[OPEN-ILS-DEV] Questions about Locations

[Jason Etheridge]

Frances, in addition to Murphy's suggestions, here is some more
information (based on the 1.2.2 branch of Evergreen) to help you
decide how you might want to do this and for others that might be
interested.   You probably already know most of this, and it's likely
to be information overload.  Reader beware. :)

There are several main entities involved here: Items, Volumes, Bib
Records, and Org Units.

Org Units are linked together in a tree-like hierarchy that can be
arbitrarily deep or wide.  They are also classed into Org Unit Types
that can affect certain behavior in Evergreen.  All of the "Lib"
attributes mentioned elsewhere refer to Org Units, which do not
necessarily have to represent physical locations or libraries.  For
example, org units may represent political or geographical
abstractions, or they may be categorical bins based on library types
or functions.  Org units may also sub-divide organizations into
departments or locations.  Conceivably, you could even represent
shelving locations and call number ranges as org units, though you
shouldn't do that (and some folks might hurt me for even mentioning
it:).  The development version of EG also supports Org "lassos" than
can cut across the Organization Hierarchy and arbitrarily group
libraries.

Most settings and behavior can be applied at any location or locations
in the organization hierarchy, and be inherited by the organizations
that descend from those nodes in the tree.  Such inherited settings
and behavior would not be visible to foreign libraries elsewhere in
the hierarchy.  So, for example, they would not clutter your drop-down
menus.

Bib Records contain MARC-XML (you could conceivably use other XML
document types, but certain pieces of Evergreen assume MARC), as well
as various metadata such as Creator, Creation Date, etc.  You can
define different search classes and xpath to index all or parts of the
XML.  You can use information from MARC records to determine
circulation behavior.  Currently, Bib Records aren't really "owned",
and are shared by all on a given instance of Evergreen, though you can
protect them with permissions.  There is infrastructure for
library-owned notes that we could apply to bib records outside of the
MARC.

Items typically represent physical barcoded items, contain various
metadata such as Creator, Creation Date, etc., as well as unlimited
custom Statistical Categories (Stat Cats) and entries (public or
staff-only), and may be annotated with unlimited notes (public or
staff-only).  Such public notes and stat-cats are de-emphasized in the
catalog, and you have to drill down to the item-level to see them.
They are not currently searchable, though they are reportable.  There
are certain fields on items that can directly affect circulation
behavior.  Items are linked to Volumes, and indirectly to Bib Records
through their Volumes.  Specific items are de-emphasized in the
catalog, and are presented as summarized or aggregated counts and
totals, unless the user explicitly drills down to the item level in
the Copy Summary tab on the Record Summary page in the catalog.
"Pre-cataloged" or fast add items do not link to a volume or bib
record, but do store temporary title and author information in fields
on the item.

Volumes have an Owning Lib and point to a specific Bib Record.  They
contain a free-text Call Number label, as well as other meta-data.
There is infrastructure for associating library owned notes to
Volumes.  Volumes can be used to determine circulation behavior.
Volumes are shown in the Copy Summary tab in the catalog (that is, the
call number label is displayed next to item summary information).

Circ Lib is an attribute (or a pointer or a reference) on Items.  It
is used when you scope searches in the catalog to a set of libraries,
and shows up in the Copy Summary tab in the catalog.  It can be used
to determine circulation behavior.  Unless captured for a hold,
check-ins/returns will try to transit to their Circ Lib if processed
elsewhere.

Owning Lib is an attribute on Volumes, but is often presented along
with Item attributes, and can be manipulated via the Item Attribute
Editor.  The Owning Library is considered when authorizing a user for
adding, updating, and deleting Items.  It is also used for organizing
the Holdings Maintenance interface.  It can be used to determine
circulation behavior.  It is not displayed in the OPAC, though often
the Owning Lib and the Circ Lib are the same.

Perhaps confusingly, there is also a Circulation Lib on circulation
objects (or rows in the circulation table).  This is the location
where a checkout actually occurred, and it can be used to determine
circulation behavior.

Shelving locations are called copy locations in the database, and
that's probably a better name for them, since they don't necessarily
have to have anything to do with shelves.  The concept of Collection
Codes from other software is often mapped to Copy Locations in
Evergreen.  Copy Locations are locally customizable and may be defined
at any part of the Organization Hierarchy, and inherited by
child/dependent Orgs.  A Copy Location can be used to determine
circulation behavior.  They are de-emphasized in the catalog, and you
have to drill-down to the Item level in the Copy Summary tab to see
them.  They are not (currently) usable for search criteria and
faceting.  They can be prominent in staff interfaces dealing with
Items.

Record Buckets (and bookbags) are labeled containers that reference
Bib Records.  Item Buckets are similar but reference Items.  Buckets
another way you can organize your collections; they're shareable and
can be exposed via RSS feeds.  However, they are not yet directly
searchable in the catalog.  You can apply batch operations to the
contents of buckets.

Does this help anyone?  I could wiki it if it's relatively clear.

-- Jason