Itemized Set Basics - Sets Module

Owned by Jennifer Koerber (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Dec 03, 2018

This is the third section of the sets module of the Alma Overviews course. The video is at the top of the page, followed by the script.

In this video, you'll review:

Itemized Sets (static)

The second type of set in Alma is an itemized set.

  • Itemized sets are manually-created collections of individual records, called members of the set.
  • Unlike logical sets, itemized sets can only be created directly from the Manage Sets page.

Create an Itemized Set

To create an itemized set:

  1. Go to the Admin menu and go to Manage Sets.
  2. Then, click on Add Sets, then choose Itemized Set
  3. Now, at this point, you’re creating a set from scratch and it will ask for the same General Information as for a logical set.
    1. First, it wants a Set Name (typing: Anthropology of Art – resource list)
    2. and a Description (typing: A resource list for Professor Gray)
    3. and a Note if you want to (typing: Anthropology of Art is a graduate-level class offered through the Extension school.)
    4. What’s different is that when you create a set from scratch, you set the Content Type at this point. Later, when you search to add members to the set, Alma will use this as the search type. Since I want to be able to have both physical and electronic materials in my set, I’m going to choose All Titles – so all bib records – as my Content Type.
    5. Again, I’ll leave it as Private.
    6. You can see that the Set Type is Itemized, and I’ll leave it as Active.

Now, you could Save the empty set and add members later. Notice you can either add members to your set right away or just save the set. I’m going to go ahead and save first and add members to the set later. You can see now I’m back at the Manage Sets list, and my set is here.

Adding Records to an Itemized Set

To add members to the set, first you create the set and then add members individually.

One advantage of an itemized set is the ability to add specific records one by one, rather than rely on a single search to find everything you want.

    1. From the Manage Sets page, find the set you want to work on, get to the row action items icon, and click on Members. This will open up the set and if it’s brand new, you won’t see any records; if it’s an existing set, you would see the current members of the set at this point.
    2. Next, click on Add Members . It’s a little hidden and it’s the step most folks forget. Click on Add Members.
    3. Now you can use either a basic or advanced search to find the records you want to add. Search for individual records by unique identifiers like barcode or PO line number, or do larger searches by creator, subject, or vendor.

Again, because I chose All Titles as my content type, I have it as my search type right now.

I’m going to go ahead and do a quick Advanced Search. I’m going to get the subject of anthropology. I’m going to duplicate that row so I can add a second subject of art – Duplicate again is the little double pieces of paper (icon) here. I’m going to add the third row for Publication year, and I want it to be greater than or equals to 1950. And finally, I do want to limit this to books, so I’m going to go with Material Type of Book.

With my search in place, I click on Search, and it performs the search. Once I have my search results up in front of me, you will notice that to the left of each record, there is a tickybox. That is the tickybox that you will use to select that particular item to add it to your set. So, I have 339 results, and to the left of each one is a little tickybox.

(Choosing titles) Art and Ethics in a Muslim Lifeworld sounds perfect, so I’ll go ahead and select that; Anthropology, Art, and Aesthetics; Images of Power by Bateson and Mead, and that (book) sounds fascinating. So, I’ve selected four records and now at the top I can choose Add Selected.

You might have noticed there are 17 pages of results for my 339 results. Do not move on to the next page until you’ve added the selected records for the current page. Alma can’t add from multiple search page results at once. So I’ll add my four selected and you will see a note saying that these items have been added to the set. I could go on to my second page at this point and add a few more. (Choosing titles) Add three more, go back to the top, click on Add Selected. And when you’re done for now adding members to your set – you can always add more later – click on Done.

Viewing, Removing, or Adding Members to an Itemized Set

Now, if I wanted to view the members of the set I just added, I would find the set in my list, go to the row action items icon, and click on Members. Where it said Results before for the logical set, now it says Members for the itemized set. And I get the seven members of the set.

If I wanted to remove one of these – let’s say I’m not as interested in Debating Authenticity for this class – I could click on the tickybox and up at the upper right, click on Remove Selected. That will remove that one record from the set and leave the remaining six. I would clock on Done to save my changes.

I could also, at this point, go back and add more members to my set. (Click on Add Members, blank search comes up). Don’t be panicked – it’s just giving you a blank search. So I’ll click on the search – Creator is Urton – and there are a number of books by Gary Urton. Click on that one, and now you can see that there are electronic materials as well. I’ll choose this (book), Narrative Threads, and so on. With those four selected, I can Add Selected. So, we had six, we just added four more, so if I click on Done and then Members of my set, I will see that I now have 10 items in my set.

A Tip for Itemized Sets

If you’ve been working in a set for a while and you’re ready to start something else entirely, click on the Harvard shield to get back to the home page. Sometimes if you’re working on something and adding members to an itemized set, in particular, you’ll start forgetting that you’re maintaining your set and then just keep searching for other things, but still see that Remove Selected option in the upper right corner. So you don’t accidentally add or remove anything from your set, click (Done) and clear the screen by clicking on the Harvard shield to return to the main dashboard.