Alma Title Count Reduction Project: Free and Open Access E-Collections

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Overview

Many I-Share libraries have activated electronic resources in their IZs that are identical to collections that already are or can be provided centrally by CARLI via the NZ. This carryover of practices from Voyager isn't unusual, but it is the largest source of duplicate titles across the consortium. Our first priority will focus on Open Access and Free E-Collections that are shared from the NZ. As freely available resources, these resources do not require patron authentication nor acquisition transactions, and do not need to be in the IZ.

These free and open access e-collections are already active from the NZ, so your patrons’ access to these resources will not be interrupted during this transition, and they will likely not notice any change. Similarly, the main difference for staff searching for e-collections in Alma is that the e-collection will now be found in the Network tab rather than the Institution tab. This example video demonstrates Primo VE search results and Alma staff search results both before and after a duplicate e-collection has been deleted from an IZ.

CARLI has contracted with the Illinois Heartland Library System’s Catalog Maintenance Center to engage a team of their professional catalogers to work on Alma record deduplication and cleanup under the supervision of CARLI Office staff.

Work Plan for Free/Open Access E-Collections Duplicated in IZs

Step 1: CARLI staff will check configurations in the NZ for all free and open access e-collections to make sure that they are being properly shared from the NZ to all I-Share institutions.

Step 2: CARLI staff will write reports for each institution to show which e-collections are duplicated in the IZ that need to be removed.

Step 3: CARLI will distribute reports for each institution in Box and notify I-Share Liaisons and Directors. On Sept. 22, 2021, an email was sent to I-Share Directors and Liaisons of the 59 I-Share institutions with duplicate free/open access titles to be deleted with instructions on how to indicate an institution's choice to CARLI and instructions if the institution wants to delete the duplicates themselves.  For the list of I-Share institutions with and without free/open access titles to be deleted, see the lists at the bottom of this page.

Step 4: I-Share institutions with duplicate free/open access titles to be deleted will indicate to CARLI by 5pm on Sept. 30, 2021 if they will remove these duplicate e-collections from their IZs themselves or if CARLI will do this work.

Step 5: I-Share institutions that elect to remove the duplicate e-collections themselves must complete this work by October 8, 2021.

Step 6: CARLI staff will remove the remaining duplicate e-collections from IZs and notify each institution's I-Share Liaison when the work is completed in their IZ.

Current status:

Completed. Approximately 1.5 million duplicate portfolios were removed from IZs.

I-Share Institutions with Free/Open Access E-Collections Activated in the IZ that are Duplicated in the NZ

The duplicate e-collections identified by CARLI's reports need to be deleted from these IZs.

ADL, ARU, AUG, BRA, COD, COL, CON, CSU, CTU, DAC, DOM, DPU, EIU, ELM, ERK, GSU, ICC, IIT, ILC, IMS, ISL, ISU, IWU, LCC, LEW, LFC, LNC, MBI, MCK, MIL, MLS, MON, NBY, NEI, NIU, NLU, NPU, OAK, ONU, PRC, QCY, ROU, RSH, RVC, SAI, SCJ, SIC, SIE, SIM, SML, SXU, TIU, TRN, UIC, UIS, UIU, USF, WHE, WIU

I-Share Institutions that do not currently have Free/Open Access E-Collections Activated in the IZ that are Duplicated in the NZ

There are no changes needed in these IZs for this phase of the project.

ALP, BEN, BHC, CSC, GRN, HRT, IEC, IVC, JKM, JOL, JUD, JWC, KCC, KIS, KNX, LAC, LLC, MHC, MRT, NBT, NCC, PRK, RCC, SEI, SFM, SSC, SVC, SWI, TRT, WRH