Alma Digital and Esploro Products Comparison
- Product: Alma Digital, Esploro, Cross-product
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 |
Esploro |
Focus |
Digital asset repository management and discovery |
Research impact: research information, output, and researchers |
Content |
All Digital Content |
Research Assets Only. |
Data Model |
MARC / Dublin Core / MODS / |
Esploro Format tailored for research needs. Based mainly on DataCite and Dublin Core |
Deposit Options |
|
|
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 |
Analytics |
2 Reporting Areas:
|
6 Reporting Areas
Analytics dashboards for Research executives |
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 |