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Include the item barcode as part of the data published from Alma to Primo in the AVA field to improve item search in Primo

Request for Alma item barcode be included in the data that is published to Primo as part of the Alma publishing functionality to enable barcode searchability in the Primo keyword search. We have discovered that items migrated from our previous ILS do contain the item barcode(s) in the MARC 945 $$i and is written to the search:general field of the PNX. As such, those items are keyword searchable via their barcode in Primo. However, for items created in Alma, the item barcode is not written to the bib record and is therefore not searchable in Primo. Adding the item barcode manually to the bib 945$$i for each item as part of our processing is not a viable alternative.

We would like an enhancement to Alma publishing that would add the item barcode to the data published in the "AVA" field. This functionality would improve workflow for staff when they need to search a record in Primo without having to navigate out of the items screen in Alma to retrieve the OCLC number, the MMSID or the ISBN, or to pull up the record in Primo when the book is in-hand without needing to key in the title or ISBN.

Examples of migrated records with the item barcode in the 945 $$i:
http://alliance-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/CC:cc_alma:CP71153242760001
http://alliance-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/CC:cc_alma:CP71188416360001451

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Radmila Ballada shared this idea  ·   ·  Admin →

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  • Tomer Hadad commented  · 

    Hi,
    the status was changed to completed.
    i will like to understand how we can enable a search by barcode?

  • Graham Fredrick commented  · 

    I'm curious to see how barcode searching will be controlled. If anyone can search the catalog for barcode, then would items with RFID tags that contain barcodes then become fair game for anyone to look up? Could this lead to patron privacy concerns?

  • Aaron Krebeck commented  · 

    If this happens (fingers crossed), I think it's important for AVA field access to be extended to the network zone as well. I realize it may be a heavier lift from an indexing perspective, but if you can get AVA info for every institution in a consortium via SRU, why can't you get combined AVA information for all holdings across the network? Is this a separate issue?

  • Esther Arens commented  · 

    If/when this gets looked at I'd like to suggest that all item fields are published into AVA, e.g. Provenance.

    Our use case: We utilise the Provenance to record/track items received as donated collections, bequests etc. Some of these are still growing e.g. where we house the collection for an affiliated society. Without a facet there is no easy way to filter Primo results to that society's content.

    So, we would like to build a facet based on the provenance code which currently is only possible if you run a norm rule in Alma to copy that code into a local bib field and then use that field in a Primo norm rule. This is onerous and also not strictly correct because the provenance might only apply to one copy of a title but not another.

    I'm sure other item specific fields would provide useful options for Primo searching and faceting in particular.

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