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The key objectives for this session are:
• Being able to create sets, and manage sets in the event you need to
modify an existing set
• Differentiate between the 2 types of sets that are available in Alma,
which are logical sets and itemized sets
• Run jobs to perform tasks using your saved sets
• And monitor those jobs to make sure they complete successfully.
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In order to run jobs for sets, you must have one of the roles
listed here.
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Let’s talk about creating sets and the different kinds of sets that are
available.
There are 2 types of sets in Alma: itemized sets and logical sets.
An Itemized set consists of individual records in the Repository that
have been manually selected to be part of the set. Itemized sets are
static. This means that when a new record meeting the criteria for the
set is added to the repository it is not automatically added to the set
because it wasn’t initially selected to be part of the set.
A Logical set is identical to a saved search query that we did in the
Searching Effectively in Alma session. The set will include the entire
list of results of a search query. The population of a Logical set is
dynamic; it always reflects the records that are currently in the
Repository. This means that each time you use the logical set search
query, records that were added to the repository will be included in the
logical set, or items deleted from the repository will be removed from
the logical set.
Sets can consist of many types of records - bibliographic records
(using an All titles search), authority records, physical titles or items,
digital titles or files, or electronic packages or portfolios.
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By default, the Manage Sets screen opens to the ‘My Sets’ tab. This
tab contains the search queries which were created by the user. If the
set was marked as Private by the user, the My Sets tab will be the only
tab it will display on. You’ll also see a Public Sets tab and an All Sets
tabs. The ‘Public Sets’ tab contains any queries saved by users marked
as not Private (i.e., available for Public use), and the ‘All Sets’ tab
contains all Public and Private Sets. Only those with a Repository
Administrator role will be able to see the “All Sets” tab.
If there are many, many sets listed, you can use the filter drop-down
to filter by contents type. You can also use the Find search box to find
sets created by a certain person or search for the specific name of the
set.
Each Set has several possible actions, which are accessed by clicking
the Actions button:
• The Edit option opens the Set Details screen and allows you to
modify the set parameters
• Catalog Set moves the contents of the set to the Metadata Editor,
for easier cataloging workflow. You’ll see the Catalog Set option
display with sets that have a contents type of all titles (which are
bibliographic records), or digital titles for example.
• Members allows you to see or edit the items that are part of an
itemized set.
• For Logical sets, you’ll see a Results link instead of Members.
Results runs the saved search query and displays the results
• Duplicate allows for the duplication of a set, so you can modify it
as needed to ultimately create a new set
• Delete removes a set that’s no longer needed.
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New queries and sets can be created by clicking the ‘Add Set’ button.
Choose ‘Itemized’ or ‘Logical’ and the appropriate screen will be
opened.
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Let’s look at the process for creating an Itemized set.
Note the screen is similar to the screen for saving search queries
like we did in the Searching Effectively in Alma session.
Add a set name, description and note when necessary and
select the set’s content type from the drop-down. The set may
contain authorities, all titles (i.e., bibliographic records), physical
titles or physical items, digital titles or files and electronic
packages or electronic portfolios. Note that once a content type
has been selected and the set created, you will not be able to
modify the content type.
Select the set status – active or inactive - and then choose
whether you want this set to be private or public to allow access
for other staff users.
Now that we have the parameters in place for the set, now we
need to add records to the itemized set. To do this, we click the
‘Add Contents to Set’ button.
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You’ll be put into a Repository search screen where you can do one or
more searches, selecting the specific items you want included in the
set, and then clicking the ‘Add Selected’ button to include them in the
set. After all desired items have been added, click ‘Done’.
(Remember that because we’re doing an Itemized set, we select which
specific records we want to include in the set.)
In this example, I’m looking for physical items, filtering to find items
only in the Main Library.
I select the items I want to include in my Itemized set, and then click
“Add Selected” when I’m done selecting items from this search.
Then I can do another search from the search screen and continue to
select items.
When I’m completely finished adding items to my set, I click the
“Done” button and I’ll be taken back to the Manage sets screen with
my Itemized set of records saved.
From the Manage sets screen, I can use the Action button to modify
the set parameters or the members – or items – within the set as
needed.
For Itemized Sets with the Content Type ‘Physical Items’, it is also
possible to add records to the set using a file upload.
Files should be in Excel format and contain a single column with the
list of items’ barcodes to be included in the set.
This is an example of the file - and note the system begins reading the
barcodes from the 2nd row of the file; the first line is a header row.
Let’s look at creating an itemized set live in Alma now.
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Create and save an itemized set:
• Name: moving items from Graduate, Law and Science Libraries
to Main Library
• Set content type: Physical items
• Private or Public
• Perform search for chance
• Select items located in Graduate, Law and Science Libraries to
create set
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Creating a Logical set is essentially the same as saving a search
query from a Repository search or the Quick Search box - like we
did in the Searching Effectively in Alma session.
From the Alma menu “Manage sets” link, click the Add set button
to create a logical step.
Step 1 is to add set name and other details. Click the Next
button to go to step 2.
Enter a search term(s) & run the search from the Repository
search screen that displays, then click on the save button on the
right-hand top or bottom side of the screen to save the new
logical set.
Because we’re creating a logical set, it will contain all of the
results from the search, and will be updated when we use the set
the next time with any new items that meet the search criteria
that were added to the repository, as well as remove any items
from the set that were removed from the repository.
