Creating a New Deselection Project
This guide explains how to create a new deselection project, from entering basic details to defining its scope in the Criteria form. Read on to learn how to create a fully configured project ready to generate actionable deselection recommendations.
The option to create new and edit existing deselection projects is available only to users with the following roles:
- Physical Inventory Operator
- Rialto Manager
- Rialto Administrator
To create a new deselection project:
- Go to Collection Development > Workflows > Deselection. This opens the Deselection Workflow page, which displays all existing projects. If Deselection does not appear in your menu, see Enabling Collection Development Workflows for details.
- Select Add Project in the top-right corner.
Selecting Add Project opens a short form used to define and launch a new project. The Material Type field is preset to Books and cannot be changed (support for additional material types is planned for future releases).
Choose how you want to create the project:
- Create New Project – Start a project from scratch and have Rialto search across all items within the defined scope to identify titles that meet your deselection criteria.
- Upload Project from File – Create a project based solely on the items listed in an uploaded tab-delimited or Excel file (up to 10 MB). Rialto evaluates only the item IDs in the file when generating recommendations.
- Create Project from Set – Build a project using an existing Alma set of physical items as the data source. Rialto evaluates only the items contained in the selected set when searching for deselection candidates.
The instructions below describe the process for the standard option (Create New Project). For details about the other methods, see Creating a Project from a File and Creating a Project from a Set.
Enter the following details:
- Project Name (mandatory) – Enter a name for the project. This name appears in the project list and is used to identify it.
- Description (optional) – Provide a brief summary of the project, its scope, and its goals.
At the bottom of the form, there’s the Review only within libraries in my institution checkbox:
- Select this option to restrict the comparison scope exclusively to libraries within your own institution.
- Leave it unchecked to expand the scope to include other institutions that have consented to share data through Collection Development.
After completing the form, select Create. The project is added to the list of existing deselection projects.
Defining the Scope of a Deselection Project
After you create a new deselection project, the Criteria form automatically opens in the right-hand pane. Here, you define the project’s scope (i.e., which libraries to check and which items qualify for deselection).
You can fill in the Criteria form directly in the right-hand pane or select Open full page view in the middle of the screen to work in a dedicated full-screen view.
The following sections provide step-by-step guidance for completing each part of the Criteria form. To navigate between sections, use the links on the left side of the Criteria form, or use the Quick Access button to quickly find a specific field in one of the sections.
The sections of the Criteria form are optional unless explicitly marked as required with a red asterisk. Completing more sections narrows the scope of the project and results in a smaller, more focused set of recommendations. Leaving sections empty produces a broader list of results.
Summary
The Summary section displays key information about the deselection project.
Here, you can:
- Edit the Project Name and Description.
- View the Project Type (preset to Deselection).
- Control visibility with the Private checkbox (checked = visible only to you; unchecked = shared with all users in the institution).
- See who created and last modified the project, with dates.
- Find the unique Project ID.
This section also displays a reminder of whether the Review only within libraries in my institution checkbox was selected during project creation.
Scope
The Scope section enables you to define where Rialto looks for deselection candidates. By default, all libraries in your institution are included, but you can narrow this to specific ones.
To select libraries:
- Open the Select a value field under Select libraries within my institution.
- Check the libraries or campuses you want to include. Selected libraries appear in a summary on the right pane.
- Select Done to confirm.
Remember, items in libraries not selected here will be excluded from the project’s scope.
The Number of items per title in the institution/selected libraries exceeds field lets you set the minimum number of copies a title must have to be considered for deselection. For example, enter 4 to recommend only items with more than four copies across the selected libraries.
The Suggest only items with physical condition field allows you to filter deselection candidates by their physical state. Use that field to limit the deselection search to only items with a certain physical condition.
The Suggest when total usage per title is less than field enables you to set a usage threshold. Use the first dropdown to define the maximum number of uses (from 1 to 10), and the second dropdown to choose the time frame in years (from 1 to 10). For example, you can limit recommendations to titles used fewer than three times in the past five years.
The two checkboxes at the bottom of the Scope section offer further control over deselection recommendations:
- Suggest only items that are not in a reading list – Exclude items linked to at least one Alma or Leganto reading list.
- Suggest only items for titles that have at least one additional item committed to retain within the institution / selected libraries – Ensures that only titles already protected by a retention commitment are recommended for deselection. This prevents accidental deselection of unique or irreplaceable items.
Bibliographic Details
The Bibliographic Details section lets you refine the project’s scope based on classification and publication year.
Begin by selecting a Classification Type. After choosing a type, a second dropdown appears (Classifications), enabling you to select specific classifications within the chosen classification type. Choose any required classifications that items must have to qualify for inclusion in the project, and then select Done.
