Linked Data Enrichment Configuration

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Organizations can customize linked data enrichment for MARC records by selecting the authorities they wish to enrich and designate the appropriate subfield ($0 / $1). Additionally, they can opt to incorporate Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) URIs and include supplementary authorities for enrichment, such as local authorities supporting URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers). This empowers institutions to exercise enhanced control over the linked data enrichment process for MARC records.

Watch the Linked Data Enrichment video (2:27 mins).

To configure linked data enrichment, you must have one the following role:

Resource Administrator
Repository Administrator
Catalog Administrator
General System Administrator

The enrichment process is configured in an editable mapping table (Configuration > Resources > General > Linked Data Enrichment Configuration) for name and subject authorities that enable the following configurations:

Enable/Disable VIAF for name authorities, as a second URI for authorities that are mapped in VIAF and displayed in the enrichment table.
Selecting a subfield $0 or $1 for each URI.
It is highly recommended and considered best practice to use subfield $1 for VIAF.
Selecting the enrichment type (on the fly or permanent).
- If the permanent URI enrichment is activated for an authority in the enrichment configuration, the URI will be added permanently to the record in the selected subfield.
Priority is given to URIs added manually in the Metadata Editor and/or with Alma Refine.
Users can add rows for additional authorities (local or Community Zone) where they manually add the Alma source code and the VIAF source code.

Configuring Linked Data Enrichment for Name Authorities

Prior to this enrichment process, catalogers were adding URIs manually via Alma Refine , the Metadata Editor, or having them added on-the-fly when publishing or via API. Now, the process for on-the-fly or permanent enrichment is configurable in addition to the two existing manual methods, previously mentioned.

To configure Linked Data Enrichment for Name Authorities:

Access the Linked Data Enrichment Configuration page (Configuration > Resources > General > Linked Data Enrichment Configuration).
Select Linked Data Enrichment - Names.
A list of Name authorities is displayed.

In the screen that displays the list of Name authorities in Alma, users can do the following:

The Vocabulary Source Code and Authority URI fields are not editable in the list. If you would like to change these fields you need to delete the existing row and add another manually.

Field	Description
Enabled	Enable () or Disable () the enrichment of the specified Name authority. The designated subfields for URIs and VIAF Links (if added) will be accounted for when enabled and discarded when disabled.
Subfield for URI	For the specified Name authority, select the designated subfield ($0 or $1) for the URI.
Add VIAF Link	Indicate (True or False) whether to "add/not add" VIAF Links to the specified Name authority. Adding a VIAF Link enables users to add a second URI for authorities that are mapped in VIAF.
Subfield for VIAF	For the specified Name authority, select the designated subfield ($0 or $1) for the VIAF URI. It is highly recommended and considered best practice to use subfield $1 for VIAF.
Enrichment Type	Ability to select the level of enrichment of MARC records as part of the linked data configuration. The options to select from are: No Enrichment - This authority will not be enriched. On-the-Fly URI Enrichment - Temporarily adds a URI of the linked authority (General publishing or API). Permanent URI Enrichment - The URI is added permanently to records. If the permanent URI enrichment is activated for an authority in the enrichment configuration, the URI is added permanently to the record in the selected subfield ($$0 or $$1). URI displayed for Authority Record Adding URIs for local authorities is supported as long as the authority is added to the configuration mapping table. A local URI is generated for local extensions of Community Zone authorities. Each URI will be held in a separate subfield based on the configuration. Adding the URIs is only for MARC21-based records and not for other metadata formats, including BIBFRAME.
Updated By	Indicates the name of the users that last updated the Authority URI.
Last Updated	Indicates the most recent date the Authority URI was last updated.
Add Row	Enables users to manually add an Authority that supports URIs to the list. In this manner, users can add support for additional authorities used in the bibliographic heading if they are not part of the existing list. To add a row in the list: Select Add Row. If a user adds an additional URI for an existing vocabulary source code that is active, they receive an error message. Conditions for Error Message: If the source code is enabled in the mapping table, the error message is displayed. If the source code is disabled in the mapping table, allow adding the new row. In the displayed dialog window, define the fields: Vocabulary Source Code - Identifies databases and lists containing standard names of persons, organizations, families, meetings, and standard titles for resources and assigns a code to each database or list. For more information, see Name and Title Authority Source Codes. Authority URI - The structure of the URI for the selected vocabulary, that is constant for all entities that are part of the vocabulary. This is usually the DNS host name (the prefix). To define where to add the entity ID in the URI structure add a "{0}" in the relevant place in the URI structure. Subfield for URI - see Subfield for URI Add VIAF Links - see Add VIAF Links Subfield for VIAF - see Subfield for VIAF Select Add Row. In the Linked Data Enrichment - Names page, select Save. Add Row dialog window

Select Save.

Configuring Linked Data Enrichment for Subject Authorities

To configure Linked Data Enrichment for Subject Authorities:

Access the Linked Data Enrichment Configuration page (Configuration > Resources > Linked Data Enrichment Configuration).
Select Linked Data Enrichment - Subjects.
A list of Subject authorities is displayed.

In the screen that displays the list of Subject authorities in Alma, users can do the following:

The Authority Source Code and Authority URI fields are not editable in the list.

