How often are our holdings updated once we activate the publishing profile?
Holdings are updated monthly on an automated basis. Our data indicates that monthly processing is an ideal interval in most cases as holdings updates are typically handled on a monthly basis.
The reason our setup instructions ask the library to set the scheduling to run weekly is to ensure the data is never more than a week old in the event we need to process it manually. One reason we might need to run the profile manually is in the event that our user access logs indicate a holdings discrepancy that needs correcting.
A library is welcome to contact support at any time to request a manual update, such as after making an important collection change. The data will be as new as the preceding Saturday, or you may run the publishing profile manually before contacting us, in which case the data would be current as of that day.
The reason our setup instructions ask the library to set the scheduling to run weekly is to ensure the data is never more than a week old in the event we need to process it manually. One reason we might need to run the profile manually is in the event that our user access logs indicate a holdings discrepancy that needs correcting.
A library is welcome to contact support at any time to request a manual update, such as after making an important collection change. The data will be as new as the preceding Saturday, or you may run the publishing profile manually before contacting us, in which case the data would be current as of that day.
Why are the recommended parameters for defining the content set "Electronic Titles' and not "Electronic Portfolios"? The latter returns more records.
Customer Question: In step 3 on this page we were surprised to note that the recommended parameters for defining the content set are: "Electronic Titles where All titles (Material Type equals "Journal")." Why is it not: "Electronic Portfolios where All titles (Material Type equals "Journal")"?
Answer: Each TITLE in Alma is made up of one or more PORTFOLIOS. A portfolio represents where that title can be accessed (i.e. Wiley Complete & EBSCO Academic Source Complete would be an example of TWO portfolios for one title - Journal of Ecology, etc.)
However, when we connect to Alma through OAI-PMH and ask for the journal records, part of the publishing profile automatically feeds us this portfolios for each title. So while this concern is understandable (that we would want to know all available sources for a title), it's not relevant here since we do indeed get this information via the publishing profile already.
How do I create the Set if it does not yet exist?
ALMA does not allow the creation of a new set from within the OAI publishing profile setup screen. You therefore need to do that in the Manage Sets area. We suggest opening up a new tab to do this so that you can leave the publishing profile setup screen open.
Please refer to the below-linked ALMA documentation on how to create a new set, but you can find that area by going to Admin > Manage Jobs and Sets > Manage Sets. The type of set you'll be setting up is a Logical set with the Resource Management content type. So look for the Creating Logical Sets section, as well as the Resource Management Sets section for the appropriate instructions and information.