Single Activation with the Fully Flexible Setting
The default setting is EasyActive, only in exceptional cases FullyFlexible is applicable. For instance, for customers who moved from Primo Central to CDI.
The User's Perspective on CDI Record Types
From the user's perspective, there are two types of records that can appear in search results:
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Available – Records that are flagged as Full text available.
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Searchable – Records that are flagged as Full text not available and are searchable only.
Most Primo customers filter the initial search for their users by availability. This means that search results contain only items that are flagged as Full text available. After performing a search, users can select the Expand beyond the library collection link to also see the records that are flagged as Full text not available in their search results. We refer to these options as filtered and expand searches. Some of our Primo customers start with the expand search and allow users to filter by Availability using the top-level facets.
For portfolio activations in Alma, only the From/Until Year, Month and Day fields (not the Volume and Issue fields) are used for CDI availability calculation.
Single Activation with Alma
Alma collections that you have active, because you subscribe to their full text, will become automatically searchable in CDI. For those collections no separate search activations are necessary.
Search activations are only necessary for collections or for portfolios that are not activated for full text, but you still want your users to discover them. They will appear in the expand search flagged as No full text available. You also do not need to activate alternative coverage collections anymore for those providers that do not provide us with their metadata for indexing in CDI. Based on your full text activations, CDI will automatically check across the entire index for metadata matching your holdings and make them available for discovery.
This works as follows:
Alma will publish to CDI several sets of data (Institutional holding files) that include the following information:
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Full text availability (All your active full text in Alma) This will affect records returned in CDI for the filtered search (flag them as available and make them discoverable in the filtered search)
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Search availability (All collections that you activated for search): This will affect records returned in CDI for the expand search (for those items that are not also available in full text and do not fall under the item above.
Using Alma to Control What Is Searchable and Available in CDI
With three settings in Alma, institutions can control which items should be searchable and which ones should be flagged as available in CDI:
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All full text collections that are active in Alma will be searchable by default, regardless of what their search activation status is. For collections with portfolios, for example, the entire portfolio list is published to CDI, and CDI will map your holdings against the content of the index. This applies to all collections, regardless whether they have the Available for CDI search activation or not. The Available for CDI search activation flag is associated with collections that can be activated for search separately from the full text activations. This is useful if you want your users to discover content beyond your active full text. The publishing process from Alma to CDI makes sure that all full text collection activations take full advantage of any metadata across the entire index, so that they are discoverable. This also applies to full text collections for which we do not index the metadata from the provider directly, because we map them on portfolio level. There is no need to check which other collections to activate to achieve the best possible alternative coverage for such collections. The index will simply check anywhere in the index, across collections, and use the metadata that is available. All of this content will appear in the filtered search unless you apply the exception rule to suppress active full text.
Separate Activations for Search and Full Text Permitted -
An exception to setting 1 can be applied to suppress active full text collections from Alma so they appear as Full text not available in CDI.
From a library patron perspective activation of full text collections or items in Alma serve mostly two purposes:
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to mark them as full text available in discovery, and
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to make the full text link available via the link resolver.
There may be cases – for example for Open Access collections – where you would like to have only the full text active for the link resolver, but you do not want the same full text visible in the filtered search in discovery because it could clutter the result lists for your users. For such cases, you can use the Suppress active full text option (Do not show as Full Text available in CDI even if active in Alma setting), which will make sure that the content is not flagged as available unless it is also available from another collection where it is active and not suppressed. It will still appear on your link resolver, and users can link to the full text when coming from other search engines or platforms. Content from collections where the full text is suppressed is also not searchable in the expand search unless set to active for search or unless the same content is available from other active collections.
Suppress Active Full Text -
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All collections that are marked as Available for CDI search activation can be activated for search. This means:
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They will appear in the search results but will only be flagged as available if there is also full text active either via the same collection in Alma or a different collection if that contains the same item.
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If there is no full text available for an item in a collection that is active for search, it will appear in the expand search.
Collections in Alma are marked as Available for CDI search activation if at least 80% of the content is indexed, from either the provider directly or an alternative data source. For those collections that are indexed directly from the providers, such as the primary publishers, ProQuest, Gale, and many others, the coverage is 100%. In cases where we do not get the data directly from the provider, their content (as listed in the KnowledgeBase) is mapped against the entire Index, and the percentage of overlap is calculated accordingly.