Next, specify the Publication Year range by entering values in the From and To fields. This range determines the publication years of items eligible for inclusion in the project. Any items published outside of this range will be excluded from the project.
You can fill in only one field—either From or To—to broaden the scope and capture all items published after or before a given year.
The Resource Types area lists all the resource types that the system will evaluate when generating deselection recommendations. At present, the Deselection workflow is limited to physical books without descriptions.
Resource Types in this section reflect the Resource Type assigned by Alma to each bibliographic record. Alma determines resource types based on MARC metadata and internal normalization rules. For details on how Alma evaluates MARC fields to assign these values, see The Resource Type Field in the Alma documentation.
Additional Fields
The Additional Fields section enables you to apply Alma's advanced search filters to further specify which items qualify for your deselection project.
Advanced filters help you precisely target the items that align with your deselection goals. For example, you can narrow your search to items written in a specific language or published by particular publishers.
Narrowing the scope of the project to specific languages
For details on using these filters effectively, see the guide to Advanced Search.
Labelled Items
The Labelled Items section lets you include or exclude items based on physical item labels:
- To recommend items with specific labels, click inside the Suggest items with labels field, enter the desired label(s), and confirm your selection.
- To filter out items with specific labels, use the Exclude items with labels field in the same way.
Compare To
The Compare to section helps you see what other libraries and institutions hold before deciding what to remove from your own collection.
The available options depend on whether you selected the Review only within libraries in my institution checkbox when initially setting up the project. This choice determines whether the Compare to section is limited to your own libraries or extended to outside institutions.
Compare Within Your Institution
If the Review only within libraries in my institution checkbox is selected, comparisons are limited to libraries within your own institution that were not already included in the project scope. No external holdings are considered. In this case, the Compare to section appears as shown below.
The Select libraries for comparison field enables you to choose specific libraries from within your institution. After selecting the libraries, you must also choose how the comparison should work:
- Suggest items that are held by any of the selected libraries – Only titles that exist in at least one of the selected libraries are considered for deselection. Titles that are unique to your library are not included.
- Suggest items that are held by any of the selected libraries only if they are committed to retain by at least one library – Only titles that exist in the selected libraries and have a formal retention commitment are considered. This method ensures the items are actively preserved elsewhere before being suggested for deselection.
Selecting the first option generates more recommendations, since any item held by the chosen institutions is suggested. The second option produces fewer recommendations, as candidate items must be both held and marked for retention by at least one of the selected institutions.
Compare Beyond Your Institution
If the Review only within libraries in my institution checkbox is not selected, you can compare against libraries outside your institution, provided they have agreed to share data through Collection Development. In this case, the Compare to section looks like the example below.
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If your institution is part of a Network, you can choose to automatically include all opted-in member institutions as comparison points with the Select all opted in Network members for comparison checkbox. To see the list of institutions that have opted in, hover over the information (i) icon next to the checkbox. You can also set what to compare against in other ways:
- Select pods for comparison – Select Add to choose specific pods of institutions. Pods are groups of institutions that can be compared together for more targeted results. This option is available only to Rialto customers.
- Select institutions for comparison – Select Add to include individual institutions in the comparison.
After defining your comparison set, choose one of the two available methods:
- Suggest items that are held by any of the selected institutions – Only titles that exist in at least one of the selected institutions are considered for deselection. Titles that are unique to your library are not included.
- Suggest items that are held by any of the selected institutions only if they are committed to retain – Only titles that exist in the selected institutions and have a formal retention commitment are considered. This method ensures the items are actively preserved elsewhere before being suggested for deselection.
Remember, the choice you make here directly affects the size of the deselection recommendation pool. If you select the first option, Rialto suggests more items, since any title held by the chosen institutions is included. If you choose the second option, the list is smaller, as items must be both held and already committed to retention by at least one institution.
At the bottom of the section, you can also compare against specific external databases. Select Add and choose the databases you want to include when identifying candidate items for deselection. Support for external databases is being introduced gradually, with HathiTrust as the first available option.
Finalizing Your New Project
Once you have entered the desired information you want included in your deselection project, select Save at the top of the Criteria form. Your new deselection project has now been created with the criteria you defined. From there, you can begin generating recommendations and then selecting items for deselection.
To update a project’s criteria, select the pencil icon and make any changes in the Criteria form. After saving, remember to select Regenerate recommendations to produce an updated list of candidate items based on the revised criteria.
Creating a Project from a File
The Upload Project from File option lets you create a deselection project using a predefined list of items. Unlike regular projects, which define scope through selected libraries or institutions, a file-based project uses the uploaded file itself as the scope—only the items in that list are checked against the project’s criteria and considered for deselection.
