Adding Holding and Item Records to Alma

Purpose: To add further specific location holdings to an existing bibliographic record.


  • In Alma open record in MDE
  • Click: Add Inventory
  • Select inventory type from drop down list
  • Complete holdings record
    • At minimum, the Location (a), Sublocation (b), and Shelving location (c) subfields must be filled in
  • Save the record
  • Click View Related Data>View Inventory (CTRL+I) to get list of all holdings records
  • Click on the three dots and select View Items
  • Click Add Item and complete, at minimum, fields listed below
    • General Information: Add barcode, Copy ID, Material type, Item policy
    • Location information: Add Permanent location, Item call number type, Item call number

To Create an item record from an existing item record – this is a useful option when you are adding items to standing order (aka “Adds”) title where all the information matches previous items except the barcode and volume number.

  • From the List of Items click on the three dots of the item you wish to copy
  • Click on Duplicate
  • Alter metadata as needed

As a final step, login to OCLC Connexion to add holdings.

  • Search for the record by OCLC number found in the 001 field of the URSUS record.  Search prefix is the # sign.
  • Under Action menu select “update holdings” option. Change to Action>Holdings>Update Holdings (or press F8).
  • Click OK.

When holdings are updated, our institution symbol MEU is added to the OCLC WorldCat record which appears at the top of the screen.