Alma Bibliographic Data
General Information
- Description
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Encompasses the MARC records describing physical and electronic resources owned or accessible to UW-Madison Campus library users, as well as the Alma record structures that define their relationships to collections and to their physical locations (in Alma-speak, that is libraries, e-collections, portfolios, holdings and items.)
- Purpose
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Necessary for the discovery of physical and electronic resources acquired or identified by the University of Wisconsin-Madison library staff to support the teaching and learning mission of the university.
- Quick Facts
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Approximately 9 million MARC bibliographic records and their associated portfolios and holdings/items in the shared environment (network zone).
Data Classifications
- Campus
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- Public: MARC data is made available through our own catalog website. In addition, the UW-Madison Libraries catalogs its collection using the WorldCat database, which enables efficient copy cataloging. Using WorldCat for cataloging also enables the WorldCat database to know about our holdings in order to facilitate UW-Madison's participation in Inter-Library Loan (ILL) activities.
- Library
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- Descriptive The MARC catalog data provides description of works, titles, holding and item details, for both print and electronic collections, so that library patrons can search for items of interest and the library can track specific copies that are loaned to patrons.
- Operational The MARC bibliographic data is processed in ways that enable search features in the public catalog search interface. Many of the same descriptive features are also utilized by the campus libraries internal processes for batch processing and management of collections information.
Data Contacts
- Data Owner/Trustee
- Lee Konrad lee.konrad@wisc.edu
- Data Custodian
- Library Technology Group (LTG)
- Data Manager
- Library Technology Group (LTG)
- Data Architect/Modeler
- Ex Libris
- Data Architect/Modeler
- Library of Congress (as creator/maintainer of MARC format)
- Data Producer/Supplier
- OCLC
- Data Producer/Supplier
- GLS Cataloging Department
- Data Producer/Supplier
- Various vendors who supply MARC records for their content
- Data Consumer
- Library users
- Data Steward
- Head of Cataloging
- Data Steward
- CUWL Shared Content Committee
Risk Assessment
| Score | Risk Type | Details | Evaluation Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Library Impact | Loss of accuracy and completeness of bibliographic and holdings information would result in significant negative impact to the Library community through loss of access to Library-owned resources for teaching and research, which are central to the university's mission. | February 25, 2019 |
| 3 | Data | Staff have deep expertise, however recovered data from external sources (OCLC, vendors) will be incomplete and localizations may not be recoverable. | February 25, 2019 |
Technical Details
- Specifications
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MARC (http://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/, http://www.loc.gov/marc/holdings)
LCNAF (Library of Congress Name Authority File, http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names.html)
LCSH (Library of Congress Subject Headings, http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects)
FAST (Faceted Application of Subject Terminology)
- Correctness
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Adherence to local, national and international standards including MARC bibliographic and holdings formats, OCLC bibliographic input standards, PCC (Program for Cooperative Cataloging) and Shared Content guidelines. Processes employed periodically to update data include contractual work with Marcive, as well as the receipt of OCLC updated records via the bibliographic notification process.
- Representative Record
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Record in Alma takes precedence over representation in OCLC or other external sources.
- Dependencies
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Is dependent on network connection to Ex Libris cloud services and the cloud services themselves. The process of updating and importing new data is dependent on access to OCLC services.
Exports:
Forward consumes MARC data serialized in PNX (Primo normalized XML) via the Primo publishing processes to deliver bibliographic and holdings information to the user in the Forward catalog.
RapidILL
HathiTrust
GoogleBooks
OCLC (to update holdings information)
BTAA Shared Print Repository
Access & Use
- Delivery Modalities
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Alma’s Primo API (Forward), API access, OAI-PMH
- Lifecycle
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The vast majority of catalog records are imported into our local catalog database using import functionality with OCLC's WorldCat database. Records may then be modified locally as needed. For uniquely held items, UW-Madison Libraries cataloging staff will do original cataloging and create these records, which are then shared with the WorldCat database.
Electronic resource records for e-books are typically batch loaded from MARC record sets supplied by the vendors that provide access to the collections.
Some batch processes are designed, managed and run locally, for example to create MARC records for some UW Digital Collections and their associated items.
- Disposition
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Resides in Ex Libris cloud storage (NA02 server array). There are currently no backups under local (UW-Madison) control. Ex Libris performs regular backups
- Relevant Processes
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New data obtained from WorldCat and vendor file imports. Manual updates through the Alma user interface and file overlays.
- Constraints
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MARC records retained for withdrawn materials to support accounting and historical fine functions.