Q&A: Limiting Actions Related to Portfolios and E-collections According to User Role Scope

In an upcoming release Ex Libris will introduce new functionality that will enable limiting electronic resource management actions according to user role’s scope. Various staff user's actions such as editing, updating, deleting, activating, deactivating, etc., will be enabled/disabled based on the library scope of the user role (whether a specific library or institution level (across libraries)). This functionality will provide better control over staff activities across libraries.

As part of this development, library ownership defined at the level of the collection will be inherited by all portfolios under the collection. This means that a portfolio cannot be owned by a different library then the library defined at the collection level. The release of this functionality will include the removal of any library defined at the portfolio level (unless there is no library defined at the electronic collection level).

For a full description of the functionality, see Limiting Actions Related to Portfolios and E-collections According to User Role Scope.

Q: Is it mandatory to manage electronic resources at the level of the Library?

A: No, you can continue to manage electronic resources  at the level of the Institution.
Electronic resources managed at the level of the institution should not include a library definition and the electronic inventory operators with institution scope can continue to manage these electronic collections, electronic inventory operator roles with library scope will not be able to manage these electronic collections.

Q: Using the Analytics report ''Ex Libris - Portfolios with portfolio library unit different than electronic collection library unit', I found portfolios that have a different library unit then the electronic collection library unit – do I need to do anything?

A: It is not mandatory to do any type of cleanup on your own. With the release of the functionality, Alma will automatically remove any library defined on the portfolio (unless there is no library defined at the electronic collection level)

Q: Is it possible to manage some electronic collections at the level of the institution and other electronic collections at the level of the library?

A: Yes, electronic collection managed at the level of institution should not have any library unit definition. These electronic collections will be managed by Electronic Inventory Operator with institution-level scope only.
Those electronic collections that need to be managed at the level of the library should include a library unit definition at the electronic-collection level. Electronic Inventory Operators with the library scope or institution scope will be able to manage those electronic collections.

Q: Is it possible to manage an electronic collection by one library and have specific portfolios under the same collection be managed by a different library?

A: No it is not possible. All portfolios of the electronic collection will be managed by the library defined at the level of the electronic collection.

Q: If I remove the library definition from the electronic collection level, will I get back the portfolio-level library definition that was defined for it, before I defined the electronic collection library definition?

A: No, once you defined a library unit on the electronic collection level, the portfolio-level library unit definition gets deleted. This cannot be reversed, even if removing the electronic-collection's library unit definition.

Q: Is it possible to manage an electronic collection at the level of an institution  and have specific portfolios under the same collection be managed by a library?

A: Yes, in this case the electronic collection will not include a library unit definition at the level of the electronic collection, the specific portfolios will have a library unit level definition.

Electronic Inventory Operator with institution scope will be able to manage the entire electronic collection. Electronic Inventory Operator with the library scope will be able to manage only the specific portfolio with the same library unit definition.

Q: If I want to start managing electronic resources at the library level, what do I need to do?

A: To start managing the electronic collections at the level of the library, you should set the library unit definition at the electronic collection, and you should update the scope of the relevant Electronic Inventory Operator roles to the relevant library scope they are permitted to work on.

Q: What is the difference between a Library definition at the level of the electronic resource and "Available For Group" settings at the level of the electronic resource?

A: Library definition at the level of the electronic resource determines the scope of users who can manage the electronic resource (activate/de-activate/update/delete). The "Available For Group" settings determines the scope of patrons that can access the electronic resource.