"Parallelogram" Cloud App for Generating Parallel Fields

This is a tool for generating parallel fields in bibliographic records.  It uses WorldCat and LOC authority data to find transliterations of a given field, so it can be used for a variety of languages and add either roman or non-roman parallel text.  As an Alma "Cloud App", it runs within Alma itself.  Detailed documentation can be found at the link below: 

https://github.com/pulibrary/parallelogram#readme

Below is a “Quick Start” guide that shows how to activate and start to use the basic features of the app. These instructions explain how to access the beta version of the app, which incorporates LOC’s “ScriptShifter” service (https://bibframe.org/scriptshifter/) and should prove to be much more accurate for certain languages compared to the current release.

Initial setup (only needs to be done once):

1. Disable New Titles Search:

   1. Open user menu in upper right of Alma window

      Open

      

   2. Select "Feature Rollout Preferences".  Turn off the switch for "New Titles Search"

2. Activate Parallelogram in App Center

   1. Open Cloud App Center in upper right of Alma window

      Open

      

   2. Go to the "Available Apps" tab. Find the entry for "Parallelogram".  Click it, then click the "Activate" button.

   3. Go to the "Activated Apps" tab and confirm that the Parallelogram app appears there.

General procedure:

1. Navigate to the record you want to add parallel text to.  You can either open it directly from a result set, or display it in the MDE.

2. In the upper right of the Alma window, click the "Cloud App Center" icon, which looks like this:

3. Find the entry for "Parallelogram".  Click the blue "i" symbol in the upper right of the Parallelogram menu item.  This will show more details about the app.  Under "More Information", click "Try v2.0.x-beta" (The last digit of the version number may change as new beta versions are released). 

4. A screen will appear displaying the record.  The very first time you open the app, click the “Settings” button to review the settings:

   You will likely want to enable the following settings. After confirming your settings, click “Save”, then “Home” to return to the record.

   • After adding a parallel field, swap original and 880 (if needed) so that: Non-roman text is in field 880

   • Auto-select ScriptShifter language based on field 008

   • Search WorldCat

   • Give preference to WorldCat records from the following institutions: DLC (You can add other WorldCat institution codes to this list if there are institutions that you know produce reliable records for the language you are working with.)

   • You can also check “Perform pre-search on the following fields”, which can save some time if there are certain fields you consistently create parallel fields for. See step 5 for more details.

5. Parallelogram will perform some initial processing steps.  Once it is complete, you can click the "+" to the left of any field and the tool will attempt to create a parallel field.

   • If you enabled pre-searching, then the app will immediately start searching for the fields in the pre-search list as soon as you open the record. The text of the pre-search fields will become bold if parallel text was found, and the “+” will produce results more quickly when you click it. However, even if a field was not included in the pre-search, you can still generate parallel text with the “+”. The list of pre-search fields can be customized in the settings panel. You can specify individual fields (e.g. “245”) or groups of fields using “X” as a wildcard (e.g. “7XX”).

6. One a parallel field has been created, click the "..." to the left of it for more options.  For example, you can delete the parallel field.  You can also click "edit" to manually edit the field.  You can type directly in the field, click the

   for a list of other candidates, or click the

   to eliminate inaccurate candidates.  Click the checkmark to confirm your changes, or the X to discard them.

7. When you are done with the record, click the "Save Record" button at the top of the window to save to the catalog.  You can then close Parallelogram by clicking the X in the upper right.

8. You can view the revised record either by refreshing the browser window (if you are viewing the record in read-only mode), or if you are in the MDE, go to the "Record Action" menu and select "Reload Original Record".