Alma and Primo should allow institutions to designate 773 or 774 tags (whichever are used by the institution to link bound-with items) as applying to a bound-with item by using subfield $i with the relationship designator “bound with”. They may then configure Alma so that If this designator is not present, no related item linked will display in the Primo GetIt item information (although related titles may appear in the bibliographic description, if desired.

This will enable the libraries to utilize other relationship designators besides the bound-with one, with or without invoking a bound-with relationship in Primo (note that the subfield $i is repeatable). Catalogers could then indicate true "Host Item" or "Constituent Item" bibliographic relationships (such as those of a detached and separately bound and cataloged article from a serial issue, or a particular photograph from a photograph collection).

Being precise about relationships is of great importance in a linked data cataloging context, and this change should enable specialized linked data conversion of Alma records to BIBFRAME or other linked data schemas that avoids problems that could be caused by the Alma-specific usage of the MARC fields 773 and 774 for bound-withs (some of which have no bibliographic relationship but were simply sent by an owner to a bindery to be bound together).

In order not to force a transition which might require significant editing of existing data, this change should be an option that institutions can “turn on” in Alma or Primo (wherever it needs to be an option), when they are ready to do so. It would also be helpful to have a script or process to supply the subfield $i “bound with” based on presence or absence of content in subfield $g (for example a barcode number).

This suggestion is based on discussions in the Linked Open Data Working Group. We are open to other suggestions, and if there are other tags that need to be distinguished in some way please comment. This is not a perfect solution but short of redesigning how Alma works, it might at least make things better for cataloging.