ELUNA learns 2025 – Content Management

• 1:00 pm – 1:05 pm. Introduction  
• 1:05 pm – 1:50 pm. Using Alma’s Brief Level Rules to Facilitate Rapid Cataloging 
• 1:50 pm – 2:00 pm. Break 
• 2:00 pm – 2:45 pm. Visualizing Cataloging Statistics in Analytics at Vanderbilt 
• 2:45 pm – 3:00 pm. Break 
• 3:00 pm – 3:45 pm. Leveraging holdings automation in Alma to cope with limited staffing and dynamic collections 

Note, schedule times are approximate. Schedule may shift slightly during the event.  

Using Alma’s Brief Level Rules to Facilitate Rapid Cataloging. Greg Ferguson, Head of Resource Management, NYU Libraries. 

Streamlining copy cataloging workflows is crucial to getting materials to users promptly and preserving cataloger time for high-value work. Alma’s brief level rules allow the institution to create customized rankings from 1-10 for bibliographic records depending on the presence or absence of specified metadata. NYU’s central technical services office has implemented brief level rules that assign a ranking according to NYU’s minimum requirements to bibliographic records for new books, scores, sound recordings, and video recordings. These rankings help non-cataloger staff across NYU and its consortium partners quickly evaluate new items to determine which can go directly to the shelf and which need attention from a cataloger. In this session, we will look at how Alma’s brief level rules work, how NYU customized its brief level rules, and how NYU has used its rules to simplify workflows around post-receiving processing and cataloging. 

Visualizing Cataloging Statistics in Analytics at Vanderbilt. Alicia Zalusky, Metadata Services Manager, Vanderbilt University; Jake Schaub, Music Cataloging Librarian, Vanderbilt University. 

This presentation reviews how Vanderbilt University cataloging staff have leveraged Alma Analytics to visualize cataloging statistics for improved decision-making and workflow transparency. After an overview of how the statistics dashboard was developed to integrate our institution’s historical cataloging codes, we will discuss recent experiments in adapting the main dashboard, making use of Analytics’ graph prompts, sections, and sliders display features to highlight different data visualization options. With these custom displays, the team hopes to better visualize key performance indicators such as record creation, productivity, and broader impact, and communicate these insights to those outside the department as part of our broader library strategic initiatives. 

Leveraging holdings automation in Alma to cope with limited staffing and dynamic collections. Ambra Gagliardi, Collection Development Librarian, University of Utah; Katie Larsen, Resource Description Coordinator, University of Utah. 

Large academic libraries manage millions of records, with constant updates that are too numerous for manual handling. Automation is essential to maintain accurate, discoverable, and accessible holdings. However, it requires balancing the reliability of vendor data with the ease of automated workflows. Each vendor has specific implementation workflows for auto-holding updates, and terminology across platforms varies.  

This presentation explores various automated holdings update methods in Alma, such as knowledge base, APIs, and FTP transfers. We will highlight ways to leverage connections between your Alma instance and vendors/publishers’ external knowledge bases, clarify confusing terminology, and provide examples across formats like journals, streaming media, and ebooks. A comparison between manual and automated record management will highlight pros and cons, including strategies for safeguarding perpetually owned content.