Allow for Almost Arbitrary Conditions in General Electronic Services
Currently for a general electronic service we can only create conditions based on metadata already contained in the given BIB record. Please provide a way to let the link resolver check any condition which is computable within a reasonable short amount of time!
Example Use Case:
Our library network offers a web service taking any given ISBN, ISSN or Union Catalog ID and returning 'true' if there is a BIB record for the corresponding resource in the union catalog and at least one of the network's libraries has an item of this resource available for ILL. Otherwise the web service returns 'false'. If we were able to let the Alma link resolver check a given ISBN, ISSN or Union Catalog ID against that web service we could offer an ILL service if and only if there is a pretty good chance that there is an item available via ILL.
Instead the only general electronic service we can offer currently is a context-insensitive "check whether ILL might be an option" link which resolves to our library network's SFX service menu(!) where an ILL service shows up if and only if there is a pretty good chance that there is an item available via ILL. (Yes, SFX is able to perform such "magic" thanks to so called "plugin thresholds". Their implementation in SFX as an arbitrary local script that evaluates the desired condition does not fit into a cloud environment, of course, but letting a web service evaluate the desired condition and return 'true' or 'false' does.)
Please note that this enhancement request has also been submitted to the CERV portal: https://enhancements.exlibrisusers.org/ideas/AENH-I-36524
Mathias Kratzer
shared this idea
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Christian
commented
Yes, we also miss this SFX feature!
We offer links to "Electronic Journals Library (EZB)" and "German Union Catalogue of Serials (ZDB)". Here, too, it would be nice if the link is only displayed if the ISSN/E-ISSN actually finds hits in the target system (as we have activated many journals from international CZ collections that are not necessarily also available in German-speaking countries). -
Mathias Kratzer
commented
Dear esteemed Colleague,
If you have just come across this idea and are considering voting for it ... please, don't do it! I have submitted a more generally understandable version of it here: https://ideas.exlibrisgroup.com/forums/308173-alma/suggestions/49908636-allow-for-almost-arbitrary-conditions-in-general-e which will hopefully attract more votes.
Thanks and best wishes
Mathias -
Mathias Kratzer
commented
For SFX a "plugin threshold" is known as an almost arbitrary complex condition (evaluated by any sort of locally developed script code returning 1=true or 0=false) on the contextual relevancy of a certain service. The Alma link resolver should not stand behind and be able to employ any third party web service for the evaluation of conditions too complex to be stated by means of its out-of-the-box types of thresholds.