NZ License Practice

Summary

This document includes updates on NZ license practices, notes on functionality in Alma between NZ and IZ, impacts on Institution Zones and recommended practices for campuses at this time. This document will be updated as new developments unfold.

Overview of Functionality

NZ licenses will be shared and distributed with IZs via the Distribute Network Acquisition Changes to Members job which job runs daily.

NZ licenses show a checkmark under the shared column in the IZs.

Notes and attachments are able to be shared from the NZ license to the IZs. CDL is reviewing what attachments are appropriate to include in the license record.

The CDLNZ project team recommends that CDL not use negotiation details in the NZ license to distribute cost information to campuses because it has limited benefit to the IZs and requires significant duplicative manual entry by CDL. CDL’s approach to enter cost information will be via NZ POL and will use this data to distribute cost share information to campuses.

The CDLNZ project team recommend that CDL creates non-default licenses review status codes to prevent conflict with IZ license review status codes. One option may be to add a CDL prefix or suffix to the code. Ex Libris documentation.

CDL License codes migrated as numeric and CDL will be reviewing naming conventions.

Impact on Campus Institution Zone (IZ)

Campuses cannot edit a shared license. In addition, they cannot contribute a license to the network zone.

The IZ does not inherit NZ information on the Inventory and PO Line tabs from NZ shared licenses.

IZ can attach NZ licenses to IZ POLs and inventory. However, we do not recommend doing so at this time due to ongoing cleanup which could include fully deleting licenses records depending on API capabilities.

IZs can make a local amendment to an NZ shared license. This is useful for Tier 3 resources. The NZ cannot see campuses local amendments on NZ licenses. However, we have not completed testing on deleting licenses yet so do not know the effect it would have on IZ amendment.

Testing Summary

Once the option has been checked to share notes and attachments the option cannot be unchecked. However, individual notes and attachments can be deleted and automatically removed in the IZs with the next distribution job.

Once a license is shared in an IZ, Alma does not have a way to remove the license from the IZ even if the license is no longer shared in the NZ. Though, when relevant, the license status can be updated to “deleted”.

When the NZ license code is the same as an existing IZ license code, the distribution job applies an NZ_ prefix to the NZ license code in the IZ. When the license codes are different, no prefix is added.

Negotiation Details tab: This allows the NZ to link inventory to licenses and distribute member institution (IZ) price/subscription details, which are then populated in the IZ POL when creating a new order on NZ inventory. Testing revealed multiple limitations of this functionality including:

• NZ inventory must already be associated with the license in order to be selected for the relevant member

• Each member (IZ) must be added for every license which requires time-consuming, repetitive manual data entry with high potential for error (there is no copy, duplicate entry or API update functionality)

• IZs cannot view the total cost or cost share of inventory, only the IZ price when ordering NZ inventory with an IZ POL

• IZs cannot view the Negotiation Details for their campus or any other in the Shared NZ License. IZs can only view their own details through an IZ POL that is attached to NZ inventory

• IZs cannot easily view any updated or renewal price information distributed via Negotiation Details in IZ POLs. To view, the IZ must open the IZ POL, select Replace Resource, select the NZ inventory again, return to POL and click “view license”

• Negotiation Details do not allow for split costs between multiple inventory under the same license for a single member. In this case, the member (IZ) must be added for each relevant inventory and does not accommodate complicated or bundled resource scenarios

• Negotiation Details do not generate any notifications for IZs when information is updated

Outstanding Questions

The NZ can change a status of a license to “deleted” and distribute that status change to the IZ. However, Alma does not have the ability to fully delete a license. There is a delete license Alma API call but testing resulted in a 500 General Error code. The support ticket with Ex Libris (06552441) indicated that “This is an enhancement that is on the Alma product road map, though at this time there is no release information.” See case for more information.