Once you select Upload Project From File, the Add Deselection Project screen (Collection Development > Workflows > Deselection) adjusts slightly from the standard version used to create a project from scratch.
Upload your file by dragging it into the upload area or selecting Upload file to locate it on your device. The file must meet the following requirements:
- File types: Excel (.xls, .xlsx) or tab-delimited text (.txt)
- Maximum file size: 10 MB
- Header: The file must include a column labeled Item ID in the header row. If multiple columns are present, only the first valid Item Id column is used; all other data is ignored.
Each project can include only one uploaded file at a time.
If the uploaded file does not meet these requirements, Rialto displays an error message explaining why the upload failed.
Next, fill in the Collection Project Name and optionally add a brief Description. Select Review only within libraries in my institution to restrict the comparison scope exclusively to libraries within your own institution.
When finished, select Create. The new project appears in the deselection project list, and the Criteria form opens automatically in the right-hand pane. Use this form to define the project’s scope and other parameters.
Filling Out the Criteria Form When Uploading a File
The Summary section displays key information about the deselection project. Here, you can:
- Edit the Project Name and Description.
- View the Project Type (preset to Deselection).
- Control visibility using the Private checkbox (checked = visible only to you; unchecked = visible to all users in the institution).
- See who created and last modified the project.
- View the unique Project ID.
This section also reminds you whether the Review only within libraries in my institution option was selected during project creation.
The Files section displays the file you uploaded and provides an overview of its name and type.
The Scope section enables you to define which items qualify for deselection. Here, you can:
- Use Suggest only items with physical condition to limit results to items in a specific physical state.
- Set a usage threshold under Suggest when total usage per title is less than, defining both the number of uses (1–10) and the time period in years (1–10).
- Select Suggest only items that are not in a reading list to exclude titles linked to an Alma or Leganto reading list.
The Compare To section allows you to evaluate other libraries’ holdings before making removal decisions. The layout of this section varies depending on whether Review only within libraries in my institution is selected. For detailed guidance, see the guide to Compare To section.
When Review only within libraries in my institution is selected and specific comparison libraries are chosen, any item from the uploaded file that belongs to one of those comparison libraries is removed from the project before any other comparison criteria are applied. These dropped items appear in the Generate Collecto Recommendations job report.
Once you have entered all desired criteria, select Save. Your new deselection project is now created with the defined parameters.
Creating a Project from a Set
The Create Project from Set option enables you to build a deselection project directly from an Alma set of physical items.
When you select Create Project from Set, the Add Deselection Project screen (Collection Development > Workflows > Deselection) updates to include a Select Physical Items Set field.
In the Select Physical Items Set field, choose an Alma set containing physical items. Both logical and itemized sets are supported.
Only sets with a content type of Physical Items appear in the list.
Next, complete the Project Name and Description fields (the description is optional). To restrict comparison to your own institution, select the Review only within libraries in my institution checkbox.
When the form is complete, select Create. The new project appears in the list of deselection projects, and the Criteria form opens in the right-hand pane.
Filling out the Criteria Form when Creating a Project from a Set
The Summary section displays the project’s key information, including:
- Project name, description, and type (preset to Deselection)
- Visibility settings (the Private checkbox)
- Creator, modification dates, and unique Project ID
- Whether Review only within libraries in my institution was selected during setup
The Set Information section displays details about the selected Alma set, including:
- Set name and ID
- Set type (logical or itemized)
- Set content type
- Content origin
- Creation date
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You can replace the selected set at any time by using the Select Physical Items Set dropdown.
If recommendations were already generated, replacing the set refreshes the project’s data and changes its status to Project Modified. The main available action then becomes Regenerate Recommendations.
The Scope section defines which items qualify for deselection. Here, you can:
- Use Suggest only items with physical condition to filter results by physical state.
- Define a usage threshold under Suggest when total usage per title is less than, specifying both the number of uses (1–10) and the time period in years (1–10).
- Select Suggest only items that are not in a reading list to exclude titles linked to Alma or Leganto reading lists.
The Compare To section lets you review other libraries’ holdings before deciding which items to remove. This section's layout varies depending on whether Review only within libraries in my institution is selected. For detailed guidance, see the guide to Compare To section.
If Review only within libraries in my institution is selected and specific comparison libraries are chosen, any item in the selected Alma set that belongs to one of those comparison libraries is removed before other comparison criteria are evaluated. These dropped items are listed in the Generate Collecto Recommendations job report.
Once all criteria are configured, select Save. Your new deselection project is now created with the defined parameters.