Advanced Alma Queries

Description of Advanced Alma Queries and examples of advanced search queries in the NZ to locate shared electronic collections.

Step-by-step guide

Must use Electronic Collection or Electronic Portfolio to locate e-collections in Alma, not All Titles, Electronic Titles or Collection.
In the NZ, can use the Facets and Advanced Search to narrow down the search results.
1. Advanced Search for NZ e-collections for a specific library: Collection available only for > Equals > LIBRARY
Click on Expand:All in the NZ to see list of libraries in Available For in either the Electronic Collection or Portfolio search results
Locate Electronic Collection
1. Search by Electronic Collection > Electronic Collection Name > Enter in name of e-collection
  1. If searching for all of the EBSCO resources, enter in EBSCO or EBSCOhost
  2. If searching for a specific name of an EBSCO resource, can leave EBSCO off of the e-collection name
NZ Electronic Collections
1. Search by Electronic Collection and Electronic Collection Name and then click Advanced Search and
2. Choose Electronic Collection: Collection Available Only For in Electronic Collection section > equals > Choose Campus from dropdown list
  1. This will list the active e-collections for your library
  2. If you want to weed out the OA e-collections to look at only subscribed collections first, Add a condition to the Advanced search: Free > Equals > Not Free in dropdown and then click Search
  3. If you want to weed out the Database-only e-collections (no portfolios), choose Electronic Collection Type > Not Equals > Database
Opt-in Electronic Collections in the NZ for a specific library
1. Search by Electronic Collection and Electronic Collection Name and the click on the Advanced Search
2. Choose Electronic Collection: Internal Description > Contains Keywords > "Opt-in"
  1. To find Database-level e-collections to order in the NZ, use search terms "Used for Ordering"
3. Add condition, Electronic Collection: Collection Available Only For in Electronic Collection section > equals > Choose Campus from dropdown list
ECC Electronic Collections in the NZ for a specific library
1. Search by Electronic Collection and Electronic Collection Name and the click on the Advanced Search
2. Choose Electronic Collection: Internal Description > Contains Keywords > "ECC"
3. Add condition, Electronic Collection: Collection Available Only For in Electronic Collection section > equals > Choose Campus from dropdown list
IZ Full Text e-collections
1. Search for a list of full text e-collections in the IZ. The Advanced search conditions will narrow down the results to the available full text e-collections.
  1. Choose Electronic Collection > Electronic Collection in the IZ and then choose Advanced search
  2. Locate Electronic Collection: Service Type > equals > Full Text and the second condition is Availability > equals > Available
Electronic portfolio search
1. Choose Electronic Portfolio > Choose search option from dropdown list > enter in search term
  1. In the NZ can narrow down results to specific library by choosing the library name under Facets
BrowZine Query
1. Browzine Set Query needed for Browzine. *Can also be used for a general query of what a library is sharing for e-collections and e-portfolios in the NZ.
2. Set Type Logical Where (Material Type equals “Journal” AND Collection available for equals “LIBRARY_NAME” AND Availability (Electronic Portfolio) equals “Available” AND Available for equals “LIBRARY_NAME”_
3. *BOTH E-collection availability and E-portfolio availability are needed in the query to account for portfolio-level sharing, not just e-collection-level sharing. Some libraries share portfolios within an e-collection, for example, Oxford University Press. There are several libraries that have access to five portfolios in the subscription that other libraries do not subscribe to.
Provider Subscription Tool
1. This tool can help by creating a list of resources available by provider to determine if all of the available e-collections are active. The Provider ID in the documentation is referring to the linking parameter for the e-collection. It is not the ID used in the vendor record or license.

Searching for e-collections with a local public name in the NZ

Currently in the NZ, if I’ve updated the Public Name of an e-collection in the NZ, that name does not appear in a search from the local Alma search of the NZ tab. For example, the CZ name for EBSCO e-books is EBSCOhost Ebooks. I have local public name of NetLibrary e-Books (EBSCO e-books) because our NetLibrary e-books were migrated to EBSCO e-books several years ago. You can search the NZ for NetLibrary and the e-collection will appear in the search results but you will not see the local name, just the CZ name, EBSCOhost Ebooks. I’ve had a case open for about a year asking to display the local public name. Unfortunately, Ex Libris does not have plans to change the current display. The Inventory tab of the NZ license does display both names if you are not sure which e-collection is being used in the NZ.

Note from Ex Libris about searching Alma NZ:

The way it was explained to me by Ex Libris was that if it states Held By, it is coming from the IZ (if you see My Institution listed then it is available in your library’s IZ). If it is Availability: Electronic Version, it is coming from the NZ. All active e-collections will appear (shared and not shared) in an All Titles search. The coverage date displayed in these records do not reflect what the CSU's date coverage is for that title. For that, an Electronic Portfolio search would need to be done.

To see the Available For label and what electronic collections your library is sharing in the NZ, then you will need to do an Electronic Collection or Electronic Portfolio search. The Available For label only displays for electronic portfolios and collections.

Advanced Alma Queries

Step-by-step guide

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