Merging Bibliographic Records in Alma
Alma provides the ability to merge two bibliographic records (not linked to the Community Zone) in the MD Editor. This is especially helpful when catalogers identify duplicate bibliographic records in the catalog that they want to combine into one bibliographic record. The merge is handled by selecting one of the merge rules from a list of predefined merge routines. Merging two bibliographic records into one will also move the following entities to the merged (primary) record:
PO line
Electronic collections
Electronic portfolios
Physical items
Digital representations
Loans
Requests
Reading lists
Related record relationship (based on MMS ID)
When the secondary record in a merge and combine inventory process has a related record with the MMS ID of the secondary record specified in any of the 76X–78X fields, the MMS ID is updated to the MMS ID of the primary record during the merge process in order to maintain a relationship (and avoid having a related record with no parent relationship, that is an orphan record).
The Cataloger Extended role is required for merging bibliographic records.
To merge two bibliographic records using the MD Editor:
Locate the two bibliographic records that you want to merge. The primary record will be updated with some or all of the information from the other, secondary record.
Edit both records so that they both appear under the Records tab in the MD Editor.
Bibliographic Records under the Records Tab
From the list under the Records tab, select the primary record.
Select the Split Editor icon and select the secondary record so that it appears on the right.
From the Record Actions menu, select Merge & Combine.
The Merge Records and Combine Inventory dialog box appears.
Merge Records and Combine Inventory Dialog Box
Review any messages displayed. In particular, note that this operation is not reversible.
Select a merge routine from the drop-down list. The merge routines that appear in the list are pulled from the merge rules list under the Rules tab in the MD Editor.
Select: Overlays the record on the left in the HD editor with the record on the right, but keeps fields with local data
To preview the merge results, select Show merge preview. Select OK to close the Merge Preview view.
Merge Preview
Select how you want to handle the secondary bibliographic record (after the merge) from the following options:
Delete
Suppress
Keep it
When you are ready to merge the two records, select OK.
If there is a constraint that prevents merging the two bibliographic records, such as if there is a fulfillment issue with the secondary record, the system will not merge the bibliographic records and provide warning messages.