Primo managed via Back Office has powerful functionality to control access information in Primo for all our local records.
This includes the aligned features of availability statements and Get It / View It by Delivery & Scoping rules, Links rules for all harvested data sources, and the option to build custom mapping tables for references in various rules, all of which can be married with top level facets by Facet rules.

These features provide necessary information in Primo as expected for a core discovery layer functionality of advising users how they can access and request our resources, and avoids wasting staff time by answering many queries and causing patron frustration, by setting clear expectations directly in Primo UI.

This rich Primo Back Office environment lies in sharp contrast to Primo VE, where features such as availability statements and top level facets are hardcoded. This includes for discovery records in institutional repositories and archival management systems all marked as full text available, even when this actually isn’t true.

It is unacceptable that our Primo environment would give false information, particularly with some of these Library resources being highly sensitive and restricted access by publication embargoes or cultural assessments marked as such by cultural advice icon and advisory statements for First Nations peoples.

As a more detailed example, for our research output and special collections in our Institutional Repository and Archival Management System.
Depending on the source information, these records can be assigned an availability statement of 'Access conditions apply', an ‘Access’ label in the Get It section, and an ‘Access conditions apply’ top level facet.
They may have four different Link to Resource labels of 'Citation only (Embargoed)' with an Access label in Get It, ‘Citation only (Request access)’ with an Access label, 'View online for staff and students (Log in required)' with an Access label, and 'View online (Open Access)' with a View It label.
Where records are ‘Citation only (Request access’), we also include a link to a custom request form in the Access (Get It) section.

Further examples utilising this functionality include
• adding a top level facet by the facets_toplevel rules for all Alma 'Physical Items' by Alma-P, instead of only the out-of-the-box facet value for available physical items
• removal of 856 rules assigning online availability statement, delivery, and facet for Alma records, managed only by best practice Alma-E inventory
• blending all Alma records with a local fields of lds50 of Peer-reviewed with CDI records for the Peer-Reviewed icon and facet
• configuring relevant Alma and Institutional Repository records to blend with the Open Access CDI records for icon and facet
In some few cases such as the Open Access icon for Alma records, Ex Libris have subsequently filled the gap to make available by default, but this took several years to do so on behalf of VE sites, rather than developing the configuration option so that VE sites can add themselves.

This functionality includes overarching and granular aspects of
• the ability to build and adjust rules for all local records (including for Alma MARC and Dublin Core) for Availability, Delivery & Scoping, Links, and Facets
• the ability to build custom mapping tables and reference source data by normalization rules against these tables, to normalize from source data to target data and support clean presentation in UI regardless of source data variation

This is an issue caused by Primo VE ongoing limited development in this area of local record management. Ex Libris should not force customers to move to Primo VE (either directly or indirectly) when sites using Back Office would have to sacrifice any of these features and functionality, simply because it is not yet developed in VE even after several years. Ex Libris as contracted vendor for our Library Services Platform is expected to provide a discovery environment with the ability to present our own records accurately with the same full functionality as Primo managed via Back Office for all records, including Alma records, discovery import profile records, and Remote Digital Repository records.

Note: This submission is deliberately comprehensive of various parts of local record configuration, as all of the features are married together in UI. Also, Ex Libris only permits customers 25 votes in Primo Idea Exchange in which to try to advocate not to lose this aligned functionality in moving from BO to VE. Advocacy has also been attempted for several years via avenues such as the 2020 VE Survey and yearly enhancements cycles. The summary attached has also been provided to Ex Libris (with some latest updates included for more custom improvements in 2023, at the time of this idea submission). Ex Libris is welcomed and encouraged to engage with our site and our community on these alignment issues.