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

[Mary Llewellyn]

It sounds reasonable to me. 

Mary


Mary Llewellyn
Database Manager
Bibliomation, Inc.
24 Wooster Ave.
Waterbury, CT 06708
mllewell at biblio.org



-----Original Message-----
From: open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org
[mailto:open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of
Holly Brennan
Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2013 7:54 PM
To: Evergreen Discussion Group
Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Display of canceled line items in
acquisitions

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


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