Kaaren's Corner

By Kaaren Linton, Librarian/Alexandria Trainer

Inventory Time!

It's that time of year again -- inventory.  While the task can seem daunting, Alexandria has done so much to make it easier. 

First, you don't really need to wait until the end of school to do inventory -- you can "eat the elephant " a bite at a time because inventory may be done year round!  All of those parent-teacher conferences in schools where no one comes to see you can be spent doing inventory.  To make certain that your collection is inventoried annually, just set up a schedule such as Reference in September, Story Collection in October, Fiction in November and December, etc., and do the same portion of your collection each year in the same month.  Also remember, you’re your Alexandria system is constantly doing inventory although you may not realize it.  Each time you check an item in or out the inventory date is changed so that it reflects the last time the item was actually seen, which is more helpful than if it was only changed once a year.

Inventory Modes

Alexandria provides four inventory modes -- Inventory (I), Inventory Suppressed (IS), Inventory Bookdrop (IB), and Inventory Bookdrop Suppressed (IBS).  The mode that you use depends upon what you want Alexandria to do.

Inventory (I) -- This mode is used when you are inventorying items for which you want to change the inventory date, but leave the status (i.e. Checked Out, On Repair, etc.) the same.  For instance, you may have a TV VCR cart on the second floor of your school that you have checked out to the Second Floor Workroom so that you know where it is located.  You know this item will never see the inside of the library again because there is no elevator in your school.  Using Inventory mode makes sense in this situation.

Inventory Suppressed (IS) -- This mode is essentially the same as Inventory (I); however, it will not stop and wait for you to take action when a situation such as a lost book is encountered.  It will record the dialog message in the log and continue on.  If you are using a remote device such as a Palm Pilot or wireless scanner to do inventory, then this is a good option.  It saves you from having to run back to the computer each time an exception is encountered.

Inventory Bookdrop (IB) -- When inventorying your library shelves where all items should have the status of Available, this method is the best option.  If items are encountered that have a status other than Available (items that are checked out or listed as lost), Alexandria will change the status to Available as those are encountered.  This saves you the added steps of having to change to Bookdrop and check the items in when one of these is found. 

Inventory Bookdrop Suppressed -- The difference between this mode and Inventory Bookdrop (IB) is that Alexandria will not stop and require you to respond to exception messages.  Again, this is a perfect mode when using a Palm Pilot or wireless scanner to do inventory.

Suggested Procedure

There is a logical process to follow when performing inventory.

1.  Read the shelves.  Alexandria will tell you when items are not in shelf list order.  Having your shelves in as perfect order as possible will cut down on the exceptions listed for items inventoried out of call number order.

2.  Perform the inventory on one collection area at a time.  Although you may perform inventory for you whole collection and then proceed to the next step.  When the full process is completed on a section at a time, you may find that this will enable you to deal with the exceptions found in that area.

3.   Review the report of exceptions encountered during the inventory process.  If you are functioning in a suppressed mode, either IS or IBS, or you are importing a transaction script, a report is automatically generated showing the exceptions encountered.  If you are not operating in a suppressed mode, then you may generate this report by using the Print Transaction Log Exceptions command (+++E).  Review this report and take care of any issues that need to be resolved.

4.  Run a report to show items that were not inventoried.

• Go to Reports on the menu bar and select Item Reports.

• Set the drop-down menus as shown in the graphic above.  Note that the Format selected is Not Inventoried, Status Available.

• Set the Inventory Date to reflect when you began your inventory process.

• Enter the Starting With and Ending With call number to indicate the call number range for which you want the report generated.

• If you are in a Central Union system, you will need to add an additional Select By option and use Library, entering your Library Code in the Starting With and Ending With fields.

• Click on Run.

Recheck your shelves to see if any of these items were missed during inventory.

5.  Run the Check Out utility to check out items that were missing at inventory to lost.

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Collection Cleanup Challenge  —  April

We have been cleaning up our Publishers using the Authority Control feature of Alexandria.  This month we continue to clean up publishers working with those from H through L. Do what you can and remember that Authority Control cleanup is a never-ending process. We are going to be working on publishers for several months, but if you can't resist working ahead, go for it!

Challenge Steps:

• Go to Show on the menu bar and select Authority Control.

• Change the drop-down menu in the upper-left corner of the window to Publisher.

• Look at the publishers that are listed.  Do you see variations of the same publisher (e.g. A.A. Knopf, A. A. Knopf, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., Alfred Knopf)? 

• If so, decide on the one that you want to use, then double click on one that you wish to change, and a window will open.

• Change it to what it should be, then click on OK.

• Repeat this for every incorrect Publisher.  Remember, deleting the entry here only deletes it from the index and not from the records.  Deleting it will change it on the records when you click on Save.

• Click on Save in the upper-right corner of the Authority Control window. Alexandria will go through your item records and replace the incorrect publishers with the corrected ones.

 ∞

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