Where do Primo VE Resource Types come from? And if our content is not displaying with the correct resource type, how can we fix that?

Answer

Table of Contents:


Resource Type Source:
Resource type comes from the bib record. The Resource Type field is constructed based on bibliographic fields such as the LDR and 008 or dc:type or dcterms:type fields, in the case of Dublin Core. The Resource Type field supplements (but does not replace) the Material Type field.

Ex Libris Documentation:


Changing Label Name:
If you want to change the default name for a resource type, you can inspect the display code, find the name of the code that you want to change, look it up in your display labels, and make your change. For example, if you want to change the default "Audio CD" resource type to "Audio," you'd inspect the code in your browser, see that the code is mediatype.audio, go to Config>Discovery>Display Configuration>Labels and look up mediatype.audio in the code lookup box:

look up mediatype

Click on the three dots to edit the table and change the name that you want to use.

You may also look up the name in the table by switching the dropdown next to code to "description" and type the name that you want to find and change.


Correcting Resource types:

Sometimes you'll find a result in Primo with something like "website" instead of "book."

The resource type is defined from the LDR and 008, so to change the resource type you would update the bib record(s). Please see the following for information on what values in the LDR and 008 apply. Note that you can only edit records from your Institution Zone or the Community Zone. Please submit a ticket to Ex Libris if you find problems with search records from the Central Discovery Index.

Ex Libris Documentation:


Creating New Resource Types:

You may create 20 local resource types by following these directions from Ex Libris: Configuring Local Resource Types for Primo VE. Once you create the type, you'll need to create a set of the records that you want to change and then run the Recalculate Local Resource Types Job to get the change to take effect.

  • Note that this only works on local bib records. In order to apply to NZ-linked records, the new resource type would also need to be created and applied in the Network Zone, and it would impact all SUNY libraries.
  • In addition, assigning a local resource type removes that item from the filter for the default type. For example, if you created a local resource type for Graphic Novels, the bibs to which you applied it would no longer appear in a "book" filter in Primo
  • It's possible to create and assign secondary resource types, which will not override the primary resource type, but those need to be created in the NZ in order to be applied to NZ-linked records.

It may often make more sense to create a local subject heading or other local field to identify items of a specific type that you'd like to filter on in Primo.

Limitations of configuring local resources:

  • You can only match on one field from the MARC record, and all of the data in all of the records that you want to change has to match EXACTLY.
  • There's no way to use wildcards in the selections fields, and you can only match on one field. 

If you really want to create a foolproof matching point for all records in your collection, you could establish a local field, apply it to all of the records that you want to change, and make sure that you fill it with exactly the same content in each record. You can set up rules to apply these local fields to a specific group of records. 

SUNY Library Services Documentation:

  • Last Updated Oct 04, 2023
  • Views 6968
  • Answered By Michelle Eichelberger

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