I-ShareUnder review: Last updated 4/24/26.
Introduction: What is CZUTL and why is it important?
The Alma Community Zone Updates Task List (CZUTL pronounced ka-zoo-till) lists changes to your Institution Zone's (IZ) e-collections and portfolios from the weekly Alma Knowledge Base updates. Every Sunday night, a weekly update will trigger jobs with several parts to synchronize your IZ with any relevant CZ updates.
Why review CZUTL?
- To check on deletions, additions, and coverage changes to your e-titles.
- To see if any important revisions of linking parameters require testing.
- To keep up with the state of your IZ's e-collections and portfolios.
Who is this web page intended for?
- For Electronic Resources librarians and any library staff assisting with maintenance of e-resources in Alma.
How frequently should CZUTL updates be reviewed?
- At least once every two weeks or monthly (at most), but weekly is preferred to catch important modifications.
- Regular checking keeps number of pending updates to a manageable number.
- What are the most important reports in CZUTL?
- The reports involving portfolio changes and also any type of deletion are usually more urgent than the CDI or other listed items.
Best Practices:
- Check CZUTL once a week if possible, or every month at the most.
- Review the reports in chronological order from oldest to newest.
- Spot check changed portfolios and e-collection linking and access to ensure accuracy.
Page Contents
How to Get to CZUTL in your Institution Zone
How to Sort and Filter the Updates in the CZUTL
Most Important Reports and Updates
Helpful Websites and Ex Libris Documentation on CZUTL
How to Get to CZUTL in your Institution Zone
To work with the Community Zone Updates Task List, you must have the following role: Repository Manager
From the Alma home screen, click on Resources > Manage Inventory > Community Zone Updates Task List.
How to Sort and Filter the Updates in the CZUTL
For processing the CZUTL, use the Review tab.
Set the date range
Select one of the options under Submit Date Range. If using the option to set a Custom Range, be careful to set the earliest date first before selecting the end date. Double check the date range before processing the CZUTL. To change your date range, return to the Submit Date Range options.
Sort by Type of CZUTL Report
Select a category to view from the Report Type menu. Clicking on the report name will display only those tasks.
sort by e-collection
Type in a keyword in the Collection Name field. Click the search button (magnifying glass icon) to limit the list of results to e-collections matching that keyword. This can allow easier mass or selective dismissal of CZUTL tasks.
Exporting From Task List
You can always export a subset or the entire set of tasks using the Export icon. It is displayed as a rectangle with the upper right corner dog-eared and an arrow going from the center and pointing right. Using an exported Excel file can enable easier filtering and review of long lists of tasks versus viewing in a web browser.
Screening out Free or Open Access e-titles and e-collections
Free, Open Access, and Aggregator e-collections tend to have large numbers of portfolios that are updated frequently. Most libraries do not monitor them to ensure specific coverage dates. Therefore, you can quickly reduce the number of tasks to review by using the Collection Name search for terms such as open, free, and aggregator names like DOAJ. Aggregators and Free/Open collections in many report types may be dismissed.
Reviewing Aggregator Package E-Titles and E-Collections
You can use the filter for Collection Type by selecting an option from the drop-down menu like Aggregator package to pull up all aggregators in a report type.
- You want to ensure that your library retains access to content that you have purchased outside of aggregator packages. For this reason, you should pay closer attention to selective packages with paid subscriptions such as Elsevier, Wiley, Sage, JSTOR, Project Muse, Taylor & Francis, etc. For these collections, spot check a few articles within a portfolio’s coverage range to determine accuracy. Checking 1-3 articles across 2-5 portfolios for a paid selective collection should be fine for a quick check. After making sure that your library has access to subscribed content within your coverage range for any collections, you may dismiss one collection at a time and move onto the next.
- If you notice inaccuracies for portfolio coverage in a collection, make a note of the issues or collection-wide patterns for correction.
Dismissing results
There are a variety of ways to dismiss the results of different report types. For report types and collections that have a large number of results, such as Free and Aggregator collections, Dismiss All can be selected after a quick check that all results meet the criteria. (For example, items in an Open or Free collection under the Portfolio Coverage Update report.)
For results that require more individual attention and generally have fewer results to sift through, such as subscribed journal content, you can check off individual results and use the Dismiss Selected function.
Most Important Reports and Updates
Note: Always review the various deleted reports in chronological order from oldest to newest.
Portfolio deleted from non-auto active electronic service
A deleted portfolio from a non-auto active target is made both unavailable and local by the CZ update. Since these collections are intentionally set to non-auto active and portfolios were individually selected based on a library’s subscriptions, the list of portfolios in this report need to be checked individually and action has to be taken on each and every one of them. Otherwise, these deleted portfolios remain in the IZ as unavailable local portfolios.
To check these newly localized portfolios:
- Test access for each deleted portfolio and optionally check publisher’s library admin account to verify institutional entitlement as well. To test access, you will click the more actions button (three ellipses) at the far right of the row, then select Test access from the drop-down menu.
- If the library should still have access, then the library needs to have an active portfolio for this title. Search the CZ for a portfolio.
- If a portfolio (best fit) is identified for the title, then click the Activate button. Note: If there are local notes and/or an order attached to the local portfolio, then take action to move all local information to the newly activated CZ linked portfolio. If no best fit portfolio is identified, skip to step 5.
- Delete the unavailable local portfolio from the IZ.
- If no CZ portfolio exists to activate, then edit the local portfolio created by the CZ update (since after the CZ update the portfolio was set to unavailable). Click on the more actions button (three ellipses) and select Edit portfolio from the drop-down menu.
- If needed, add local coverage dates (if the portfolio is a journal). To add a local date coverage, see "Editing a Portfolio Using the Electronic Portfolio Editor" section on Date Coverage.
- If this was a large-scale deactivation of titles that you have access to you should open a case with Clarivate using the "Report to Clarivate" function to report the incorrectly deleted portfolios and request they be added back to the CZ collection.
- In the Electronic Portfolio Editor > General tab, change the local Portfolio availability to Available and click on Save.
- Then, select Test access like you did in Step 1 to ensure that it link resolves correctly.
Portfolio deleted from auto-active electronic service
Dismiss items in this report only from Free, Open, and Aggregator collections as described in the section above called: Screening out Free or Open Access e-titles and e-collections. Usually changes to the remaining portfolios are routine changes to paid e-collections.
Portfolio coverage update
This report shows which portfolios had coverage information updated in the Community Zone Update. You can find and dismiss results for Free and Open collections.
Portfolio linking parameters update
This report shows which portfolios had their linking information updated. You need to make sure that links to the resources still work.
- You can find and dismiss results for Free and Open collections.
- Test a few portfolios from each paid collection for accuracy before dismissing all portfolios in a subscribed e-collection (for example, all Wiley, all JSTOR, etc). Check to ensure that a title from the e-collection links out properly.
Deletion of electronic collections and electronic services
The "Electronic collection deleted" and "Electronic service deleted" reports are important to review. You may need to activate an alternate version of the now deleted e-collection to provide access to either paid or free/open access e-titles. The Alma CKB Release Notes include announcements about upcoming e-collection deletions, why the e-collection was deleted by Ex Libris, and any alternative collection(s) to consider activating via the CZ.
Electronic service base URL or linking parameters updates
The "Electronic service base url updated" report and "Linking parameters update" report usually affect the entire e-collection, and therefore can prevent access to e-titles your library has selected for your IZ. Test at least one portfolio for linking accuracy in each collection before dismissing all portfolios in a collection.
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