Primo VE Customizations: Getting Started for CARLI I-Share Institutions

Revised: April 16, 2024

Background

This page is meant to provide CARLI I-Share institutions with a simplified list of Primo VE customization opportunities. I-Share institutions have a lot of autonomy in deciding how to configure their individual Primo VE discovery interface to best meet the needs of their users. This page provides some basic information about Primo VE customizations and a list of the customizations a library may need to configure.

Where applicable, CARLI Requirements and CARLI Recommendations are bolded and highlighted in color. Additional CARLI Requirements and CARLI Recommendations may be shared in the future when new configuration options become available.

Primo VE Training

• The Discovery Administrator role in Alma is required to access the Discovery configuration menu in Alma; this is where most of the Primo VE customizations are configured. If you or a colleague has passed the Alma certification training OR the Primo VE certification training, you or that colleague can be given the Discovery Administrator role.
  • For more information about certification training, please see: Ex Libris's Alma & Primo VE Administration Certification information.
  • The Primo VE Certification process is approximately an hour of instructional videos and only a 14-question quiz!
• CARLI Recommends that anyone making changes to Primo VE configurations review the following instructional videos:
  • Primo VE Certification Videos - This set of 7 short videos provides a broad overview of Primo VE configurations. These videos are required for obtaining Primo VE Certification training, but may also be watched at any time independently of certification training.
• I-Share institutions with Alma-certified or Primo VE-certified staff with the Discovery Admin role are encouraged to make their own customization changes directly in Alma.
  • Institutions without certified staff may submit Primo VE customization change requests to CARLI via email.

Additional customization information for new I-Share libraries

• Any customizations you make in your Alma test environment will be carried over into your Alma/Primo VE production environment. They may always been changed at a later time.
• CARLI Recommends that institutions initially focus on basic customizations and features.
  • Not all options must be customized. Primo VE comes with a set of defaults.
  • Make sure that the default options turned on are appropriate for your library and users on "Day 1;" if not, disable them for now. You can always return to them later.
  • Start by ensuring that basic functionality is represented and working; you can add and customize new and advanced features later!
  • Engage in local usability testing to be sure that any major changes you want to make are solving problems rather than creating new problems.
• Please also see other documentation and information linked from the CARLI Primo VE Resources page.

Opportunities for Primo VE Customizations

Option 1: For an overview of the most prominent Primo VE customizations, go through the list of customization opportunities listed below. These were originally presented on the Alma Configuration Form.  Check that choices you made on the Configuration Form and set up by Ex Libris were appropriate for your institution's Primo VE, or, if you didn't make any choices on the Configuration Form, you may make them now.

Option 2: For a deeper dive, review the Primo VE View Configuration Tabs page to see sections tab by tab to learn more about the basic and more advanced options to customizing Primo VE Views.

Option 1 – Review Alma Configuration Form Primo VE Configuration Choices

The Alma Configuration Form's "Primo VE Configuration" tab offered I-Share institutions the opportunity to indicate some customization opportunities that Ex Libris staff then configured for the institutions during the initial set-up of Primo VE.  The choices offered on the Configuration Form are listed below, along with information on how/where to configure these settings in Alma. Some are links directly out to Ex Libris documentation page, and other links are to sections of the Primo VE View Configuration Tabs page.

NOTE: Customizations that include CARLI Requirements being added to your Primo VE configuration are noted below. Please have your Alma- or Primo VE-certified staff make changes to your Primo VE configuration to incorporate these required elements.

1. To change the logo – Upload via Customization Package
2. Should the facets appear on the left or the right? – See View Configuration > General tab > General attributes section > Side bar (Tweak my results) position
3. Which Search box search profiles do you want to display? – See View Configuration > Search Profile Slots tab. Note that two search profile slots have already been configured for you and are CARLI Recommended: Library Catalog (you may rename this) and All I-Share Libraries; do not rename or alter its configuration.
4. Do you want to add I-Share results to the "Everything" search? Only your library and CDI are in it by default.  - see Add I-Share Results to "Everything" Search in Primo VE
5. Do you want an EBSCO API search option? - See Primo VE and EBSCO Databases
6. Do you want a WorldCat API key to create a WorldCat API search?
7. To edit the search Results Facets (9) names – See View Configuration > Brief Results tab
8. Do you want to change the Full Record View Section Labels?
9. Do you want to add fields to the Full Record View Details Section? – See View Configuration > Full Record Services tab > Record details service
10. To enable/disable Main Menu Links and adjust their order, or add custom links – See View Configuration > Links Menu tab. An "All I-Share Libraries Search" link is required for the Main Menu Links. It must be ranked within the first six menu links so it is visible on the main Primo VE page on most standard monitors.
11. To enable/disable Browse List Options and make Subject vocabulary choices – See View Configuration > Links Menu tab > Browse Search link
12. To enable/disable Record Actions and adjust their order, and to choose three up-front actions – See View Configuration > Brief Record Display tab
13. To set the Time Out values for signed-in users and guests and the timeout URL – See View Configuration > General tab > General attributes section
14. Do you want to add bX Article Recommender to Primo VE?  - See ExLibris bX Article Recommender for I-Share

Option 2 – Review all of the customizable options on the Primo VE View Configuration Tabs page