What are Alma and Primo, anyway?

Lightning talk presented at Boston College Library Staff Day, August, 2016. Quick overview of Alma and Primo, the library's two primary library systems. Demonstrates the architecture and relationship between these two systems.

Transcript

1. What are Alma and Primo,
   anyway?
   

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2. What is Primo?
   

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4. Primo
   discovery service
   =
   

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5. Primo
   local
   metadata
   article index
   • BIG index of article metadata – “Primo Central Index” – licensed
   from vendor
   • Locally loaded metadata – library catalog, also Hathi Trust records
   

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6. What is Alma?
   

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8. Alma
   =
   library management system
   

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9. Primo
   Alma
   article
   index
   local
   metadata
   Primo and Alma talk to each other
   • Patron account data is updated in Primo in real time
   • Local metadata is loaded into Primo
   

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10. Primo
    ???
    article
    index
    local
    metadata
    Primo can talk to any Library Management System
    

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11. ???
    Alma
    article
    index
    local
    metadata
    Alma can talk to other discovery services
    

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12. Primo
    Aleph
    article
    index
    local
    metadata
    Boston College used to use Primo with a different library management system
    

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13. Aleph
    Primo
    Built-In OPAC
    • Before Primo, we used Aleph for both library management and
    patron catalog search.
    • Aleph had a built-in user-facing catalog search called an “OPAC.”
    • Aleph search only included the library catalog (no article index).
    

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14. What is Holmes?
    

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15. Holmes
    “Holmes” name is no longer used
    =
    

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16. Primo = User services
    Alma = Library
    management
    Holmes
    

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