[OPEN-ILS-DEV] Basic Org Unit Hierarchy Setup Question

[Amy Terlaga]

Jason -

 

Yes, this helps.

 

It's actually what I ended up doing for our test

 

Consortium

Publics and Schools (depth 1)

Library (as branch) (depth 2)

 

For down the road, we'll probably want another category at the regional
level (to indicate geographical regions - east v west in our public
libraries for hold filling purposes), but for our first test, we're working
with two public libraries and one school, so I think this will work for us.

 

Thanks for your detailed email.

 

Amy

 

 

From: "Jason Etheridge" <jason at esilibrary.com>

Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-DEV] Basic Org Unit Hierarchy Setup Question

To: "Evergreen Development Discussion List"

      <open-ils-dev at list.georgialibraries.org>

Message-ID:

      <1f3c053e0901050654n7e05eafdg24cdbb43492bc8f2 at mail.gmail.com>

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> We're just now getting into setting up Evergreen on our test server, 

> and after working through the org unit types, then turning our 

> attention to the Org Unit Hierarchy (and working off of the examples 

> provided), I notice now that the org unit type SYSIDS don't match up 

> with the SYSIDs assigned in the org unit hierarchy.

 

Hi Amy, these two things don't need to have identical SYSID's.  You can have
more org units in the org unit hierarchy than you have for org unit types,
but you need at least one org unit type for each "depth" of your hierarchy.

 

So you might, for example, have something like for your hierarchy:

 

My Consortium (depth 0) -> My Region (depth 1) -> My Branch (depth 2)

 

Then you'd need at least one type for each depth, maybe:

 

Consortium

Region

Branch

 

But you could have multiple types (or "classifications") for each non-zero
depth.  For example:

 

Consortium

Region or System or School

Outlet or Depot or Mobile or Sorting Station Department or Section or
Sub-Library

 

These types also have a hierarchy, so when you apply a type to your org
units, you could do something like this:

 

My Consortium (Consortium) -> My Region (Region) -> My Branch (Outlet)

 

But not this:

 

My Consortium (Outlet) -> My Region (Department) -> My Branch (Consortium)

 

> Will this cause a problem for us down the road?  Should I
delete/re-order/whatever I have to do to get these to match up?

 

Feel free to share with us what you're considering.  A simple library could
get away with a single org unit and org type, and push the brunt of
classification into Copy/Shelving Locations and into Call Numbers.

But org units are useful for defining political, geographical, and/or
functional boundaries between and within libraries.  Different behavior
(circ policies, loan durations, etc) can be associated with different org
units, and with different org unit types.  Org units that are "children" of
parent org units can inherit the behavior of their ancestors in the
hierarchy.  When an item moves between org units, it's "transiting".

 

I would recommend at least two org units for anyone expecting to gain new
branches or form consortia.  You can always add more org unit types later if
needed, and a flexible hierarchy gives you more logical insertion points for
new libraries.  So, even if all you have is Library A, it's useful do
something like this to make it easier to grow later:

 

My Libraries (Consortium) -> System A (System) -> Library A (Main

Branch) -> Genealogy (Sub Library), Kids (Sub Library)

 

Then it'd be easy to later insert a Library B into your hierarchy, or even
form ties with an independent System C, etc.

 

Does this help?

 

--

Jason Etheridge

 | VP, Community Support and Advocacy

 | Equinox Software, Inc. / The Evergreen Experts  | phone:  1-877-OPEN-ILS
(673-6457)  | email:  jason at esilibrary.com  | web:
http://www.esilibrary.com <http://www.esilibrary.com/> 

 

=======================

Amy Terlaga

Assistant Director, User Services

Bibliomation

32 Crest Road

Middlebury, CT  06762

(203)577-4070 x101

http://www.biblio.org

 

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