[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Deleting items that are lost or long overdue

[Jason Stephenson]

On 06/02/2014 12:42 PM, McCanna, Terran wrote:
> Correction -
> 
> My apologies, some of our libraries actually do choose to delete the
> records after significant time has passed. Evergreen retains the item
> info with the bill if this happens.

That is because Evergreen does not actually delete copies when they are
"deleted." Copies have a deleted flag that gets set to true when a copy
is deleted. The same is true of call numbers and bibliographic records.

The main problem we have seen with deleting lost items occurs when the
barcode of a deleted copy is re-used on a new copy. This has caused us
to get questions from staff about why two patrons have the same copy out
and why one is lost. It causes confusion.

There is a high potential of even more confusion if the lost copy
actually returns to the library at some point. Now, you've got two
phsysical copies with the same barcode floating around. It doesn't take
a lot of imagination to see how that can lead to problems.

Yes, lost copies do show up again with alarming regularity.

The reason Evergreen allows the reuse of barcodes from deleted copies is
because the unique index on copy barcodes only looks at copies that have
the deleted flag set to false.

> 
> 
> Terran McCanna PINES Program Manager Georgia Public Library Service 
> 1800 Century Place, Suite 150 Atlanta, GA 30345 404-235-7138 
> tmccanna at georgialibraries.org

-- 
Jason Stephenson
Assistant Director for Technology Services
Merrimack Valley Library Consortium
1600 Osgood ST, Suite 2094
North Andover, MA 01845
Phone: 978-557-5891
Email: jstephenson at mvlc.org