What is the difference between a selective/aggregator and a database?
Answer
A selective collection is one which institutions generally select particular portfolios to activate. One example is ABC-CLIO eBooks. Most institutions do not have access to every single ABC-CLIO eBook, so they will usually activate only some portfolios in the collection.
An aggregator collection is a database such as African American Poetry by ProQuest. It is likely that an institution would subscribe to the African American Poetry collection in its entirety, so most institutions will likely activate the full collection.
Please note that distinctions between aggregator and selective collections are not always set in stone. Different institutions have different subscription setups and therefore different activation needs. These are general guidelines only.
The biggest distinction is that a database type collection has no portfolios. A database relies on the CDI for discovery in Primo VE. Because of this, in most cases, you will likely not want to turn off the CDI for database collections.