[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Display of canceled line items in acquisitions

[Holly Brennan]

No opposition from our cataloging team.

-Holly

-----Original Message-----
From: open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org [mailto:open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of Kathy Lussier
Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2013 5:31 AM
To: Evergreen General Discussion List
Subject: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Display of canceled line items in acquisitions

Hi all,

Based on feedback from the acquisitions staff here in Massachusetts, MassLNC is considering a small development project that would change the way canceled line items display on a PO. I wanted to get some feedback from the Evergreen acquisitions community in case people like the way it currently displays.

The concern from our acquisitions staff is that line items display as canceled even in cases where the order isn't truly canceled. This scenario most often occurs in cases where a title is backordered. You identify something as being backordered by marking it as canceled and then identifying the cancel reason as backorder quantity. The status of the line item then displays as canceled, even though the library fully expects to receive the title at some future date.  Acquisitions staff find this label misleading and confusing, and, at times, it has led to some extra time in their workflow as they ascertain whether the line item is truly canceled and needs to be re-ordered through a different vendor.

In 2.5, there have been some improvements in the PO display, with the cancel reason displaying to the right of the title (see attached image) and a different background color used for truly canceled line items and those that are just delayed. These changes should address the problem with added time in the workflow. However, the canceled status still displays, and we believe it continues to be a misleading label for the status of the line item.

We would like to suggest that, in cases where the line item is canceled, that the cancel reason display in the status column of the PO instead of displaying the status as canceled. For example, in the attached image, "backorder quantity" would display in the status column for the first line item and "not accepted" would display for the second line item. In the case where line items are not canceled, we would like to continue to see the line item status display there.

Would there be any objections to pursuing this approach? Are there reasons I'm not thinking of where it would be beneficial to display the status as canceled for line items that are delayed?

Thanks!
Kathy


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Kathy Lussier
Project Coordinator
Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
(508) 343-0128
klussier at masslnc.org
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier