Online Services Order

Owned by Stacy Magedanz
Last updated: Feb 25, 2020 by Dolly Lopez (Unlicensed)
2 min read
Reviewed and Revised by ERM Committee 

Control the order in which full-text databases are presented to the end-user in your Alma services menu.

You do not need to account for every resource. If you have not specified an order, the default is alphabetical.

Step-by-step guide

You must have configuration privileges in Alma to complete this process.

  1. In Alma, go to Configuration > Fulfillment > Online Services Order.
  2. Choose Add to Top or Add to Last Services. Entries in Top will always sort first on the list, and entries in Last will always sort at the bottom, Within each section, you can control relative order using the Move Up and Move Down buttons.
  3. Your first choice is Service Type, but effectively, the only option there is Full Text.
  4. The next option is Service Name. You have the option of choosing a specific Electronic Collection or an Interface. 
  5. In general, Interface is the more flexible option:
    1. Choosing an Interface allows you to impact multiple ecollections. For example, if you add the EBSCOhost interface to the table as shown below, all associated databases will sort to that position in the Top services table, even if those databases are only active in the NZ.
    2. You can have an active Interface in your IZ even if you do not have an active Ecollection from that platform in your IZ. 
      1. In your Alma Vendors, any vendor you set as an Access Provider must include an Interface Name. These Interfaces are available for populating your Online Services Order!
  6. Under Additional Preferences, choosing yes for Prefer Source Service overrides any other order rules. For example: if a record came from JSTOR, then a JSTOR service will automatically be the top choice on its list, even if your rules specify that other ecollections or interfaces would normally sort first. 

TIP: You can combine Interfaces and Electronic Collections in your lists. For example, you might choose to include the JSTOR Interface fairly low on your Top services list, but place JSTOR Current Scholarship Program Complete above that, so that current content appears first in a menu.

TIP: You may wish to construct a very robust Top services table. Certain ecollections commonly managed in the NZ (such as the Biodiversity Heritage Library) appear near the beginning of the alphabet, but you may not want them to show near the top of a menu. If it is only in the NZ, then you would not be able to add it to your Services to be placed last. However, if you specify the order for all of your important publisher and aggregator interfaces, then the Biodiversity Heritage Library would only appear after more desirable collections. Or the publisher or aggregator can be added as a vendor. Then it can be placed in the 'Services to be placed last".