Primo VE 2024 Q1 Feature Release

Table of Contents

CDI Subject Normalization and New Keyword Field

From Ex Libris Release Notes:

Following customers feedback that the subject terms in Primo VE were inconsistent, not normalized, duplicative, and lead to user confusion, we undertook a project to vastly improve the quality of CDI subject terms. Subject terms are being received in CDI in various formats and styles from providers and aggregators. To address the reported issues, incoming subject terms are now mapped to a controlled vocabulary, which is based primarily on LCSH and MeSH. The outcome of this mapping is the following:

• Subject field (Normalized) – This indexed field includes only subjects that match the CDI controlled vocabulary. They are deduplicated and normalized.

• Keyword field – This new field includes all subjects that could not be mapped against the CDI controlled vocabulary. These subjects are considered keywords, which are also indexed and searchable.

For more details, see Using Normalized Subject Headings from CDI.

Note When disabled, the existing Subject field for display, search, and facets is used.

 

Discussion

UCD: Will be interesting. Plan to do some testing to make sure the indexing is working correctly. Look at keyword vs subject searching. Just want to confirm it’s working as described. Confirmed that the display part works in sandbox. Just need to test the searching. Jared will bring back what their librarians report.

UCLA: Curious about display. Does it only display the normalized subject field or the keywords. Option to display both. Should discovery have a recommendation about what to display? Maybe not an official recommendation but later discussion about pros and cons of what people are seeing.

UCR: This needs more testing. I was getting inconsistent results and some duplicate headings remained.

Discovery: Follow-up in 4 weeks to talk about what was and was not turned on by campuses.

Support Configuration of Displayed Holdings Level in Get It

From Ex Libris Release Notes:

Currently, the holdings level in the Get It section works as follows:

• If there are only items in one location, the Location Items page opens by default for the location in Get It.

• If there are items in more than one location, the Locations page opens by default in Get It, which requires users to select the location first.

With this enhancement, you can configure whether to display the Locations page by default when there is only one location available.

Discussion

UCLA: Voted for this one but thought it was going to be more exciting. Doesn’t do anything for holdings are anywhere else in the consortium.

UCSD: Who is turning it on? Looks like it’s off by default.

UCLA: No one is pushing for it after turning it on in the test view.

UCD: Probably won’t turn it on. It adds an extra button to click.

Shared Digital Resource Improvements

From Ex Libris Release Notes:

Previously, when Digital Resource Sharing was enabled for your IZ, the following digital objects were shared with all institutions in the network:

• Alma-D records stored in your Alma repository and in your remote digital repositories.

• All records that you imported from external data sources (which are also considered digital objects but are not managed in Alma).

With this enhancement, you can now indicate whether you want to share digital records that were loaded from external data sources with other institutions.

Discussion

No discussion

Support HTML Coding in Additional Labels

From Ex Libris Release Notes:

Support for HTML coding in labels varies between codes in Primo VE, and in some cases, there is very little support. With this release, the working group has selected a set of codes that allow HTML coding, including the <href> tag for linking.

Discussion

UCR: Some labels already could accept HTML coding. This release is suppose to expand the labels with this ability. Would be interested to know if it applies when there’s a pop-out/slide out into the full record.

Embed Primo VE Showcase Widgets on Any Website

From Ex Libris Release Notes:

This enhancement enables you to embed a visual carousel of records tailored to the library’s specifications, helping libraries promote their content in other websites. The Primo VE Showcase utilizes Primo VE searches with pre-filters, conditions, and facets to dynamically display results. For example, it can show new books about a specific subject that were added to the catalog in the last 7 days, using a subject filter and date facet. As new records are added that match your search query's parameters, they automatically appear on your website.

For more information regarding the configuration of the carousel widget, see Primo Showcase – How to Embed in the Ex Libris Developers Network.

Discussion

UCI: Interested in looking at this. Interesting in trying to display new books. Would like to know if it would work in LibGuides.

UCD: Also interested to see if this would work with LibGuides.

UCR: No one has said anything but if it works sure would be interested.

UCLA: Does this play nice with collections?

CDL: The video implied that any Primo VE search could be used to create the widget so it should work with collections. Probably.

CDL: In the webinar multiple people asked about accessibility. (Ex Libris said it should be accessible but we think testing would be good to confirm.)

Automatically Enable Quicklinks

From Ex Libris Release Notes:

Make your end users’ search and discovery experience smooth and seamless with Quicklinks, which automatically embeds direct links to PDF and HTML full-text documents within the search results. With over 40 content providers supplying direct links and over 1.5 billion articles supported by Quicklinks, users can spend less time navigating to full text and devote more time exploring the valuable resources available to your patrons. Hundreds of institutions are already using Quicklinks, seamlessly exposing links to their patrons.

With the May release, our plan is to enable Quicklinks automatically for all customers, but you have the option to opt out of its automatic enablement.

For more details regarding Quicklinks, see Quicklinks in Primo and Primo VE.

Discussion

UCLA: Similar to the HathiTrust API code where it appears at the top. Have concerns about how well it works. This will turn on automatically in May.

UCD: Since only 40 vendors included, it’s not necessarily going to show everything we subscribe to. Turning it on/off is a simple toggle.

UCI: Also curious how this will look/work in conjunction with our Browzine integration

UCD: With browzine you start getting additional links so it starts requiring people to choose more things.

UCR: Could this get overwhelming for users.

Discovery Follow-up: We probably want to take a more formal look at this since it will be opt-in

Resource Types Filter Bar - Additional UX Improvements

From Ex Libris Release Notes:

Added the following improvements to the Resource Type Filter Bar:

• When hovering over unselected resources, the cursor now indicates that the resource is selectable.

• For RTL languages, the icons and text for the More field's menu now support the RTL direction.

• For the Hebrew interface, the more field is now aligned properly.

 

Discussion

UCR: I thought no one was using the filter bar. Is this a good enough improvement to change?

UCB: Doesn’t have it on. Tested a bit in sandbox and it’s wonky.

Collection Discovery Optimization

From Ex Libris Release Notes:

In order to optimize thumbnails appearance in the Collection Discovery records, we changed the call to include retrieval of the thumbnail from OPR together with the delivery information.

Discussion

UCR: The way it currently works, it could definitely use all kinds of improvement. Have started using it more. It has potential.

Update Key Calculation

From Ex Libris Release Notes:

Added the Japanese title 年報 to the REMOVE_COMMON_WORDS OTB list to prevent false dedup.

Discussion

UCR: Would like to update FRBR keys without having the NZ to do it but that’s not what they’re doing here.

UCB: Wish it were more expansive.

UCR: NZ definitely complicates things because what may be good for one campus isn’t for another.

UCB: Wish NZ could dedup for one campus specifically. This would make things generally easier. (There is an idea exchange for this.)

Features Not Discussed

• Request Patron Consent When Registering at Another Institution

• Display SMS Wanted Field in My Library Card

• Updates to Japanese Conversion File

• Support Search by ID for Webhook Searches

• Suppress Indexing of Private Information