Field	Description
Enabled	Enable () or Disable () the enrichment of the specified Name authority. The designated subfields for URIs and VIAF Links (if added) will be accounted for when enabled and discarded when disabled.
Subfield for URI	For the specified Name authority, select the designated subfield ($0 or $1) for the URI.
Updated By	Indicates the name of the users that last updated the Authority URI.
Last Updated	Indicates the most recent date the Authority URI was last updated.
Enrichment Type	Ability to select the level of enrichment of MARC records as part of the linked data configuration. The options to select from are: No Enrichment - This authority will not be enriched. On-the-Fly URI Enrichment - Temporarily adds a URI of the linked authority (General publishing or API). Permanent URI Enrichment - The URI is added permanently to records. If the permanent URI enrichment is activated for an authority in the enrichment configuration, the URI is added permanently to the record in the selected subfield ($$0 or $$1). URI displayed for Authority Record Adding URIs for local authorities is supported as long as the authority is added to the configuration mapping table. A local URI is generated for local extensions of Community Zone authorities. Each URI will be held in a separate subfield based on the configuration. Adding the URIs is only for MARC21-based records and not for other metadata formats, including BIBFRAME.
Add Row	Enables users to manually add a URI to the list. In this manner, users select to enrich MARC records if there is already a URI in the $0/$1. To add a row in the list: Select Add Row. If a user adds an additional URI for an existing vocabulary source code that is active, they receive an error message. Conditions for Error Message: If the source code is enabled in the mapping table, the error message is displayed. If the source code is disabled in the mapping table, allow adding the new row. In the displayed dialog window, define the fields: Vocabulary Source Code - Identifies databases and lists containing standard names of persons, organizations, families, meetings, and standard titles for resources and assigns a code to each database or list. For more information, see Name and Title Authority Source Codes. Authority URI - The structure of the URI for the selected vocabulary, that is constant for all entities that are part of the vocabulary. This is usually the DNS host name (the prefix). To define where to add the entity ID in the URI structure add a "{0}" in the relevant place in the URI structure. Subfield for URI - see Subfield for URI Select Add Row. In the Linked Data Enrichment - Names page, select Save. Add Row dialog window

Select Save.

Permanent Enrichment

Permanent enrichment is possible when selecting permanent enrichment from the enrichment type in the linked data configuration. The permanent enrichment adds the URIs to the record and runs as part of the linking job and the preferred term correction job. Therefore, if linking to authorities and the preferred term correction is not enabled in your environment, permanent enrichment is not possible.

If the preferred term correction is activated and the configuration is set to add the URI permanently, there are two options:

Manual Linking (F3):
- During the manual linking process in F3, a subfield based on the configuration is added to the record.
- The URI of the relevant authority is added, enabling users to view it as part of the record editing process, before saving the record.
Automatic Linking:
- If URI enrichment is permanently activated, the Linking and PTC jobs automatically add the URI during the existing nightly jobs.
- The URIs are added to the record if they do not already exist.

If the customer parameter for partial linking, lod_uri_enrichment_for_partial_match, is not activated (meaning partial linking is not desired by the institution), then the URI is not inserted when the match is partial. For more information, see Configuring Other Settings - Resource Management.
When a user saves a record in the Metadata Editor, this only indicates that the records are to be linked. The actual linking and URI enrichment happen as part of the linking and preferred term correction nightly jobs.

Authority Control Task List: Relevant reports were added to monitor the linking and the addition of the URIs to the records. For more information, see Reporting in the Authority Control Task List.

Overwriting URIs

If the record already has a URI for the same authority and same subfield but with a different suffix (meaning, the same authority, but a different record ID), the following rules apply:

Overwrite Existing URI:
- If the record has an existing URI with the same prefix but a different authority record, it will be overwritten.
- This happens when a record is linked to one authority, unlinked, and then linked to another record from the same authority. The previous URI will be removed, and only the new one will be retained.
- The same rules apply for the VIAF URI if enabled.
Retain Non-Enrichment Subfields:
- If the record has a subfield that is not part of the enrichment (e.g., an ORCID subfield), this subfield will not be removed.
- For instance, if a record has both an ORCID URI and a Library of Congress authority URI, the ORCID URI will remain in the record.
Condition for Overriding:
- The existing URI is overridden only if it shares the same subfield and prefix as the selected configuration, but has a different suffix.
- If the existing URI does not meet these criteria, it will not be overridden, and a new URI will be added alongside the existing one.

Run Normalization Rules to Delete URIs

You can create a normalization rule to remove subfields. For instance, if you have added URIs that need to be removed, or if you want to remove other existing URIs from records, you can do this through normalization rules. For more information, see Working with Normalization Rules.

Import List

A common cataloging workflow is exporting (see Export List) a list from Alma, working on them (for instance, adding local authority source codes) and importing them back to Alma. The exported list is in Excel format that users can edit. Once the list is updated, it can be imported back into Alma.

To import a list:

Select Import.
The Import dialog window is displayed.
In the File field, select the file folder button ().
In the explorer window, navigate to and select the Excel file you updated and want to import.
Select Upload File.
The file is imported into Alma and the list is updated in the Names or Subjects Linked Data Enrichment pages.

Import Dialog window

Import dialog window

Export List

Staff users can export the list of entries (Names or Subjects) to an Excel spreadsheet. The created Excel is then downloadable to a user-defined directory.

To export a list:

Select the Export list icon ().
Select Excel.
The file is generated by Alma and a "Save As" explorer window is displayed requiring the user to select a directory to save the file.
Select Save.

Explorer window enabling user to save the Excel file to a defined directory

Explorer window to save Excel file

Manage Column Display

Users can decide which columns are displayed in the list.

To select the columns to display:

Select the Manage column display icon ().
In the pop-up window, select () or unselect () the desired columns to display.
Select Done.
If changes were made (a column was removed or included), the Manage display icon is altered to include a green dot () to indicate the change. The removed column is displayed at the bottom of the list if users wish to re-include it.

Manage Column Display Popup Window enabling users to select the columns to display

Manage Column Display pop-up window