BerkeleyLibrary::Alma

A utility gem for working with Alma / Primo.

Installation

In your Gemfile:

gem 'berkeley_library-alma'

In your code:

require 'berkeley_library/alma'

Configuration

The BerkeleyLibrary::Alma::Config class includes the options below. These can be read automatically from a Rails configuration (Rails.application.config.alma_sru_host = "...", etc.) or set directly (BerkeleyLibrary::Alma::Config.alma_sru_host = "...").

Alternatively, BerkeleyLibrary::Alma::Config.default! will set the options to either:

1. the value of the corresponding environment variable, if set, or
2. the default value for the UC Berkeley Library.

Option	Environment variable	Purpose	Berkeley default
alma_sru_host	LIT_ALMA_SRU_HOST	the Alma SRU hostname	berkeley.alma.exlibrisgroup.com
alma_institution_code	LIT_ALMA_INSTITUTION_CODE	the Alma institution code	search.library.berkeley.edu
alma_primo_host	LIT_ALMA_PRIMO_HOST	the Alma Primo host	01UCS_BER
alma_permalink_key	LIT_ALMA_PERMALINK_KEY	the Alma permalink key	iqob43

Retrieving Alma records

Via SRU

The SRU module encapsulates Alma SRU queries.

Retrieving MARC records:

reader = BerkeleyLibrary::Alma::SRU.get_marc_records('991005668209706532', '991005668359706532')
# => #<MARC::XMLReader:0x0000000135b940e8 @freeze=false, @handle=#<StringIO:0x0000000135b94160>...

Making arbitrary SRU queries:

BerkeleyLibrary::Alma::SRU.make_sru_query('alma.other_system_number=UCB-b123230470-01ucs_ber')
# => "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" standalone=\"no\"?><searchRetrieveResponse xmlns=...

Via RecordId

In addition, individual records can be retrieved from an instance of the RecordId class, which encapsulates an Alma MMS ID, Millennium bib number, or item barcode.

Initializing RecordID objects

Alma MMS ID:

mms_id_str = '991054360089706532'
record_id = BerkeleyLibrary::Alma::RecordId.parse(mms_id_str)
# => #<BerkeleyLibrary::Alma::MMSID:0x0000000138949830 @institution="6532", @mms_id="991054360089706532", @type_prefix="99", @unique_part="105436008970">

Millennium bib number:

bib_number_str = 'b11082434'
record_id = BerkeleyLibrary::Alma::RecordId.parse(bib_number_str)
# => #<BerkeleyLibrary::Alma::BibNumber:0x0000000118815038 @check_str="9", @digit_str="11082434">

Item barcode:

barcode_str = 'C084093187'
barcode = BerkeleyLibrary::Alma::BarCode.new(barcode_str)
#  => #<BerkeleyLibrary::Alma::BarCode:0x000000013fac4c08 @barcode="C084093187">

⚠️ Note that because of the free-form nature of barcodes, they cannot be auto-detected, and hence are not supported by the RecordId#parse method; they must be instantiated directly.

Using RecordId objects to make SRU queries

Given a RecordId object, you can get the SRU query URI for the corresponding MARC record:

record_id.marc_uri
# => #<URI::HTTPS https://berkeley.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/view/sru/01UCS_BER?version=1.2&operation=searchRetrieve&query=alma.mms_id%3D991054360089706532> 

Or the MARC XML as a string:

marc_xml_str = record_id.get_marc_xml 
# => "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" standalone=\"no\"?><searchRetrieveResponse>...</searchRetrieveResponse>"

Or just a ruby-marc MARC::Record object:

marc_record = record_id.get_marc_record
# => #<MARC::Record:0x0000000138b45490

Calculating the check digit for a Millennium bib

You can also use RecordId to verify or calculate the check digit for a Millennium bib.

(Check digit calculation is based on the algorithm described in "Recipe: Computing the Millennium checkdigit" by Lisa Wong of the McHenry Library, UC Santa Cruz.

