Skip to main content
ExLibris
Back
Alma
Ex Libris Knowledge Center

Best Practice Toolkit: Configure Auto Holdings

  1. Last updated
  2. Save as PDF

What is it?

Alma enables institutions to automatically update electronic holdings from information providers. The method is to set up a scheduled integration profile.
 

This eases the library staff workload in managing electronic holdings by automatically activating and updating library specific eResources and eliminating any manual work process. 

This is currently supported with ProQuest Ebook Central, Ovid, Springer, Elsevier, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, Project MUSE and Project JSTOR. Set up steps are similar for each of them. 

The purpose of this functionality is to ease the library management of electronic holdings by automatically activating and updating electronic resources and eliminating any manual interaction in the process.

ExLibris currently has relationships with eight major publishers that allow libraries to automatically upload electronic holdings into Alma on a weekly basis:

  • Springer             

  • Elsevier

  • ProQuest Ebook Central -- has a daily incremental

  • Ovid

  • Wiley

  • Taylor & Francis

  • Project MUSE

  • Project JSTOR

Where is it?

To set up auto holdings update (using Proquest Ebook Central as an example): 

  1. Contact ProQuest Support to enable automatic updates of DDA, Owned, and Subscription titles. See Getting Started. 

  2. Contact Support. Support team will set CP upload_e_holding_incremental to True 

  3. Activate the Community Zone electronic collection Ebook Central Perpetual, DDA and Subscription Titles. See Activating Ebook Central Perpetual, DDA and Subscription Titles. 

  1. Set up the integration profile. See below or Creating an Ebook Central Integration Profile. 

  1. Disable manually managed ProQuest Ebook Central Subscriptions electronic collections.  

Beware: Do not activate your Ebook Central integration profile in Alma until you have confirmed with ProQuest Support that your account was activated and Ebook Central files have begun publishing to Alma. If the Alma Ebook Central integration profile is activated and scheduled before ProQuest has started to publish the relevant files, the job will fail. 

Below are steps on how to create an integration profile in step 4 above: 

  1. Open the Integration Profile List page (Configuration Menu > General > External Systems > Integration Profiles). 

  1. Select Add Integration Profile. 

  2. For the Integration Type parameter, select Upload Electronic Holdings from the drop-down list. 

  3. For the Code parameter, enter a name for the profile. Note that the name must be unique. 

  4. For the Provider parameter, select ProQuest Ebook Central from the drop-down list. 

  5. Optionally, enter a description and select Next. 

  6. Complete the details in the Upload Electronic Holdings section using the information provided by the ProQuest Books division and referencing the table below.

  7. Save the profile using one of the following options: 

    • Select Save. The integration profile is scheduled and appears in the list of scheduled jobs (see Viewing All Scheduled Jobs). 

    • Select Save and Run Now. This saves your profile settings and immediately queues the upload to run. The Save and Run Now button also appears on the Actions tab when you edit the profile. 

  8. Refer to the Monitor Jobs History tab (Admin > Manage Jobs and Sets > Monitor Jobs) to view the Upload electronic holdings report that is generated from running this job. See below for an example report. 

Related articles

In addition to the ExLibris Knowledge Center links above, there is the Activating Electronic Resources training - 7 minutes in length.

Set up auto holding updates for: 

  1. ProQuest Ebook Central

  1. Ovid

  1. Springer

  1. Elsevier  

  2. Wiley

  3. Taylor & Francis

  4. Project MUSE

  5. Project JSTOR