Ordering books with GOBI API

Check to see if we already own the book

Do a repository search in Alma to see if we already hold the book. Be aware that the book might be available in e-book form.

Order the book directly from GOBI

Log into GOBI at https://www.gobi3.com/. 

Search for the book using any combination of Title, Author, Publisher, or ISBN.

Locate the version of the book you want.

Mark it and Add to Cart => Order Cart.

Repeat with additional titles.

When you have finished adding books to the Cart, click on Order Cart in the upper right corner to view the books.

Mark one book at a time and then click on Enter Order Details.

Note: If all the books you are ordering are in the same format and are being ordered from the same fund and have the same library location, you can mark more than one book at a time and enter Order Details for a set of titles.

Enter information:

Subaccount

3150-10 US MONO [for regular print books]

3150-12 US X FUNDS [for endowment / foundation orders]

3150-50 US EBOOKS MONO [for e-books]

POL Number [leave blank; Alma will assign]

Fund Code [choose from drop-down or type]

Location [choose umain or uref; for other locations change item location later in Alma] -- leave blank if e-book

Note to Vendor [not typically used with GOBI]

1st reporting code [choose PrintMonograph or EBook]

Receiving Note [use as needed; this shows up in the Notes tab of the Alma POL]

No substitutions [ignore]

Selector [choose from drop-down]

Quantity 1

eBook Purchase Option [enter e-book platform] -- appears only for e-books

List Action Remove Marked Status on Items in List

Order

You will see an ORDER ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. (You can print these if you want, or email them to yourself.)

Repeat for remaining books.

Information enters Alma

Immediately, GOBI will transmit a short bib to Alma and a POL.

Here is a short bib example:

Here is another example:

Note on bib record matching: The default match point for the short bib coming in on the GOBI API is 024/ISBN. In February 2018, we set up the "GOBI_API_Orders" integration profile, which tells Alma to match on 035/OCLC instead. The integration profile also is set to "Prefer record with the same inventory type (electronic/physical)." As a result of these changes, e-book POLs & portfolios from the GOBI API are less likely to be attached to existing bibs in Alma for the print book, if bibs exist. And vice versa.

*** Exceptions to GOBI creating a short bib:

1. If the book already exists in Alma with the same OCLC number, the POL and item/portfolio might be attached to the existing record. The item/portfolio and accompanying POL can be moved if necessary.

2. If the book is an e-book available from one of the CZ collections that support Real-Time Ordering in Alma, a MARC record and portfolio from the CZ will be used. Right now, supported publishers for GOBI include:

• • Bloomsbury

  • Brill

  • Cambridge Core [Used for Cambridge University Press and partner publishers]

  • De Gruyter

  • EBSCOhost e-books

  • Edward Elgar

  • Elsevier

  • IGI Global

  • JSTOR e-books

  • Oxford Bibliographies Online (OUP)

  • Oxford Clinical Psychology Online (OUP)

  • Oxford Handbooks Online (OUP)

  • Oxford Medicine Online (OUP)

  • Oxford Reference Online (OUP)

  • Oxford Scholarly Editions Online (OUP)

  • Oxford University Press Scholarship Online Complete (UPSO) [Used for Oxford Scholarship Online and partner publishers]

  • [Project MUSE e-books] - we buy packages so don't individually order

  • ProQuest Ebook Central e-books

  • Rittenhouse R2 Digital Library

  • Sage Knowledge

  • Taylor & Francis

  • Wiley

  • Wolters Kluwer - OVID

  • World Scientific

Note: Real-Time Ordering of e-books via GOBI accomplishes three time-saving things: 1) The portfolio is automatically placed on the correct CZ collection; 2) The link in the portfolio is based on Alma's parser parameters, so a static link is not needed; 3) The MARC record from the CZ is used, avoiding the need to overlay a MARC record.

The POL is created by Alma

If print book: 

POL will enter Alma in Status Auto Packaging.

If the book is a NOTIFY, edit the POL per the NOTIFY procedure for book orders.

