Evergreen DokuWiki

This is an old revision of the document!

Acquisitions

From within the general acquisitions search page, users are able to search on many fields in the acquisitions /serials workflow. For example on attributes of invoices, purchase orders, selection lists, bib records, etc.

General catalog searching is now supported for explicit truncation/wildcard searches. One example, users can search for "harry po*". Line Item searching also has full wildcard and substring support. Much of the documentation can be found here: http://www.open-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=documentation:technical:search_grammar (and this will be updated shortly with more info).

Acquisitions line item searches support NOT searches.

Money can be transferred from one fund to another (or to none). The transfer is not allowed if the receiving fund is not active. The transfer results in entries in acq.fund_allocation and acq.fund_transfer. Through the User Interface, staff can manage fund tags, display fund balance in the appropriate interfaces, warn or block users from spending from a fund that has exceeded the warn/block threshold, fund transfers, display the fund code plus year in all UI's where funds are visible.

All transactions (except batch EDI delivery to vendors) post in real time including: purchase orders, invoices, fund balances, vendors balances, vendor statistics and history. EDI delivery delay is configurable at the system level admin interface.

In the User Interface, users now have access to all active funds, spanning multiple years, in the various ordering/invoicing/etc interfaces. The display includes code + year in fund drop-downs to accommodate multiple years with the same code.

There is support for year-end fiscal turnover process that closes out funds and transfers encumbered amounts into a new fiscal year. This includes the ability to selectively roll certain funds over, while not rolling over others.

Evergreen handles validation of ordering, receiving,and invoicing processes, using validated data, to satisfy auditor requirements. In the staff client, there is a menu option which allows staff to locate the PO that resulted in the purchase of that copy.

Order record is annotated every time the record is touched with all historical decisions. Evergreen takes a LI or bib record ID and returns the set of LI that are all attached to the same bib record (ranged by PO org unit), sorted by create_time. From the User Interface, there is a link to fetch and show the related lineitems.

Selection lists are collections of bibliographic records (short or full) that temporarily store titles being considered for purchase. Selection lists can be shared for collaborative input.

Library staff have the ability to create distribution formulas for ease of receiving, processing and distributing materials. Branch, shelving location, and fund need to be separate from the distribution formula, so that staff can enter the distribution sets. Staff are able to use that formula for any shelving location they decide. Staff also have the ability to add multiple distribution formulas together and the ability to override distribution formulas. After applying the distribution formula; it will be an all or none redistribution of copies from one branch to another. Staff can add or delete individual copies because the distribution pattern may not account for the exact total of copies. If the total number of copies has not been allocated, the user will receive a flag or warning. This puts the use count for each distribution formula in the DF dropdown for users to see.

The system supports Batch ISBN/UPC search. This is located in the general Acquisitions search page, where you can choose to search by single isbn, upc, or you can choose to upload a batch of isbns. The ISBN search method looks at MARC tag 024, where UPC codes are supposed to live. For LI searching, the system uses open-ils.acq.lineitem.search.ident. Catalog records are included in the batch isbn/upc search and staff can now search catalog records in the acq search.

Backend support has been integrated to give patrons the ability to submit purchase requests through the OPAC. The UI for this has not yet been integrated into the OPAC.

The system supports claiming, specifically there is:
- a place to store the default claim interval for each vendor
- a way to show the selected claim date during the order
- a way to override the claim date during order
- a way to list items/orders that have reached the claim date.

A list of items that meet claims requirements can be generated, but claims must be initiated by librarians.

From the UI, staff can access the lineitem and PO history. Entries in the history table are ordered from most recent to oldest.

The purchase order printout is customizable, including the ability to break up a single order into separate purchase orders. Also, staff can print groups of POs from a search as a single printout, which can be used to generate physical POs for vendors who do not support EDI. Staff can add notes and there is an indicator in the PO interface of the existence/number of attached notes.

Staff are able to see all of the lineitems (with prices, copy counts, etc.) for a set of Pos and summary information is listed along the top of the page. The summary information includes: total price, total # lineitems, and total # of copies. Additionally, staff can do a PO search by vendor for all activated-but-not-yet-sent Pos (i.e., show me what we are about to order) and view the results.

The system supports flagging prepaid orders so that invoicing is handled correctly.

The system allows building orders based on templates (distribution formulas); by shelving location or owning library.

