Location WizardLocation WizardA Location policy is a name describing the geographic location, a collection, or conceptual location of a physical object owned by the library. Each item has a home location and a current location. The item is at its home location whenever it is not charged. The current location always reflects where the item is now, charged or not. A location is also associated with each user. When an item is charged to a user, the item’s current location is set to the user’s location. Similarly, bindery, cataloging, and marking departments might all have a location of PROCESSING in their user records. All general public users might have locations of CHECKEDOUT or PUBLIC. Choosing location names in this manner enhances the ability of SirsiDynix Symphony to provide useful information about items.
From List Policies window, you can create, display, modify, copy, or remove the Location policies. Clicking Cancel closes the window.
Attributes
The Location policy contains the following attributes.
| • | Name |
| • | Description |
| • | Holdable |
| • | Type |
| • | Shadow |
| • | Reshelving Period |
| • | Reshelving Location |
| • | Available |
This attribute uniquely identifies a specific Location policy. This name is ten characters or less, and may not include spaces or punctuation, except for dash (-), underscore (_), and dollar sign ($). Additionally, the pipe character (|) may not be used.
This attribute provides more information about the policy and its use by the library. The description may be up to 60 characters in length. Although the Description attribute may contain spaces and punctuation, the pipe character (|) and semi-colon ( ; ) cannot be used.
The Holdable attribute is used to allow or prevent holds from being placed against items with this current location. When a location such as CHECKEDOUT has the Holdable attribute selected, then items with that current location may have holds placed against it. When a location such as STACKS has the Holdable attribute unselected, then an attempt to place a hold on any item with that current location is blocked. This block can be overridden by library staff.
Note: It is recommended that the circulation map and hold map should be the primary limiters of whether an item is holdable or not. For more information, see “How do I make certain Item Types non-holdable?” in FAQs: Creating Circulation Maps.
Type identifies the type of location assigned to a user or the type of current location assigned to an item. SirsiDynix Symphony accords special treatment to items checked out to a user with that special location or special treatment to items with that location. Select location Type from the list. The following types may be assigned to locations.
| • | ASSUMED_LOST — The location type ASSUMED_LOST is assigned to the delivered location LOST-ASSUM. |
| • | CLAIMS_LOST — The location type CLAIMS_LOST is assigned to the delivered location LOST-CLAIM. |
| • | DESTROY — The location type DESTROY is only used with the Accountability module. Any item assigned a Location policy with location type DESTROY has a linked item accountability record. The location type DESTROY indicates that the material has been tagged to be destroyed by the date entered in the item accountability record’s Pending Destruction Date. When the destruction date is reached, SirsiDynix Symphony automatically updates that record’s location to the Location policy of the type DESTROYED. All customers with the Accountability module must have at least one Location policy of the type DESTROY. |
| • | DESTROYED — The location type DESTROYED is only used with the Accountability module. Any item assigned a location with location type DESTROYED has a linked item accountability record. The location type DESTROYED indicates that the item has been physically destroyed but the bibliographic information is still in the database. SirsiDynix Symphony automatically updates that record’s destruction date field. All customers with the Accountability module must have one Location policy of the type DESTROY. |
| • | DISCARD — The location type DISCARD is used for items that the library has discarded. The DISCARD location is delivered. |
| • | ILL — The location type ILL is used for locations of items on loan from one library to another through an intralibrary system loan. Locations such as MAIN-ILL should be assigned the ILL type. This location type is used in multilibrary systems only. |
| • | LOST — The location type LOST is assigned to the delivered locations LOST and LOST-PAID. |
| • | MISSING — The location type MISSING is assigned to the delivered location MISSING. |
| • | NONE — This value is used for Location policies with no special location type. STACKS, CHECKEDOUT, DISCARD, HOLDS, ON-ORDER, INPROCESS, MISSING, LOST, and REFERENCE are all examples of Location policies that need no special treatment by SirsiDynix Symphony and should have location type NONE. |
| • | RESERVE — The location type RESERVE must be assigned to all reserve user locations. This location Type attribute allows copies at the owning library to be charged to a reserve desk at another library. |
| • | RESHELVING — The RESHELVING location type indicates that this location represents a temporary holding area where items are kept after being discharged but before being reshelved. If the Reshelving Location attribute of a Location policy contains a location of the Type RESHELVING, when an item is discharged, the reshelving location displays instead of the item’s current location. After the time specified in the Reshelving Period attribute has passed, the item’s current location displays instead of the reshelving location. |
The RESHELVING location appears in the e-Library and in the WorkFlows client item glossaries, the item list display of the Bibliographic Description helper and the item information of the call number/item tree.
