DARA recommendations

Owned by Nancy Burns
Last updated: Mar 08, 2022
2 min read

DARA is Alma's automated Data Analysis Recommendation Assistant; for more information see DARA (Ex Libris Knowledge Center).

New DARA recommendations are generated each week, with a maximum of 30 each of various types. They are viewed by clicking on the "View Recommendations" icon at the upper right of the Alma home page.

Most of the recommended actions are optional, and may or may not be wanted; none should be implemented without review. SeERs Team staff monitor the list weekly for those related to e-resources. Once items have been reviewed and resolved, they are removed from the list.

"Unavailable Portfolios" require timely attention; these are cases where an active portfolio has been automatically deactivated by the system because it was deleted from the Alma CZ. These portfolios will disappear from the public catalog.

  • If the content is verified to be no longer available and there is no evidence it should be, delete the portfolio.
  • If the content is no longer available but should be (e.g. has associated order/payment info.), report to e-support.
  • If the content has moved to a different site/collection, check for access there and activate the corresponding portfolio if appropriate.
  • If found to be a CZ error and the content is still accessible at the original site, reactivate the portfolio. It will change to a local portfolio.

Other categories are optional, and are reviewed as time allows.

"Link Electronic Resources to the Community"

If we previously created a local portfolio but a CZ one has now become available, we may want to link it, with these caveats:

  • In some cases the local portfolio was created because of an error in the CZ and should stay.
  • In cases where a collection auto-activates new portfolios, the local portfolio may now be a duplicate and should be deleted rather than linked.
  • It may be worth checking if our IZ bib record is fuller than the CZ one and to relink to it if so.

Note that for serials, any coverage information will stay in the relinked portfolio as local data whether it matches the CZ data or not.

"Link Standalone Portfolios to CZ"

Optional. In some cases standalone portfolios may duplicate CZ portfolios that are already active, in which case the standalones can just be deleted.