Alma Digital and Esploro Products Comparison

Question

What are the functional differences between Alma Digital and Esploro?

Answer

Alma Digital ("Alma-D") is part of the Alma Unified Resource Management (URM) Framework.
Alma-D provides management of digital resources, including any type of format, primarily images, videos, sound recordings, and textual files.
With Alma and Alma-D, the library is able to manage print, electronic, and digital resources using a single system.
While digital research assets can be stored in Alma-D, it is not designed specifically for research asset management.

Esploro is a Research Information Management (RIM) system, with a comprehensive research repository at its core.
It simplifies and enhances the process of capturing, managing, and promoting the institution’s research output, and enables the tracking of research performance.
It is designed specifically to support research asset management, and offers additional functionality to support broad research information management, including Researcher Profiles.
Esploro can be integrated with Alma based on business needs.

Please refer to the comparison table below:

	Alma Digital Digital resource management system	Esploro Research Information Management system
Focus	Digital asset repository management and discovery	Research impact: research information, output, and researchers
Content	All Digital Content Cultural Heritage Items	Research Assets Only. Any assets that are the product of, or represent, scholarship from the institution. Manages additional entities aside from only assets – grants, projects, research activities, media mentions, and more
Data Model	MARC / Dublin Core / MODS / DC application profiles	Esploro Format tailored for research needs. Based mainly on DataCite and Dublin Core
Deposit Options	Manual deposit Individual records by library staff or patrons Import Profiles (bulk deposit): Enhanced options to both merge and overlay MARC records; Overlay Dublin Core / MODS Digital Uploader tool API	Manual deposit individual assets by library staff or researchers. Import Profiles: Records can be imported and matched based on generic match routine. Merge and overlay records are on the roadmap. Smart Expansion: CDI (CSV), RIS/BibTex bibliographical lists. (ORCID is planned for the future) Smart harvesting: SWORD API
DOI Minting	Title-level HANDLE identifier generation and submission	Full integration via CrossRef, DataCite, and HANDLE
Relationships	Digital resources grouped by Collections	Many to many relationship between different Esploro entities: assets, researchers, organization units. Projects is being developed
User Record	Alma user record; no researcher-specific fields	Extension of Alma user records; researcher-specific fields (e.g., ORCIDs, affiliations, CV, etc.)
Profiles	None	Researcher Profiles
Discovery	Discovery system (Primo / Summon / OAI-PMH compliant system)	Dedicated Research Portal Primo OAI-PMH compliant systems Google Scholar
Analytics	2 Reporting Areas: Digital Inventory Digital usage	6 Reporting Areas Research Assets Research Asset Usage Grants Researchers Projects Smart harvesting Analytics dashboards for Research executives Planned analytics for the researchers on their profiles
Integration: ProQuest ETDs	On-going work for automatic deposit into Alma D via ETDAdmin or publishing directly from Alma D to PQDT.	Full integration; automatic deposit into Esploro repository from ETD Administrator; publishing directly from Esploro to PQTD.
Integration: PIVOT	None	Planned integration to share data and interface with Pivot
Integration: ORCID	None	Option for researchers to register with ORCID. Future two-way integration with ORCID to import asset and researcher data from ORCID profile to Esploro profile and vice versa
Integration: APC Management	None	Planned integration with external vendors
Integration: Journal Publishing	None	Planned integration with external vendors

Additional Information

Alma-D Documentation

Esploro Documentation

Article last edited: 21-Oct-2021