Skip to Main Content

Alma Resource Management Guide

This guide explains all aspects of the cataloging process, including loading, editing, and deleting bibliographic records, holdings records, and item records in Alma.

Adding a Holdings Record

 

Page Contents:
Overview
Adding Holdings to Books
Adding Holdings to Serials

Overview

In what situations are holdings records created?

Holdings records are automatically created when a Physical/Print One Time and Continuous POLs are created in Alma.

However, holdings records will need to be created manually in the MD Editor for:

  • Standing Orders
  • Library inventory that is not in Alma for an existing title
  • Campuses who are not currently using acquisitions in Alma

NOTE: You can only have one holdings record per location, but if you need to have more than one holding record per location you can do this by adding $$t (copy number) to MARC holding field 852 with an identifier, such a 1,2,3, etc.

Adding a Holdings Record for a Book

Adding a new holdings record for a book:

  1. Open the bib record in the MD Editor
  2. Click New>Marc21 Holdings
  3. Click the appropriate Holdings Template - Books (Default) Template
  4. The holdings template will on the right-side of the split screen editor
  5. Click in MARC 852
  6. Open the Form Editor by clicking Editing Actions>Open Form Editor (Ctrl+F)
  7. Form Editor Opens
    • Edit the first indicator for to use the appropriate shelving Scheme
    • Select $$b (sublocation)
    • Select $$c (shelving location)
  8. Hit the Esc button to close the form editor
  9. Click Save
  10. Items can now be added to the Holding record from the MD Editor
  11. Release the holdings record once items have been successfully added

Adding a Holdings Record for a Serial

To add a serials holdings record:

  1. Open the bib record in the MD Editor
  2. Click New>Marc21 Holdings
  3. Click the appropriate Serials Holdings Template 
    • Continuing Resources template - Ex Libris serials holdings templates are used for "expand from template"
  4. The holdings template will on the right-side of the split screen editor
  5. Click in the LDR
  6. Open the Form Editor by clicking Editing Actions>Open Form Editor (Ctrl+F)
  7. The Form Editor Opens and populate the following positions (if a template is created for continuous (serials) the following positions will be configured)
    • Record status (5) - n (new)
    • Type of Record (6) - y (serial item holdings)
    • Undefined character positions (7) - # - Undefined
    • Undefined character positions (8) - # - Undefined
    • Character coding scheme (9) - # MARC-8
    • Encoding level (17) - u - Unknown
    • Item information in record (18) - i - Item information
    • Undefined character positions (19) - # - Undefined
    • Length of the length-of-field portion (20) - 4
    • Length of the starting-character-position portion (21) - 5
    • Length of the implementation-defined portion (22) - 0
    • Undefined (23) - 0 - Undefined
  8. Click in MARC 852
  9. Open the Form Editor by clicking Editing Actions>Open Form Editor (Ctrl+F)
  10. Form Editor Opens 
    1. Edit the first indicator for to use the appropriate shelving Schema
    2. Select $$b (sublocation)
    3. Select $$c (shelving location)
  11. Hit the Esc key to close the form editor
  12. Click into the MARC Holdings 852
  13. Click Editing Actions>Expand from Template
    1. Choose Template: [Select the appropriate Serials Template]
  14. Click Ok
    • MARC 853 and 590 will be created based on the template
  15. Edit MARC 853 and/or 590 if necessary
  16. Click Save
  17. Items can now be added to the Holding record from the MD Editor
  18. Release the holdings record once items have been successfully added