Question

Which electronic collection should I choose for each platform added to Rialto?

Answer

For each platform, you must choose an electronic collection. There are three options: Community Zone Collection (CZ), Existing Local Electronic Collection (Local), and a New Rialto-specific Electronic Collection. At the point of order, we will create an inactive portfolio in this target collection. All three collections will benefit from automated MARC record import or activation (no manual loading of records!) and automated portfolio activation when the resource is made available.   

Guidance/Recommendations:

• If you use an Auto-Holdings Integration Profile, we strongly urge you to use the CZ collection for that platform. The Auto-Holdings integration adds your electronic portfolios to the relevant CZ collections based on feeds from the provider. If you opt to use a local collection within Rialto, then you will likely have duplicate portfolios in Alma.  

  • You can find each recommended CZ collection further down on the knowledge article here.

• If you already have a collection for a specific eBook platform, we recommend using the existing collection (whether it is CZ or Local). This ensures that eBooks for a certain platform are contained within a single collection, which can make it easier to manage/track.   

• If you do not currently have an active collection for a given platform, you are encouraged to use the recommended Community Zone collection. Community Zone collections will use the existing Community Zone bib records, and the library will also benefit from the Alma Data Services maintenance of that collection. If you choose instead to use a local collection, automated import profiles will bring in bib records supplied by the provider (data feed frequency and quality are at the provider's discretion). Please note that in either scenario, there might be rare cases of duplication (<5% of orders), based on missing or faulty metadata. See What causes a "no match" upon import when using the Community Zone MARC records for Rialto? for more information on that scenario.

• See this page for detailed explanations of the end-to-end order life cycle, including when bib records are added/updated: Rialto End-to-end Order Lifecycle

• Some institutions want to keep resources ordered via Rialto separate from resources on the same platform ordered via other means, so they opt to use separate local Rialto collections (instead of using their existing local collections or the CZ collections). The separate Rialto collection is a way to very quickly differentiate which eBooks were ordered via Rialto (though there is the Rialto Order History and several Analytics Reports to quickly isolate these, as well). If you opt to use a new Rialto-specific local electronic collection, as part of the set-up, we will create a new electronic collection in your Alma environment for resources ordered via Rialto for that platform. It will be a standard local electronic collection. 

• Note that if at a later time, you want to change from an IZ/local collection to a CZ collection for Rialto purchases or vice versa, this is doable. It does require configuration updates, but Implementation/Support will be able to assist with the required changes and help to move existing portfolios if desired.

• Article last edited: 26-Jul-2021