Item Attributes Grid

v.3

About

Item attributes are the data fields that form the item record. They determine the specific item's shelving location, circulation, and fines, and are used for statistical reports. Item Attributes are applied or edited in the Holdings Editor.

Default new item attributes

When new holdings are added, the item attributes grid has basic elements selected as default. These defaults include:

• Circulate? = Yes
• Status = In Process
• Circulating Library = [your library]
• Reference? = No
• Shelving Location = Stacks (OWWL)
• OPAC Visible? = Yes
• Price = 0
• Loan Duration = Normal
• Holdable? = Yes
• Deposit? = No
• deposit Amount = 0
• Quality = Good

Apply or change attributes

To apply or change an attribute, click a radio button, select a list option, or open a pop-up box depending on the field. Applied attributes have a green back ground.

Attributes for correct circulation and fines

The follow attributes are critical to ensuring correct circulation:

• Circulate? - does the item circulate or not?
• Reference? - is the item reference (non-circulating?) - this will override the Circulate? attribute
• Shelving Location - some shelving locations have their own circulation implications, such as Local History or Office - these location settings override Circulate? and Holdable? attributes
• Circulation Modifier - the foundation of circulation rules, particularly Video items; with no circulation modifier the item will circulate for 3 weeks with 2 renewals
• Loan Duration - there are three duration options: Short, Normal, and Long; the actual time period, such as 1 week (short), 3 weeks (normal), 6 weeks (long), are defined in the library's circulation rules
• Fine Level - there are three fine options: Low, Normal, High; the actual fine amounts, such as $0.10 (short), $0.20 (normal), $1.00 (high), are defined in the library's circulation rules

To view your library's circulation rules, see: Reports Circ Matrix

Attributes NOT USED

The following attributes are not used by PLS to mange circulation, fines, or statistics. These fields can be ignored.

• Acquisitions Cost
• Circulate as Type
• Deposit?
• Deposit Amount
• Quality
• Floating

Statistical Categories

These fields are used to count statistics for the NYS Annual Report and the field values map to Annual Report questions. All categories listed in bold type are currently required in order to save a copy record.

• Age Level - describes the intended audience of the item
  • Adult
  • Children
  • Teen
• Annual Report Category - describes the type of material
  • Book - Print (physical books in print)
  • Computer (computers used by staff or patrons)
  • Equipment (physical non-circulating items -- projector used for meetings, Ellison die cutter, etc.)
  • Other Electronic Material (libraries likely don't use this category -- used for electronic materials that are cataloged)
  • Other Non-Print Material (ex. Vox, Wonderbook, fishing poles, objects in Library of Things collections, realia, etc.)
  • Other Print Material (brochures, pamphlets, vertical file items, microfilm of non-serial publications)
  • Print Serial (physical materials that are printed serially -- magazines, certain governnment publications, law books, microfilm of newspapers & other serial publications)
  • Sound Recording (physical audiobooks, vinyl records, CDs, etc.)
  • Video Recording (physical video media -- DVDs, Blu-ray, 4K Ulta High Definition, film)
  • eReader (physical devices used to read ebooks)
• Collection Development
  • Audiobook
  • Book
  • Book Set
  • Equipment (this is different from the Annual Report category -- can be used for both circulating and non-circulating items such as bike locks, cake pans, etc.)
  • Kit (a collection of items that circulate under a single barcode)
  • Movie
  • Music
  • Not Applicable
  • Pamphlet
  • Periodical
  • Puzzle/Game
  • Realia
  • Software
  • Toy
  • Videogame
  • eReader
• Electronic File Format (used to identify video game platforms)
• Fiction/Nonfiction (if Book-Print is selected as the Annual Report category, Fiction or Nonfiction must be selected)
• Genre (used to guide libraries' collection development according to the type of fiction of the material)
• Physical Format (used to denote specific media format)

Item Attribute Templates

Holdings staff can set up templates so that multiple attributes can be applied in one step. This can save time when adding new holdings. Templates are created and managed using the Holdings Template Editor.

Item Notes

Item notes can be public, which display in the public online catalog and the staff catalog view, or a staff note which only displays to staff.

Item notes are not searchable, but do display in Shelf List reports.

Item Alerts

Item Alerts are notes that trigger a library-written notice on checkout or checkin, such as "Check for discs".

Item Tags

Item tags are brief descriptive terms that can be used to group copies together for the purpose of searchability. Search for tags in the catalog using the "Digital Bookplates" search type from the dropdown menu in the query builder.