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Prior to the Alma May 2020 release, collections that required a subscription to be searchable (for example, A&I databases) needed to be active in Alma to be searchable. Such collections are marked on Alma as Search Rights in CDI: Subscription. This has been changed, and Alma now allows institutions to use the search activation function for collections that require a subscription for search. Both types of activations (fulltext activation and CDI search activation) are now possible. No changes are needed for collections that you have already activated, and you can continue to fully activate these type of collections. In addition, activation for search in CDI is now also possible and has the same effect as the full activation: both types of activations will ensure the collections will be discoverable in CDI.
The "We subscribe to only some titles in the collection" Setting on the CDI Tab in the Electronic Collection Editor
If set to Yes, CDI will match its content to the active portfolios in this collection. If set to No, CDI will set all content of this collection to full text available without matching to individual portfolios. This setting is generally used as follows (check also for recommended settings by collection link type below):
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Select Yes to indicate a selective subscription (where you subscribe to only part of the content).
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Select No to indicate a non-selective subscription for this collection (where you subscribe to all of the content in the collection)
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Note that this is unrelated to the way you purchase such collections, and some libraries use selective settings for aggregator packages. This setting in CDI; therefore, does not mean that subscriptions to those resources are necessarily selective.
This option is available only for Aggregator/Selective collections (not for Database types of collections where no portfolios exist). The default value is Yes (selective subscription).
Recommended settings by collection link type:
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Link in Record – For collections that do have portfolios in Alma, where the institution subscribes to the whole collection, it is recommended that you change the We subscribe to only some titles in the collection option to No. This will ensure that the whole collection will be flagged as Full text available. The Alma activation wizard will be changed in the Alma January 2021 Release to set this as a default for Link in Record type of collections.
If set to Yes, only the active portfolios in Alma are included in the CDI holdings file only when a match is found in CDI, and the record will display Full text available. Because CDI matches only on standard identifiers such as ISSN or ISBN, this will result in less records displaying Full text available for collections with non-ID content. -
Linkresolver – We recommend that you retain the Yes setting for the We subscribe to only some titles in the collection option (which is the default setting), especially in case there are partial activations in Alma, where not all portfolios are active. Setting this option to No increases the chance of having linking problems in CDI because of mismatches between CDI records and the Alma CKB.
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Hybrid – We recommend that you set the We subscribe to only some titles in the collection option to No. For more information, see Hybrid Collections in CDI.
The “CDI-only full text activation” Option
The CDI-only full text activation option is found in the following areas of the Alma UI:
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The CDI tab in the electronic collection editor.
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The Action menu on the IZ collection list.
This option appears for collections if the Available for CDI search Activation field is set to Yes and at least one of the following conditions is met:
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The CDI full text linking field is set to Link in Record (not Linkresolver).
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The CDI type is set to A&I Database (regardless of whether the collection has portfolios or not).
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The CDI type is set to Hybrid and the Alma collection type is Database.
Effect:
If set to yes, the collection is added to CDI Zero title holdings file with the following results:
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If the collection is defined as a Full text database in CDI, all records in the collection will be flagged as Full text available in the Primo UI and appear in the filtered search. The Full text available flag is inherited at the collection level. If any individual portfolios settings exist, they will be ignored.
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If the collection is defined as an A&I database in CDI, the collection content will be searchable in CDI (Full text available flags will depend on full text activations across all full text collections in Alma).
Why use this option:
This option can be used when your library does not want the collection and its contents to appear in the Primo local index or in the link resolver, but you want it to be discoverable in CDI.
How to use this option:
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Verify that the collection exists in the Institution Zone by either using the "Activation wizard" or by activating the "Collection for Search in CDI".
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Edit the electronic collection. In the CDI tab, select the CDI-only full text activation checkbox.
The "Do not show as full text in CDI even if active in Alma ('Suppress')" Option
This option appears in the following area of the Alma UI:
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The CDI tab in the electronic collection editor.
And will appear for collections with the following settings:
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The Available for CDI search Activation field is set to Yes.
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The Available for CDI search Activation is set to No, but the collection has portfolios in Alma.
Results:
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All portfolios for the collection are removed from the CDI holdings file. This ensures that the content is not flagged as Full text available unless it is also available from another collection where it is active and not suppressed.