Calculating the check digit

The check digit will be appended to bib numbers without one, or with the wildcard check digit a.

bib_number_str = 'b11082434'
record_id = BerkeleyLibrary::Alma::RecordId.parse(bib_number_str)
# => #<BerkeleyLibrary::Alma::BibNumber:0x0000000118815038 @check_str="9", @digit_str="11082434">
record_id.check_str
# => "9"
record_id.full_bib
# => "b110824349" 

bib_number_str = 'b11082434a'
record_id = BerkeleyLibrary::Alma::RecordId.parse(bib_number_str)
# => #<BerkeleyLibrary::Alma::BibNumber:0x0000000118815038 @check_str="9", @digit_str="11082434">

Verifying the check digit

The RecordId#parse method will raise an error if passed a bib with a bad check digit.

bib_number_str = 'b110824341' # wrong check digit; should be 9, not 2
# bib_number.rb:78:in `ensure_check_digit': 110824341 check digit invalid: expected 9, got 1 (ArgumentError)
# 	from /Users/david/Work/BerkeleyLibrary/alma/lib/berkeley_library/alma/bib_number.rb:68:in `split_bib'
# 	from /Users/david/Work/BerkeleyLibrary/alma/lib/berkeley_library/alma/bib_number.rb:27:in `initialize'
# 	from /Users/david/Work/BerkeleyLibrary/alma/lib/berkeley_library/alma/record_id.rb:35:in `new'
# 	from /Users/david/Work/BerkeleyLibrary/alma/lib/berkeley_library/alma/record_id.rb:35:in `parse'

Scripts

alma-mms-lookup: Control field 001 record ID lookup

The alma-mms-lookup script takes one or more record IDs (either Millennium bib numbers or Alma MMS IDs) and attempts to read the corresponding MARC records via SRU and extract the canonical MMS ID for the record from the 001 control field.

Local execution

If you clone this repository and run bundle install from the project root, you can run the bin/alma-mms-lookup script directly. Note that this requires Ruby 3.x to be installed. (Alternatively, you can use Docker; see below.)

To look up a single ID:

echo b11082434 | bin/alma-mms-lookup

To look up a list of IDs given in a file record-ids.txt:

bin/alma-mms-lookup < record-ids.txt

Execution via Docker

To look up a single ID:

echo b11082434 | docker compose run gem bin/alma-mms-lookup 

To look up a list of IDs given in a file record-ids.txt:

docker compose run gem bin/alma-mms-lookup < record-ids.txt

Output format

The output is tab-separated, in the form

<original bib number>	<bib number with check digit>	<MMS ID from 001>

or

<orignal MMS id>	<original MMS ID again>	<MMS ID from 001>

e.g.:

b11082434	b110824349	991038544199706532
991038544199706532	991038544199706532	991038544199706532

Any IDs that cannot be retrieved or parsed are left blank:

echo 'b11082434
b1234
991038544199706532
9912348245906531
b110824349' | bin/alma-mms-lookup

produces:

b11082434	b110824349	991038544199706532
b1234		
991038544199706532	991038544199706532	991038544199706532
[2022-01-03T14:17:09.060-08:00] WARN: GET https://berkeley.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/view/sru/01UCS_BER?version=1.2&operation=searchRetrieve&query=alma.mms_id%3D9912348245906531 did not return a MARC record
9912348245906531	9912348245906531
b110824349	b110824349	991038544199706532

Note that warning messages are written to STDOUT, so you may need to filter them with grep:

echo 'b11082434
b1234
991038544199706532
9912348245906531
b110824349' | bin/alma-mms-lookup | grep -v WARN

produces:

b11082434	b110824349	991038544199706532
b1234		
991038544199706532	991038544199706532	991038544199706532
9912348245906531	9912348245906531	
b110824349	b110824349	991038544199706532

alma-oclc-lookup: 035$a OCLC number lookup

The alma-oclc-lookup script takes one ore more record IDs (either Millennium bib numbers or Alma MMS IDs) and attempts to read the corresponding MARC records via SRU and extract the OCLC number(s) from the 035$a field.

Output format

The output is tab-separated, in the form

<record ID>	<OCLC number(s)…>

E.g.

$ echo '991051353589706532' | bin/alma-oclc-lookup                                                                                        ✹ ✚main ‹ruby-2.7.5›
991051353589706532      1097551039