REMEMBER: Only designated staff members are permitted to run jobs. Refer to the matrix at Jobs & Batch Processes to see which staff members are approved to run which jobs.

Best Practices Summary

• This is an advanced-level job in Alma.
• Withdraw a maximum of 1,000 items in any one batch.
• Use a Physical Items set
• Do note withdraw items that have a retention commitment in Statistics Note 3
• Be familiar with the policy on Suppressing vs. Deleting bibs and holdings: Collection Management - Policy for Suppression and Deletion
  • If the last item on a holdings/bib record is withdrawn, delete the holdings/bib record as well
  • Do not withdraw items with requests or work orders on them
  • Before withdrawing, add an Internal Note 3 to the item indicating the reason for the withdraw. 

Pre-requisites

Familiarity with creating Sets and running the change Physical items job (Change Physical Items Job). 

Parameters and Planning

Let’s go over the parameters and notes for the Withdraw Items job:

 [Go to EL Knowledge Center page: https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/050Administration/070Managing_Jobs/020Running_Manual_Jobs_on_Defined_Sets#Manual_Jobs_and_Their_Relevant_Parameters#Withdraw_Items]

There are additional notes about the effects of running jobs scattered elsewhere in the documentation.

One major consideration: due to the impact mentioned next, best practice is to withdraw a maximum of 1,000 items in one batch. This is due to the current policy on deleting holdings and bib records when the last item is removed, and because there is a limit on how many records can be restored after a batch withdrawal. More on this later in the training.

Impact of Withdraw Items Job on Bib and Holdings Records

When running the Withdraw Items job removes the last item record on holdings, that holdings record is deleted. If it is the last holdings record on the bibliographic record, that bib record should also be deleted.

Running the job is a three-step process:

Step 1: Create the Set

How to create a set (including how to upload a file of barcodes): Sets

Create the set for the Withdraw Items job using the following criteria:

• Use Physical Items search type to act on item records. NEVER use a Physical Titles or All titles set. 
  
• Use any criteria to search, depending on what they need to do
• Make sure you do not withdraw items that have retention commitments (noted in Statistics Note 2)
• Review any error reports for items which were not successfully added to the set: Monitoring, Troubleshooting, and Checking Results of Jobs
  • When running the job in production you will receive an email when the job is done. Check the email for the results of the job and investigate any errors. 

If you use a file to create your set: For the Withdraw Items job, you can only use Barcode or Item ID as a unique identifier. To get a list of Item IDs, you can ask for or run an Analytics report based on other criteria that includes the Item record ID in the report, then move that column to the first position and upload it to create the set.

Step 2: Run the Change Physical Items Job

Before you withdraw the items, you must use the Change Physical Items job to add an Internal Note 3 containing the reason for the withdrawal, if the reason is the same for all records in the set. See the Change Physical Items Job and Items - Deleting (Withdrawing) pages for best practices on adding Internal Note 3.

Step 3: Run the Withdraw Items Job

You will have several options when running the job:

1. Choose how you want to treat holdings without items and bib records. Per the Collection Management - Policy for Suppression and Deletion, records should be deleted.
2. The next three parameters ask how to treat items with requests and work orders. Recommended best practice is to not withdraw any item with a request or work order, and to use the Job Report to identify and review those items for follow-up.
3. Click Next and proceed.
4. Note that if your job will delete holdings or bib records, the total number of records affected by the job (quoted in the dialog box) may be larger than the number of item records in your set. This is expected.
5. Review any error reports for items which could not be withdrawn (ex. items with open POLs). 

Review Job Results

Reviewing records deleted by the job: (JK - Following up with Allison P re: Analytics reports to review what records were deleted when the items were withdrawn)

In the Job Report: The Counters section for the Withdraw Items job will include how many records had that field changed by the job and any records that failed to update. Items with open orders are identified in the Number of unmanaged items count and an error message appears in the Report Table section of the job report page identifying the specific type of error. Items with open orders are not withdrawn. 

This same section will include any items not withdrawn because they had a request or work order on them. For these records, you'll need to individually review them and determine how to handle the outstanding requests: contacting patrons, contacting staff members who initiated work orders, etc. Use the downloadable Excel file to identify the records in Alma and review them.

Finally, you can use a search to spot check withdrawn titles. Use the All Titles search type and any criteria from the withdrawn item; you use All Titles because the Physical Items search type is based on the existence of a holdings record, and you may have deleted the holdings record as part of withdrawing the item.

Restoring Records Withdrawn by a Job

For any job, you can restore up to 5,000 records, including any related records. For example, bibliographic and holdings records are counted separately when restoring a withdrawn item record. This means that if you restore a Withdrawn Items job, each item record restored may also mean restoring both a bib and holdings record, so it's three records being restored, not one. This is why the best practice is to run the Withdraw Items job on a maximum of 1,000 item records.

Also, the restore job cannot properly handle any type of suppressed record (bibliographic or holdings). If you choose to suppress holdings or bibs rather than delete them during the Withdraw items process, the bibs and holdings will be unsuppressed if you restore the items that were withdrawn. You will then need to go back and suppress those records using a different job, if your goal was to remove the bibs/holdings from public discovery.

Request Permission to Run this Job:

After you have opened a ticket with LTS to run this job, please review the documentation and create an example on the Sandbox with the following information:

• Expected outcome of the job (changes that need to be made)
• Screenshot of job parameters used (prior to job being run)

Please update your request ticket with this information for LTS to review.

Related Links

Harvard Documentation

• • Items - Deleting (Withdrawing)
  • Collection Management - Policy for Suppression and Deletion
  • Sets documentation and online training materials

Ex Libris Documentation

• • Performing Global Changes on Physical Item Records
  • Deleting Physical Items (Withdrawals)
  • Running Manual jobs on Defined Sets
  • Overview of Jobs – Batch Job Planning Guidelines (for time)
  • Managing Jobs and Sets section page