Managing Deselection Recommendations
This guide explains how to manage deselection recommendations. You will learn how to generate, review, and act on candidate items for deselection. This page also covers how to use filters, labels, bulk actions, and analytics to streamline decision-making and track project progress.
The ability to generate and manage deselection recommendations is limited to users with the following roles:
- Physical Inventory Operator
- Rialto Manager
- Rialto Administrator
Generating Deselection Recommendations
Once you create a new deselection project and set its scope, you can begin identifying items that match the set criteria. To do this, select Generate Recommendations from the three-dot menu in the project list or from the button above the Criteria form (if the form is open).
The options within the three-dot menu change depending on the project’s status:
- Generate Recommendations — Appears when no recommendations exist yet (i.e., you set the criteria but never generated recommendations for deselection).
- View Recommendations — Appears once recommendations have been generated.
- Regenerate Recommendations — Appears after project criteria have been updated and a new set of recommendations is required.
For details, see Project Statuses.
After selecting Generate Recommendations, the project status changes from Project Created to Generating Recommendations. This process can take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes, depending on the project’s scope. A notification appears in the top-right corner of the screen once the process is complete.
Remember to refresh the project page to see the updated status.
When recommendations are ready, the project status changes to Recommendations Generated. At this stage, the project information card displays two additional data points:
- Recommendations Generated – The total number of items Rialto identified as potential candidates for deselection, based on the defined criteria.
- Items in List – The number of candidate items currently in the project. This number decreases as you remove items from consideration or choose to deselect them.
These values provide a quick overview of the initial number of recommendations and your progress in reviewing and deselecting items. When a project is first created, the values for Recommendations Generated and Items in List are identical.
Viewing Deselection Recommendations
To view the recommendations after they’ve been generated, select View Recommendations from the three-dot menu.
When you select View Recommendations, you see a list that displays all items identified for deselection based on the project’s criteria. Use the facets on the left side of the screen to narrow the list by factors such as language, library, publication year, badges, and more.
See Working with Facets in Rialto for tips on narrowing down search results.
The search bar at the top of the list lets you search for items by several indexed fields, including:
- Keywords
- Creator
- Edition
- MMS ID
- Publisher
- Title
- Title Local Labels
You can use the Sort by menu to order deselection recommendations by Title, Publication Date, Library / Location, or Call Number, in ascending or descending order. You can also apply a secondary sort to further refine the order of results when multiple recommendations share the same primary sort value.
Selecting any individual item in the recommendations list opens a detailed record to help you evaluate whether it should be deselected or not.
Each recommendation has the following item-level sections:
- Summary – A general overview of the title you are viewing.
- Title Information – Title’s publication details.
- Item Information – Barcode, receiving date, and other item-specific details.
- Electronic Matches – This section displays matched electronic titles, prioritized by the number of associated portfolios (for details, see Electronic Matches). Visible only if electronic matches are found.
- Title Level Usage – Data showing how frequently the title has been used, which helps you weigh its relevance and demand. See Title Usage Parameters for more information .
- Additional Items – Other items linked to the same bibliographic record. For deselection projects, this section is hidden when no additional items are present. For details, see Additional Items.
- Compare To – This section appears only when a project includes comparisons to external institutions. It lists institutions outside your own that hold the resource, allowing you to see how your collection aligns with external holdings. Select View full list and additional information to see detailed identifier data for each matching holding in comparison institutions (for details, see Additional Details in the Compare To Section).
The Additional Items on the Bibliographic Record section includes two key fields to help you understand the context of each related item:
- Included in – A read-only field showing whether the item belongs to My library scope, Comparison libraries, or Other libraries, based on the scope and comparison settings you defined for the project. Hover over the field to view details on how inclusion is determined.
- Included in Recommendations – Lists the project type and project name of any deselection or retention projects where the item has already been included in recommendations. If the item is part of the current project’s recommendations, that information is also displayed here.
You can select Display Empty Sections to view all available sections, even if some contain no data.
Use the Quick Access button (or press the period key) to quickly search for a specific field within the item record.
Item-Level Badges and Labels
Many recommended items in the list of deselection candidates have badges.
Badges indicate different factors relevant to the item you are viewing:
- Available Elsewhere – The item is available in one of the selected comparison institutions.
- Available in My Network – The item is available in your institution’s network.
- Available in My Pods – The item is available in one of your institution’s pods.
- Courses – The recommended item appears in at least one reading list associated with Alma or Leganto courses. You control which courses are considered in recommendation calculations from the Courses Recommendation Rules page.
- Duplicate Title Record – The recommended title appears in multiple bibliographic records with a matching title and metadata. We suggest merging such records into a single record. Until that is done, they are treated as one bibliographic record for calculation purposes. After merging, please allow up to one day before rerunning the project to ensure the system registers the changes.
- Electronic Match Found –The item has at least one non-perpetual electronic match.
- Insufficient Metadata – The recommendation is based on a record with a Bibliographic Rank below 60, indicating that limited or incomplete bibliographic metadata may affect match accuracy. To learn about Alma's bibliographic ranks, see Bibliographic Ranking in Metadata Editor.
- Low/No Usage – The item matches low or no usage criteria defined for the project.
- Multiple Items in List – There are multiple items for the same MMS included in the recommendations list.
- Not in Database – The item does not appear in the open-access HathiTrust records used for comparison.
- Not Retained by Others – Held by other institution(s) within the project’s scope but not committed to retention in any of them.
- Perpetual Electronic Match – The item has at least one electronic match with perpetual access.
- Single Item – This is the only copy of the title that exists within your project’s defined scope (for example, a single copy across your institution or a single copy in a selected library).
- Unique Item – You are the only one among all the selected institutions (i.e., the ones you chose to compare to during project creation) that holds this title.
The Single Item and Multiple Items in List badges do not appear for projects created from a set or file. Because these projects do not have a defined project scope, Rialto cannot accurately evaluate whether an MMS record has one item or multiple items within the project.
In addition to badges, you can create custom labels to group, track, or mark items according to your local workflows—for example, tagging items for further review or staff assignment. To add a label:
- Select Add Labels.
- Enter the desired label name and tick the empty square next to it.
- Select Apply.
If there are any bibliographic records associated with the item’s MMS ID, you see a Related Records link next to the badges in the Summary section. This link displays the total number of related records in parenthesis.
Selecting the Related Records link opens a list of all connected records, including alternate versions, editions, and other MMS IDs linked to the same intellectual work.
Additional Items
The Additional Items section displays the following information, depending on what data is available for the matching item:
- Title (clickable; opens the title record)
- MMS ID
- Barcode (clickable; opens the item editor when permitted)
- Item ID
- Availability indicator (green dot = available; grey dot = not available)
- Process type (clickable)
- Library/Location (clickable; opens holdings)
- Item Policy
- Fulfillment Note
- Provenance
- Physical Condition
- Included in Recommendations (project name and type; may include multiple names/types)
- Included in (My library/location scope, Comparison libraries/locations, or Other libraries/locations)
If a matching title has a different MMS ID, it gets the Different Title label.
You can also add custom labels to items from this section. Select Add Labels to create custom labels and use them to group, track, or mark items.
Available row actions for displayed items depend on user privileges and may include:
- Edit Item
- Change Location
- Work Order
- Withdraw
- View Holdings
- View Holdings’ Items List
- Commit to Retain
- Remove from List (only appears for items that are included in the recommendations of the project that is being viewed)
To support efficient review of larger item sets:
- Use Sort by to order items by MMS ID, Library/Location, Temporary Location, or Status.
- Use the two filters to narrow results by:
- Record (All, Same Record (i.e., matches based on the same MMS ID), or Matching Records (i.e., matches based on other factors, not MMS ID))
- Included in (All, Comparison Libraries/Locations, Current Project Recommendations, My Library/Location Scope, Other Libraries/Locations)
At the bottom of the section, the following quick-access links are available:
- View full item list - Opens a sliding panel with a physical item search that includes all item IDs returned for the title.
- View items in libraries for reference - Opens a sliding panel that displays items from the selected reference libraries. Displays only when the project is internal and if you selected libraries for reference.
- View recommended items - Relevant when multiple items for the same title appear in the results list. Opens a sliding panel with all the items included in the recommendations list.
Electronic Matches
The Electronic Matches section displays matched electronic titles, ordered by the number of associated portfolios. How electronic matches impact recommendation generation depends on how you set up the Electronic Matches settings during project creation.
A single print item may be matched to multiple electronic bibliographic records.
The following indicators provide additional context:
- Network icon (
) – This icon indicates that the match originates from a Network Zone and is available in your institution. - Electronic Match Found –This badge indicates that the item has at least one non-perpetual electronic match.
- Perpetual Electronic Match – This badge indicates that at least one portfolio with the matching title has perpetual access.
- Same Bibliographic Record – This badge indicates that electronic portfolios exist on the same bibliographic record as the print item.
A recommendation is marked with Perpetual Electronic Match when at least one matching electronic title provides perpetual access. If no perpetual access is available but electronic matches exist, the Electronic Match Found badge is displayed. For details on how perpetual access is determined, see our FAQ page.
Select View electronic portfolios to open a detailed panel showing all portfolios associated with a matched title. The panel provides key bibliographic and inventory information for each portfolio, including identifiers (such as ISBN and MMS ID), portfolio and collection details, purchase model, access type, and additional metadata such as creation and modification dates.
