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Searching Without a Net: Revisiting Primo Normalization Rules in the Context of Aleph to Alma Migration

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Primo at Minnesota 2007: Primo Development Partner and initial rollout 2008-12: Discoverability projects 2013: Primo Central implementation and migration to Alma

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Normalization Rules Refresher Normalization rules transform MARC records (or records in other metadata formats) to Primo Normalized XML records (PNX) They control searching, display, facets, deduping, and FRBRization

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Revision: Now is the Time! Thorough revision of Primo MARC normalization rules not done since initial implementation Upgrade to Primo 4 Primo Central implementation and blended search Alma implementation: complete re-normalization and reindexing; end of Aleph OPAC RDA implementation and RDA enhancement of existing records

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Understanding the Rules Presentation of normalization rules within Primo Back Office is less than intuitive. Alternate view by MARC tag very helpful, especially for catalogers.

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View by MARC Tag

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Process Review customizations made to Aleph MARC normalization rules Address problems/concerns with current implementation of Primo Review MNCAT Classic (Aleph OPAC) use cases and search data

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Process Accommodate Alma data where it differs from Aleph Review new RDA elements and determine where they might aid users in search or identification Review Aleph OPAC search indexes and limits

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Process Write rules, publish a set of relevant records from Alma, and test changes. Make big changes cautiously; watch for unintended consequences

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Tracking Changes with Trello

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Existing Customizations Which to carry forward? Were all still needed? Examples: facet for geographic area; splitting Audiovisual resource type into Audio and Video.

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Aleph/Primo Issues Failed searches or poor search results in current Aleph/Primo implementation Sometimes normalization could help, but not always Example: adding a government document resource type to allow better filtering of result sets.

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Aleph/Primo Issues Causes of failed searches: Not always normalization Flawed source data Ranking issues for individual records Failed publication processes.

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Aleph/Primo Issues Ongoing effort to communicate to staff that they should report failed Primo searches so problems could be identified and fixed.

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Aleph OPAC review Use cases gathered via online form and staff input Aleph OPAC search data reviewed from recent years Based on that information, attempted to identify changes to norm rules or indexes that might address needs

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Aleph OPAC use cases

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Warning to public users and FAQ on the retirement of MNCAT Classic, and a link for users to provide comments and suggestions. Known item searching specifically addressed.

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Aleph OPAC use cases Staff-facing form to collect specific situations where the Aleph OPAC succeeded and Primo either failed, or provided insufficient or irrelevant results.

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Aleph OPAC data

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Aleph OPAC review Review of search and display options available in Aleph OPAC Goal: offer similar options in Primo where possible and justified by past usage Examples: expanded Details display, more index choices in Advanced search.

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Accommodating Alma Changes to local data on bibliographic records made in preparation for Alma migration Especially important for special collections: search and display of holdings-level public notes.

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MARC Holdings Notes DisplaySearch 852 $$z and 866 $$z notes display but cannot be made searchable!

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RDA University of Minnesota full RDA implementation Summer 2013 Backstage Library Works RDA enhancement of full database planned for 2014

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RDA Examples Ensuring no rules relied on GMD (245 $h) Added 338 field and technical details fields (34X) to Details display. Stripped relationship designators (1XX/7XX $e or $j) from creator; displayed in custom field instead.

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Post Alma Go-Live To Do Browse indexes Dedup and FRBR (if necessary) Minor tweaks to details display

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Browse Went live with OTB browse rules Intent to align browse indexes with Aleph browse indexes where possible. Problems detected with Author Browse and Call Number Browses

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Title Browse

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Author Browse

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Call Number Browse Form/size designators indexing as part of call number browse string. Dewey browse not working well; needs analysis.

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FRBR and Dedup Tweaks FRBR clustering of all formats problematic for music materials Dedup failing for some maps These problems existed in Primo/Aleph, but were not detected because users fell back on Aleph OPAC.

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Dedup Failures: Maps

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Dedup Failures: Journals Cataloging differences between print and e-journal records causing no dedup (and sometimes no FRBRization) E-journal metadata from Alma Community Zone not locally controlled, so source data tweaks are not possible.

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bloodblood journal

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Resource Type Refinement Exclude state university press publications from Government Document type Investigate adding others: Thesis/Dissertation, Database Interaction with Primo Central resource types

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Thank You Stacie Traill trail001@umn.edu