Search Indexes

Available Search Indexes

When you search the Alma repository, indexing provides easy access to the information for which you are searching. See the following pages for details regarding the available indexes:

All Titles and standard authority searches extract text from a field's subfields according to the alphabetical order of the subfields.

Searchable Fields Lists

For your reference, see the following lists of searchable fields:

Electronic Collections
Electronic Portfolios
Holdings
Physical Items
Authorities

Updates

Every six months, Ex Libris reindexes all inventory data in order to enhance Alma's search mechanism. The semi-annual reindexing generally starts in May and November and finishes in July and January (completion times can vary from institution to institution). The process always starts a day or two after the respective release and takes some number of days for each institution. Since the reindexing job is triggered gradually, institution by institution, the full process may take up to two months. It is recommended that you start testing indexing fixes or any new features that depend on reindexing after the reindexing job is completed as shown in the Alma Help menu.

The Full Inventory Indexing Job is visible to Admin Users from the link in the Help menu, but not from the Job History.

Searchable Fields

The following sections highlight the searchable fields for electronic collections, portfolios, holdings, and physical items.

Electronic Collections

The following fields are Electronic Collection searchable fields:

Electronic collection name – includes the electronic collection’s Public name, Public name (override), and Alternative title fields
Electronic collection content type – this search option is currently not supported
Title – the search is performed on the Title index of the bibliographic record. This means that the result appears both if the electronic collection is related to the bibliographic record or if the bib record that matches the title search is included in one of the portfolios of that collection.
Crossref enabled
Collection PO line ID
Creation date
Modification date
Activate from
Activate to
Free
Authentication note (Electronic Collection)
Public note (Electronic Collection)
Internal Description (Electronic Collection)
Service authentication note
Proxy enabled
Availability
Electronic collection PID — searches an internal field
License ID
Linking level
Title service PID — searches an internal field
Notes tab — General Notes (Electronic Collection) — enables users to locate text populated within the "General Notes" section for Electronic Collections.
Notes tab — General Notes (Service) — enables users to locate text populated within the "General Notes" section for Service.
Service type
Electronic collection type
Creator name
Language
Category
Collection Available for group
Collection Available explicitly for group
Collection available for
Collection available explicitly for
Interface name
Library
Proxy name
Available for CDI search activation
Provider coverage
CDI Collection ID
CDI Fulltext Linking
CDI Fulltext Rights
CDI Newspapers
CDI Search Rights
CDI-only full text activation
CDI Suppress full text
CDI Activation required (This search field is visible for EasyActive customers only)
CDI Provider Coverage
CDI Type (Alma subscribes to only some titles in this collection)
Provider Collection ID
Provider Collection Name

The Provider Collection Name and Provider Collection ID fields are only visible if the data exists and was shared by the provider with Ex Libris.
The data presented in these fields is presented exactly as passed to Ex Libris by the provider (the Provider Collection ID is not presented in cases where it was not passed to Ex Libris by the provider).
There are cases where the provider only shared their collection name but not the collection ID.

The Provider Collection Name/ID can only be updated by the Alma Content team

When a search is done that uses Electronic collection, the search process checks the keywords on both the electronic collection level and the portfolio level for the selected index. This is true for all indexes that aren't specifically labeled as being electronic collection or portfolio. For example, when you search using Electronic collection and select Title, the search process checks both the electronic collection level and the portfolio level for a match.

