[OPEN-ILS-DEV] acq timeline

[Dan Scott]

On 03/09/07, Dan Scott <denials at gmail.com> wrote:
> So that's a lot of blather about process, but I'll also put my money
> where my mouth is by contributing some problem scenarios based on the
> workflows we use at Laurentian University. Tonight, hopefully.

(Reminder: as a problem scenario, this describes the way a goal is
accomplished today at a specific site; it is not meant to represent
the way that the workflow should be accomplished by the Evergreen
acquisitions system!)

Problem Scenario: Ordering monographs

Main actors:
Actor: Dan, human kinetics collection librarian
Actor: Hazel, acquisitions supervisor
Actor: Chantal, technician

Day 1:

Dan checks his calendar, realizes that the end of the fiscal year is
fast approaching, and checks the funds remaining to be spent in the
various subject collections for which he is responsible. He discovers
he has not yet spent the entire budget for the human kinetics
monograph (English) collection.

Dan thumbs through the brochures for the best-known publisher in the
field and finds a few books that seem worthy of purchase. He checks
the catalogue to find out if his library already has a copy of these
items (items are visible in the system once they've been ordered).

Having found a book that isn't already part of the library collection,
he circles the book he wants in the brochure and attaches a sticky
note to the front that says "Hazel - please order for Human Kinetics
(English). - Dan" and initials the sticky note. Dan then places the
brochure in Hazel's mail slot.

Day 2:

Hazel picks up her mail and sees Dan's monograph request. She checks
to find out if is a rush order, but the word "Rush" isn't written
anywhere on the request so she places it on her "to be ordered" pile
for processing later.

Later that day, Hazel picks up Dan's monograph request and looks up
the fund ID for the Human Kinetics monographs (English) collection.
Because it is late in the fiscal year, Hazel checks the fund to ensure
that the budget can accomodate the purchase. Seeing that there are
sufficient funds remaining, she then adds the fund ID, the date, and
her initials on the sticky note.

Later in the day, Hazel takes Dan's monograph request (along with the
other requests she has processed) and places it in the technician's
in-box for ordering.

Day 3:

Chantal is the designated ordering technician for the day. She pulls
the requests to be ordered from the ordering in-box, sorts the
requests by "rush" status, and begins ordering the items.

To order Dan's item, Chantal browses to the library's preferred book
vendor's Web site (she has it saved as a bookmark), logs in, and
searches by ISBN for the requested book. She doesn't find it, so she
tries an author / title search just in case, with no success.

Chantal then logs into the next book vendor Web site (the library uses
three different vendors for in-print monograph orders), searches by
ISBN, and finds the requested book. She places the order with the
vendor through the vendor's Web interface, prints a copy of the
vendor's invoice, and attaches it to the brochure to add to the paper
trail.

To record the order in the library system, Chantal connects to several
different Z39.50 servers through the library system Z39.50 client and
searches for a bibliographic record matching the requested book. At
this point, she doesn't care about the quality of the record; she just
wants the basic bibliographic information to appear in the system so
that she can attach a purchase order to it.

Chantal finds a bibliographic record that meets her requirements and
loads the record into the library system. Now that the record is in
the library system, she can create an order record in the library
system.

To create the order record, Chantal performs the following step:
  1. retrieves the bibliographic record that she just added to the
library system in the "Create order" screen
  2. chooses the vendor from a list stored in the library system
  3. chooses the order type as "Firm" (other options are "Gift" or
"Subscription")
  4. accepts the default fiscal year ("2007-2008")
  5. identifies the number of copies ordered as 1
  6. enters the fund ID for the Human Kinetics monographs (English) collection
  7. accepts the default destination location ("Desmarais circulation")
  8. accepts the default item type ("Monograph")
  9. sets the price to the amount indicated in the vendor system
 10. accepts the new purchase order ID that has been generated to
identify the order in the library system

Once the order record has been created, Chantal files the brochure &
vendor invoice in the "Ordered" file by purchase order ID so that it
can be used during the receiving process.

But that's a story for another scenario...

-- 
Dan Scott
Laurentian University