Ex Libris bX Article Recommender for I-Share Institutions

Created: 8/24/2021

bX Overview

The Ex Libris bX Recommender service is available for all I-Share institutions at no additional cost to the institution as part of CARLI's Alma subscription.  To enable bX recommender for your institution, please read the FAQ below and have your institution's I-Share Liaison or Director request a bX Token from CARLI by sending an email to support@carli.illinois.edu with the subject line: bX for <institution name>.

bX Frequently Asked Questions

What is bX Recommender?

bX Recommender uses anonymous link resolver usage information from users around the world to provide relevant recommendations for articles and ebooks in Primo VE, similar to the "More Like This..." or "If You Liked This, You’ll Also Like…" services on consumer websites like Netflix and Amazon.

"Starting from an article of interest found, bX provides users with other relevant articles for the same topic. While the initial article serves as an entry point, the recommended material can provide new inspiration for learning and broaden the scope of research, going beyond the initial search query. Depending on their nature, recommendations can help narrow or widen learning topics, provide new keywords to describe the topic, and allow the user to find items by chance through serendipitous discovery." --from Ex Libris' bX Article Recommender page

How does bX Recommender work?

"bX harvests link resolver usage data from many academic institutions around the world. If two articles are used in the same session, the system analyzes the connection between them and stores the items in a co-retrieval network. Because bX recommendations are based on link resolver usage, they are truly platform- and content-neutral. The usage is generated through discovery systems, A&I databases, publisher platforms, and any other source that links users to full text via a link resolver. The articles may be from different journals, publishers, and platforms." --from Ex Libris' bX Article Recommender page

Where do bX Recommendations appear in Primo VE?

bX recommendations will appear in the right-hand side column of the Full Record page of an article record.

Are any I-Share institutions using bX Recommender?

Yes, DePaul University, Lewis University, and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville have enabled bX Recommender and you can see the "Related Reading" recommendations in action in their Primo VEs. Do a search in an Everything or Articles search slot, and then click into one of the article results.
DePaul University
Lewis University
SIU Edwardsville

How do I enable bX Recommender for my institution?

1. Have your I-Share Liaison or Director request a bX Token from CARLI for your institution by sending an email to support@carli.illinois.edu with the subject line: bX for <institution name>.

2. Once CARLI provides your I-Share Liaison or Director with your institution's bX Token, someone at your institution with the Alma role of General System Administrator must go into Alma Configuration > General > External Systems > Integration Profiles.

3. Click on the "BX" link under the Names column, or click on the ellipsis button and choose "Edit."

4. Click on the Actions tab and enter your bX Token under BX Registration > bX Token.
Note: DO NOT click the "Register" link. All I-Share institutions are already registered by CARLI.

5. Click Save. bX Recommendations will begin to display in your institution’s Primo VE records for articles within a few minutes.

How do I disable bX Recommender?

1. Someone at your institution with the Alma role of General System Administrator must go into Alma Configuration > General > External Systems > Integration Profiles.
2. Click on the "BX" link under the Names column or click on the ellipsis button and choose "Edit."
3. Click on the Actions tab and remove the bX Token under BX Registration > bX Token.
4. Click Save. bX Recommendations should disappear from your institution’s Primo VE records within a few minutes.

When we enable Bx, Is bX automatically harvesting my institution's usage data? CAn we opt-out?

bX recommendations are based on link resolver usage data that are harvested from many academic institutions around the world. In Alma Configuration > General > External Systems > Integration Profiles > bX > Edit > Actions tab, you can set the "Active Export Electronic Statistics to bX" to Active to share your institution's anonymized link resolver data with the bX Recommender service to help improve its suggestions.  This is set to Inactive by default.  For more information on the data that are sent and how they are anonymized, see Ex Libris' Sharing Link Resolver Data Statistics with bX Recommender.

How does bX Recommender overlap with or complement data from Syndetics Unbound?

Both bX Recommender and Syndetics Unbound provide recommendations for related materials. bX Recommender recommendations are most frequently found on for articles, but may be found for ebooks; while Syndetics Unbound recommendations may appear for books, movies, music and video games. Occasionally a book may have recommendations from both bX Recommender and from Syndetics Unbound.  It seems that in these cases the bX Recommender recommendations appear first and then are followed by Syndetics Unbound recommendations. Here’s an example of record with both from DePaul University.

Can I save the list of bX Recommendations on a given Article?

Although the entire list of recommendations cannot be saved as a group, individual recommendations may be saved by clicking on the individual records and adding the records to their favorites in Primo VE (while logged in) or exporting to a citation manager such as RefWorks or Zotero.

Can my institution change the label “Related reading” and the other text that appears in the bX recommendations in the side panel in Primo VE?

Yes, the labels and text are configurable by someone with the Alma Discovery Admin role or View Management role in the Alma Configuration > Discovery > Display Configuration > Labels > "Suggestions labels" table.  Note that these same labels are applied to Syndetics Unbound recommendations that appear in this same side panel, so editing the label will apply to both bX and Syndetics recommendations.

Can I configure the bX Recommender service for one Primo VE View only, or for some Primo VE Views but not others?

No, once bX Recommender is configured in Alma it is "on" institutions-wide in all Primo VE Views in your Alma IZ.

Can I see statistics on how the bX Recommender is being used at my institution?

Yes, in Design Analytics (Primo) in /Shared Folders/Primo Community/Reports/ you can find a BX Report that shows how many times your users clicked on a resource recommended by the bX Recommender.

If you have any questions, please contact CARLI Support.