Inventory

What is Inventory? The resources that are owned or licensed by or associated with a particular library, institution, or consortium. All descriptive bibliographic metadata resides in the repository and can be edited using the portfolio editor.

When a resource is activated from the CZ, where does the Inventory reside? If an electronic resource from the CZ was activated in the IZ, then the inventory is in the IZ. If you activate a CZ collection from the NZ for multiple institutions, the inventory (electronic portfolios) will be in the NZ and findable in the NZ.

When a record is activated from the CZ for an IZ (or NZ), where does the bib record reside? When you activate something in the CZ for the IZ, it is linked to the NZ by configuration. Alma automatically copies the bibliographic record you activated in the CZ into the NZ. The inventory is only findable in the IZ because it was activated from the IZ. If you activate the CZ record from the NZ for multiple institutions, the inventory (electronic portfolios) will be in the NZ and findable in the NZ.

If a CZ record activated in an IZ is copied to the NZ, then why isn’t it searchable in the NZ with “Electronic Titles” and “Electronic Portfolio” as the limiter? Since the inventory is in the IZ in this scenario, it is only searchable in the IZ using these limiters. To find the record in the NZ, the “All Titles” limiter would be used.

How can you tell if a record found in the NZ has inventory? You will find all the institutions that have active inventory (in IZ) for a record in the “held by” section on the search (“all titles”) results page. However, when you activate records in the CZ from the NZ, you create inventory in the NZ and you will be able to find the titles using the “electronic portfolio” and “electronic collection” limiters when searching in the NZ.

Is there difference between copying a record and linking to a record? When you activate a collection in the CZ for all members of the consortia, it will copy a bibliographic record to the NZ for that collection and create inventory in the NZ that will link to records in the CZ.

When a consortial collection overlaps locally purchased institutional inventory, and the consortia cancels the collection and deletes the NZ record, will this affect the institution’s inventory? No, the record cannot be deleted if any institution has linked to it.