Working with NLI Integrated Authority Records
Alma provides support for NLI (National Library of Israel) authority records in the Community Zone and the ability for authorized contributing institutions to seamlessly submit approved authority records to the NLI database and the Community Zone in an end-to-end workflow from directly within Alma. As part of providing this support, Ex Libris worked with NLI to set up the required NLI integration profile in the Community Zone. Per NLI's direction, Ex Libris also configures the mapping table that defines the institutions that are authorized to contribute NLI authority records.
NLI data is in the Community Zone. With NLI authority support in Alma, you can create and update NLI authority records using the MD Editor. When you save a new or updated NLI authority record in the MD Editor, Alma sends a request to NLI for approval. If an approved record response is returned, Alma saves the record in the Community Zone and the primary NLI database. Otherwise, Alma displays an error message in the MD Editor, and you must resolve whatever issue NLI has with the record.
In the records sent to NLI for contribution, the 005 field is populated with the originating system version of the record (instead of the modification date in Alma). When NLI returns the record to Alma after contribution or when Alma reloads the record from NLI, Alma updates the originating system version with the value in the 005 field. When Alma contributes the record to NLI, Alma uses the originating system identifier.
Changes accepted by NLI are incorporated into the primary NLI database and become available to all Alma users through the Community Zone. Ex Libris regularly updates the Community Zone with NLI changes to include those changes made outside the Alma environment.
Contributing NLI Authority Records
From an authorized institution, you can edit an existing NLI record or create a new NLI record in the MD Editor and save/submit it to NLI for approval and inclusion in the NLI database and the Alma Community Zone. Use the procedure below for contributing new NLI authority records.
Note that when records are contributed, a check is done to determine if the record being contributed has a matching record in the source system; and if a match is found, the record is not contributed.
To contribute/submit an NLI record for approval/inclusion in the NLI database and the Alma Community Zone:
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Open the MD Editor, and select New > NLI (Community Zone icon); or do a repository search in the Community Zone for an NLI record, and edit it in the MD Editor.
- Enter or update the authority record details.
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Select Save.Alma submits the record to NLI (via APIs and an API key), and the record is validated and normalized.The record version is also checked. When the version is compared with the NLI version, it must be the same or the contribution fails.If the contributed record is approved, it is stored in the Alma Community Zone and the primary NLI database.If there is an error, Alma displays an error message in a dialog box that asks if you want to reload the record or continue editing. Select Yes to reload the record and discard your changes or select No to return to the MD Editor and continue editing.
See Cataloging Externally Managed Authority Records for more information.
Cataloging Levels
Cataloging levels are used to determine if a user can contribute a specific NLI authority record. This is based on a mapping between the contributing institution’s cataloging levels and NLI cataloging levels. If the Alma cataloging level is lower than the external, NLI cataloging level for the authority record, the contribution fails based on the cataloging level. The Alma cataloging level needs to be the same or higher than the external, NLI cataloging level for the authority record contribution to succeed.
For managing cataloging levels, the following is suggested:
- Contributing institutions should have a high cataloging level (highest) that is only assigned to users that can contribute authorities to NLI.
- Only this level should be mapped to the NLI cataloging level in the contributing institution.
- Users that do not have this level get an error when they try to edit NLI authorities in the Community Zone.
- Both NLI and the contributing institutions need to configure that editing a record does not change the record's cataloging level by default (see the
use_record_cataloging_level_by_default customer parameter)
See Configuring Cataloging Levels for Contribution to Externally Managed Authorities (that also applies to NLI) for more information.