process also applies to suppressing/unsuppressing bibliographic records. 

  **Creating an item

  Earlier, I showed you how to create an item record using the "Quick Cataloging" method.  You can also create an item right from the MDE. 

  • Click on the "Add Item" icon.
  • This will take you to the Physical Item Editor, which we looked at earlier in today's class.
    • Since this step takes you out of the MDE, it's advisable to "release all records" in the Bib and Holdings folders in left pane before clicking on this icon.

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  • • Note that there are other ways to open a holdings, and those will be covered in more detail in the Cataloging classes.

  Editing holdings

  • The MDE will keep 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.
  • You can open fixed fields like the 008, LDR and 852 using Ctl + F.
    
    • Trainer demonstrate adding and editing fields as appropriate
      • Isabel please feel free to improve this section as needed, I am not very fluent at holdings stuff
  • Got to Tools: Save and Release (rather than the Save icon) when your edits are done, or click Ctl+Alt+R. 

  Additional topics

  Some other topics that are important with regard to holdings and items are:

  • Moving holdings 
  • Moving items

  You can find documentation about these 2 areas on the wiki, here: https://wiki.harvard.edu/confluence/x/4Z5dDQ

  Topics TBD:

  • duplicating items
  • duplicating holdings
  • templates for holdingsAdding holdings and items
  • Duplicating holdings and items
  • Moving holdings and items
  • Deleting (which Alma calls Withdrawing) holdings and items
  • Creating templates for holdings

  These will be covered in the Advanced Holdings and Items class.

  Closing

  In the next day or two, you'll receive an email that includes an evaluation for this class. Please take a few moments to fill it out - your feedback will help us improve this class and will help me improve my training skills. 

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