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If e-book:

The POL will enter Alma in Status In Review. (No, I changed this 8/2024 ajr)

Search for the POL. 

Click on Edit

• • Add license

  • Check Access Model [Unlimited Access (UA), Unlimited Access (UU), One concurrent User (1U), or Three concurrent Users (3U)] — GOBI should select Access Model automatically.

  • Add access provider

  • Check 1st reporting code -- should say "E-book"

  • 3rd reporting code: Check selector's last name

  • If the book is a NOTIFY, edit the POL per the NOTIFY procedure for book orders.

  • Note POL number

• Save and continue

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Note: If the library already owns a copy of the book (in any format), the item or portfolio with POL may be placed on the existing bib record. The item or portfolio with POL may need to be re-linked to the correct bib record later when the book comes in and is cataloged.

Receive and catalog the book

The book is received as per normal procedure.

If print book:

Cataloger overlays full OCLC record on top of short record.

Cataloger updates item as per normal procedure.

If OCLC number in short bib is wrong, be sure to remove holdings on that bib in Connexion. 

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If e-book:

MARC Record:

• Send the ORDER ACKNOWLEDGEMENT to Cataloger.

• If bib is local via GOBI (as in images above), Cataloger will set holdings in OCLC and overlay full OCLC e-book record on top of short record.

• If bib is from the Alma Community Zone, Cataloger will either (depending on judgement):

  • Set holdings in OCLC and accept Community Zone MARC record

OR

• • Set holdings in OCLC and download a "naked" e-book MARC record from OCLC, then re-link the portfolio to the local MARC record. (To do this, "Edit" portfolio and use "Relink to another bibliographic record" button at top right. The CZ MARC record will be automatically removed once it no longer has inventory.)

In both cases above, the portfolio will remain a Community Zone portfolio.

Update the portfolio:

• Double-check that the portfolio has a full MARC record, either from OCLC via the cataloger or from the CZ (see step above). 

• Attach portfolio to appropriate electronic collection (will usually have "individual e-books" in the electronic collection name). 

  • If the portfolio was matched to an Alma CZ record, it will already be on the correct collection.

General Tab:

• Electronic material type: Book 

  • Access type: Perpetual 

Note: If the defaults from a CZ portfolio and/or the collection already say Book and Perpetual, do not override. 

Linking Tab:

• • If the portfolio is from the CZ, accept the Service parser parameters / Parser parameters and do NOT select Static URL or enter a URL into the field. 

  • If the portfolio is local, select Static URL and enter the URL into the blank field. Use the publisher link in preference to the DOI. If using the DOI, confirm that it links to the platform at which we purchased the book and enter the DOI in the format https://doi.org/XXXXXX. 

• Proxy enabled: Leave blank so that book will default to setting in electronic service on the collection 

• Proxy selected: Leave blank so that book will default to setting in electronic service on the collection 

Acquisition Tab:

• • Check that Public access model field is correct. 

  • If an additional copy of a limited-access e-book is ordered, update the number of users in the portfolio editor. It will display immediately in Primo.

  • Use one of the following codes:

Unlimited Access (UA)

Unlimited Access (UU)

Unlimited Access (EA)

One concurrent User (1U)

Two concurrent Users (2U)

Three concurrent Users (3U)

Note: To make sure this field displays to the public, go to Alma Configuration: Fulfillment => Discovery Interface Display Logic => Other Settings. Select the checkbox "Enable Display of Access Model." This only needs to be done once. Done: 7/8/2020 ajr

To standardize and customize the public display of the codes, go to Alma Configuration: Acquisitions => Licenses => Access Model. Edit the Public Access Model Translation Table as so:

• UA = Unlimited concurrent users

• UU = Unlimited concurrent users

• EA - Unlimited concurrent users

• 1U = 1 concurrent user only

• 3U = 3 concurrent users only

Notes Tab: [[No longer needed after July 2020 release due to field in Acquisition Tab.]]

