Central Discovery Index Working Group
Erin Montagu on behalf of Sonja Dunning, University of Western Australia

CDI is to replace both PCI and Summon Index. Hundreds of millions of records. Will be integrated into Alma so activation workflows simplified, faster update cycles, merged records and new search algorithm. UWA library hopes to gain enhanced discovery and operational efficiencies – hoped joining working group would let them influence development and avoid pitfalls.

Moving from one system to another not always one-to-one. Testing to make sure CDI activations covered all Alma activations to start with; later to make sure search/discovery works as expected. Findings:

• local collections weren’t mapped – may have to change how these are set up in Alma
• duplicate collections – Ex Libris is investigating
• some collections not in CDI – hopefully addressed by final rollout
• inaccurate result counts – hopefully addressed by final rollout

More testing in progress re search/ranking/full-text rights/record display. Then analysis and development of maintenance guidelines.

Preview:

• A new facet for CDI search activation; CDI info displaying on collection record.
• Can “(De)Activate for Search in CDI” in electronic collection view – much easier, but lots of information eg about what the collection contains won’t be migrated which will make troubleshooting harder. (Have provided this feedback but haven’t heard a response.)
• Can search on CDI fulltext rights, linking etc.
• CDI tab added to collection record with activation status.
• In Primo, “multiple sources exist” becomes a merged record.
• More records in search results due to “improved” search algorithm – don’t know how this works
• More resource types (including data_sets) (more info on Knowledge Centre: “Resource types in CDI“)
• More features to be added

Individual switchover Mar-Jun 2020, general switchover (of all remaining customers) July.

For more info from working group: cdi_info@exlibrisgroup.com