[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Smart Float: Self balancing floating collections

[Kathy Lussier]

Hi Doug,

Thanks for sharing your plans. I don't think we have a lot of libraries 
using floating collections in Mass., but it looks like this feature 
would add some nice flexibility if we saw more libraries making use of 
floating collections.  All of this functionality looks fantastic!

I do have one question/comment. You mention that you are running the 
code in 2.2. In 2.5, Evergreen added floating groups that allow sites to 
identify where floating items are allowed to float. For example, a 
multi-branch library in our consortium might want to float things among 
its branches, but not among all the libraries in the entire consortium. 
I'm must wondering if your code would play nicely with the floating 
groups code so that a system that is floating items among its branches 
can also take advantage of these features.

Thanks!
Kathy

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

On 4/2/2014 11:51 AM, Doug Kyle wrote:
> I've created a new Evergreen feature I call Smart Float.  After we 
> (Grand Rapids Public Library) moved to floating collections, staff had 
> to spend time managing and balancing floating collections. Smart Float 
> was created to automate those tasks as follows.
>
> Smart Float automates the redistribution of floating collections based 
> on available shelf space and duplicate copies. Smart Float also allows 
> automatic
> "re-homing" of items based on a number of circulations from the 
> original library or a specified time frame.
>
> Upon checkin Smart Float will first check if an item needs to be sent 
> home, if not the item will float to the checkin branch if space is 
> available
> and there are not too many duplicate copies.  If space and or 
> duplicates don't allow floating to the checkin branch, it will next 
> float to the
> branch with most space and no excess duplicates, then to the branch 
> with most space regardless of duplicates.
> If no branches have shelf space it will stay where it is (float to the 
> checkin library).
>
> Copy locations are the units of Smart Float operation. Copy locations 
> are mapped to the following attributes that Smart Float uses to 
> determine how to distribute copies.
> - active: if true, Smart Float will be used, otherwise traditional 
> floating will occur.
> - items_allowed: the number of items the shelving location can hold.
> - dups_threshold: the number of duplicate titles allowed for that copy 
> location.
> - homing_threshold: number of circulations from the original owning 
> library.
> - homing_lifespan: time interval, such as "3 months".
> Items will be sent home within the homing_lifespan from creation date, 
> until the homing_threshold is met.
> So if shelving location 'kids movies' has a homing_threshold of 1 and 
> a homing_lifespan of "3 months", items in that shelving location won't 
> start floating
> until they have circulated once from the owning library, or its been 3 
> months or more since they were created.
>
> The Grand Rapids Public Library is now running an initial version of 
> Smart Float in production on Evergreen 2.2.  I've committed a lightly 
> tested version for Master in my working repository.
>
> The implementation is almost entirely plpgsql code and no Evergreen 
> client side interface currently exists, but I wanted to put it out to 
> the community at this point in the hopes of finding collaborators and 
> getting it included in future releases.
>