| • | TRANSIT — This location type marks an item in transit from one branch to another branch in the same system. The Location policies INTRANSIT or ENROUTE should be assigned the TRANSIT type. This location type is used in multilibrary systems only. |
| • | AVAILABLE_SOON — The location type AVAILABLE_SOON identifies a Location policy that is used as the current location of items when they are created. WorkFlows will use the first-entered Location policy designated with the AVAILABLE_SOON type as the current location of created items. Cataloging wizards can be configured to automatically add the first AVAILABLE_SOON location as new items are added to the catalog. For more information, see the cataloging wizard properties topics. |
For example, a library has created the STACKS and RESHELVING Location policies, with the following reshelving attributes.
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Name |
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Reshelving Period |
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Reshelving Location |
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Name |
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Reshelving Period |
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Reshelving Location |
When an item with the home location STACKS is discharged, since the STACKS Location policy has a reshelving-type Location policy in its Reshelving Location attribute, the location RESHELVING displays instead of the current location in the client and the catalog. After the reshelving period has passed (OVERNIGHT), the current location of the discharged item (STACKS) then displays.
The Shadow attribute is used to prevent or allow public workstations to search and display certain items with this current location. When a location such as LOST&PAID has the Shadow attribute selected, then any item with that current location can only be searched and displayed at staff workstations. When a location such as STACKS has the Shadow attribute unselected, then any item with that current location can be searched and displayed at either public or staff workstations.
Note: A location’s Shadow attribute may not be changed after the location is created in policies.
This attribute is a Loan Period policy that specifies how long the reshelving location should be used when displaying items. After the reshelving period has passed, the discharged item’s current location is used when displaying items. Select a loan period from the list. The Loan Period Policy helper (Loan Period Wizard) button is available for you to create new loan periods, if needed.
The Reshelving Location attribute is another Location policy that describes an area where an item is kept while awaiting reshelving. If an item’s current location is a Location policy with a reshelving-type Reshelving Location attribute, the date and time the item was last discharged is compared against the Reshelving Period attribute of the Location policy. If the item was last discharged during the reshelving period, the reshelving location is displayed instead of the current location when displaying items. Select a location from the list.
Note: The RESHELVING location only appears in the e-Library and in the WorkFlows client item glossaries and the Bibliographic Description helper (red book icon). And, this location only appears if it contains a RESHELVING location type.
If you attempt to edit the item record during the reshelving period, the reshelving location does not display. The item’s true current location displays.
Current locations and special locations, such as CHECKEDOUT, AVAIL_SOON, BINDERY, LOST, and LONGOVRDUE, should not have reshelving “turned on.” Their Reshelving Location attributes should contain their own policy names, such as CHECKEDOUT for the CHECKEDOUT Location policy and BINDERY for the BINDERY policy.
The Available attribute is used by Demand Management when it performs its checks for placing a hold. In libraries that do not allow holds for onshelf, available items, the Available attribute can be used to prevent items in one or more locations from being considered as “available” when a hold is placed. Select the Available check box to make this Location policy available, or clear the check box to make this Location policy unavailable.
In SirsiDynix Symphony there are specific locations that are not considered available when holds are placed, such as CHECKEDOUT or INTRANSIT. This option allows your library to treat items at other locations as checked out or transit items are treated when a hold is placed and items are checked for availability.
For examples of how this Available Hold Location feature is implemented, see FAQs: Available Hold Location Examples.
Note: This check box is unavailable when the Holdable attribute is cleared.
Related topics
FAQs: Available Hold Location Examples
“How do I make certain Item Types non-holdable?” in FAQs: Creating Circulation Maps
FAQs: Working with Location Policies
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