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The root page ALEX:Items could not be found in space Alexandria.
Blog Posts
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Blog: Items: a few things you may not know...
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Apr 12, 2023
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Blog: Searching by Subject
created by
Nov 16, 2022
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Blog: Assigning policies–the complete guide
created by
Mar 23, 2022
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Blog: Title Assistant to the rescue!
created by
Jan 27, 2022
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Blog: Overdue Items Notices? We've got you cover-ed
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Nov 24, 2021
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Blog: Search smarter!—Combine search results
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Oct 13, 2021
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Blog: Using Contents Notes
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Sep 23, 2021
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Blog: Introducing... FAQs!
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Jul 07, 2021
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Blog: Changing call numbers—helpful utilities
created by
Mar 03, 2021
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Blog: From our librarians—Reusable book menu cards
created by
Nov 18, 2020
Getting ready to catalog? Take a look at our recommended steps and helpful tips! Whether this is your first or time adding items to Alexandria, we've got you covered.
Prepare
Make the process easier by making a plan and getting to know your tools.
Catalog
Learn how to add books, ebooks, and equipment!
Enhance
Keep your catalog clean and enhance your records.
Before cataloging items, there are a few things you should do to prepare.
Familiarize yourself with Items Management and Researcher
Items Management is where you manage title records and copy records. Title records contain general information about the item that is the same for every copy. This includes author, publisher, subjects, Lexile, and more. Each title can have one or more copies. Copy records represent each of the title in your collection; each copy is assigned an individual barcode number. "Items" may refer to either or both.
Your license determines how many title and copy records you can have; girculation to see
Once you've added titles and copies to Items Management, patrons will be able to search for them in Researcher. Learning how Alexandria's various search interfaces work will help you make your catalog more searchable for patrons.
Call Numbers
Barcodes
You'll also want to decide on a standard format for your barcodes. Here are some resources to help you:
Catalog
It's time to add those items! Here are some general in
Catalog books
There are two places you can add items in Alexandria:
Items Management
Add titles and copies individually through Items Management.
- If you want to skip Title Assistant to manually add a title—equipment, for example—simply click Search or hit <enter> on your keyboard. This will bring up a blank title record.
- The MARC View Editor allows you to view and modify the entire MARC record for a title. You can also use Item Editors, which allow you to customize the MARC record for an item without having to toggle to the MARC View Editor.
Import
Using an import is the easier option if you need to add a lot of records at once. , you can import a bunch of items all at o
Catalog other resources (ebooks, Chromebooks, etc)
Cataloging non-book items You can manually add other resources in Items Management and/or import ebooks.
Items Management
- In Items Management, add a new item by clicking the plus icon at the bottom left corner of the window.
- Click Search or hit <enter> on your keyboard to skip Title Assistant. This will bring up a blank title record.
- Next, fill out the record. Use the Title, Author, and Publisher fields for what would be the best equivalent. For example, in the Title field, you might type "Chromebook" or whatever term that represents your specific equipment. Similarly, you can use other fields to add other important information; this information will help you reference the item throughout Alexandria, select it in Reports, or find it in Researcher.
The Copy tab is where you add information unique to individual items, such as the serial number. Keep in mind that you'll want to barcode non-book items the same as you would a book, so be sure to not use the item's serial number as its barcode.
- We suggest initially only adding one title and one copy. With this first item, you can conduct tests in Alexandria to see how the item appears where you plan to look for and use it For example, you may want to run some reports to make sure you can select the item and that the information is where you'd like it to be. When adding a lot of data, it's always helpful to start small and test things out.
Chromebook title record example |
Chromebook copy record example |
When adding non-book items, you'll also want to create new policies and mediums to accommodate these new and different items. With new policies, you will be able to better manage longer or unusual check out times, increase replacement track usage, and more. And with new mediums, you will be able to more easily get information through reports, find the items in Items Management and Researcher, and manipulate the data for these items with utilities.
Import
If you have a tab-delimited file or MARC/MicroLIF records from a vendor, you can also import ebooks.
Modify records
You may need to make some to your records after adding them.
- Mediums in Alexandria. Learn the differences between General Material Designation (GMD) and Resource Description & Access (RDA) and switch from one to the other if necessary.
- Subjects. We recommend looking for your newly added items in Search and making sure they're showing up how/when you expect them to. If not, you may need to add more subjects.
- Don't Show in Researcher. If you don't want certain items—such as equipment or teacher-only materials—to show in Researcher, you'll want to make sure Don't Show in Researcher is turned on for those title records. You can turn this on for individual titles in Items Management or use the Hide Titles in Search utility to turn it on for multiple titles at once. Those who need to can still view hidden items in Researcher by searching while holding down Option / Alt on their keyboard.
Print labels
You can print labels for both cataloged and uncataloged items.
- Unused Barcodes report. If you receive new items that don't have assigned barcodes yet, run this report with the Barcode Labels (3x10) format to generate and print some unused barcodes. Then, simply scan the unused barcodes as you enter new copy records.
Keep your catalog clean and updated.
Keep your data clean
- Routinely weed out items in your library to make room for new items.
- Standardize your series information to make items searchable.
- In addition to finding new titles, Title Assistant can also enhance titles already in your collection.
- Use Sneak Peek to get updated cover art, reviews, and summaries.
- Look into getting the BestMARC add-on to enhance your records. This can make your catalog more helpful and discoverable by adding reading program information, converting to RDA format, fixing tags, genrefying, and more!