How often are our holdings updated once we activate the publishing profile?
Holdings are updated weekly on an automated basis for Alma libraries. The updates run each week on Sunday.
To ensure the weekly updates are as current as possible, please ensure the BrowZine publishing profile in Alma is set to run every Saturday.
A library is welcome to contact support at any time to request a manual update, such as after making an important collection change. In the case of a manual update, please first manually "Run" the publishing profile in Alma and then send an email to support@thirdiron.com to request we harvest in the newly published data.
A library is welcome to contact support at any time to request a manual update, such as after making an important collection change. In the case of a manual update, please first manually "Run" the publishing profile in Alma and then send an email to support@thirdiron.com to request we harvest in the newly published data.
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.
The main concern with using PORTFOLIOS in the BrowZine publishing profile is because this selector splits each title into a unique OAI-PMH record in Alma for each portfolio, whereas TITLES consolidates all portfolios into a single OAI-PMH record. The reason why we want all portfolios consolidated into one record (by using TITLES) is because Alma only sends us records that have been UPDATED over the previous week. If one portfolio is updated but another is not for the same title, we only see the updated record, which will be assumed by our importer to be the ONLY record. When using titles, all portfolios are still included, beyond just the one that was changed, allowing our importer to consider all source options for each title.
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.
What do I use for the "earliest timestamp" field when creating the OAI Integration Profile?
The earliest timestamp value does not affect our publishing profile. Since this field appears to be required in Alma, we suggest using "01/01/1900." However you are welcome to use any date value here without any impact on our end.