Alma Analytics Resource Guide

Using Alma Analytics to Find Unlimited User E-Books

Finding “Unlimited User” eBooks in Alma Analytics

Recently, FLVC received the following question: “How can I identify our unlimited-user eBooks in Alma?”

It’s a great question, and a useful one. Ex Libris does not currently provide an out-of-the-box Analytics report or standardized field that directly flags “Unlimited User” eBooks. Because vendors record license terms differently, the data can vary widely across collections. Still, with a few targeted fields in Alma Analytics, you can get very close.

Step 1: Start in the E-Inventory Subject Area

In Alma Analytics, go to the E-Inventory subject area and select Portfolio as your starting table. This is where most licensing and access data for electronic titles can be found.

Within Portfolio, look for the following fields:

• Available for Group
• Available for Group Members

These can sometimes reflect access level or user restrictions, depending on your configuration. While they don’t always specify “unlimited,” they’re useful for filtering out limited-access portfolios in some cases. They do show what other schools in the consortium have access to, e-inventory-wise. This can be useful for determining resource sharing or participation across institutions, but it won’t show whether the license allows unlimited users.

Step 2: Use the Licensing Fields

For more precise filtering, scroll to the Portfolio subject areas. There you’ll find fields such as:

• Portfolio Access Type – Occasionally contains vendor-specific descriptors such as “Single User,” “Multi-User,” or “Unlimited Access.” This field is worth checking for values via “Show Values.” This is under the Portfolio tab.
• Portfolio Internal Description / Service Public Note – Many institutions use these to record local access notes. Searching for “unlimited” within these fields often returns the best results when staff manually document license models. This is also under the Portfolio tab. This is the one you will have the most luck with! The notes are varied but you can filter.
• License Type / License Name / License Status (from Portfolio License folder) – These fields reflect linked licenses. If your acquisitions or ERM teams use descriptive naming (e.g., “ProQuest UU” or “Springer Unlimited”), this can be a strong indirect indicator.

Because each vendor records terms differently, the best first step is to pull a list of values from “Concurrent Users” or similar fields. In the results, you may see strings like “Unlimited,” “Unlimited Access,” or “UU.” Once you know what terminology your data uses, you can filter for those values.

This is a list of the varied notes in the Portfolio Public Note. You can filter this field in the report by specifying "unlimited," "UU," etc.

Step 2: Pull a List of Values

Because there’s no universal vocabulary for user limits, the most reliable next step is to pull a list of values (LOVs) for key fields like Portfolio Access Type, License Type, or Service Public Note.
Look for entries containing “unlimited,” “UU,” “multi,” or “perpetual.” Once you know what terms appear in your data, you can build filters accordingly.

Step 4: Build and Share

Once you’ve identified the relevant field values, you can build a simple Analytics report that:

• Lists all portfolios with matching “Unlimited” license terms, and
• Includes key metadata like title, collection, vendor, and URL.

Sharing this report across the consortium can help member libraries track which eBooks can support unlimited simultaneous users — a valuable resource for course reserves and high-demand titles.

Final Tip        

Because vendor metadata can be inconsistent, a quick manual review of outliers (for example “1U,” “3U,” “UU,” or “Multi-user”) helps ensure accuracy.

If you don’t have permission to create reports in Analytics, reach out to your institution's Analytics administrator — they can build the report using these criteria and share it in a shared folder, or contact the FLVC help desk.

Further Reading       

Discovery and E-Resources Guide