The purpose of this document is to explain the following:

• An Overview of the scope and terms related to migrating SFX to Alma
• The input or information that you will need to supply to Ex Libris regarding SFX migration to Alma.
• The rules and assumptions that will be applied to the SFX data upon migration to Alma

Prerequisite: basic knowledge of Alma and SFX key concepts and architecture.

 

 

A few key terms to understand SFX in Alma terms:

SFX	Alma
Targets	Packages
Target Services	Package/Portfolio Services
Object Portfolios	Portfolios
Objects	Bibliographic records (Global objects will be linked to the KB/CZ Bibliographic record and Local objects will become locally managed Bibliographic records)

Some Key Definitions:

• CKB/CZ – Central Knowledge Base of E-resources. Managed by Ex Libris in the CZ and includes info on the different e-offerings available from data providers including linking and coverage information as well as bibliographic enhanced CONSER records Journal titles. E-books being considered.
• E-Titles (Inventory) – An electronic resource (e.g. e-journal =Science, e-book=Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows). Titles include a link to the e-inventory (portfolio or stand-alone – see below) and to the Bibliographic record (in CZ for CZ/Global portfolios or to local Bib for local portfolios and stand-alones).
• Package (Inventory) – A collection of electronic portfolios from a specific data provider - includes provider name, package name, services supported by the package and admin/access info. Can be local or global. Global bibliographic records are harvested as suppressed and are not published unless you unsuppress them. Types: Aggregator and Selective. Analogous to SFX target.
• Package Service – The particular services a package offers in any of its portfolios (e.g. full text, etc.).  Analogous to SFX Target service.
• Title Package Service – The service a particular individual title instance offers within a package.
• Portfolio (Inventory) – The specific coverage, services and link information relevant for a particular title within a package. May include admin/access info. May be local or global. Analogous to SFX Object Portfolio.
• Stand-alone (Inventory) – A local electronic resource not part of a package that is purchased alone and has its own specific linking info and is currently not managed from the Community Zone - often just a URL.

See the SFX to Alma AutoExtract guide for information on how to export data from SFX.  You should export the default institute and the individual institute(s). 

When you migrate to a single institution in Alma, each institute’s activations plus the default activations are loaded to your single Alma institution.  For institutes which are not the default, the institute name can be mapped into the Available For (AF) group for the resource.  Resources in the default institute do not have an AF group assigned, but if you would like the default institute's resources to have an AF group in Alma, you may inform the migration analyst what the AF group name should be in the SF case. As mentioned above, you can also extract non-default institutes only, without the default institute included (option 4 in the menu).

The parameters available regarding AF groups are: 

Inventory AF group name: The text used in the 'Group Name' field of the "Inventory 'Available For' Management Groups" configuration page

Inventory AF group proxy: The name of the Resolver Proxy which should be associated with the AF group.

Available For Groups are assigned in Alma at the service level.

The number of multiple institutes that can be loaded separately (AF groups) to Alma is limited. If you are loading multiple institutes into a single Alma institution, check with your Ex Libris representative, who will check with the migration team.

For a discussion of combining e-resources from multiple institutions, in a regular IZ or in the NZ, see the discussion in the Inventory section of the Alma Migration: Combining or Separating Source Databases page. 

The loading options in SFX are: 

Combine activations (Yes/No) - When Combine Activations is set to Yes, if there are multiple E-Resource sources, then activations in the second input form will be combined with the existing activations in Alma.  This options works even when the previously loaded activations are from a different e-resource system, such as 360.  For more information on this, see Multiple E-Resource Input.

Deduplicate Portfolios (Yes/No) - when Combine Activations = Yes, then if both activations are Selective (BY_TITLE), then portfolios in the packages will be deduplicated.  Please note that if the multiple portfolios have different date ranges, only the date range from the first portfolio will be used.

Deduplicate Local Data (Yes/No) - When there are multiple inputs from SFX and all of the inputs come from the same shared SFX, you can choose to deduplicate data based on the incoming local SFX ID.  This is relevant only when the inputs were in a shared SFX and the different institutions activated the same local packages.  Those shared local packages, when loaded to Alma, can be combined into a single activation.

AF Group Overrides Default (Yes/No) - For use when Combine Activations is Yes. If the existing activation has no AF group (available for everyone), and the incoming activation has an AF group, then setting this flag to 'Yes' will give the combined activation the AF group.  The final activation has an AF group, and is therefore not available to everyone.

Default Overrides AF Group (Yes/No) - For use when Combine Activations is Yes.  If the existing activation has an AF group (limited access), and the incoming activation has no AF group (available to everyone), then setting this flag to 'Yes' will remove the AF group from the existing activation.  The final activation has no AF group, and is therefore available to everyone.

The following is a list of data elements that are converted from SFX. For more information on these elements, see the SFX General User’s Guide.

Many of the services not migrated are implemented in Alma differently than in SFX. Others can be leveraged from Primo. The following table describes the SFX service types and their equivalent functionality in the Alma/Primo solution.

Service Type	Leveraged in Alma/Primo	Details
Full text / Selected Full text	Alma	Migrated and leveraged by Alma, similar to SFX resolution.
A-Z list (e-journals)	Primo	A-Z list in Classic primo: for more information, refer to Journal Search In Primo VE, use Journal Search: see Configuring Journal Search in Primo VE
Document Delivery	Alma	Document delivery is offered as part of U-resolver services and is based on fulfillment policy. For more information, refer to the Alma online documentation.
Search/link to external provider targets (e.g. Google Scholar, Amazon book review)	Primo	Part of core Primo configuration options. For more information, refer to the Primo Back Office Guide.
Availability to Primo Central / Google Scholar	Alma	Part of the Alma publishing processes.
Citation / End Note / Ref works	Primo	Part of the core Primo configuration options. For more information, refer to the Primo Back Office Guide.
DOI resolution	Alma	U-resolver services offer DOI resolution. For more information, refer to the Alma online documentation.
Citation link builder service	Primo	Part of the core Primo configuration options. For more information, refer to the Primo Back Office Guide.
All non-full text/TOC/abstract/document delivery services	Alma	Alma general electronic services allow generic linking. Primo configuration also has various external linking options.
Data Loader/Export tools	Alma
Collection tool	Alma	Allows the library to determine the level of overlap in packages to which it subscribes.
Statistics	Alma	As part of Alma Analytics