Configuring Primo Delivery of Alma Data and Services

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If you are working with Primo VE, see Primo VE Delivery Services for more details.

Other than a few exceptions (such as changing labels and modifying the Online Resource delivery category), delivery to Alma has been configured out of the box and does not require any changes. Alma delivery requires the use of specific delivery templates. If you feel changes are necessary, consult with Ex Libris Support.

The following sections explain how Primo delivers Alma data and services. For a general explanation about delivery, see The Delivery Section.

For records discovered in Primo, Alma offers the following service categories:

View It – Displays links to full text or the online representation of the resource.
Get It – Displays additional services related to the physical representation of the resources (such as providing request options for print items).

The View It and Get It services can now be integrated with any third-party discovery system that is configured to use a SAML-based identity provider for both Alma and the discovery interface authentication. For detailed information, see https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/alma/integrations/discovery.

Alma data sources provide delivery information for the following types of records, and Primo must be configured to display the Alma View It and Get It services for these types of records:

Local – Alma records that are harvested and stored on your local Primo server.
Remote – Records that are located via remote searches in CDI and MetaLib.

For both local and remote records, Primo sends an OpenURL request to Alma when an end user selects a delivery tab (View It or Get It) in the Primo Front End. For more information on the delivery tabs, see Configuring Alma’s Delivery System.

Delivery Settings for Local Primo Records Harvested from Alma

Primo uses the following delivery categories for Alma records:

Alma-P – Used for physical records.
Alma-E – Used for electronic records.
Alma-D – Used for digital records.
Alma-C – Used for digital collections.

For standard publishing, Primo checks the INT field in the records that were harvested from Alma in order to assign one of the above values to the delivery/delcategory (delivery category) field in the PNX record.

An exception to this rule occurs when the INT field is set to P and the record also includes an 856 field (which indicates that the record has an online representation). In this case, Primo sets the delivery/delcategory field in the PNX record to Online Resource, which indicates to the system to provide a link to the online resource via the 856 field instead of using Alma directly. This exception may occur if the migration from another ILS to Alma is not able to convert the records to electronic. To handle this scenario, it is necessary to modify the out-of-the-box settings. For more information, see Modifying the Online Resource Delivery Category.

For centralized publishing, Primo checks INST subfield b to assign a delivery/delcategory per institution.

The rules Primo uses to normalize the harvested records are defined in the Alma MARC - Template and Alma Dublin Core - Template templates. For more information about these templates, see Alma MARC 21.

Modifying the Online Resource Delivery Category

Out of the box, Primo uses the 856 link (which is normalized to the links/linktorsrc field in the PNX) as the basis for the main delivery option (GetIT 1) for online resources. It is necessary to change the default label for the Online Resource delivery code in the GetIT! Tab 1 Text Configuration mapping table to reflect the terminology used for Alma.

In addition, Primo configures the secondary delivery option (GetIt 2) to send the standard OpenURL template to Alma’s link resolver for online resources.

If you are working with Alma, you need to change the settings in the following mapping tables to request Get It services from Alma:

GetIt! Tab 1 Text Configuration – Configures the code that determines the label used for the Get It 1 tab.
GetIt! Tab 2 Text Configuration – Configures the code that determines the label used for the Get It 2 tab.
GetIt! Link 2 Configuration – Configures the template that is used to build the OpenURL request, which is sent to Alma.

To configure the online resource settings for Alma:

Use the following table to modify the codes for each Online Resource delivery category in the GetIT! Tab 1 Text Configuration mapping table:

GetIT! Tab 1 Text Configuration Mapping Table
Delivery Category Code	Availability Status Code	Tab 1 Label Code (Change)	Tab 1 Label Code (To)
Online Resource	may_be_restricted	tab1_onl_mayrestrict	alma_tab1_mayrestrict
Online Resource	restricted	tab1_onl_restrict	alma_tab1_restrict
Online Resource	not_restricted	tab1_onl_norestrict	alma_tab1_norestrict

Use the following table to modify the codes for each Online Resource delivery category in the GetIT! Tab 2 Text Configuration mapping table:

GetIT! Tab 2 Text Configuration Mapping Table
Delivery Category Code	Availability Status Code	Tab 2 Label Code (Change)	Tab 2 Label Code (To)
Online Resource	may_be_restricted	tab2_onl_mayrestrict	alma_tab2_mayrestrict
Online Resource	restricted	tab2_onl_restrict	alma_tab2_restrict
Online Resource	not_restricted	tab2_onl_norestrict	alma_tab2_norestrict

Use the following table to modify the codes for each Online Resource delivery category in the GetIT! Link 2 Configuration mapping table:

GetIT! Link 2 Configuration Mapping Table
Delivery Category Code	Availability Status Code	Link field in PNX (Change)	Link field in PNX (To)
Online Resource	may_be_restricted	openurl	Almagetit
Online Resource	restricted	openurl	Almagetit
Online Resource	not_restricted	openurl	Almagetit

Alma collections do not provide availability status.

Out-of-the-Box Delivery Settings for Local Alma Records

The tables below summarize the out-of-the-box settings in the Primo mapping and code tables to support the Alma delivery categories (Alma-P, Alma-C, Alma-D, and Alma-E). You can modify these settings as needed.

