What is Site Management?

If you manage a single site collection, you will only ever have information for your one site in the Sites management window; we call this the Union Site Record. However, Alexandria also has the ability to mange multiple collections stored within a single database; we call this a Centralized Catalog. In a Centralized Catalog environment, an operator must be able to quickly differentiate data belonging to one collection over another. In order to achieve this, our software embeds Patron and Item records with something we call a Site Code. All Centralized Catalogs have a Union Site Record within the list of Site Codes when logging into Alexandria as administrator. Typically the Union Site Record will be labeled as the school or district name that was registered with Alexandria. 

Difference Between a Union Site Record & a Site Code

This information is only applicable to organizations who utilize a Centralized Catalog for Alexandria. If you are on a single site license then your site is the Union Site Record.

A Union Site Record is a special purpose site, it does not operate like a normal site. It will not appear as a selection in Reseacher and any items assigned to it may only be checked out by System Patrons (Barcodes 1-100). It is used by Alexandria in two ways:

• As a place to assign Patron or Items records that do not have a designated site.
• Defining Preference default settings; when a new site is created the Preference settings from the Union Site are copied to the new site.

Site ID Codes are used by Alexandria in several ways:

• To identify the collection for which a copy belongs.
• To identify the site for which a patron belongs.
• To determine whether a book-droppped copy was returned to the correct location or if it needs to be placed in transit and returned to the owning library.
• To determine copy availability at particular locations when placing holds and reservations.
• To filter a patron's Researcher search results to display only a particular collection (or group of collections) for which they are interested.
• Other areas affected by Sites management include Subscriptions, Routes, Maps, and Bulletins. 

Sites Management Interface

If you manage a single site collection, you will only ever have information for your one site in Sites Management, referred to as the Union Site Record. However, Alexandria also has the ability to mange multiple collections stored within a single database called a Centralized Catalog. In a Centralized Catalog environment, an operator must be able to quickly differentiate data belonging to one collection over another. To achieve this, our software embeds Patron and Item records with a Site Code. All Centralized Catalogs have a Union Site Record within the list of Site Codes when logging into Alexandria as administrator. Typically, the Union Site Record will be labeled as the school or district name that was registered with Alexandria.

Sites Management is where you configure or create the Site ID Codes and provide information pertaining to either your single school or each of the individual schools in your Centralized Catalog. You can view, modify, add, and remove site information by using the current record fields and the commands in the Actions menu. By default, only operators with District or Library Administrator security levels can configure site information; however, any operator with the appropriate Security Group and Site Access settings can select the site in the Site dropdown menus found in Patrons Management, Items Management, and other places within the program. Valid and available sites are always pulled from here.

Your initial (or single) site record, including the default library name and address, is set by your registration information. Your address, city, state, postal code, country, telephone, and fax data is used for return addresses on patron notices, for information shown on Researcher Workstations, and is included in emails sent to COMPanion's Customer Support team. This address information will also be used as defaults when creating a new patron if no city, state, postal code, or country information is specified. 

The Sites management window consists of a similar two-panel layout found in many of Alexandria’s main management windows.

• Site Records List. The left-hand side of the Sites management window belongs to the Site Records List, used for selecting the site you wish to modify and other related tools. This section is only appears for Centralized Catalog catalogs.

• Current Site Record pane. The larger, right-hand portion of the Sites management window consists of the Current Site Record pane where the currently selected site record is displayed, in full, along with associated tools in the Actions menu that help perform operations on said record.

Current Record Pane

The right section of Sites Management is dedicated to the current site record, which displays full details for the site selected from the Site Records List pane on the left.

Toolbar

Lock/Unlock. Click the padlock to unlock the record for editing.

Actions

• • Remove Site. Permanently delete the selected site.

• • Site Record Counts. View site record data. Example

Operations Management. Go to Operations Management to view and download your finished reports.

Support. Having trouble? This will open support documentation for this topic in another tab.

Site Record Settings

Administrator Name

Enter the name of the current site's administrator or head librarian here. This name will be added to the bottom of form letters.

Address Information

Enter the site address, city, state, postal code, and country for the library. This data is used for return addresses on patron notices, for information shown on the Researcher Workstation, and is included in emails sent to COMPanion's Customer Support team. It is also used as the default information when creating a new patron who doesn't have city, state, postal code, or country information specified.

Site ID Code

This is used to tag various record types, including Patrons and Items. Other areas affected by the Site ID Code include Orders, Budgets, Vendors, Subscriptions, Routes, Maps, and Bulletins.

Site Name

Enter the name of your site (e.g. COMPanion Demonstration Library). The union site name is registration-controlled and can not be changed; Please contact the COMPanion Sales department at (800)-347-6439 if you need to change your union site name

Administrator Title

The site administrator's title. For example, Librarian, Director of Media, Library Specialist, or Teacher. This title can also be included on form letters.

Telephone

Provide the telephone number for the site's main desk or office.

Email

This is the site's email address, which is used as the return mail address for overdue notices and other email messages sent by Alexandria. To guarantee that your email notifications are being sent, please check the list of requirements located under your Email settings. You must enter a valid email address to use most email services, including COMPanion's Customer Support services.

Fax

If applicable, enter the site's fax number.

Researcher Notice

Any text you enter in this field will be displayed when you click on the Site Information link in your Alexandria Researcher. Describe your library hours (e.g. 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday) with any combination of numbers and hours. If you decide to leave this field blank, the text “Library Hours Not Specified” will appear in the Site Information section of your Researcher Workstation.

Notes

An optional notes field where you can provide any supplementary information about your managed sites.