Using Overlap and Collection Analysis

Last edited 11/21/2025.

In Alma, there are many ways to use Overlap and Collection Analysis. You can use it to identify a Community Zone (CZ) e-Collection that best matches your subscription, to identify an overlap in portfolios/titles among your active e-collections, to compare a title list of a package you are considering to what you already have active in your IZ, and so much more! To get started, this page is an introduction to the information required when creating a report and the options for analysis.

Overlap and Collection Analysis in Alma

The path in Alma is Resources > Advanced Tools > Overlap and Collection Analysis.

From this default landing page, click on +New Analysis (plus sign New Analysis) drop-down menu. Two options display: Compare Collections and Look Up Titles. Both will be described below.

compare collections 

Use this report to compare a collection with one or more collections.

General Details

In the image at right, the first section of the report, "General Details" is shown. There is a place to type in the name of your report, where it says "New Report (and the date and time this screenshot was taken). Type the name of your report here by placing your cursor in the field or clicking or clicking on the blue pencil that displays when you hover your mouse over the field. Below the name, you can type a description of the report where it says, "Enter description here." You can also place your cursor in this field and begin typing or click on the blue pencil that displays when you hover over the field with your mouse. Below this it stamps the report with the user who is creating the report and a date and time.

COMPARE COLLECTIONS 

In this next section of the report, you will designate your source/target collection. Use the image to the right as a reference for all the options available in this section.

As an example, your library may have EBSCO Academic Search Complete, but you're interested in upgrading to Academic Search Ultimate and/or seeing how much overlap there is between Academic Search Complete and other EBSCO e-collections. Academic Search Complete will be your source collection. When you click on the +/plus sign next to "Choose the collection (source) for which you want to evaluate overlap" it opens a search within Alma.

• An information bubble is next to this first choice. It reads:
  • Choose an electronic collection from either Institution Zone, Network Zone or Community Zone, to be the subject for the comparison analysis. The process will evaluate the overlap state of every one of its portfolios with the portfolios of the resources you will select in the next parameter.

You will search for the source e-collection using your IZ search scope, NZ search scope, or CZ search scope. You can search by Electronic Collection ID, if you have it handy.

Note: If you use the CARLI webpage linked here, make sure to select the CZ search scope as the IDs on that page are CZ IDs.

When you identify the source e-collection, click the Select button to the right of the e-collection name. This will take you back to the Compare Collections report options and insert a table of data about the e-collection you selected as your source.

Next, you will select the collections you will compare your source collection with and there are several options here. There are five radio buttons:

1. Selected collections from Institution Zone
   • If you select this radio button, there is a +/plus sign underneath to "Choose the collections (target) you want to compare it with. It will then take you back to the Alma search where you will select the specific IZ e-collections to compare your source e-collection against.
2. Selected collections from Network Zone
   • If you select this radio button, there is a +/plus sign underneath to "Choose the collections (target) you want to compare it with. It will then take you back to the Alma search where you will select the specific NZ e-collections to compare your source e-collection against.
3. Selected collections from Community Zone
   • If you select this radio button, there is a +/plus sign underneath to "Choose the collections (target) you want to compare it with. It will then take you back to the Alma search where you will select the specific CZ e-collections to compare your source e-collection against.
4. Entire Institution Zone
   • An information bubble is next to this choice that reads: The 'Entire Institution Zone' population includes: all local electronic collections, all activated Community Zone electronic collections and all standalone portfolios. Once this option is selected, you will be able to select whether or not to include in all the Network Zone electronic collections available for your institution. 
   • If you select this radio button, there is a checkbox for "Include the electronic collections available for my institution in the Network Zone." 
5. Entire Network Zone
   • If you select this option, three more radio buttons are populated with the following options:
     • Include only the electronic collections available for my institution in the Network Zone
     • Include only the electronic collections not available for my institution in the Network Zone
     • Include all the electronic collections available in the Network Zone

additional details

After you have made your selections from the Compare Collections section, you will then make your final selections from the Additional Details section. This section is where you select the match methods for identifying overlap/duplicate portfolios across e-collections.

You can select up to three match methods. The match methods are:

• ISSN
• ISBN
• Title
• LCCN
• 035 or other system identifier

For e-collections that have hybrid resource types -- a mix of books, journals, videos, etc. utilizing more than one type of identifier is handy. The "Include date coverage in the comparison" defaults to be a checked box. If date coverage does not matter in your comparison, you can uncheck this box.

Reference year for calculating 'embargo' has the following options:

• Current year
• Current year plus one
• Current year plus two
• Current year plus three
• Current year plus four
• Current year plus five

Lastly, there is a checkbox that defaults to unchecked for "Include physical title matching indication in the electronic reports." This could be useful if you are trying to weed physical titles where you already have electronic access. When you have made all your selections scroll back to the top and click the Generate button in the top right. A message box will pop-out from the top right indicating that the job for the report has started. You will then receive an email and a similar pop-out notification when the job for the report has completed. You do not need to stay logged in to Alma for the report to run. 

Once it has completed you can access the report from the Overlap and Collection Analysis tool or from the email that was sent to the address associated with your user account.

look up titles

Upload a file and check their existence in Alma.

Alike the Compare Collections report, this report has the same General Details section where you type in a name for your report and a description. If you do not type a name in, it will stay as the default text "New Report [date and time stamp]". 

look up titles - report options

The first thing you need to do in this section, is upload a titles file in an Excel format. This could be a KBART holdings file you received from a vendor or an Excel file you exported from Alma.

Next, there are five checkboxes to choose from:

1. Institution Zone electronic resources (including Community Zone activated electronic resources)
   • When you check this box, an "Additional Details" checkbox populates below for "Include physical title matching indication in the electronic reports" that defaults to unchecked.
2. Community Zone non-activated electronic resources
   • When you check this box, an "Additional Details" checkbox populates below for "Include physical title matching indication in the electronic reports" that defaults to unchecked.
3. Institution Zone physical resources
   • When you check this box, an "Additional Details" checkbox populates below for "Include related titles indication" that defaults to unchecked.
4. Network Zone electronic resources available to my institution
   • When you check this box, an "Additional Details" checkbox populates below for "Include physical title matching indication in the electronic reports" that defaults to unchecked.
5. Network Zone electronic resources not available to my institution
   • When you check this box, an "Additional Details" checkbox populates below for "Include physical title matching indication in the electronic reports" that defaults to unchecked.

Note: you can multi-select and yes, it is possible to check all five boxes.

The last thing to select is to "Choose the report output format." There are two options:

1. One excel line per match (this option is selected by default)
2. One excel line per identifier from input file

When you have made all your selections scroll back to the top and click the Generate button in the top right. A message box will pop-out from the top right indicating that the job for the report has started. You will then receive an email and a similar pop-out notification when the job for the report has completed. You do not need to stay logged in to Alma for the report to run. 

Once it has completed you can access the report from the Overlap and Collection Analysis tool or from the email that was sent to the address associated with your user account.

Final Notes

If at any time you want to delete a report, you can click the Remove from List button in the top right corner when in an open report. If you are viewing reports from the report list, you can click the three ellipses menu at the far right of the report name and select Remove from List in the drop-down menu.

You can export reports to Excel by clicking on the Export icon in the top right of the screen. It is symbolized with a dog-eared page and an arrow coming out of the center pointing right.

If you want to practice using the tool before using it for official business, you can log into a premium sandbox (PSB) and play around with the report tools.