The following table describes the Alma-specific settings in the Delivery mapping tables:

Local Mapping Table Configurations
Mapping Table	Use	Delivery Category / Availability Status	Definition
GetIt Link 1 Configuration	Defines the main delivery option (Get It 1)	Alma-P / all statuses	The system uses the Almagetit template to request Get It services from Alma.
		Alma-E and Alma-D / All statuses	The system uses the Almaviewit template to request View It services from Alma.
		Alma-C / No status	The system uses the linktocollection template to display the collection in the Collection Lobby.
GetIt! Tab 1 Text Configuration	Defines the codes for the label of the GetIt 1 tab. The text is defined in the GetIt! Tab 1 code table.	Alma-P, Alma-E, Alma-D / All	Every delivery category/status has a separate code. See the mapping rows in this mapping table for details.
GetIt! Tab 1 Text Configuration		Alma-C / No status	The system uses the linktocollection code.
GetIt! Link 2 Configuration	Defines the secondary delivery option (Get It 2).	Alma-P / All statuses	No additional delivery option is defined. All Alma services are offered via Get It. You can add a local definition if an additional delivery option is needed.
GetIt! Link 2 Configuration	Defines the secondary delivery option (Get It 2).	Alma-E and Alma-D / All statuses	The system uses the Almagetit template to request additional services from Alma.
GetIt Tab 2 Text Configuration	Defines the codes for the label of the GetIt 2 tab. The text is defined in the code tables.	Alma-E and Alma-D / All	Every delivery category/status has a separate code. See the mapping table for details.

All of the templates mentioned in the above table are defined in the Templates mapping table under the Delivery subsystem.

The following table describes the Alma-specific settings in the Delivery code tables:

Local Code Table Configurations
Code Table	Use	Delivery Category	Definition
GetIt! Tab 1	Defines the label for the Get It 1 tab.	Alma-P	Get It
		Alma-E and Alma-D	View It
		Alma-C	View Collection
GetIt! Tab 2	Defines the label for the Get It 2 tab.	Alma-P	No tab defined.
GetIt! Tab 2	Defines the label for the Get It 2 tab.	Alma-E and Alma-D	Get It

Out-of-the-Box Delivery Settings for Remote Search Records

Records that Primo retrieves from CDI or MetaLib searches are assigned the Remote Search Resource delivery category. In order to support out-of-the-box configurations for both Alma’s link resolver and non-Alma link resolvers, the Remote Search Resource:Alma virtual delivery category provides a dedicated configuration for Alma in the delivery tables. If the user's institution is defined as an Alma institution, the system first checks the tables for the virtual delivery category.

The availability status for CDI records is based on information from Alma that is published to CDI. For more information, see Alma as a Source of Holdings Information for Cenrtal Discovery Index. For records retrieved from MetaLib, Primo uses the Alma RSI API to check for full-text availability status.

The following table describes the out-of-the-box settings in the Delivery mapping tables for remote searches:

Remote Mapping Table Configurations
Table	Use	Delivery Category / Availability Status	Definition
GetIt Link 1 Configuration Defines the main delivery option (Get It 1)		Remote Search Resource:Alma / fulltext	The system uses the Almaviewit_remote template to request View it services from Alma. If a title is configured to be a direct link to the online resource, the system uses the Almasingle_service_remote template.
		Remote Search Resource:Alma / fulltext_unknown
		Remote Search Resource:Alma / no_fulltext	The system uses the Almagetit_remote template to request Get It services from Alma.
		Remote Search Resource:Alma / no_fulltext_linktorsrc
		Remote Search Resource:Alma / citation_available
GetIt! Tab 1 Text Configuration	Defines the codes for the label of the GetIt 1 tab. The text is defined in the code tables	All	Every delivery category/status has a separate code. See mapping table for details.
GetIt! Link 2 Configuration Defines the secondary delivery option (Get It 2)		Remote Search Resource:Alma / fulltext	The system uses the Almagetit_remote template to request additional services from Alma.
		Remote Search Resource:Alma / fulltext_linktosrc
		Remote Search Resource:Alma / fulltext_unknown
GetIt Tab 2 Text Configuration	Defines the codes for the label of the GetIt 2 tab. The text is defined in the code tables.	All	Every delivery category/status has a separate code. See mapping table for details.

All of the templates mentioned in the above table are defined in the Templates mapping table under the Delivery subsystem.

The following table describes the Alma-specific settings in the Delivery code tables for remote searches:

Remote Code Table Configurations
Code Table	Use	Delivery Category / Availability Status	Definition
GetIt! Tab 1	Defines the label for the Get It 1 tab.	Remote Search Resource:Alma / fulltext	View It
GetIt! Tab 1	Defines the label for the Get It 1 tab.	Remote Search Resource:Alma / no_fulltext Remote Search Resource:Alma / citation_available	Get It
GetIt! Tab 2	Defines the label for the Get It 2 tab.	Remote Search Resource:Alma / fulltext	Get It
GetIt! Tab 2	Defines the label for the Get It 2 tab.	Remote Search Resource:Alma / no_fulltext Remote Search Resource:Alma / citation_available	No tab defined.