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Collaborating on Discovery Collections to highlight new acquisitions as well as print collections

Daniela Nava

Josh Hutchinson

eCAUG conference

October 7, 2026

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Introduction - USC Libraries

USC Libraries:

22 libraries and Archives, on ALMA/Primo VE since July 2017
Including Architecture and Fine Arts Library, Dental Library, USC Digital Library, etc.
student population: 21,000 Undergraduates; 26,000 Graduate and professional including a medical school and dental school

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Introduction - Us

Resource Management, Acquisitions and Description:

Central functions for all 22 libraries (except for the Digital Library)
Responsible for electronic resources management, acquisitions, cataloging, archival accessioning and processing, preparations and physical processing, database maintenance and cleanup

ThePhoto by PhotoAuthor is licensed under CCYYSA.

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What we're doing

Why are we giving this talk? (and why are you listening?)
Context
Summary of Collection Discovery feature
How we use it – which ones work well, which need work
Collaboration – which collaborations work well, which need work

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Why are we giving this talk and why are you listening?

We are not experts on Alma's Discovery Collection feature. Maybe you are!
Our contribution:

Why we're using this feature, and how it's helping us respond to changes in our purchasing and our collection strategy
Highlight collaboration and how it's helped us

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A bit of context

There used to be a New Books shelf. A while ago.

That changed because of changes to our budget (very few new print books!)
Most of our new books are electronic

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Context

Budget problems in FY25 & FY26 & FY27 & … ?
It became easy to say "we're not buying new books"

But that's not really true...
… so how do we demonstrate to people that new material is coming in all the time?

Due to rising cost USC had to face the challenges of necessary budget cuts. In order to ensure sustainability USC libraries had to implement strict budget cuts to new acquisitions and pausing the acceptance of gifts-in-kind donations.

Because of the cuts we looked at Alma’s Collection Discovery feature. Before we started, our individual libraries weren't using this tool at all. In one year, we teamed up with library heads to build out their collections. The results, participating libraries successfully boosted outreach for new resources while cutting down acquisition costs.

How did we achieve this in such a short time? It came down to collaboration. By partnering directly with USC’s individual library branches, we were able to determine what to feature—which completely solved the how-to.

For example, for the Wilson Dental Library created the Popular Reading Collection, which features three distinct subcollections:

Mental Health, Wellness, Self-Care, and Inspiration

Ostrow Reads! Book Club

The Dr. Sonia Kaur Everest Children’s Dentistry Book Collection

The main goal for this library was to reorganize and standardize the collection names so everything felt consistent. But more importantly, it was done in a way that preserved each library’s unique, individualized access—establishing clear management standards.

By using the Discovery feature in Alma, participating USC library branches have successfully expanded their outreach for new resources while reducing acquisition costs.

USC’s libraries went from previously not using Alma’s Collection Discovery feature to creating a collaboration with the library heads to building collections within the span of one year.

The goal was to reorganize and standardize collection names for greater consistency, while still preserving each library's individualized access. In doing so, standards were set to manage the collections.

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Primo VE's Collection Discovery feature

Highlights selected material in Primo VE
Customizeable – Collections are created in Alma, visible in Primo VE

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How are we using it?

Curated collections (Dental, AI)

Based on itemized sets
Pros: curated!
Cons: static

Themed collections (graphic novels)

Based on logical sets
Pros: easy to manage
Cons: IDK what's in there

MMS ID creation date ("new titles in...")

Based on logical sets
Pros: easy to manage
Cons: they seem to be constantly going wrong:

They actually break;
Search terms may not be granular or broad;
MMS ID creation date is imperfect

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How are we using them?

We let people discover them: Link in Primo
Liaison librarians use in communications
Others are linked from LibGuides

We’re using these collections in a number of different ways. The first is that they exist in Primo, so theoretically patrons can find them there. They can either see the Collection link in an individual bib record, and follow that link back to the Collection page, or they can navigate to the Collections page itself: all they need to do is find themselves in Primo, Click on the hamburger menu at the top, Click on the Collection Discovery link, and then they’re there!

Some of our use of these collections comes from collaborations. Earlier this year and last year I embarked on a mini-sales pitch, selling my colleagues on Primo’s discovery collection feature. Part of the goal was to get librarians outside of cataloging to think about how they might want to use these. The image on this slide is from an email sent by our humanities/philosophy librarian to her departments, promoting the use of these lists.

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Collaboration between cataloging and public services

An opportunity to promote cataloging as a public service – let them know how the catalog can serve their needs.
Emails, meetings, brief presentations in working groups, etc
Thoughtful feedback and consideration about how this feature can be useful

I'm from cataloging and I'm here to help

“ �

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Collaboration -- promotion

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Collaboration outside of USC

Thanks to colleagues here, in this very conference!

Jeff Karlsen (giving a lightening talk right now!) has given several excellent conference presentations about Discovery Collections, and helped us with a couple of aspects of display

And… everywhere!

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Outcomes

We're talking to our liaison colleagues about the catalog and how it can help them do their job
We're inboarding (?) some catalog functions... for instance Materials Collection which was previously managed in LibGuides
"Hey guys! We can work with you"

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Outcomes

We can't do everything because Alma/Primo are limited and because we're limited in skills and time
We're still not buying many new books!

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Going forward – things we can improve

Make sure we don't expect patrons to know to click through to these from Primo

Improve visibility of these collections
Make them easier to find and use

Make the ones that don't work... work (ie, the logical collections, particularly those around new electronic titles)
Cover images for the Extensive Reading Collection (also– only displays transliterated title)

Chinese and Korean– no cover images ☹
Japanese – a few cover images 😐

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Conclusion

Collections have been improved through collaboration
Collections have improved our collaboration

Having something positive and productive to promote is good, actually!

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Thank you!

dnava@usc.edu

joshuah8@usc.edu