Overlay Option for Import Profiles
To mirror the functionality that already exists in Alma, we would like to see an Overlay option for Import Profiles in Esploro. The current functionality for updating assets in bulk is very limited. The only real solution for bulk updating is to export research assets, update them, and then reload via the import profile process. However, because there are only matching options 1) Do Not Import and 2) Import New Record, this process will lead to unnecessary duplication of asset records. This is particularly important for assets where the master records are maintained in Alma (or OCLC), such as theses and dissertations.
Institutional repository (IR) metadata evolves more quickly than in traditional cataloging interfaces, based on the nature of academic publishing. Managing metadata in bulk will be advantageous in attracting users of other IR platforms to Esploro. For instance, DSpace already permits users to quickly export .csv files containing large amounts of metadata and re-import them via an overlay process. For users of these systems, it will be a steep learning curve to manage these edits using complex normalization rules.
Managing metadata in IRs also usually involves multiple steps in a workflow that start with student assistants and move to their supervisors. Providing a more flexible export and overlay option would allow supervisors to perform quality-control checks of these initial steps.
Please provide an overlay option to make the bulk updating of research assets a viable process.
Hi,
We have developed the export/import assets in CSV functionality to support bulk update of assets. If needed, we can discuss improvements there. We will not add overlay via the Import Profiles.
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Blake Galbreath commented
That's unfortunate. We had hoped for efficient workflows between Alma and Esploro, since we are customers of both products. But we will continue to duplicate the creation and editing of records in both systems.
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Wendy Robertson commented
I have not been able to get the csv edit function to work, which has been posted and discussed on basecamp, so I don't know if this will meet our needs
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Maya Amichal commented
Hi,
We would like this to be applied for Smart Harvesting as well.
Maya -
Blake Galbreath commented
"Esploro have an option to export a set of assets to a file in CSV format. This file can then be a changed as needed and loaded again to update the assets."
Could you point to the documentation where this is possible? We have only seen matching options 1) Do Not Import and 2) Import New Record, implying that there is no way to update records, only skip or duplicate. But perhaps we simply missed this! In Alma, there is also the option to overlay:
Overlay (all profiles) – Discard all bibliographic data in the old record and replace with the data in the new record. Like merge, the history of all linking performed for this record is retained.
This is what we are looking for. We would like this to apply to both csv and xml, as those are the main export/import options in Esploro.
Thanks,
Blake