Overview
Linking portfolios to the CZ rarely has any downside. It allows us to use Ex Libris's linking parser parameters, which are updated automatically if links change.
It is possible to link portfolios to the CZ and retain local MARC records, when that is deemed to be preferable.
Link a LOCAL ELECTRONIC COLLECTION to community
1. Bring up local electronic collection.
2. In collection dropdown menu, select "Link to Community".
3. Select appropriate CZ collection.
4. Use the community bibliographic records? NO if you want to keep your own local bibs.
Portfolio linking information (URL, parser parameters, etc.) will be inherited from CZ, but bibs will stay local.
Caveats:
For workflow, the easiest approach is to delete the CZ collection you want to link to (if you have it in your institution) BEFORE you do the "Link to community". This reduces confusion later on.
If you've done this, once you've performed "Link to community" the only records activated in the CZ collection should be the titles that you had in your local collection. If you want to add any remaining titles from the CZ, you can do this by selecting "Edit Service" for the collection, going to the Portfolios tab, and choosing either "Add Portfolios from Community" which allows you to pick and choose, or "Add All Portfolios from Community" which adds everything which hasn't already been activated.
If you later get a set of new bib records, you can use an import profile to update the bibs without touching the CZ portfolios. If you have the option "Unlink bibliographic records from Community Zone" selected in your import profile, then your new bib records can be used to replace CZ records. However, you would want to be careful with your matching — CZ records usually match on ISBN, so use this match method and select the "Prefer record with the same inventory type" option to avoid overwriting print bib records with e-resource records.
If you have records that contain multiple identifiers (e.g. multiple ISBNs in a record that is part of a multivolume work), using the "Link to community" option can return some very strange results.
Link a LOCAL ELECTRONIC PORTFOLIO to community
1. First, make sure the portfolio is in the appropriate CZ collection, e.g. "Gale individual e-books (Gale eBooks)." (Alma might be able to do this automatically, but you have more control if you pick the collection first.)
2. Search for the electronic collection.
3. More Actions => Edit Service
4. Navigate to Portfolios Tab.
5. Filter to CZ Linking: Local
6. Click "Link Local Portfolios to Community"
7. In the next screen, make sure to select No for "Use the community bibliographic records" if you want to keep the local MARC records.
8. Click Link and then Confirm. Then Save. The job runs, and for a small number of portfolios, completes almost instantaneously.
9. Search for your portfolio. You can see by the icon (people or house) if the link to CZ was successful. Sometimes it isn't, because for some reason the title is not in the electronic collection as maintained by Ex Libris. This is okay. You tried. You can try again some other time. As long as the local link works, all is good.
10. Test the portfolio link to make sure it works.
11. Make sure the portfolio is active.