Primo is Ex Libris' patron-facing discovery service, providing centralized and personalized access to all resources in your fulfillment network: your institution and any partner institutions. Patrons can locate physical, electronic, and digital resources in all locations, with availability information for physical resources (including the ability to request these resources for checkout at the location of the patron's choice), and instant online access to electronic and digital resources.

Alma information is published to Primo on a regular basis. Electronic and digital resources are available directly from Primo's local database or CDI (Central Discovery Index).

This guide explains the interoperability between Alma and Primo and details the steps that you must take to integrate the two systems.

Primo serves the following functions:

• Provides the Front End interface for patrons to:
  • Search and request services for library resources managed in Alma. For more information, see Configuring the Primo Front End for an Alma Data Source.
    In order to enable this functionality, all types of Alma data (such as physical, electronic, and digital data) must be published and loaded into Primo. For more information, see Publishing Alma Data to Primo.
  • Search for and request services for remote records (such as CDI and MetaLib records) via Alma’s link resolver. For more information, see Out-of-the-Box Delivery Settings for Remote Search Records.
    To provide availability information for remote records, the following must be enabled for each remote source you are using:
    • For CDI records, institutional electronic holdings must be extracted from Alma and published to CDI. For more information, see Alma as a Source of Holdings Information for Central Discovery Index.
    • For MetaLib records, you must configure MetaLib to use the Alma RSI API to check for availability. For more information, see the Configuring Your Link Resolver section in the MetaLib System Configuration and Administration Guide.
  • Perform My Library Card functions via the My Account tab. For more information, see My Account.
• Provides the UI for Alma Link Resolver services for searches that are not initiated via Primo (such as EBSCO, Google Scholar, and bX). The result of these searches is a dedicated Primo page (called the Services Page) that offers both Primo and Alma services, but does not provide discovery. For more information, see Configuring the Primo Front End for Alma’s Link Resolver.
• In addition, Alma can serve as the user directory for user authentication and authorization for Primo. For more information, see Alma and Patron Directory Services.