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Brown University Scholarly Resources

Import Profiles

To Import Records:

  1. Select the best Import Profile for your load
  2. Click the '...' next to the Profile on the 'Import (Resources)' Page
  3. Select Run
    1. Click 'Select File'
    2. Click the Folder Icon under 'File'
    3. Select your .mrc file
    4. Select Add
    5. Add up to x files (x records per a file - Alma will automatically break the file into multiple files if needed)
  4. Submit
Animated GIF of importing a record

Profile Types

Name Description

New Order

 Bibliographic records with embedded order data (EOD). Used to import bibliographic information and create PO lines and physical/electronic inventory.
Update Inventory Shelf-ready material for inventory associated with PO lines, based on the PO line reference number or vendor reference number.
Repository Bibliographic records. Used to import bibliographic information and create physical/electronic inventory.
Collection Used to create top-level collections with their sub-collections by importing an encoded archival description (EAD) file.


screenshot of Import Profile Details

 

Profile Details

Option Description
Profile Name Name your Import Profile
Profile description Add a description of what your import profile does.
Originating system Select the vendor, if they are not available in the list then select Other
Import Protocol Select Upload File/s for manual uploads. Select FTP for automatic uploads through an FTP server.
Physical source format Select Binary for marc files.
Encoding format Appears when selecting Binary as the Physical source format. Select UTF-8 for marc files. The default ISO will eat your diacritics.
source format Select MARC21 Bibliographic
Status Determines whether this profile appears as a useable option in the Import menu.
File name patterns Used mainly for FTP. Will grab files that fit the pattern. * is used as a wildcard for 0 or more characters.
Target format MARC21 Bibliographic
Scheduling Menu Appears when selecting FTP or OAI Import Protocols. Used to turn automatic importing on based off preprogrammed schedules. Also allows the user to set up notifications to be sent to an e-mail address for both successful loads and failed loads.
FTP Menu Select FTP connection from a drop down list that can be set up in the Configuration menu. Further individualize the folder selection via Input directory.


screenshot of Profile Details

 

Normalization & Validation

Option Description
Filter Can select from a list of Filters
Normalization Can select from a list of Normalization processes that can be set up using MDE and the Configuration Menu. Normalization Rules will be applied after a record matches or imports.
Validation Exception Profile Select MarcXML Bib Import


Screenshot of Normalization and Validation

 

Match Profile

Option Description
Match Profile Menu Set both Match Methods to needed match point.
  • 001 to MMS_ID -- Alma Specific Bib id. Use this for Bibs that have been exported from Alma and are being brought back in.
  • 035 (Other System Identifier) -- Use this when you are matching on an OCLC number or a vendor provided id. When importing, content from the 001 and 003 field are combined in the 035 before matching. So if you want to match an id that is currently in the 001, select this option.
  • ISSN/024/035 -- Use this when matching on an ISSN
  • Extended Fuzzy (non-serial/serial) Match Method -- This will search on the ISSN/ISBN, Title, and Publisher, requires the Title/Publisher to be a word for word match.
Upon Match
  • Merge -- Behaves based on Merge Method. Our default is "Overlay all fields but local" which will completely replace the entire record with the new record except for the 001, 035 9/, 9XX, and 009 fields.
  • Overlay -- Completely overlays the existing record with the new record.
  • Do Not Import -- Use this if you are only trying to add in brand new records and do not want to merge/overlay existing records.
  • Import New Record -- Use this is you want to add in a new record regardless of whether there is already a match in the system.
Allow biblographic record deletion Under the Merge/Overlay's Select Action, you can check this option. This will allow you to delete records via importing. If the LDR05 is 'd' the matched record will be deleted, otherwise it will be handled as normal.
Merge Method Merge rules can be created using Metadata Editor and then added as a process in configuration. By default we use "Overlay all fields but local" which protects the 001, 035 9/, 9XX, and 009 in the existing Alma record that has been matched with the importing record. If the importing record has a 910 and a 910 already exists in the matched record, Alma will add the importing 910 as a second 910 in the existing record. The shift of the 001 to the 035 occurs before matching, so your importing records 001 will be treated like an 035 //.
Automatic Multi-Match Handling Selecting Skip and do not import unresolved records will turn off multimatch handling and will not bring in records that match more than one record.
Upon No Match Select whether the record will import or skip if it does not match an existing Alma record. If you are adding new records to Alma you need to select 'Import' but if you are only updating existing records and do not want something to be added if it doesn't match, select 'Do Not Import'.


screenshot of match profile

 

Set Management Tags

Options Description
Suppress record/s from publish/delivery If you would like to add in records but don't want them to display in discovery, select this. You can later run a job to unsuppress the records as needed.
Suppress record/s from external search  
Synchronize with OCLC Set to publish our holdings to OCLC as appropriate.
Synchronize with Libraries Australia We do not publish to this service.


screenshot of set management tags

 

Inventory Information

Options Description
Inventory Options
  • Electronic -- Will create portfolios that should be placed in an Electronic Collection
  • Mixed -- We do not have portfolios and physical inventory on the same bib so do not use this.
  • Physical -- Will create a Holding and Item record.
  • None -- Use if you only wish to upload the bib but do not want a portfolio or item attached.
Use Community Zone portfolios This will add portfolios based off CZ matched records rather than the file's portfolio information.
Electronic Collections
  • Standalone or Part of an electronic collection
  • Electronic Collection -- Select from Collections set up in the Catalog
  • Service -- Full Service
  • Material Type
  • Single or Multiple Portfolios
E-Book Extract Fields  Enter which marc field and subfield Alma should pull portfolio information from. URL and Public Note are the usual selections. For electronic records we pull from the 856 $u for url and $z for public note. You can also enter your own 'Default Value' that will apply to every single record, don't use this for url since each portfolio needs a unique url, but can be used to create an uniform public note.
Item Creation Policy
  • Create either holdings only or items and holdings
  • Material Type
Physical Mapping Use Item Information field to select a MARC field that contains all the necessary information. Otherwise manually enter the information below. Important information being Barcode, Library, Location, and Call Number.
Map library/location Can checkmark this option then select the Mapping tab if you need to map importing record's library or location to an Alma library or location. For example, when migrating our location codes changed. So if you had a 945$lchin you would need to map 945$lchin to Rockefeller Library Chinese. Having this on will cause issues with importing bibs that hold more than one item record.
Holdings Records Mapping This can be used to map call numbers in the importing record to new fields in the Alma bib record. If you use this, Alma will only be able to create one invetory item per a bib. So if you have a bib that contains 3 items, only one of the 3 will import. Best to leave this empty unless you absolutely need it.


screenshot of Physical Item Inventory screenshot of Electronic Item Inventory

Manual Handling

  1. Check Resources > Import > Monitor and View Imports
  2. Select "Manual Handling required (still processing files)" under status
  3. Under the '...' Select Edit
  4. Under the '...' on the new page, select 'View Matches'
  5. View and Select the correct record to merge or overlay
  6. Press 'Merge' or 'Overlay' Button
  7. Repeat 4-6 until every record in the file has been manually fixed
  8. Repeat 3-7 until every file in the import has been manually fixed
Animated GIF of a Manual Handling Merge in Alma