Creating a New Retention Project
This guide explains how to create a new retention 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 retention recommendations.
The option to create new and edit existing retention projects is available only to users with the following roles:
- Physical Inventory Operator
- Rialto Manager
- Rialto Administrator
To create a new retention project:
- Go to Collection Development > Workflows > Retention. This opens the Retention Workflow page, which displays all existing projects. If Retention 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 retention 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 retention 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:
- Collection Project Name (mandatory) – Enter a name for the project. This name appears in the project list and is used to identify the project.
- Description (optional) – Provide a brief summary of the project and its scope.
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.
The initial form when adding a new project
After you complete the form, select Save to create a new retention project. The project is then added to the list of all existing retention projects.
Defining the Scope of Your Retention Project
After you create a new retention 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 retention).
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 an asterisk. Completing 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 your retention project.
Here, you can:
- Edit the Project Name and Description.
- View the Project Type (preset to Retention).
- 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 retention candidates. By default, all libraries in your institution are included, but you can narrow this to specific ones.
To select libraries:
- Select the Select a value field under Select libraries within my institution. This opens a list of all libraries in your institution
- From the list, check the campuses or libraries you want to include. As you select, a summary of chosen libraries appears on the right.
- Select Done to confirm.
Remember, items within libraries not selected here will be excluded from the retention search.
The Number of items per title in the institution/selected libraries does not exceed field enables you to set the maximum number of copies a title can have to qualify for this retention project. Define the desired number in this field.
The two checkboxes at the bottom provide additional control over what recommendations you are going to get for your retention project:
- Suggest only items that are in a reading list – Restrict results to items included in at least one Alma or Leganto reading list.
- Suggest only items for titles that do not have an item committed to retain within the institution/selected libraries – Excludes titles that already have at least one item committed to retention.
The Suggest when total usage per title is more than field enables you to set a usage threshold. Use the first dropdown to define the minimum 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 at least eight times in the last two years.
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, allowing you to select specific classifications within that category. 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 also 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 retention recommendations. At present, the Retention 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 this retention project.
Advanced filters help you precisely target the items that align with your retention goals. For example, you can narrow your search to items written in a specific language or published by particular publishers.
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 retain in your own collection.
The available options depend on whether you selected the Review only within libraries in my institution checkbox when setting up the project. This choice determines whether your comparisons are 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 restricted to libraries within your own institution. No external holdings are included. In this case, the Compare to section looks like the example 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 not held by any of the selected libraries – Only items unique to your library will qualify for retention.
- Suggest items that are not held by any of the selected libraries or are held by libraries but are not committed to retain – Only items that are either unique to your library or that other libraries own but have not committed to retention will qualify for this project.
Selecting the first option generates fewer retention recommendations, since only items not held by any of the chosen institutions are suggested. The second option produces more recommendations, including items held by other institutions that are not committed to retention.
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 retention 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 not held by any of the selected institutions – Only items unique to your institution will qualify for retention.
- Suggest items that are not held by any of the selected institutions or are held bu institutions but are not committed to retain – Only items that are either unique to your institution or that other institutions own but have not committed to retention will qualify for this project.
Remember, the choice you make here directly affects the size of the retention recommendation pool. If you limit results to items not held by selected institutions, Rialto only returns unique titles and produces a smaller set. If you also include items that are held but not yet retained, your recommendations list will be broader.
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 retention. Support for external databases is being introduced gradually, with HathiTrust as the first available option.
Finalizing Your Project
Once you have completed all sections of the Criteria form, select Save at the top right. Your new retention project has now been created with the criteria you defined. From there, you can begin generating recommendations and then committing items for retention.
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 retention 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 configured criteria and considered for retention.
When you select Upload Project from File, the Add Retention Project screen (Collection Development > Workflows > Retention) adjusts to include a file upload section.
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Upload your file by dragging it into the upload area or by 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 contain only one file at a time.
If the uploaded file does not meet these criteria, Rialto displays a descriptive error message explaining the issue.
Next, complete the project details:
- Collection Project Name – Enter a unique name for the project.
- Description – Optionally, provide a short description.
- Review only within libraries in my institution – Select this checkbox if the project should compare items only within your institution.
When finished, select Create. The new retention project appears in your project list, and the Criteria form automatically opens in the right-hand pane.
Filling Out the Criteria Form
The Summary section provides an overview of your retention project. Here, you can:
- Edit the Project Name and Description.
- Review the Project Type (preset to Retention).
- Manage project visibility using the Private checkbox.
- View creation and modification details, including timestamps and user names.
- See the project’s unique Project ID.
This section also reminds you whether Review only within libraries in my institution was selected during project creation.
The Files section confirms the uploaded file and lists its name and type.
The Scope section defines the retention criteria for your project. Here, you can:
- Set a usage threshold under Suggest when total usage per title is more than, defining both the minimum usage count (1–10) and a time period in years (1–10). For example, you might look to retain titles used at least eight times in the past two years.
- Select Suggest only items that are in a reading list to focus on titles currently supporting teaching or coursework.
The Compare To section enables cross-institutional analysis, helping identify which titles are already retained by partner libraries. Its layout varies depending on whether Review only within libraries in my institution is enabled. For more information, see the guide to the 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.
After configuring all parameters, select Save to finalize your criteria and create the new retention project.
Creating a Project from a Set
The Create Project from Set option enables you to generate a retention project directly from an existing Alma set of physical items.
When you select Create Project from Set, the Add Retention Project form (Collection Development > Workflows > Retention) updates to include a Select Physical Items Set field.
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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 the comparison to your institution, select the Review only within libraries in my institution checkbox.
Once the form is complete, select Create. The project appears in the list of retention 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 Retention).
- Visibility settings (Private checkbox).
- Creator, modification dates, and unique Project ID.
- Whether Review only within libraries in my institution was selected during initial setup.
The Set Information section displays details about the selected Alma set:
- 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 the retention criteria for your project. Here, you can:
- Set a usage threshold under Suggest when total usage per title is more than, specifying both the minimum usage count (1–10) and a timeframe in years (1–10).
- Select Suggest only items that are in a reading list to focus on titles that appear in at least one Leganto or Alma reading list.
The Compare To section helps identify titles already retained by partner libraries. What you see here varies depending on whether Review only within libraries in my institution was selected during project setup. For detailed guidance, see the guide to the 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.
After configuring all parameters, select Save to finalize your criteria. Your new retention project is now active. When recommendations are generated, Rialto evaluates only the items in the selected set against the project’s criteria.