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National Library of Medicine Technical BulletinNational Library of Medicine Technical Bulletin

Table of Contents: 2021 JULY–AUGUST No. 441

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Changes to NLM Unique ID

Changes to NLM Unique ID. NLM Tech Bull. 2021 Jul-Aug;(441):e2.

2021 July 14 [posted]

With the National Library of Medicine (NLM) transition to the Alma Library Services Platform (see New Library Services Platform to Support Library Operations and New Library Services Platform and Public Catalog Coming Soon), the length of new NLM Unique IDs has changed. The existing NLM Unique IDs from our Voyager Integrated Library System remain unchanged and were copied over to the new system. However, for new records created in Alma, the NLM Unique ID will be up to 19 characters long (see Figure 1). Both the pre-existing and new NLM Unique IDs continue to be located in the 035 $9 field.


LocatorPlus Catalog search result displaying record with new, longer NLM Unique ID highlighted in red box
Figure 1: LocatorPlus Catalog search result displaying record with new, longer NLM Unique ID highlighted in red box.

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