Item records are used in Voyager for circulation and inventory control.
Each "volume" has its own item record. In this case, the meaning of "volume" is not bibliographic, but physical: an individual piece, whether a single volume book, a bound volume of periodical issues, a single periodical issue bound (or temp-bound, or even unbound), a CD jewel case with one or more discs, a folder containing a CD-ROM and instruction booklet, etc.
Item records are not created for current issues of periodicals that are intended for later binding or will not be permanently retained.
Item records linked to a holdings record can be retrieved by clicking on the "Get Items" button on the Voyager Cataloging toolbar, or by going to the menu selection Record | Retrieve Items. If only one item record is linked to the MFHD record, that item will display; if two or more item records are linked, a list will display; if no items are linked, the message "No items found for this location" will display. (When retrieving item records from a bibliographic record, and two or more holdings records are linked, the system will first display a list of MFHD records to choose from.)
From a list of items, one or more can then be opened by selecting and clicking on "OK" or pressing the Enter key.
A list of item records can also be found in the entire tree display of the record hierarchy, by clicking on the "Hierarchy" button or going to the menu selection Record | Show Associated Records. To see the items for a particular MFHD record, click on the plus sign for the desired holdings in the MFHD ID column.
Items can also be retrieved by barcode. Use the menu selection Record | Retrieve by barcode, and scan or type in the complete barcode number.
In the appropriate MFHD record, click on the "New Items" button or go to the menu selection Record | Create Items. Follow the instructions for data input under Create item record in SCP 59: Serial Added Volumes.
New item records are added at the bottom of the list of existing items. Items can be resquenced in the item list by selecting items to be moved and clicking on the "Move before" or "Move after" button.
Occasionally items may need to be moved from one MFHD record to another. Items can only be relinked one by one (although there is a macro to speed up the process).
In the item record to be relinked, go the the menu selection Record | Relink to a different holding. Type in the MFHD record number and click on the "OK" button or press the Enter key. The Location and Call # fields will be updated to show the location code and call number from the new MFHD record. (If the new MFHD is linked to a different bibliographic record, the Title field will also be updated.)
A Macro Express macro has been created to help with relinking large numbers of item records. The macro can be found in the following file:
L:\SERIALS\Voyager macros\relinkitems.mex
To use the macro for relinking, first open the items to be relinked. Invoke the macro, and tell it how many items are to be relinked and what the new MFHD record number is. The macro will then set about doing the relinking for you.
Caution: While the macro is running, do not do any other work on your computer. Keep an eye on the process, because any interruption (e.g., a Meeting Maker reminder popup, or an unexpected delay in computer processing, etc.) may cause unintended results. Timing delays have been built into the macro to allow sufficient time for the Voyager server and our local PCs to work with the records.
While our desktop computers have enough memory to hold a very large number of item records open at one time, the number of open records has an effect on processing speed. It is best to typically work with no more than 20 or 30 records at a time when using the macro.
After relinking, it may be necessary to resequence the items to get them in the proper order. Alternatively, when relinking a large number of items, it is acceptable to put all of the items in reverse order during the relinking process. If working in two or more "batches" of items, it is necessary to select the items to be relinked from the bottom of the list of items instead of the top. (For example, 100 items need to be relinked. Scroll to the bottom of the list of items, select the last 20 records that need to be relinked, and run the macro. Then go back to the list, scroll to the bottom, again select the last 20 records that need to be relinked, and run the macro again. Repeat until all desired items are relinked.)
DOCUMENT HISTORY:
Issued January 31, 2007 (KMR)
Supersedes: SCP 76: Creating Linked Item Records for Serials (July 29, 1985); SCP 76a: Setting Loan Codes
in Item Records (July 30, 1985); SCP 76c: Relinking Linked Item Records (July 30, 1985)