• If there are a limited number of users, enter this information in the Public note field of the Notes tab, for example: "3 concurrent users only" [no period].

• Save

Activate portfolio:

• Resources => Manage Inventory => Manage Electronic Resource Activation

  • Find the e-book on one of the tabs: Assigned to Me, Unassigned, or Assigned to Others.

  • Actions => Test Access [make sure link to book is working and access is set up by publisher; actually click through to some content or verify access by publisher mark]

  • Go back to Alma browser tab and Back to return to e-resource activation screen. The book will now be in the Assigned to Me tab.

  • Place check in box to left of book, choose Access Confirmed, and Change Status.

  • Actions => Activate

  • You will see a message: "[Title of book] is now available. Do you want to edit it?" 

  • Cancel

  • Actions => Done

• Search for book and confirm that it is active. 

Note: As of January 2021, e-book portfolios that are created via Real Time Ordering through GOBI enter Alma with status "Available." This means that access to the e-book on the publisher's site should still be checked and verified, but the e-book does not have to be activated through the "Manage Electronic Resource Activation" process, and once the POL is paid, it will automatically close.

[The setting: Configuration => Acquisitions => Other Settings => acq_activate_portfolio_from_API (set this to 'true' for portfolios to be created as 'Available').]

API Key

For our API key for GOBI, see Alma APIs and Integrations in GoogleDrive [permission required]. 

GOBI Accounts in Alma

Note that for the GOBI API to work properly with Alma, the accounts in the vendor record used with the API (e.g. 3150-10) must have Discount Percent set to 0.0. 

See https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/blog/Real-time-Acquisitions-setup-for-institutions, "Vendor specific Alma configuration: 1. GOBI: The vendor account representing GOBI should be defined with 0% discount."

If a percentage is entered, the POLs will go into Review, with Net price under Pricing not matching Amount under Funding. Redistributing Lines will solve the problem, but that is an extra step.

Purchasing Review Rules

To avoid having all POLs created by the GOBI API end up in review, go:

Acquisitions => Acquisitions Configuration => Configuration Menu => Purchase Orders => Purchasing Review Rules. (Online Help)

1. Turn Default Review Rule to False.

2. Create new purchasing review rule:

Name: GOBI API Review Rule -- Print Books

Description: Do NOT send print book POLs generated by GOBI API into review status

Assertion code In list: Any

Acquisition method In list: Purchase at Vendor System

VendorCode In list: YBP 

POLineType In list: Physical - One Time, Print Book - One Time

SourceType In list: API

Result: False

3. POLs for e-books should go to review, since license and access provider information need to be added, and portfolio should be added to collection.  (Update: 8/2024: we still need to enter this information, but I turned off sending the POLs to review. It just adds complications.)

Create new purchasing review rule:

Name: GOBI API Review Rule -- E-Books

Description: DO send e-book POLs generated by GOBI API into review status

Assertion code In list: Any

Acquisition method In list: Purchase at Vendor System

VendorCode In list: YBP Library Services

POLineType In list: Electronic Title - One Time, Electronic Book - One Time

SourceType In list: API

Result: True False

Other Factors

The GOBI API can also be set up to support "Interested User".

We do not have this set up because:

1. In GOBI, the user's barcode (Primary ID) must be entered to make a match in Alma. This would require looking up the barcode in Alma first. It is easier to just add this to the POL after it is created in Alma. We have to go into the POL for e-books anyway, to set license and access provider. 

2. When GOBI sends a POL with an Interested User, the first Alma option is checked off for all formats: "Notify user upon receiving/activation". This doesn't work well for us, because we only use "Notify user upon receiving/activation" for ebooks. If used for print books, the user will be expecting the book before it has been cataloged and processed. We would have to go into the POL and uncheck this for print books.

3. When GOBI sends a POL with an Interested User, the second Alma option is set to false: "Hold item." We do want print books held for interested users, so we would have to go back in and check this option for print books (and uncheck "Notify user upon receiving/activation").

See email exchange from April 2020.