Technical Services Procedures

Maintaining the Online Catalog - Miscellaneous Maintenance : Summary screen guidelines

Page Editor: Linda Kowalk
Last Updated: April 9, 2008

The following guidelines were presented in May 1999 by DBAC for the order of item records on a summary screen.

• The item records for each serial title should be in order from the oldest at the beginning to the latest at the end.
  
• Multi-volume monograph sets should have the item records in chronological order. The earliest volume owned item record would appear in the item record list first, followed by subsequent volumes.
  
• Item records for serial or monograph set titles owned by multiple locations should have the item records for each location together, following the two rules above about order of item records.
• The lists of item records for serial titles should be in the same order as the checkin records.
• Item records for volumes in the same location should be kept together, even if multiple copies. Keep all volume ones together for a location even if we have c.2 and c.3 and so on.
  

The following are additional guidelines for all staff to follow:

• Multi-copy monograph records will have the items on the summary screen placed in copy number order.
• For serials, the normal rule of thumb is to put main holdings first, followed by other branch locations in alphabetical order. This includes all main copies before any branch locations (see .b22130937). You should also keep all multicopy branch locations together.
• There is one exception. If a title is on standing order, the current checkins for those locations receiving the standing orders should appear before any others. If main has a standing order, that checkin is listed first, followed by those branches that have a standing order listed in alphabetical order. These would then be followed by the older checkin cards and any copy 2, etc., checkins (see .b22204672 & .b22083984).
• If current volumes are in main with older volumes being in remote storage, see .b22152799 for an example, checkins are listed with most current volumes (Main) before older volumes (Remote Storage). Items are listed in chronological order, earliest volume listed first followed by subsequent volumes.
• When the current issues of a title are placed on reserve (to prevent theft), the item record for the current issues will appear first in the summary of items followed by the items for all the bound journals in chronological order (see .b28354060).
• When we have branch holdings for a title along with remote holdings, (no main holdings at all), the branch location checkin will appear first as this gives the patron easier access to pieces than having to request from remote (see .b2211497x).
• If a serial title has supplemental software that comes with an issue, the items will be kept together. The book will be listed first, followed by the items for the supplemental material. (see .b24005812).
  

These are only a few of the many examples we could list here. Each title you work on should be reviewed to determine what the correct order is for its summary screen. If you are not sure of how to arrange a title, make a printout to turn in to Linda or Sara for further study.