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The new set is saved and you are redirected to the list of sets, where
you can to continue work on other sets or modify the search query
associated with a Logical set.
By clicking ‘Results’ in the ‘Actions’ menu, the repository search
screen opens. To modify the search query for the set, click
‘Change Query’ at the top of the results screen.
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The Repository search interface is displayed, with the current query
already defined. Modify the search query as desired, and click ‘Go’ to
run the search.
At the top or bottom of the results page, click the ‘Save Query’ button
in order to associate the new query with the Logical Set.
Let’s go to Alma and I’ll show you live how to create a Logical set from
the “Manage Sets” section of the Alma menu.
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Create and save a logical set:
• Name: Exporting all records related to fable(s)
• Set content type: All titles
• Private or Public
• Perform search for fable and save set
• Modify set by changing search term to fables and save set again
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Create and save a logical set:
• Name: Changing PO Line status
• Set content type: PO lines
• Private or Public
• Perform search for
Workflow = Sent
Material Supplier = BKSN
Acquisition Method = Purchase
• Save set
Create and save an itemized set
• Name: Update PO Line transactions to use different M: Social
Sciences fund
• Set content type: PO lines
• Private or Public
• Perform search for
Workflow = Sent
• Select items using any fund but M: Social Sciences
• Save set
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Create and save a set of lost items:
• Name: Items with status of lost
• Set content type: not required
• Private or Public
• Save set
Create and save a set of claimed returned items:
• Name: Items with status of claimed returned items with overdue
charge
• Set content type: not required
• Private or Public
• Save set
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Create and save a set of users:
• Name: Users with the name, David
• Set content type: Users
• Private or Public
• Save set
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The main purpose of creating sets is having the ability to work on
them in a work area or perform global tasks using automated jobs.
Some examples of where a set is very useful to use with automated
jobs are:
• performing a global change in a set of bibliographic records
• permanently or temporarily moving items in the set from 1 location
to another
• withdrawing items in a set - just to name a few examples.
Now that we have a set created, we can use that set with a process in
order to perform a global task.
In order to run a process, from the Alma main menu we select the
“Run a Job” link that is part of Manage Jobs under the Administration
area.
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You’ll be taken through the steps to run the process using a wizard –
so in this case you’ll see in the upper-right that there are 5 steps to
complete in order to run the process.
The first step is to select the appropriate process that you want to use
with the set.
There are many jobs that are available to you; keep checking back
because new jobs will continue to be added. You can use the filter
drop-down to help identify which type of process you want to run.
Some of the more popular jobs include “Move physical items”,
“Withdraw items”, and “Suppress bib records from discovery”, but you
can see some of the other jobs that are also available. One of the
newer jobs allows you to create work orders for items in a set.
In this example, we’re going to move physical items from 1 location to
another – so using this process, we can move multiple items to a
particular location at one time. If you happened to view the Request
workflows training session, there we talked about how to submit a
request to move an individual item to a new location either temporarily
or permanently. Running a process makes it quicker if you have
multiple items that need to be moved from 1 location to a new
location. You can create the set of items that you need to move, and
then run the “move physical items” process against the set.
Though we’re using the “Move Physical Items” process for this
example, the other jobs will generally follow the same steps that we’ll
go through.
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Step 2 is to select the set you want to use with this process.
Step 3 is to enter the applicable parameters for running the process.
The parameters, of course, will depend on what type of process you
want to run.
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Step 4 is to name the process – so you can identify it later when
monitoring to make sure the process completed, and you’ll click the
“As soon as possible” radio button under Schedule Job.
Step 5 is a review & confirmation screen, indicating that parameters
for the job. When you click Submit, it will queue up the job to run in
Alma.
I’ll show you this live in Alma now.
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We’ve seen how to associate a set with a job and run that job. Let’s
look at how to monitor the job to make sure it runs successfully.
From the Administration column in the Alma menu, click the “Monitor
Jobs” link.
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From the Monitor Jobs screen, there are several things to mention.
1.) Notice the 3 tabs across the top: Scheduled, Running, and
Completed.
Any jobs that are scheduled to run will appear in the Scheduled tab.
Once they start running, you’ll see them on the Running tab.
When they have completed running, you’ll see them on the Completed
tab.
2.) There could be many, many jobs in the list – so there are several
ways to filter:
You can use the filter drop-down to filter by specific types of jobs,
OR
You can filter using the Submit date fields to see just the jobs you may
have submitted today or within a date range.
Lastly, for each process, you’ll see a start date & time, end date &
time, and a status – in this case either Completed successfully or
Completed with errors. From the Actions button, you can see a Report
to find out more information on the completed process. The Events
link could be helpful in troubleshooting if the job failed entirely, as it
will take you through each step of what the process did – so you can
possibly see where a process may have failed. You can also search for
& view items from the set to make sure that they did, indeed, move to
the new location successfully.
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We’ve seen how to associate a set with a job and run that job. Let’s
look at how to monitor the job to make sure it runs successfully.
…In this session, we looked at how to:
• Create both logical and itemized sets – and understand the
difference between the 2 types of sets.
• Run jobs to perform tasks using the saved sets. There are many
jobs to choose from currently, and they are continually being added.
• And lastly, monitor jobs to make sure that they completed
successfully.
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For more details on creating sets, and running and monitoring jobs,
you can consult the Alma Resource Management Guide - either using
the Online Help within Alma or on the Ex Libris Documentation Center.
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