Library Answers: Los Rios Common Questions

The answer to this question depends on a number of factors, and the below attempts to categorize them.

Things that depend upon publishing from Alma to Primo VE: ~15 minutes

In some cases we make a change in Alma and that change needs to be published to Primo. These changes include:

Creating / Editing bibliographic records (titles)

When we create a record by any means (importing, creating manually, etc.) or change MARC fields these need to be published before they are visible

Editing course reserve reading lists

Staff add titles to reading lists so they can become searchable under a given course. These changes are, basically, at the title level, so they need to be published

Editing collections (collection discovery)

The collections that display in Primo VE are collections of titles. When we create a collection and add titles to it, it will display as empty until the titles are published

Changing conditions that result in bibliographic records being suppressed/unsuppressed

We automatically suppress bib records from appearing in OneSearch under various conditions. For instance, if all the items of a bib are in the process type of lost, missing, or acquisition, the bib will be suppressed. If a bib represents an electronic resource and its electronic portfolio is inactive, or it is set to only be available to libraries other than the one whose OneSearch view is being used, the bib will be suppressed.

So if anything of this sort changes, with the result that a bib previously suppressed becomes unsuppressed, or a bib visible in OneSearch becomes suppressed--the changes will not take effect in Primo VE until the bib record is published.

Changes in "services": instant

Services is a term used in Alma/Primo to refer to ways users get items or electronic resources--so for instance, full-text links, digital resource links, or physical item availability, number of items, etc. If we change a setting in a service, that change will be reflected instantly. It seems that Primo VE communicates with Alma dynamically to retrieve this information, whereas publishing creates an index that persists for a while.

So for example:

• if we change a URL (or parser parameters) in an electronic resource and refresh the page, the new URL will be used
• if there was one item available for a title and a loan takes place, the next time the title is viewed it will show no items available
• if we make a digital object inactive, when the title is next viewed, the whole area where the user sees the link, invitation to sign in etc. will no longer display.

CDI: 48-72 hours

The Central Discovery Index (CDI) is the source of most of the records we find in the "Everything" tab of OneSearch. It is mostly article records, but also ebook chapters, in some cases ebook titles, and assorted odd things. We (partially) control what comes into our OneSearch from CDI via our electronic collection activations in Alma.

A daily job runs in Alma that publishes our electronic holdings to CDI. It takes some time for CDI then to adjust what shows in OneSearch. This whole process takes up to 72 hours.

So, let's say we add a new periodical database in Alma that contains journals we didn't previously have access to. Assuming CDI records are available for those journals' articles, we might not see them in OneSearch for a few days.

Conversely, let's say we remove a periodical database from Alma. Articles from those journals might continue to show in OneSearch search results for a few days.

Changes in the Primo VE customization package: instant (but note caching!)

We use the Primo VE customization package to change the styling of various things in OneSearch and also to add particular elements such as the footer, top banners etc. Working on this concludes with uploading a zip file to Alma and saving it. At that point, the new customization package is live. However, Primo VE uses browser caching very effectively, which is a good thing because otherwise users would see slower performance. This means that if you are checking changes, you should either clear your browser cache or view OneSearch in an incognito / private browsing window.