Configuring Distributed Access to Electronic Resources

Last updated
Save as PDF
Share
1. Share
2. Tweet
3. Share

The following roles can configure distributed access to electronic resources:

Repository Administrator
General System Administrator

The Network Zone can distribute access to electronic resources for the institutions of a collaborative network implementing a Network Zone. See Configuring Distributed Access to Electronic Resources When Working with a Network Zone.

However, distributing proxy access through the Network Zone is not supported for Network Zone member distribution. This option is only available for multicampus institutions. Proxies must be managed in the Institution Zone rather than the Network Zone.

Alma enables you to permit or deny access to electronic resources (portfolios, services, or collections) from specific libraries and campuses within an institution. When access is limited, patrons searching or browsing in Discovery from a restricted location (based on their IP address) cannot access the resource contents.

Alma uses inventory management groups to control distributed access. An inventory management group is a set of libraries or campuses. These groups can be assigned to portfolios, services, or electronic collections.

For example, if a library purchases electronic resources and wants them to be available only in the library, the library can define the resources to be available for a group that contains only that library. When a patron tries to access a resource, the patron's IP address is matched against the IP range of the library to determine if he or she is at the library. If the patron's IP address is not within the IP range, access to the electronic service is not enabled. A campus or library may belong to more than one group.

By default, if access to an electronic resource is limited within an institution by assigning an inventory management group to it, the resource becomes unavailable for Resource Sharing. A customer parameter, ignore_group_filter_in_rs_locate, which can be enabled or disabled by the lending institution, controls this behavior. By default, the customer parameter is set to false, and the electronic resource is not located for borrowing requests when an inventory management group is attached to the resource. When the customer parameter is set to true, the electronic resource is located for borrowing requests even when an inventory management group is attached to it. The value of this customer parameter can be set in Configuration > Fulfillment > General > Other Settings. For additional information, see Configuring Fulfillment Jobs.

Managing Inventory Management Groups

Inventory management groups are managed on the Inventory 'Available For' Management Groups page (Configuration Menu > Resources > General > Inventory Network Groups).

Inventory 'Available For' Management Groups Page

Inventory management groups must be enabled by a General System Administrator. The "Inventory Network Groups" link appears in the Resources Configuration menu only if the parameter multi_campus_inventory_management is enabled in the General Customer Parameters mapping table. For more information, see Configuring Other Settings.

To add an inventory management group:

Ensure that your libraries and campuses are defined, and the IP addresses of each library and campus is set correctly. See Adding/Editing IP Definitions for a Library.
On the Inventory 'Available For' Management Groups page, select Add Group. The Add Group dialog box appears.
Enter a name for the group, optionally enter a description, and select Add and Close. The group appears on the Inventory 'Available For' Management Groups page.
Punctuation is not to be used in the group description.
Select Edit from the group's actions list. The Inventory Management Group Details page appears.
Select the library and/or campus to add to the group and select Add Library or Add Campus, respectively. The library or campus is added to the group.

Inventory Management Group Details Page
When you are finished, select Save.
The group is now configured. You can delete the group on the Inventory 'Available For' Management Groups page.
After configuring the group, locate the portfolios, services, or electronic collections that you want to make available only for the group and configure them. For more information, see Associating a Resource with the Inventory Management Group.

If you delete an inventory management group that is connected to inventory, the relevant setting in the inventory is also deleted and cannot be automatically restored.

Inherited Group Settings

Group settings and inventory management restrictions can be defined at three hierarchical levels: Collection, Service, and Portfolio. The lowest level's settings take precedence over higher-level settings, meaning that portfolio-level settings override service-level settings, and service-level settings override collection-level settings.

By default, if no separate restrictions are applied at a lower level, portfolios inherit inventory management group restrictions from services, and services inherit them from collections. These restrictions are displayed at the top of the Group Settings tab within each service or collection. For example, a service that does not have its own group settings will inherit restrictions from its parent collection.

To apply a Group Settings Proxy for portfolios, the Group Setting, along with the Proxy, must be defined within the Group Settings tab of the electronic service.

