Search Tips and Best Practices

Owned by Jennifer Koerber (Unlicensed)
Last updated: May 14, 2019

In each functional area of Alma, there are tips and best practices to efficiently find what you're looking for.

General Search

Titles = bibliographic records

  • All Titles = all bib records, regardless of resource type
  • Physical Titles = bib records that have holdings attached, indicating physical inventory. Bibs without holdings will only be found by an All Titles search. Note: this includes NET holdings/networked resources.
  • Electronic Titles = bib records for licensed material that gets activated/de-activated

Items = item/holding records

  • Physical Items = item records for any physical inventory, regardless of format
  • Electronic Titles = item records for licensed material that gets activated/de-activated

Digital = digital objects (Harvard isn't using this feature)

Resources Searches - Physical

Permanent Physical Location, In Temp Loc, and a Quirk About Alma

The quirk: once an item is place In Temp Loc, that data sticks to the item even after it is returned to its permanent location. For a precise picture of where physical materials are, follow these guidelines:

  • If you want items at X Location, search for Permanent Location = X and In Temp Loc = No
  • If you want items from X Location that are currently elsewhere, search for Permanent Location = X and In Temp Loc = Yes
  • If you want items from everywhere that are currently at Temp Loc Y, search for Temporary Location = Y and In Temp Loc = Yes
  • If you want items from Location X where they are currently Temp Loc’d to Y, search for Permanent Location = X and Temporary Location = Y and In Temp Loc = Yes
  • If you want items from Location X where they used to be Temp Loc’d to Y, search for Permanent Location = X and Temporary Location = Y and In Temp Loc = No

Permanent Call Number Type for 852 1st Indicator 7

In the Advanced Search, you can use the criteria of Permanent Call Number Type to find materials with different types of call numbers. If you are looking for materials where the holdings record 852 1st indicator is 7 - "Source specified in subfield $2," use that option in the drop-down for the different call number types. See screenshot below:

Resources Searches - Electronic

 

Acquisitions/Financial Searches

 

Fulfillment Searches - Circulation, Course Reserves, Request Management

 

Reference/RTL Searches

Searching by Creator - Try an Authorities Search

If you're trying to search by Creator and not finding the results you expect, choose the search type Authorities, search criteria Keywords, and then enter your search term. If you get results that lead you to the authorized heading for the creator you're looking for, click on Search Bibliographic records matching this value on the right and Alma will conduct that search for you.

 

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