Items & Holdings Intro -- Class materials and Script

Handouts, resources and display documents for the class

Handout – Items and Holdings Handout - 1 pager.docx (word doc)

Display – Items Holdings practice exercises_version 2.docx 

Links to any pre-reading and reference documents

• Items - Material types for reference
• Item Policies for reference
  

Outline for the class and links to related documentation

Script for the class

Introduction

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.  

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.

• Now let's review the handouts together.   
  • The one page handout has important links at the top, some important concepts to remember, and space for notes.
  • There is also a one-page handout that lists the outline of topics for today, and the list of Items/Holdings related documentation on the LTS wiki.
  • The script I am using is also available on the LTS wiki.
    
    
• I'd like to confirm - Can everyone see my screen?

• We have provided computers for the practice time we will take.
  • It is not necessary to follow along on your machine as I demonstrate, but you are welcome to if it helps you.
  • We will outline the basic steps.  You will repeat what I'm showing you when practice time comes up.
    
    
• During practice time:
  • We will show some options of what you could try during this time. They are not required and there will be no test!
  • If you want to do something else, go for it!
  • Trainers and faciliators will circulate to assist and answer questions at this time.

• Please log into your computer and navigate and login to Alma at this time.
  
  

Items

Let's begin our work by looking at items.  Items records cross over into most functional areas – from ordering, to cataloging, to inventory maintenance, to de-acessioning.  For that reason, they are part of this class for staff across functional areas.

In this section, we will review general information about items, and try the on the fly "add physical item" process.  Then we will take a break so you can practice the Add Physical Item process.

General Background

Here is some basic information about Items in Alma, which in some cases may be different from Aleph.

• 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.

• Like Aleph, Alma will not allow you to enter a barcode already used by another item.

• There are some unique displays in Alma related to holdings and item information.  When viewing search results in Alma, there is a summary line of holdings/items. 
  
  • The system lists the first and last item held so this is not a summary, just an "at a glance" status. 
    • The summary in the Alma search results does not show holdings summary statements. 
    • I'll use the All Titles search to show an example.  (Isabel/Lars – different example here?)
      Conduct an "All Titles" search for MMS ID 990001385590203941 (Journal of academic librarianship) - If not already expanded, click "Expand > All" 

This title only shows a summary of item availability for the Widener Library copy with the call number of BP 178.8 based on the first and last item record.

• • • • Please note that because not all physical items held have item records, these summary statements may not reflect actual holdings. 
        • If you are interested in an example: Ghana living standards survey (MMS ID 990027316770203941). We also hold v. 1-4, but they do not have item records.)
          
          
          

• I want to highlight 2 changes in vocabulary in Alma related to Items.
  

  • In Aleph, the field called "Item Status" was used to define terms of use, or loan policy, for an item.  
    • (This data migrated to a field called "Item Policy" in Alma, which is used along with Location to determine terms of use for an item.)  

  • The Item status that displays in Alma  is determined automatically by the system and is one of two values (Trainer: do an All Titles search for Theodore Rex, click on the Items hyperlink, to show on the screen during this explanation):

    • Item in place (item is not checked out, in transit, or in process)

    • Item not in place (item is in process, transit, or checked out)

      • Any time something is not in place the "availability" status will be "unavailable." (Appropriate request links will still be present in the public catalog).

        
        

  • Item Process type is also different than Aleph Item Processing Status.  
    • In Alma, Item Process type is used when an item is undergoing some kind of library processing or circulation activity. 
      • It will be one of two kinds of statuses:  a Work Order status (which is what is replacing pseudopatrons; something like Tech Services Shelf Prep, or Preservation Review); or a Circ-related status (like On Loan, Missing, On Hold, Lost, etc).
    • Process types are defined centrally for Harvard. 
      • In many cases, Aleph IPS migrated to Alma Item Internal Notes. If you have question about migrated data points for items, please refer to the item data mapping guide.

Creating Items Using "Add Physical Item"

Item creation occurs at various times based on workflow and type of material.  