Inherited Available For Group Settings

Inherited Group Settings Defined

For instance, consider the following scenario:

A collection is available to Group A.
Its service is available to Group B.
If no group settings are explicitly defined for portfolios, then all resources in that collection will be available to Group B, since service-level settings override collection-level settings.
However, if a specific portfolio under this service has group settings defined for Group C, then that particular portfolio will be available only to Group C, while the rest of the portfolios remain available to Group B.

This hierarchy ensures flexibility in managing access restrictions, allowing institutions to tailor availability at different levels while maintaining clear inheritance rules.

For more information about inheriting group restrictions, see the E-Resources: Inherited ”Available For” Groups video.

Inventory Management Group Workflow Example

The following sections that describe working with inventory management group settings use the following example information:

There is a campus called The Science and Law Libraries Campus:
This campus includes the Science Library and the Law Library:
There is another library called the Graduate Library:

Adding the Group

On the Inventory Network Groups page (Configuration Menu > Resources > General > Inventory Network Groups), select Add Group. The Add Group dialog box opens.
Add the group The Science and Law Libraries Campus Group and select Add and Close.
Select Edit from the group row actions to add campuses and libraries to this group.
For each campus, select the campus and select Add Campus. For each library, select the library and select Add Library.
Select Save.

Associating a Resource with the Inventory Management Group

Open the Law & policy portfolio in the Electronic Portfolio Editor and select the Group Settings tab.
Select Add Settings for Group. The Available For Information dialog box appears.

The Available For Information Dialog Box
Select the group The Science and Law Libraries Campus Group.
If you want to narrow down the embargo/rolling year information for this group, you can do that in the Embargo/Rolling Year section. If not, the embargo/rolling year information for the group will be inherited from the higher-level resource, as defined in the Coverage tab for the resource.
To specify separate proxy settings for this group setting, select one of the following in the Proxy enabled parameter:
- No - select to remove any resource default, and not to use a proxy.
- Yes - select to remove any resource default and select a different proxy from the list of proxies pre-defined for your institution in the Proxy Selected parameter.
- Resource Default - Use the proxy selected for the resource, as defined in the Linking tab for the resource.
The Network Zone can distribute access to electronic resources for the institutions of a collaborative network implementing a Network Zone. It is also possible to Network Zone to allocate electronic resources to specific libraries or campuses within a member Institution Zone See Configuring Distributed Access to Electronic Resources When Working with a Network Zone.
However, distributing proxy access through the Network Zone is not supported for Network Zone member distribution. This option is only available for multicampus institutions. Proxies must be managed in the Institution Zone rather than the Network Zone. Electronic resources from the network zone might use the institution’s default proxy – in campus level, library level or institution level.
In the Authentication Note or Public Note parameters, you can specify a note specifically for this group setting.
Select Save.
After saving the group settings, you must also save the portfolio or service; otherwise, the group settings will not be applied.

Group Settings - Saved

When Law & policy appears in a search, the results indicate that this resource is only available for a specific group.

Resource Identified as Available For a Specific Group

Understanding the Effects of the Inventory Management Group

A guest is someone trying to access a resource while not logged in to the system. A logged-in user can be explicitly associated with a campus in the user's definition; if the user is not associated with a specific campus, the user's IP range is checked, as for a guest.

Since the management group "The Science and Law Libraries Campus Group" was added to the resource "Law & Policy," and this group includes the IP range 192.168.1.40 to 192.168.2.30, any guest with an IP address within this range can access the "Law & Policy" resource.

IP Range Definition

See below for an illustration of the guest's search results for Law & policy. The guest has access to the Law & policy resource.

Guest Search Results (from IP 192.168.2.30)

If the IP of the guest is not within the IP range defined for the campus, the guest is denied access to the electronic resource.

Guest Search Results with Access Denied

Associating an Electronic Collection with an Inventory Management Group

You can associate an inventory management group with an entire collection. The restriction of the collection applies to all the resources associated with the collection (unless other restrictions are defined separately for the services/portfolios).

In the following example, the inventory management group The Science and Law Libraries Campus Group is associated with all the resources that are part of the EBSCOhost Criminal Justice Abstracts with Full Text electronic collection.

EBSCOhost Criminal Justice Abstracts with Full Text Electronic Collection

The repository search results show that The Science and Law Libraries Campus Group inventory management group applies at the electronic collection level and to all the resources in the electronic collection.