Electronic Portfolios

The following fields are Electronic Portfolio searchable fields:

Notes tab - General Notes
Proxy enabled
Access Rights (Electronic Portfolio)
Available for
Available for group
Available explicitly for
Available explicitly for group
Interface Name
The Interface Name (Electronic Portfolio) subindex is only relevant for standalone portfolios. For portfolios, under an E-collection, the correct index to use is Interface Name.
Internal Description (Electronic Portfolio)
Proxy name
URL
Authentication note (Electronic Portfolio)
Public note (Electronic Portfolio)
Portfolio PO line ID

Holdings

The following fields are Holdings searchable fields:

Accession Number
Acquisition Note
Action note, Action note authorization, Action note note, Action note agent, Action note status
Binding Note
Call number prefix
Call number suffix
Carrier type term
Carrier type code
Completeness
Control Number
Creation date
Electronic Location and Access (856 f,z)
Encoding level
General retention policy
Has items
Holding note
Holding PID
Lending Policy
Library
Linkage Number
Media type code
Media type term
Method of acquisition
Modification Date
OCLC Control Number (035a, 035 a+z, 035z)
Other Control Number (035a, 035 a+z, 035z)
Ownership and Custodial History
Pattern level of enumeration (first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth)
Pattern frequency
Permanent call number
Permanent call number type
Permanent physical location
Receipt, acquisition, or access status
Reproduction Policy
Structured Ownership and Custodial History (361 a,f,l,o,s,u,x,z)
Summary holdings
Tag Suppressed
Textual holdings, Textual holdings - nonpublic note, Textual holdings - public note
Type of record
URL access status
URL text link
URL material specified
URL method
URL non public note
URL public note

Physical Items

The following fields are Physical Items searchable fields:

Barcode
Issue year
Inventory number
Item PID
Public Note
Fulfillment Note
Internal note 1
Internal note 2
Internal note 3
Item description
Item sequence number
PO Line
Alternative call number
Alternative call number type
Creation date
Current library
Current location
Committed to Retain
Retention Reason
Retention Note
Due back from temp location date
Expected receiving date
In temporary location
Inventory date
Is Magnetic
Item policy
Material type
Modification date
On shelf date (This is a legacy field not used by Alma, originally an Aleph field)
On shelf seq
Pages
Pieces
Process type
Provenance Code
Receiving date
Statistics Note - 1
Statistics Note - 2
Statistics Note - 3
Storage Location ID
Temporary call number
Temporary call number type
Temporary item policy
Temporary library
Temporary physical location
Enumeration A
Enumeration B
Enumeration C
Enumeration D
Enumeration E
Enumeration F
Enumeration G
Enumeration H
Base status
Chronology I
Chronology J
Chronology K
Chronology L
Chronology M

Authorities

Corporate Name
Meeting Name
Name Title
Names
Personal Name
Subject
Uniform Title
Genre form
Classification Caption
Classification Caption Hierarchy
Classification Scheme
Person Names (Classification)
Corporate Name (Classification)
Meeting Name (Classification)
Names (Classification)
Uniform Title (Classification)
Chronological (Classification)
Subjects (Classification)
Geographic Name (Classification)
Classification Number
Geographic Name
Other System Number
Date
Cataloging Institution
Cataloging Conventions
Geographic Area Code
Classification
Language Code
Related Personal Name
Related Corporate Name
Related Family Name
Related Meeting Name
Related Uniform Title
Related Chronological Term
Related Topical Term
Related Geographical Name
Source
Entity Type (GND)
Cataloging Level (GND
TBK (GND)
NUK (GND)
Entity Code (GND)
Mailbox (GND)
Subject Category Code
Attributes of Person or Corporate
Geographical Name, Associated Place
Field of Activity
Corporate Name, Associated Group
Subject, Occupation
Original Cataloging Agency
Modifying Agency
Originating System ID
Electronic Location and Access

Searching Date Ranges

New for November! It is possible to perform an advanced search for titles and inventory using a relative date range, such as titles created in the last month. This is especially useful for users who need to create a logical set based on a time range (such as "within last X days") of records, items, etc., for automated processes such as scheduling a job or creating a logical discovery set, without having to manually update the date range.

A moving range of days search operators, such as Is Within the Last (days), Is Within the Next (days) and Is Older Than (days), can get a numeric value input (1 - 2,500,000) to define the time range (where 1 represents "today").

The relative date search list.

Date Range Search