Help

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Refine Services
• Getting Started
  • Selecting records
    • Set
    • Displayed records
    • Select records
  • Selecting a refinement service
• Refining Records
  • Preview
• Settings
  • General
  • Refine Services
    • Refinement Fields
    • Adding a Refine Service
• Support and Issues

Introduction

Data reconciliation is the process by which data points from various sources are matched and normalized. The Reconciliation API standard defines an API that enables matching entities across data sources. OpenRefine (formerly Google Refine) is a popular tool for cleaning data and includes the ability to validate data against various reconciliation sources.

Alma Refine is a tool inspired by OpenRefine which enables the reconciliation of data fields in MARC records using services which implement the reconciliation API standard. Alma Refine is implemented as an Ex Libris Cloud App and is available for use within the Alma interface. The process for refining records in Alma is as follows:

• Identify the records you wish to refine and the service you wish to use
• Click Begin Refining and the tool displays each record and the fields relevant for the selected service
• Select the reconciled data for each field
• Click Save and the tool updates the text in each field and adds a $0 or $1 with the value's URI and saves the records to Alma

The sections below describe the functionality of the tool in detail.

Refine Services

The following refine services are supported in the Alma Refine tool.

• Getty Vocabularies: The Getty Vocabularies contain structured terminology for art, architecture, decorative arts, archival materials, visual surrogates, conservation, and bibliographic materials.
• GeoNames: The GeoNames geographical database covers all countries and contains over eleven million placenames that are available for download free of charge.
• Wikidata: Wikidata is a free and open knowledge base that can be read and edited by both humans and machines. Wikidata acts as central storage for the structured data of its Wikimedia sister projects including Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, Wiktionary, Wikisource, and others.
• GND: An OpenRefine service which exposes the GND Integrated Authority File maintained by the German National Library.
• BNF: The authority file of the French National Library (Bibliothèque nationale de France) is aggregated in VIAF and exposed by the conciliator service. The BNF is currently in beta.

Additional refine services can be added. See below for more details.

Getting Started

First, be sure the app is installed in your Alma instance. For instructions on how to find and install Cloud Apps, see the Alma online help.

Once installed, you can open the Alma Refine app within the Cloud Apps panel.

Selecting records

There are three ways to select the records you wish to refine.

Set

Select a saved set from the Alma set managmenet functionality. To find a set, type some of the name of an "All titles" set and select it from the displayed options.

Displayed records

Perform a repository search in Alma. Alma Refine will recognize that Alma is displaying search results and will offer the option to refine all of the records displayed on the page.

Select records

Perform a repository search in Alma. Alma Refine will recognize that Alma is displaying seach results and will offer the option to select records. Click the checkbox next to the records you wish to refine (or check the "select all" box at the top). You can paginate through records in Alma and use Alma Refine to continue to add records to the refine list.

Selecting a refinement service

Select the refine service that you wish to use to refine your records.

Click the Begin Refining button to start the refining process.

Refining Records

The refine records interface is best viewed in full screen. Change to the full screen layout by clicking the expand button.

After you click the Begin Refining button, Alma Refine will display the initial selected records and the fields from each record that are relevant for the selected refine service.

For each field, Alma displays the results from the refine service for the value in the field. Depending on configuration, text from additional subfields may be displayed when hovering your cursor over the field's current value.

Select the desired value from the drop down list. When you select a refined value, Alma Refine updates the value in the record's field ("term correction") and adds a $0 or $1 with the URI from the service. It's also possible to disable term correction for the service in Settings. Page through the records and select the values for each field. When you've finished refining, click the Save button and Alma will update bibliographic records.

Preview

Some services offer a preview option. Hover your mouse over the text of the term and Alma Refine will display the term's preview from the service.

Settings

Alma Refine offers the option to customize settings used by the app. To access the settings screen, click the icon next to the app name and click the gearbox.

When you are finished customizing the settings, click the Save button at the bottom of the screen, then click Back to return to the Refine app. You can also restore the default settings with the Restore default button.

General

The following options are available in the General section:

• Apply refinements to all similar values: If there are other fields with the same value, apply the selected refinement to those fields as well

Refine Services

This section allows you to customize the settings of the refine services. The following options are available:

• Name: The name which is displayed in the service selection list.
• Service URL: The URL of the service.
• Prefix: The prefix value to be used in the URI which is added in the subfield. By default, Alma Refine will use the services preview URL.
• URI Subfield: Subfield in which to place the URI according to the MARC standard.
• Correct term: Whether to update the relevant value in the bibliographic record with the term from the refine service.

Refinement Fields

This section allows you to add, remove, and customize the MARC fields which are relevant for the refinement service. The following options are available:

• Tag: The MARC field tag. This field supports wildcards, such as 1xx.
• Subfield: The subfield, i.e. a
• Indexes: Select the indexes to search in the service. Leaving the field blank will result in no index being sent to the service
• Hint subfields: This option specifies additional subfields to be displayed in a "Tooltip" when refining the field. Type the value you wish to add and press "enter".
• Subfield 2: To limit the relevant fields to be refined, specify values for the $2 subfield. Type the value you wish to add and press "enter".

To remove the field, click the x icon in the field header. To add a new field, click the Add field button.

Adding a Refine Service

To add a new refine service, click the Add refine service button. Specify a name and a service URL, click OK, then continue configuring the additional fields for the newly added service.

Support and Issues

If you need help with this app, you can open an issue in Github.