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The collection will still appear on your link resolver, and users can link to the full text when coming from other search engines or platforms.
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Content from collections where the full text is suppressed is also not searchable in the expand search unless set to active for search or unless the same content is available from other active collections.
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The local bibliographic records are not affected and are published to the local Primo Index for discovery.
Why use this option:
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Prevent content from certain collections from appearing in Primo results for example for Open Access collections – where you would like to have only the full text active for the link resolver, but you do not want the same full text visible in the filtered search in discovery because it could clutter the result lists for your users.
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Prevent duplicate ebook results where bib records are published to Primo local and in addition the CDI records appear in the result list. This option will make sure that the CDI records do not appear in the result list. Note that this will also eliminate the chapter level records in CDI.
FAQ - Activations and Activation Settings
Why do book chapters appear in the search results when I have only the book collection active?
If a book is active for full text in Alma, also the book chapters will be searchable and flagged as full text available if they are indexed in CDI. This also applies to reference collections. If a reference book for example is active, also the individual entries will be searchable and flagged as full text available if they are indexed in CDI.
How do I get content for activated Open Access collections to appear on the link resolver and not in my users’ discovery search results.
You can use the suppress active full text option (Do not show as Full Text available in CDI even if active in Alma) after activating a collection for its content to not appear as available in your CDI result list. The effect is that the results will not appear at all in the filtered search but the links still appear when the users use your link resolver coming from other sources, e.g. Google Scholar, or A&I databases. Note that in cases where the same content is available and active in several collections in Alma, but is only suppressed in one collection, the content will not be suppressed and still appear as available on CDI. Only if it is suppressed from all collections where it is active, it will be flagged as not available.
Where can I find the suppress active full text setting in Alma?
The setting is available in the CDI tab in the Electronic Collection Editor. On the Alma interface, the setting is called Do not show as Full Text available in CDI even if active in Alma.
Why is content for collections whose active full text has been suppressed in Alma still appearing as available in CDI?
The content may not be unique to the collection that you suppressed in Alma. If the same content is active in another collection that is not suppressed, it will still appear as available in CDI. Only if it is suppressed from all collections where it is active, will it be flagged as not available in the CDI results list.
What is the filtered search?
Most of our customers present their users initially only items that are available to them in full text in their search results. Technically, the results are filtered by those that are flagged as available which is why it is called the filtered search. Only if the user selects the Expand beyond the library collection option other records with no full text appear.
Why are collections marked as “Available for CDI search activation” even if a provider is not sharing metadata with the Ex Libris discovery systems?
Collections are marked as Available for CDI search activation when the coverage is more than 80% and the collection can be activated for search separately from the full text activations. This means that at least 80% of content from those collections is indexed in CDI from other data sources.
With CDI, do I need to activate alternative coverage collections for collections that are not indexed directly from the provider?
Not for collections that you have full text for. If you activate a full text collection that is not directly indexed from the provider, CDI will automatically use the metadata from other collections in the index and the content will still be searchable. There is no need to in addition find and activate alternative coverage collections. If you want to have content searchable that you do not have full text for and we do not index that content directly from the provider, you will have to still activate alternative coverage collections.
Some of the collections to which I subscribe from a publisher do not have the "Available for CDI search activation" flag in Alma. How do I make sure that these collections and other collections from this publisher are discoverable?
All your full text portfolios are published to CDI automatically regardless of whether they are coming from a collection that has the Available for CDI search activation flag or not. There is no need for any additional search activations. When the Available for CDI search activation flag exists, this indicates that that you can mark the collection for discovery as well as activate its full text. This can be useful if there is content with no full text that you still want your users to discover. If you use this search activation for a collection, its content – unless available in full text from other collections – will appear in expand Primo searches and its availability will appear as No full text available.
Why is there a "CDI Search activation status" field in the CDI tab of the Electronic Collection Editor when the documentation indicates that full text is automatically available?
Regardless of the CDI Search activation status field's setting, all portfolios activated for a collection in the CZ are automatically searchable in CDI. Any inactive portfolios in the collection will not be searchable in Primo unless you activate the CDI Search activation status field for the collection. If all portfolios in a collection are already active in Alma, the setting or clearing of this field will not affect the search results in Primo.
Why do we see duplicate EBook records in CDI, and how can we avoid them?
For information regarding this question, see eBooks in Discovery.