The system supports the ability to gather orders together and send them all at once, instead of manually and individually, a rolling FTP function that runs every 15 minutes (or other set interval) with detailed log information and control of frequency and action. Additionally, there is an automatic retrieval of status reports records from the vendor, which are then automatically inserted into the order records.

Staff have the ability to apply and view notes and cancel causes on purchase orders as well as cancel causes on lineitems. In the UI, there is a staff client menu entry for cancel cause.

There is an interface in the ACQ system for viewing what was sent to vendors via EDI. There are two ways to approach the viewing of sent orders: via PO search interface (for the general case) which gives finer detail on EDI orders and the ability to reset failed outbound EDI deliveries.

Pending final UI work in the OPAC, the system has the ability to allow patrons to place volume level and issue level holds.

Ability to create and print routing worksheets for manual receiving processes.

Nothing in the selection lists is holdable (either by patrons or by most staff, apart from acquisitions staff). When an on-order title has been canceled and the lineitem is canceled, the corresponding bib record and on-order copies will be deleted so the copies will no longer be holdable. The lineitem has a cancel cause to show why order was canceled. Selection list records are never visible in the OPAC. Catalog records with no visible copies (within the search scope) do not show up in the public OPAC. This also applies to on-order records.

Deleted bibs, callnumbers, copies, and patrons are retained for reporting purposes. Only patrons can be purged (by staff). "Deleted" items are more accurately described as "inactive." However, patrons can now be complete purged, however this isn't recommended as you lose historical data.

The system supports shared and floating items by collection. Item records can be added or removed from the collection group and can be updated in batch via buckets in the copy edit interface.

ACQ permissions control which workgroups have view/edit access to lineitem and catalog records while PO/PL and copy-level ownership and permission depths affect viewing in other, more location-specific interfaces.

The system supports the ability to transfer patron holds queue from one bibliographic record to another, singly or in batch, while preserving the original hold order. For example, if holds are placed on a title for which there are no copies now available, but a new edition is available, the holds are transferred in the order they were placed to the new bib record. This is located in Actions for this Record, "mark record for hold destination/transfer destination".

The system has a reporting view which allows staff to identify bibs (shows ISBNs) for which the last item was removed based on the date of removal. Report templates can be built from this view for external processes.

The system supports lineitem alerts, lineitem receive alerts, and lineitem detail alerts for EDI messaging.

The system supports the ability to exclude some types of items from patron hold limits. For example, holds that patrons have suspended do not count against a total maximum hold limit, if one has been set.

There is support for new, locally defined, cancel reasons for EDI. There is also support for EG interpretation of EDI defined cancellation standards.

The system supports the ability to send batches of orders to vendors, including orders for multiple accounts. The process of breaking outbound EDI messages into controlled and timed batch sizes is automated but settable to a specific, preferred, time interval.

The system supports the ability to FTP orders directly to vendors and receive acknowledgements and status reports from vendors. More specifically, the system supports push and pull of files via FTP, SFTP and SSH. This is not actually part of EDIFACT specs per se, and has the added advantage of also being used by other unrelated system processes.

The system supports MARC file import with PO data.

The OPAC accepts enhanced content from the following vendors: ChiliFresh, Content Café & Novelist. (note that these are subscription services)

You can set up vendor profiles and flag those that are active. Those that aren't can be saved for historical purposes.

The system supports the ability to "flag" vendor records for vendor who require pre-payment of purchase orders with a number of visual cues in the UI. During PO creation, the pre-payment flag in the form will show and pre-populate it's value with the value from the chosen provider. During PO activation, if prepayment is required, a confirmation dialog is inserted before sending the activate request. It indicates in the PO summary when a PO requires pre-payment.

The system supports sequential barcode generation for ease of receiving and processing of new items and easily changing large groups of barcodes. There is a choice to use auto generated barcodes in interfaces where they would normally be used (such as receiving). Some parameters about the barcode symbology may need to be entered in the admin interface to correctly calculate the barcodes.

The system supports the ability to manually select libraries to receive items when partial orders are received or when items come in multiple deliveries. Orders with multiple copies will have an owning library per copy, so staff can pick which copies to mark as received. This is handled by supporting the mark received operation on a per-copy basis. Staff can choose which copies and, by extension, which library, to process.

The system is compatible with Zebra Z4M thermal transfer printers.

The system supports the ability to create, format and print spine labels.

To configure, in the client choose Admin -> Local Administration -> Printer Settings Editor from the top-level menu. Then press the ""Use alternate print strategy (Custom/External Print)"" button. Then enter the print command along with the string literal string %receipt.txt% where a filename would be expected.

