Primo VE Boosting Records in Blended Search Profiles

Created: June 23, 2021

Search profiles that include multiple search engines (such as your local institution, the Central Discovery Index, and so forth) are considered blended search profiles. For blended search profiles, you may want to boost records from a particular source to give them higher relevance in the search results.

It is HIGHLY recommended you first review the "Best Practices for Testing Configuration Changes" section at the end of this page before you make any changes to your ranking configuration.

Configuration Options and Recommendations

Background

Role Needed: Discovery Admin

Search Profile Slots are the options displayed in the dropdown menu at the end of the Primo VE Simple search box.

Each Search Profile SLOT is made up of one or more Search PROFILES. Each Search PROFILE is made up of one or more SCOPES.

To determine which Search PROFILES are being used by the SLOTS, go to:

Alma Configuration > Discovery > Display Configuration > Configure Views > Edit the View > Search Profile Slots tab

The "Name" is the Slot name that appears in the dropdown menu at the end of the Primo VE Simple search box. In the "Search Profiles" section, you see the CODE for the Search PROFILE being used by the SLOT.

Go to Alma Configuration > Discovery > Search Configuration > Search Profiles > Search Profiles tab and find the CODE.

If the "Search Type" is listed as Blended, you may choose to boost or deboost results from one source over another.  

Note: You may see more Search Profiles listed here than you are using. This is okay. Several default Search Profiles came with Alma and Primo VE.

Editing the Blending Configuration

To edit, click on the blue word "Blended," or choose "Configure blending" from the ellipsis button in that row. On the following screen, click on "Customize" from the ellipsis button in the search engine row you wish to change.

The most common scenarios for a Blended search are Search PROFILES that include:

• Local data and Central Index (CDI) – this Search PROFILE was provided by default, CODE = MyInst_and_CI (originally called Everything)
• Local data, NZ (network) data, and Central Index (CDI) – this Search PROFILE was not provided by default but can be added by your institution if desired, see Add I-Share results to "Everything" Search in Primo VE.

Warning: Ex Libris recommends that you do not blend third-party indexes (like EBSCO API or WorldCat API) with Local and/or Central Index Search PROFILES because this may impact the end user's experience in the areas of facets and relevancy between the different indexes. In addition, slow responses from the external index will impact the response time for all results. It is recommended that you provide these third-party indexes as their own Search Scope SLOT if you choose to provide them.

In the system defaults for the MyInst_and_CI blended profile, the Local "Search engine"

is already boosted by default by a factor of 2.5 and set with 5 records to be boosted. The boost factor may be between 1 and 10, and the number of results to boost may be between 1-9. If you are dissatisfied with the presentation of your local resources in search results compared with CDI resources, you may choose to boost the Local higher, or increase the number of records that will be boosted.

"Boost records with a score" is related to the rank of each individual record from that source. Setting to "high" means that a record will only be blended if it has a high ranking from the Primo VE search algorithm. As such, for Local, it is recommended to use "Boost records with a score" of medium or perhaps low.

You may also choose to set the "Position of boosted records" in the first 10 search results returned to 2nd, 5th, 9th, or none. The default is top (2nd record).

The other option is to set the boost type to Deboost, in which case you can set the Deboost factor between 0 and 1 (such as .25) to apply a deboosting affect to results from a source. It is not recommended to deboost your Local data!

Important Notes

• These settings are in a single blended Search PROFILE, which is IZ-wide and will affect all Primo VE Views that have a SLOT that uses that Search PROFILE.
• Changes to these settings will take effect immediately.
• Make changes incrementally. Carefully test one change to boosting at a time before making another.

Additional Resources

• Ex Libris documentation on Boosting Records in Blended Search Profiles in Primo VE
• Ex Libris Primo VE - Become an Expert Webinar on Search Configuration, Feb. 11, 2021

Best Practices for Testing Configuration Changes

Before you make any changes to Primo VE configurations:

• Identify several example searches in Primo VE to serve as your baseline of how things work now.  
  • If possible, use known searches that you are already familiar with.
  • Document the behavior of the example searches.
    • Copy the URLs of the search results page
    • Take screenshots of Alma settings screens or Primo VE results
    • Record a short video of yourself doing the search
• Reach out at your institution to stakeholders who may have encountered issues with search results, may have suggestions about these behaviors, or will be affected if changes are made.

When testing:

• Test one small change at a time.
• After you make a change, use a new Private browser window to perform the search again in order to avoid caching. 
• Document what you change or try as you go, noting the effects on the search results of the example searches you identified beforehand.
• Consider small group testing with other stakeholders at your institution.

Once you’ve decided to implement a change in production:

• Document the change, the date, and the rationale for the change. Future You will thank Past You!
• Share information on the change(s) with other stakeholders at your institution as appropriate.