When viewing recommendations, you can use two facets (Electronic Match Found and Perpetual Electronic Match) to quickly identify items with electronic equivalents or those that specifically have electronic matches with perpetual access.
Select View all title matches at the bottom of the Electronic Matches section to open a panel with the full list of all matched records.
Learn precisely how we match electronic book records to physical bibliographic records on our FAQ page.
Additional Details in the Compare To Section
Use the View full list and additional information link in the Compare To section to view detailed bibliographic and identifier data of all matching holdings in comparison institutions.
Selecting View full list and additional information opens a sliding panel that displays various useful data related to matching holdings in comparison institutions, such as:
- MMS IDs
- Titles
- Authors
- Publication date
- Publisher name
- ISBNs
If multiple identifiers exist, all available values are displayed. The panel lists one row per matching MMS ID per institution, so institutions with multiple matching records appear multiple times.
Some data points are hidden by default; use the panel’s configuration button to add additional columns to the sliding panel. All displayed fields support sorting.
The Compare To section only appears if a project includes comparisons to external institutions.
Interacting with Deselection Recommendations
When reviewing deselection recommendations, the final step is deciding what to do with each item (e.g., move items, retain them, withdraw them, or simply clear them from consideration). These actions can be taken at the item level (on a single recommendation) or in bulk (on multiple items at once).
Item-Level Actions
When viewing item-level details for a recommendation, you can take several actions from the buttons at the top of the page. Taking any of these actions removes the item from the deselection recommendations list.
Change Location
This action sends a request to move the recommended item to another location. After selecting Change Location, you see a form with several fields:
- Request Type – Choose whether the move is permanent or temporary.
- Note (optional) – Add an explanation for the move.
- To – Select the destination location.
- Additional Request Attributes (optional) – Provide extra details about the move request.
Use the Change Location action to relocate relevant items. In many cases, deselection does not involve withdrawal but rather moving items to closed stacks, remote storage, or another location as part of the institution's collection management strategy.
Commit to Retain
This action allows you to retain the suggested item instead of deselecting it. Selecting the button opens the Mark for Retention form, where you specify the reasoning behind the decision to retain the item. For details, see Committing Items to Retention.
Withdraw from Repository
This action permanently deletes the item from the library repository. Rialto prompts you to confirm your action when you select this button to prevent accidental withdrawals.
If the item is the last one attached to its holding record, a Withdraw Item menu appears, allowing you to specify how the withdrawal should be handled.
Remove from List
This action excludes the item from the list of recommendations. Once removed, the item does not reappear in the list of deselection candidates for that project.
Once you select this action, you get the option to use an existing label or create a new one to explain why you are removing an item from the list.
Bulk Actions
In addition to item-level actions, you can also act on multiple items at once by selecting their checkboxes in the recommendations list.
When at least one item is selected, a new set of action buttons appears at the top of the screen.
Here’s what each of these actions enables you to do:
- Run a Job – Lets you run a process directly on the selected items without creating a set first. The job options depend on your permissions and the type of records. For details, see Run a Job on Selected Search Results.
- Add to Itemized Set – Adds the selected item(s) to an existing fixed list (itemized set) so you can reuse them later in other workflows. For details, see Adding to Itemized Sets.
- Create Itemized Set – Creates a brand-new fixed list (itemized set) from the selected items. For details, see Creating an Itemized Set.
- Manage Labels – Allows you to tag selected items with custom labels. Labels can be searched, filtered, or used to help organize and track items across your repository.
- Commit to Retain, Remove from List, Withdraw from Repository, Change Location – Perform the same actions described in the item-level section, but applied in bulk to all selected items.
Commit to Retain, Remove from List, Withdraw from Repository, and Change Location actions always remove the affected items from the list of deselection recommendations. By contrast, the Run a Job, Add to Itemized Set, and Create Itemized Set bulk actions prompt you to decide whether or not the selected items should remain in the list after the action is complete. To remove items after performing one of these actions, select the checkbox when prompted and then choose Continue.
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Use the checkbox next to the refresh button at the top of the list to quickly select or clear all items on the page.
Deselection Project Analytics
On the far right of the recommendations screen, you will find the Project Analytics panel. This panel includes a chart that summarizes the overall progress of your deselection project, giving you a quick snapshot of how items are being managed.
The chart tracks items across five categories:
- Active – Items that are still awaiting action. These recommendations remain a part of the list until you perform an action on them.
- Retained – Items that have been committed to retention as part of this project.
- Removed – Items that have been taken out of the recommendations list.
- Withdrawn – Items that were part of the original recommendations but have since been withdrawn from the repository.
- Handled – Items that have been included in a set or had an action (such as a job) applied to them.
The Project Analytics chart updates only when you make changes to the recommendations and then refresh the Alma page.