• Items may be created during the process of placing an order, or when cataloging.  The steps for those workflows are covered in the Ordering and Cataloging classes.
• You may also create an item when you are doing "quick cataloging" or "on the fly" item creation, such as when an item is found in the stacks but it doesn't appear to exist in the catalog. 
  • A holding is automatically created based on the item values selected.
• I am going to show you this method, using the Resources > Create Inventory > Add Physical Item function.  
  
  
• Alma will ask if you want to attach the item to an existing holding, or create a new holding.
  • If you select "existing" it will ask you to choose the existing holdings
  • If you select "new", you need to enter the required fields (marked with red asterisk).  
    • In this example, I'm selecting "new", because we want to create a new bib, holdings and item right now.
  • Select book or article
  • Enter a title.
    • We are going to use this title again later in class, to view and edit the holdings and item.  So please pick or make up a very unique title so it will be easy for you to find.
      • Something like "Isabel is learning Alma"  or "Lars loves baseball" would work well.
  • Start typing a location.  Alma will search the location list based on what you enter. Select your location.
  • Click outside the location box to have Alma capture that info.
  • At that point, the barcode box will no longer be grayed out, and you can enter a barcode (or you can let Alma create a system supplied one, which will be Alma####, like Alma4066).
  • Click save.
• This will create a very brief bib, a holdings with the location you selected, and an item with a barcode.

Practice time (show instructions on screen): We are now going to try this Quick Cataloging Add Physical Item process. 

Editing items

Next we are going to look at the process for both viewing and editing existing items.

• First, we must do a search.
  
  
• To **view** items, 
  • You can do a Physical Title search – Trainer demo this using the title created in the prior section
    • you will see hyperlinks for the holdings and items at the bottom of the search entry, as well as "Items" and "Holdings" in the ellipsis menu.  
      • Clicking on either of these will take you to the item list first
      • Then you can click View under the ellipsis menu.
  • You can do a Physical Item search – Trainer demo this using the title created in the prior section
    • And there is NO way to View the item from this kind of search.  If I click on the hyperlinked barcode, or "Items" in the ellipsis menu, those both take me to the screen to EDIT the item.
      • So if you want to view an item, do a title search.
        
        
• To **edit** items,
  
  • You can do a Physical item search – Trainer demo this using the title created in the prior section
    • you can choose Edit Item right from the search results page, and it will take you right to the Physical Item Editor form.
      
      
  • If you launch a Physical title search - Trainer demo this using the title created in the prior section
    • you will see hyperlinks for the holdings and items at the bottom of the search entry, as well as "Items" and "Holdings" in the ellipsis menu.  
    • Clicking on either of these will take you to the item list
    • Then you can click Edit under the ellipsis menu, or click on the hyperlinked barcode, and then you will be on the Physical Item Editor form.
      • So if you want to edit an item record, doing a Physical Item search cuts out two extra steps.
        • In short – use Title search to View items, Use Items search to Edit Items
          
          
• On the Physical Item Editor page, there are lots of fields you can edit.
  • Select one or more fields on the different tabs to view or make changes to the physical item’s information.
  • There is a list of the required fields in the Alma documentation – Trainer show top of this page: https://wiki.harvard.edu/confluence/x/2J5dDQ
    • Trainer select a few item record fields to edit
• Click Save when changes are complete.

Practice time (show instructions on screen): Now let's try searching for an item, viewing an item, making edits to the item, and saving your edits.

Additional documents about Items

Before we move on to holdings records, I want to show you some reference documents on the LTS wiki regarding items:

• Items - Material types for reference
• Item Policies for reference
• Item Statuses, Process Types, and Fields – has migration info, and a link to a full list of all item fields, with descriptions, on the Ex Libris documentation site.

Holdings

We will now turn our focus to holdings records.  In this portion of the class, we will walk through viewing, and editing holdings records, like we just did with items.

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 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

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 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

  • 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.

    
    

• 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.    

• Click "withdraw" on the row action item.
  • 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.

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.

Practice time: Now let's try doing some more work with holdings.  Using the instructions on the screen, find a holdings to edit.  Try suppressing and unsuppressing holdings and creating items. 

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 holdings

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. 

If you have any questions, use the LTS Alma Support form in the Notifications wiki to submit them.

Is everyone signed up for the next class in their sequence, or would you like more information about that class?