ebooks in iDiscover: a post-Alma update Lindsay Jones (ebooks@cambridge) Sonya Adams (Selwyn College)

What’s new for ebooks in iDiscover since moving to Alma New and noteworthy What’s new for ebooks in iDiscover since moving to Alma

1. Merging of print and e records When a book is held in print and e, the two Alma records are often merged, resulting in a single iDiscover record.

1. Merging of print and e records However, this doesn’t always happen:

2. Changes to the full record display Online access now clickable. View Online has become View It. Link text depends on whether ebook was catalogued in Voyager or Alma.

2. Changes to the full record display continued The links displayed under ‘Links’ also depend where the ebook was catalogued: Catalogued in Voyager = includes link to the ebook Catalogued in Alma = no link to the ebook

3. Finding ebook links for your Moodle site For ebooks catalogued in Alma, there is nowhere in the iDiscover record where you can find the authenticated link to the ebook. Solutions: Link to the iDiscover record instead using the permalink. Obtain the authenticated link from the publisher/ebooks@cambridge when purchasing a new ebook. Find the link on Alma or use our guide to finding and constructing authenticated URLs (instructions forthcoming …) .

4. ‘Online access’ v. ‘Full text available’ Compare records 1 and 2: Comes from Alma. Loaded/switched on by ebooks@cambridge or UL English. Comes from Primo Central Index (PCI). Collections are switched on in PCI to enable searching of content. ‘Full text available’ should only show if we have corresponding record in Alma. PCI records will only show up if searching Articles & online resources or everything, NOT if searching Cambridge Libraries Collection.

5. Non Print Legal Deposit A search of ‘Cambridge Libraries Collections’ now includes NPLD material.

Or what can cause confusion… What can go wrong? Or what can cause confusion…

1. [electronic resource] Book is held in print and electronic formats. Two Alma records merge, and the ebook bib record is the one displayed to users, causing confusion when the 245 contains a $h [electronic resource] Solution: we have asked iDiscover team if $h subfields can be suppressed from iDiscover display.

2. Print books masquerading as ebooks Problem: book record has an online access link that doesn’t work; no link in ‘View it’. Reason: a record with ebook coding, or 856 fields, has been used to catalogue a print book. Solution: edit the record. Search again for the title to check whether a real ebook is available.

3. Ebook migrated as print book Some ebook records migrated from Voyager as print. They look like this: Solution: Find the link in the ‘Links’ section of the full record. Contact ebooks@lib.cam.ac.uk.

4. Very brief records You might, if you are lucky, find some very brief records like this: Solution: If you can’t find the ebook but think we should have it, search using one word from title and the ebooks filter. Contact ebooks@cambridge.

5. Full text available … No full text available Record has come from PCI and has been found in an ‘Articles and Online resources’ search or ‘Search everything’. We think it has failed to match correctly with our electronic holdings. We have reported cases to Ex Libris, but so far no response. Solution: We may or may not have the ebook, so search again for it in ‘Cambridge Libraries Collection’. Contact ebooks@cambridge.

Top tips If you’re struggling to find an ebook that you think we should have: Use the Cambridge Libraries Collections filter (not Articles and online resources or Search everything). All owned ebooks have records that show up using this filter. Switch to the All Libraries drop-down filter in case the ebook has migrated as print. Reduce your search to a keyword from the title + ebooks drop-down filter to catch any very brief records. Librarians: consider using Alma rather than iDiscover for certain searches (e.g. reading list checking).