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[ALMA] Sets and Jobs

What are Sets

Sets are collections of records in Alma. They do not have a size limit. You can create sets of repository bibliographic records, PO lines, user accounts, or sets of items that have a particular loan status. Once a set is created, you can use the set and perform batch updates using automated processes.

There are two types of sets:

  • Logical Sets: contains entire list of results of a search query; dynamic
  • Itemized Sets: contains individual records selected to be parts of set; static

Sets can be accessed under the Admin > Manage Sets & Jobs > Manage Sets; there are three possible views of sets:

  • My Sets: all of your sets, both private and public
  • Public Sets: all public sets, from all users
  • All sets: public and your sets

Logical Sets

1. Create a Logical Search Set

You can save your search queries in Alma by creating logical sets (repopulated dynamically every time you re-run the query).

You can EITHER save your query to sets by clicking Save Query button and adding a General Description of your new set

OR create a Logical Set from the Manage Sets page.

  1. Go to Admin > Manage Sets and Jobs > Manage Sets
  2. Click on the My Sets tab
  3. Click on Add Sets > Logical Set
  4. Add a General Description for your set:
  • Set Name (REQUIRED) must be unique and useful for finding your set in a list
  • Description does not display in the lists of sets; adds context about what is in that set and why
  • Note does not display; use for any additional notes about that set
  • Set Content Type(REQUIRED) is the type of records that will be in your set; this will limit what can be done with the set and determine the search bar you see when you want to add items to your set. A set can only contain one content type
  • Private - Sets default to Yes when created; toggle a set to No to share it with other Harvard users
  • Active - This doesn't seem to affect much, but set it to Active.
  1. Click Save

2. Change a Logical Set Query

  1. Go to Admin > Manage Sets, and click on the ellipsis for the set you want to add to
  2. Click on Results
  3. Change the elements of the query that you want to change using the advanced search form at the top of the results list.
  4. Search to re-run your search with the new criteria. Click Save Query when you are done
  5. Change Set Details as needed
  6. Click Save to save your changes

Itemized Sets

1. Create an Itemized Search Set

To create an itemized search set:

  1. Go to Admin > Manage Sets and Jobs > Manage Sets
  2. Click on the My Sets tab
  3. Click on Add Sets > Itemized Set
  4. Add a General Description for your set:  
  5. There are two ways to add Contents to Set.
  • Add Contents from File to Set: 
    • Files must be text (.txt or .csv) or Excel (.xls or .xlsx), and should contain one column with the correct header at the top.
    • NOTE: You can only upload a file to create a set once - after that, you can only add individual items to the set, or create a second set with a file and combine the sets. 
  • Add Members to Set: 
    • Search with the primary and secondary search fields, then limit by the facets on the left.
    • Select items by clicking in the checkbox to the left of the title. Once you've selected the items you want from a page of results, click Add Selected.  
    • NOTE: Do not go to the next page of results until you've added items from that page - Alma can't add from multiple search results pages at once.
  1. When you're done adding members to the set, click on Done. 

2. View, remove or add members to an itemized set

To view members of a set:

  1. go to Admin > Manage Sets and click on the ellipsis for the set you want to see.
  2. Click on Members

To remove members of a set:

  1. go to Admin > Manage Sets and click on the ellipsis for the set you want to see. 
  2. Click on Members
  3. Click on the checkbox to the left of each item you want to remove
  4. Click on Remove Selected at the top
  5. OR: If you only want to remove a single item, just choose Remove from the row action items list for that item
  6. Click on Done 

To add members to a set:

  1. Go to Admin > Manage Sets and click on the ellipsis for the set you want to add to
  2. Click on Edit
  3. Click on Add Members to Set
  4. Search the repository, select, and add items to the set. Click on Add All or Add Selected.
  5. Click Done to save your changes

Convert, Combine, and Filter Sets

1. Convert a logical set to an itemized set

To cover a logical set to an itemized set:

  1. Go to Manage Sets and click on the ellipsis for the set you want to itemize
  2. Click on Itemize
  3. The system adds the word "itemized" and the date to the Set Name. If you want to customize the set name further, do that on the Set Details screen
  4. Click Submit, then Confirm to submit an itemization job to convert your set

2. Combine Sets

Combine sets option allows you to combine the results of two same content type sets into 1 itemized set. To do that:

  1. Go to Manage Sets and click on the ellipsis for the set you want to itemize
  2. Click on Combine
  3. The system adds the word "combined" and the date to the Set Name. If you want to customize the set name further, do that on the Set Details screen.
  4. The set you start with is called the parent set. At the bottom of the screen, choose the set you want to combine the parent set with, and how.
    • AND creates a new set that includes only the members in common between the two sets (In Set 1 AND in Set 2)
    • NOT creates a set that includes members that are in the parent set and not in the second set (In Set 1 and NOT in Set 2)
    • OR creates a set that includes all of the members of both sets (In either Set 1 OR in Set 2)
  5. When you click on the list of sets to combine with, it will only display sets of the same content type, both yours and any public sets. Search for the second set by name or by your Alma user ID.
  6. Click Submit, then Confirm to submit an itemization job to convert your set

3. Filter sets

“Filter set” allows you to apply a condition to the set to refine the items in the set. For example, you could choose to apply a filter to the set that would only include the records that had more than one 245 field.

Note: The filter rule should not be used if more than 50% of the set is filtered out and the set has more than 10,000 members. When you exceed these conditions, the job runs very slowly. Any members that can be removed by the set definition should be done there and not in the filter rule.

To filter a set:

  1. Go to Admin > Manage Sets, and click on the ellipsis for the set you want to filter. 
  2. On the next screen, scroll down to the Indication rules drop-down and click to see all existing rules.
  3. Click Submit in the upper right

For instructions on how to write indication rules, please visit the Ex Libris documentation on Working with Indication Rules.