How can we add thumbnail images to books and videos that are showing the default icons in Primo?

Answer

Primo VE attempts to find thumbnail images for books and videos mostly via Syndetics (owned by ProQuest, which owns Ex Libris) and sometimes via Google Books. But sometimes those strategies fail. So what can we do?

Thumbnail Templates

Alma allows us to create thumbnail templates. In other words, we tell Primo VE to look for certain patterns in the MARC record, and if it finds a match, it uses the data in that MARC field to construct a URL that should point to an image.

It is good practice to tailor the template narrowly, i.e. create a pattern that will only be used in particular types of records, to avoid false matches.

Note: it is apparently not possible to host thumbnail files on Amazon servers—they will be blocked from appearing. This means that the LibGuides Image Manager is not an option (and using it may be against Springshare terms of service anyway). If you don't have a web server available for hosting, the Primo VE customization package could work.

Lisa Wong, Metadata Systems Analyst at UC Santa Cruz, posted several examples via the PRIMO-L listserv that use an alternative approach to mine, and she gave me permission to post them here. Many thanks to Lisa for sharing her expertise.

Kanopy

For Kanopy videos, we have configured a custom thumbnail template. If you find that a Kanopy record in OneSearch lacks an image, you can ask a cataloger to add one. The cataloger would add an 856 field (first indicator 4, second indicator 2) to the WorldCat record on the following model, where 5324525 is the Kanopy identifier: https://www.kanopy.com/node/5324525/external-image. The cataloger would replace the WorldCat record and then export the record to the Alma NZ, and within 15-20 minutes, the cover will show in OneSearch.

Template settings

  • Template: $$LinkingParameter1
  • Field: 856
  • Ind1: 4
  • Ind2: 2
  • Subfield: u
  • Use field: Matching string using a regular expression
  • Field pattern: https:\/\/www\.kanopy(streaming)?\.com\/node\/\d{4,9}\/external-image
  • Normalization: No normalization

Sample record

Lady Bird

Alternative approach from Lisa Wong

Template settings
  • Template: https://www.kanopy.com/node/$$LinkingParameter1
  • Field: 856
  • Ind1: 4
  • Ind2: 2
  • Subfield: u
  • Use field: Always
  • Normalization: Normalize using a regular expression
  • Normalization pattern: ([0-9]+/external-image)

 

Films on Demand

Films on Demand vendor records come with a vendor image in an 856 that our template is designed to catch. Example: https://cfvod.kaltura.com/p/1067292/sp/106729200/thumbnail/entry_id/1_qp2c1sz0/version/100051/width/88

Note that if we choose to overlay an FoD record with an enhanced record from WorldCat, we may need to restore this 856.

Template settings

  • Template: $$LinkingParameter1
  • Field: 856
  • Ind1: 4
  • Ind2: 2
  • Subfield: u
  • Use field: Matching string using a regular expression
  • Field pattern: https:\/\/(cfvod|cdnsecakmi)\.kaltura\.com\/p\/1067292\/.*
  • Normalization: No normalization

Sample record

Masaai: warrior's rite of passage

Alternative approach from Lisa Wong

Template settings
  • Template: https://cdnsecakmi.kaltura.com/p/$$LinkingParameter1
  • Field: 856
  • Ind1: 4
  • Ind2: 2
  • Subfield: u
  • Use field: Always
  • Normalization: Normalize using a regular expression
  • Normalization pattern: ([0-9]+/sp/[0-9]+/thumbnail/entry_id/[0-9a-z_]+/version/[0-9]+/width/88)

Local thumbnails

For cases when we want to host an image locally, we have configured a template to allow us to use our own image. In brief, we would find an appropriate image, name it according to the Alma MMS ID and upload it to a publicly accessible web server. We would then create a local 956 field (i.e. local extension), formatted similarly to an 856, with the URL in subfield u. Within 15-20 minutes after saving the record, the image should be viewable in OneSearch.

956 local field

More details are found in our guidelines for the 956.

Template settings

  • Template: $$LinkingParameter1
  • Field: 956
  • Ind1: 4
  • Ind2: 2
  • Subfield: u
  • Use field: Matching string using a regular expression
  • Field pattern: https:.*5325\.[a-zA-Z]{3}$
  • Normalization: No normalization

Sample record

Taxi Driver

Naxos Music Library (NML)

We no longer subscribe to NML so the following process is no longer active. Info is included in case it is still helpful to others.

Naxos vendor bibliographic records include identifiers that can be transformed into URLs that show the cd cover. Before importing these bibs, we added these as 856s in MarcEdit. First, in "Build new field" (with "Always add new field" option checked):

=956  42$uhttps://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/images/cds/others/{001}.gif $zCover image

The reason for using 956 here is that if you create it as an 856, MarcEdit inserts the new field before the existing 856, which means the import doesn't work because Alma grabs the image URL for the portfolio. So, after the above process, we use a find and replace:

  • Find: =956
  • Replace: =856

These two processes are included in a task list that makes several other changes, since Naxos records include a number of idiosyncratic and invalid elements.

Template settings

  • Template: $$LinkingParameter1
  • Field: 956
  • Ind1: 4
  • Ind2: 2
  • Subfield: u
  • Use field: Matching string using a regular expression
  • Field pattern: https:\/\/cdn\.naxosmusiclibrary\.com\/sharedfiles\/images\/cds\/.*
  • Normalization: No normalization
  • Last Updated Feb 12, 2024
  • Views 3717
  • Answered By Jeff Karlsen

FAQ Actions

Was this helpful? 7 0

Comments (2)

  1. Thanks for posting this Jeff. I was able to automate the Kanopy thumbnails using the 856 with the following settings: https://www.screencast.com/t/8EamhvnY
    by Dean Lingley on Nov 21, 2022
  2. I found that all configuration by using NR would not be well displayed in Oct 2023. I have created the same FoD key from the above example. Do anyone have the same problem?
    by Claire Chan on Sep 30, 2023