Kaaren's Corner

By Kaaren Linton, Librarian/Alexandria Trainer

Handling Periodicals with Alexandria

Periodicals. -- To paraphrase Shakespeare, "to catalog or not to catalog  — that is the question."  There are almost as many ways to handle periodicals as there are types of libraries, so how you handle periodicals will depend upon what you are going to do with them.

• Do you plan to archive the copies so that students have a hard copy to use when doing research or are you planning to discard them at the end of the year?

• Do you want to circulate all issues to anyone who wants to read them or do you plan to circulate the copies only on a limited basis such as teachers only?

Treating Periodicals as Temporary Items.
If you have an online magazine service such as EBSCO, you may not wish to keep the hard copies of your magazines, so cataloging would be wasted labor.  In this case, checking periodical issues out using temporary barcodes makes perfect sense.

• Set up a Temporary Items policy with no loan period, then, use Circulation policies to allow certain patron groups to check out these items if you do not want to circulate your periodicals to all patrons. (Circulation policies enable you to make exceptions to the normal Item policy for patrons on specific Patron polices.)

• In Circulation - Default Local Preferences on the Circulation tab, set the Default Temporary Item Policy to the Temporary Items policy.

• In the Barcodes tab for Circulation - Global Preferences, set your Temporary Barcode range.  Print these barcodes and affix them to manila envelopes.  These manila envelopes will be used to hold the periodical (or any other temporary item) that is being checked out.

• To check out a periodical, place the periodical inside a manila envelope and scan the temporary barcodes, then fill out the fields on the Temporary Item window.

• Make sure the patrons know that the items must be returned in the envelopes in order to clear them from their records.

Treating Periodicals as Part of the Permanent Collection
If you are planning to archive your periodical issues, you will need to decide whether you wish them to be cataloged as separate items or as copies under the periodical title. 

For some titles such as Zoobooks that have a single topic for each issue, cataloging those periodical issues as individual items with the title of the issue as the title of the item is a viable alternative to cataloging them as copies of the periodical title and making each issue's topic part of a contents note. 

Cataloging most periodical issues as copies of a title is probably the preferable method to use since it causes less "catalog clutter" than having them as separate item titles in your database.

• Establish a Periodicals medium type.

• Establish a Periodicals policy and use the Circulation policy feature to give checkout privileges to specific groups of patrons if you do not intend to circulate the periodicals to all patrons.

• Set up your periodical subscription record in the Subscriptions module with Inventory on Receipt checked on the Item Info tab.

• As an issue is received, use the E command in Circulation or click on the Receive Subscription button on the Subscription record in the Subscriptions module.

• Fill in the fields on the Add Subscription window for the first time you catalog the title or for those that you wish to catalog as individual titles.  To add a copy to an existing title, check the Add Copy to Existing Title button and select the title from the window that appears, click Save.

Quick Cataloging Trick
If you are going to catalog your periodicals, the following trick will allow you to do all your issues for the year for all periodicals at once.  This will enable you to print all barcode labels (and spine labels, if you want them) at one time.

• Go to Edit on the menu bar and select Preferences.

• Set the drop-down menu in the upper-left corner of the window to Display Settings and the second drop-down menu to Default Local.

• Turn on Autosave by clicking the box for Automatically Save when Closing / Deactivating a Window and turn off Autolock by removing the check from Database Management Windows Locked by Default.  This will enable you to browse from one record or copy to the next easily and quickly when changing the volume

• Catalog the item titles.

• Add the number of issues you expect to receive that year by adding the first copy  (Add Copy under Items on menu bar) and then duplicating that copy (Duplicate under Items on the menu bar) for the number of issues you will be receiving.   Make certain that you select the Duplicate Copy option or you will be duplicating the title in error.

• Modify the copy volume with the issue information (month, year; month, day, year; volume and issue #, etc.) for each copy. **  You may also check the box for Don't Show in Researcher for each copy you have not yet received; however, you will need to remember to remove that check when the copy is received.

• Print the barcodes for all copies so they are ready for when you receive the issues.  This allows you to use full sheets of labels instead of just a few at a time which causes a great deal of waste.

• Bring up the On Order patron (barcode 5) and check out all the copies you haven't received yet to this patron.

• When you have a new copy come in, use the E command to record that you have received that issue, then put its barcode on (it's already cataloged), and Bookdrop it.

** If you are really good with Excel, once the barcodes are in, you could make Excel figure out your month/year or month/day/year volumes for you and just import them.

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Alexandria Answers

There is so much information on www.goalexandria.com! Is there a way to easily find answers on the website?

Yes! Simply use the “search” box located at the top right of the website and search for subjects you’re looking for. A results list will provide links to answers listed on the site.

Collection Cleanup Challenges for March

Last month, we gave you the simple challenge to clean up your publishers from A-C using the Authority Control feature of Alexandria.  This month, we continue to clean up publishers working with those from D through G. 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 and, 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.  Changing 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.