Alma Enumerator is set of Python scripts to update enumeration and chronology information in Alma, an integrated library system made by Ex Libris. It parses item record description fields, extracts enumeration and chronology information and updates the item record's enumeration and chronology fields. This is particularly useful cases when a library has volume, issue and date information saved in item description fields but not in the corresponding enumeration and chronology fields.
- Python 3.5+
- External dependencies
First make sure your settings are correct in settings.py, including the API
key and the MMS ID of the title you wish to update. If you don't have an API
key, you'll need to get one from the Ex Libris Developer Network.
To use ae's graphical interface, run ae_gui. This will open up a window like
the one below:
Alma Enumerator can also be used on the command line. To get enumeration and
chronology data out of item description fields, run ae_fetch or ae fetch.
To update items' enumeration and chronology fields, run ae_update or
ae update.
ae_fetch saves the information it gets to a CSV file. It is always a good idea
to check ae_fetch's output to make sure the data it has extracted from the item
descriptions is correct. The CSV file can be loaded into a spreadsheet
application for easier viewing. If you do load it into a spreadsheet app, it's
a good idea to have the program treat each column as plain text rather than
numerical data.
Additionally, whenever ae_fetch recognizes a pattern doesn't parse correctly,
it records the error in an error file and ae_update won't update the item
record in Alma. This way you can edit these records yourself.
Once everything checks out in the CSV, you can run ae_update to update the
enumeration and chronology information for each item under the current title.
Then verify that your records updated correctly in Alma.
If you'd rather pass ae_fetch and ae_update command line arguments instead of
updating settings.py each time you make change mms_id, you can.
ae_fetch accepts:
ae_fetch [-m | --mms-id <mms>] [-o | --output-file <of>] [-e | --error-file <ef>] [-a | --api-key <api>]
So you could specify an mms_id by typing ae_fetch -m 999999999999999999 or
ae_fetch --mms-id 999999999999999999 and ae_fetch would use the MMS ID
provided while using settings.py for the output and error files and the API
key.
ae_update accepts:
ae_update [-m | --mms-id <mms>] [-o | --output-file <of>] [-e | --error-file <ef>] [-a | --api-key <api>]
If you're not comfortable working on the command line, run ae_gui or use
an IDE like Spyder or PyCharm that will allow you to open and then run
ae_fetch and ae_update.
If you're feeling daring you can also batch process files without checking the output
of ae_fetch, you can use ae_batch or ae batch.
ae_batch accepts:
ae_batch [-m | --mms-id ] [-o | --output-file ] [-e | --error-file ] [-a | --api-key ]
Instead of taking a single MMS ID, ae_batch takes a file with one bibliographic MMS ID per line such as:
1234567890
0987654321
0192837465
1029384756
It then will download and process items associated with each MMS ID, just like
ae_fetch before updating each item a la ae_update. This has the potential to
speed up processing significantly, but at the risk of errors potentially going
uncaught.
Certain patterns pass through the parser without raising an error, but do not process correctly. Some examples:
- no.51 12 Dec 2015 (12 is treated as
enumeration_brather thanchronology_k) - v 19 07-08 (07-08 is treated like
enumeration_binstead ofchronology_i) - v 63 #1 P.1 JAN 1990 (P.1 is treated like
chronology_kinstead ofenumeration_c) - v 20-21 1983-1984, c 2 (c 2 treated like
enumeration_b) - For more known issues see notes.md
Because the updating function downloads the XML for each record, modifies it, and uploads it back to the server one at a time, it is quite slow, especially when processing large numbers of records.
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