Activating an Electronic Resource from the Community Zone in Alma

  1. Search the Community Zone for the correct electronic collection. Search by Electronic Collection, not All Titles.
    Community Zone search
     
    1. Note the type of electronic collection you are activating: Aggregator or Selective package, or Database
    2. Note the type of linking in the electronic collection: Link in record or Linkresolver
      Electronic resource type
  2. Next to the record in the results list click the button, Activate
    Activate button
  3. The Electronic Collection and Services Setup appears. The top box, “Local Electronic Collection Information,” leave these settings set to their defaults in most cases. Image below shows the settings for Aggregator and Selective packages:
    Electronic Collection Information box
    *Note: for Database type electronic collection uncheck the “Mark Bib as suppressed” box and check “Electronic Collection Proxy Enabled” Yes, and add your default proxy to the drop-down. The Image below shows the settings for Database type.
    Electronic Collection Information Database type
  4. The next box down is for CDI information (note this box does not appear for some electronic collections).
    1. The setting, “CDI Search Activation status” this is set to Active
    2. We subscribe to only some titles in this collection:
      1. – for Aggregator type electronic collections this is set to no (because you subscribe to everything from an aggregator)
      2. – for Selective package type electronic collections this is set to yes
      3.  However, the type of linking is important here as well: When the linking type is “Link in Record” it is recommended to use no and when the linking type is “Linkresolver” the recommended setting is yes to prevent linking failures.
    3. Do not show as Full Text available in CDI even if active in Alma. This is left blank for electronic resources containing journal articles. If it is an eBook collection, and library may prefer to select this option. Then they will not receive any ebook duplicates or book chapters from CDI.
      CDI information
  5. The next box is Full Text Service.
    1. Click Activate this electronic service
    2. Click Make service available
    3. Automatically activate new portfolios – only select this if your library subscribes to an entire package
      Full Text Service
  6. Linking Information.
    1. This page is where you would enter any account information needed to authenticate access, like Client IDs for Proquest, or a Gale LOC-ID, etc.
    2. The next box down is Proxy set up. Click Yes and enter your default proxy.
      Linking Parameters
  7. The next page gives you the option to:
    1. Activate all portfolios – Select this if the electronic collection is an Aggregator type.
    2. Activate collection and selected portfolios via Excel file upload – This is an option if this is a Selective package type of electronic collection. For more about the spreadsheet method see this documentation. 
    3. Manual activation – activate electronic collection and manually select portfolios – you will get the option to search the CZ and select portfolios to add to the collection
      Activation type
  8. The next screen shows an activation summary – number of portfolios, and the collection and service that will be activated
    Activation summary
  9. Click Activate button
  10. After a few minutes (or longer for large collections) you will see the “two heads” indication turn blue in your IZ, and portfolios coming into your Primo VE. Citations from CDI can take up to 72 hours to fully populate Primo VE.
    Collection activated

Training Session Links

Supporting Links

Portfolio Loader
Managing Electronic Resources