Tips for handling inventory-less bibliographic records

Tips for handling inventory-less bibliographic records

Inventory-less bibs can happen for many reasons, from deleting/withdrawing inventory without deleting the bib to migrated inventory-less bib records and more.

Identifying these records in Alma

To see these bibs, you can do an Advanced Search for All Titles that: 

"Has Inventory" > Equals > No 
Screenshot of the advanced search for all titles in the IZ

Why you might want to clean up records 

  1. If you have not suppressed an inventory-less bib, it will still appear in Primo VE. 
  2. We have found isolated incidents where inventory-less bibs have a duplicate bib with a portfolio. In this situation, the link resolver sometimes finds the inventory-less bib first and will not show inventory links from the bib with the portfolio. 
  3. These records may need to have portfolios or physical items attached for users to access the electronic resource or check out the physical item. 
  4. Your institution likes having clean data. 

Acquisitions-tied bibs

Basic tips for bibs that have POLs linked or look like Acq-bibs.

How to handle them as you go 

  1. You can delete bibs for POLs that Alma considers closed (closed and canceled). Alma will not delete the POL. It will still contain title information. 
  2. If the POL should be closed, you can close it. Then, you can delete the bib. 
  3. When you delete all inventory, we recommend you delete the bibliographic record. When you delete the inventory, Alma gives a convenient pop-up that will ask how to handle the bibliographic records if there is no remaining inventory after the item/portfolio delete completes. 
  4. If you are relinking a POL to a newly imported record that did not overlay the order bib, you can delete brief Acq-bib. 
  5. You can delete bibs individually or with the Delete Bibliographic Records job for a set. 

CZ-linked bibs

How to handle them as you go

  1. When you delete all inventory, we recommend you delete the bibliographic record. When you delete the inventory (collection or portfolio), Alma gives a convenient pop-up that will ask how to handle the bibliographic records if there is no remaining inventory after the collection/portfolio delete completes. 
  2. You can delete bibs individually or with the Delete Bibliographic Records job for a set. 

 

Bibs from multiple workflows and linked to the CZ, NZ, or IZ-only

How to handle these records if you do not clean them up as you go

Since bibs are there because of multiple workflows (ERM, etc.), consult with your colleagues before doing anything, as they might still be processing those records. If you consult with them and decide to delete all of the records, the best option is to create a set in Alma and run the Delete Bibliographic Records job for a set. If you want to handle the records differently and running a search with filters and facets cannot make the sets you need, you might need to approach this manually. If you handle all unique titles first, you could run the job on the remaining records. 

If you have any questions regarding this information or a cross-functional team would like to discuss your next steps, schedule either:
  1. Acquisitions/Serials: PALS Support Center Incident Consultation Session
  2. ERM: PALS Support Center Incident Consultation Session at the Carrie Curie – PALS Booking Page 

Base your selection on which Acquisitions or ERM workflows seem to have caused the most issues.

 

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