Electronic Collection Level Management Group Access

Access to All Resources in the Electronic Collection

Limiting Access by Library

In the following example, an inventory management group is associated with the Graduate Library, not a campus. The only member of The Graduate Library Group (a management group) is the Graduate Library.

The Graduate Library Group Configured

The Graduate Library has an IP address range of 192.80.206.1-192.80.206.206. When the inventory management group The Graduate Library Group is applied to a resource, only users coming from IPs within this range can access it.

In the example below, Law & policy is now also associated with the management group The Graduate Library Group.

Resource Assigned to the Graduate Library Group

Similar to the example in Understanding the Effects of the Inventory Management Group above, if the IP of the guest is within the IP range defined for the Graduate Library, the guest is allowed access to the electronic resource Law & policy. If the IP of the guest is not within the IP range defined for the library, the guest is denied access to Law & policy.

Access Restrictions for Users Explicitly Associated with a Campus

A user can be explicitly associated with a campus. In this case, the user's explicit association is used to determine whether the user is at the campus and able to access resources restricted to the campus.

When using inventory management groups restricted to a campus:

A guest (not logged in) can only view the resource if accessing it from an IP within the range (demonstrated above).
If a user is logged in and is not associated with a campus, the user is able to view the resource only coming from an IP within the range (demonstrated above).
If a user is logged in and not within the IP range, the user is able to view the resource if the user is explicitly associated with a campus that is part of the inventory management group associated with the resource.
If a user is logged in and is not coming from an IP in the range and is not associated with a campus that is part of the inventory management group, the user is not able to see the resource.

In the following example, there is a resource that is associated with an inventory management group that includes a campus with an IP range of 192.168.1.40-192.168.2.30. The logged in patron tries to access the resource from an IP address that is not within this range.

The patron Dean Andrews comes from a different IP range and is not associated with a campus. As a result, he will have no access to the resource.

No Campus Definition

However, if the patron Dean Andrews comes from a different IP range and is associated with a campus (that is part of an inventory management group associated with the electronic resource), he has access to the resource even though he is not in the IP range.

Patron with a Campus Definition

Adding Access to Resources by Adding a Campus to an OpenURL

When a resource is restricted by campus, you can add a campus parameter to the OpenURL to enable access to the resource. When the resource is accessed with this parameter, Alma considers the request to come from within the campus named by the parameter.

An OpenURL request using this feature must still be sent with valid proxy account details or from a correct IP range.

In the following example, the electronic resource Law & policy is associated with the group The Science and Law Libraries Campus Group which includes the campus The Science and Law Libraries Campus.

The Science and Law Libraries Campus Group Management Group Example

The user is coming from outside the IP range, is a guest, and has no associated campus, but the user can specify a campus in the OpenURL. To illustrate how using the OpenURL method works, the following three examples highlight both successful and unsuccessful access to resources in Alma.

The OpenURL syntax uses the following components:

The Alma URL begins with https://uni.alma.exlibrisgroup.com
The Alma institution code is: EXLDEV1_INST
The campus code for this example is ScienceLaw

Example 1: http://uni.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/view/uresolver/EXLDEV1_TEST/openurl-ScienceLaw?rft.mms_id=994387020000121

This OpenURL has the correct syntax that uses the correct campus code and provides access to the resources for the user.

Correct OpenURL Syntax/Access Provided

Example 2: http://uni.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/view/uresolver/EXLDEV1_TEST/openurl-Law?rft.mms_id=994387020000121

Access is not provided with this OpenURL, because the wrong campus code is used.

Wrong Campus Code Used/Access Not Provided

Example 3: http://uni.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/view/uresolver/EXLDEV1_TEST/openurl?rft.mms_id=994387020000121

Access is not provided with this OpenURL. There is no campus code, and Alma correctly responds with No full text available.

No Campus Code/Access Not Provided

Working with Primo/CDI in a Multicampus Environment

When configuring an environment in which campuses and libraries are given distributed access to electronic resources, you must configure Primo and CDI to support the availability of these resources per campus/library. Refer to the following documents to configure Primo and the CDI for a multicampus environment:

For Primo users who work with Leganto in multicampus environments, resource availability is only displayed when a list is associated with a course.

Watch the Electronic Resources Management Workflows video series (8 videos).