For example: COPY %receipt.txt% LPT1 /b or lpr -S servername -P printername %receipt.txt%

For generating the sample data files instead of actual printing, you could use a command like this to copy the raw text file to your desktop:

copy %receipt.txt% ""C:\Documents and Settings\phasefx\Desktop\receipt.txt""

And then rename the resulting receipt.txt file after each print job.

In the ACQ UI, there is a batch fund updater. When there is a given set of line items, the batch fund updater updates the fund for all attached copies in batch. This is located under Actions for this Record –> Apply Fund

The system has a configurable drop-down of alerts for line items that staff can control. The alerts result in a popup or other obvious marking in the UI when the items go through the receiving process. This configuration is found under the Admin menu in Acquisitions.

The system supports the ability to update order records at the receiving stage; the ability to receive partial orders and unreceive orders; and the order record is updated automatically when the balance of a partial order is received.

The system supports the ability to transfer item records from one bibliographic record to another.

The system supports a worksheet for each title received, to include title, call number, number of copies received, distribution, and processing notes. In addition to printing the worksheet, there is a dedicated interface that displays the contents of the worksheet. This can lead to the creation of good online summary pages, easily accessed by staff. Notice the little hand-writing-with-a-pen icon next to titles in the LI table.

The system supports the ability to easily scan over a "dummy" or placeholder barcode in a temporary, brief or on-order record by simply scanning the "real" barcode.

The system supports the import/export of MARC bibliographic and authority records via Vandelay. An option has been added to use the internal bib ID as the TCN for all records while retaining the OCLC number in the record. The authority import now matches bib import in overlay/merge functionality.

The system is fully compatible with OCLC Connexion for editing and transferring bibliographic and authority records (Z39.50).

The system supports the ability to create a "short bib" record pending creation of the full MARC record. Short bibs can be created from a lineitem search.

The system supports a utility to facilitate searching for full bibliographic records and create temporary "short" bibliographic records if no full records are found.

Added the ability to perform electronic receiving and invoicing as follows: ability to receive electronic packing slips and invoices by purchase order or invoice number; ability to edit number of copies, amount due, freight and service charges, and tax; ability to delete line items; ability to recalculate total amounts; ability to authorize payment within ILS.

System supports the ability to do both regular and generic or blanket invoicing (refers to invoices without a purchase order number, e.g., direct charges to a fund).

System supports simultaneous access to invoice interface.

System supports a number of fields including: date, invoice number, invoice type, shipping vendor name, billing vendor, purchase order number, title, author, number of copies ordered, number of copies paid or received, number of copies available for payment, number of copies being paid for, amount, notes, invoice subtotal, freight charge, service charge, tax, invoice total, & vendor order was placed with.

The system prevents overpayment in the invoice view page by linking invoices to PO/Lineitems.

Staff can print a list of invoices paid before/after a specified date. When searching for invoices in the unified search interface, there's now a button that will print a voucher for whichever invoices have checked checkboxes.

The system supports the ability to search invoices by number or vendor name, with links to vendors, and vendor records include links to invoice history.

Staff can retrieve a PO or lineitem and access all the related invoicing data.

The system supports reopening a closed invoice (example: an invoice was paid from the wrong fund; staff wants to go back and change the fund). There is a "Reopen" button, which requires permissions.

The system has the ability to pay a partial invoice for partial receipt of shipment, and then generate claims for the items that were not received. Also, the system supports invoicing extra copies when a vendor sends more copies than what staff ordered and staff decides to keep the extra copies.

Issues can be automatically moved to a configured shelving location upon receipt of the newer issue. This can be done on a per item basis and is based on the owning library of the copies.

When using full serials control, the default behavior for serials issue sorting and display in the holdings display will be reverse chronological order.

Staff can label serials issuances with easily identifiable text such as "YYYYMONTH" or "V.12 NO.1".

In serials receiving staff are able to choose which issues to receive and distribute to which locations.

Staff can add regular, supplemental, and index issues in the serials interface.

The system supports purchase alert query (aka holds ratio report, holds alert report) compares holds to items and flags titles that need more copies. The option exists to include inprint/out-of-print status from the bibliographic record. The system also handles the ability to add query results directly to selection lists, singly or in batch, and the ability to create order records directly from query results. This is handled by an interface for uploading a CSV file to generate a page of bib records that can have lineitems created from them to go into selection lists and/or POs.