Activate “Link in Record” Databases

Link in record databases

To turn on a “Link in Record database,” there are two ways:

If you want the platform level bib & URL, along with the contents:
Click “Activate” from the CZ, and unsuppress the bib (you can unsuppress the bib in the activation wizard)

• You can view & edit the platform level url in the collection editor > Additional tab
• You cannot override the CZ collection bib even if the field is editable, so  we must use the CZ bib for a collection

If you do not want the platform level bib & URL:
Click “Activate for full text in CDI only”, and keep the bib suppressed (suppressed is the default)

If you hit Activate when you meant to hit Activate for full text in CDI only, you can go into the Collection settings > CDI tab, and check the box for “CDI-only full text activation”

Activate the collection bib or leave it suppressed?

• Suppress a platform bib for selected ebook titles/packages, but include it for a full database, where a user may want to access the database search page to begin.

Timing for activations

• It takes 72 hours once the settings are applied for the records to show as “available” and have URLs.  (If we’re talking about the Sandbox, that is 72 hours *after* ExL has run the publishing job manually. With production, the pub job is auto-run daily).
• Experience has shown it can take much more than 72 hours.

Testing in Production or Sandbox?

Production

• Pros: Faster. Do not have to send in a ticket to ExL to run the pub job, and spend more time waiting on activations in a test environment. 
• Cons: If it doesn’t behave how we expect, we’ve turned it on in production already. Have to turn it off and wait for links to be removed.

Sandbox

• Pros: If the collection is not good for us or doesn’t work, we have not added it to production and potentially confused users.
• Cons: You have to submit a ticket to ExL and wait for them to respond. They will have to manually run the publishing job on the sandbox because it’s not run automatically.  Wait for it to activate, test, turn it on in production, wait for it to activate. Adds a lot of additional time sending in a ticket and activating it here first.
  • ERU needs to coordinate with each other, turning on several at once, so we don’t submit too many tickets to ExL at once or run into overlapping publishing jobs with someone else’s testing.
  • Must communicate to interested parties the time involved in activation

View records in Alma for testing

Copy the DBID for the collection -- this is found in the collections details or directly from searching for your collection in Alma. Example,  Docuseek2 Complete Collection = HUBAF
Search this code in Primo (if activated in Production, or if in the sandbox add your discovery widget to your Alma homepage and search that).  
Change the URL to:
query=DBID instead of query=any
The end of the URL will look like: query=DBID,contains,HUBAF
The number of search results will roughly match what you see for the record count under the CDI tab in your collection.

Package name challenges, CDI collections List

As with anything we activate, determining the correct collection can be difficult if the package name doesn’t match exactly what we bought. You cannot see the number of records in a Database Link in Record collection in Alma before you activate it. After you activate it, this shows under the CDI tab.
ExL provides a CDI Collections List which provides some helpful information:
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/Electronic_Resource_Management/060_Alma_Single_Activation_Source_for_CDI/050CDI_Collection_Lists_for_Alma_Customers#CDI_Collection_List