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Less Scan In operations

Despite the fact that Work Orders (WO) can be linked to a Circulation Desk, working with Work Order Departments and Circulation Desks in a same session can still cause many Scan In operations for the staff.

There might be indeed several scan-in operations before an item becomes finally indicated as available (on shelf) on Alma/Primo. This is particularly the case for smaller libraries or library branches when most of the operations are made in the front office, at the library desk itself.

We would like to reduce the number of scan-in operations so that for example at the end of an acquisition WO (receiving process fully completed) or when a digitization request has been completed (email sent to requester), the item becomes automatically available again (on shelf) without scanning in again the item (under Fulfillment > Resource Requests > Scan In Items). This option should be configurable at the library level (not at the institution one); this would allow flexibility in working with Work Orders for libraries and could significantly reduce the number of Scan In actions at a same desk.

70 votes
François Renaville shared this idea  ·   ·  Admin →
Completed  ·  Dana Moshkovits responded  · 

As part of the November release you can now set relation rules between libraries so that transit for reshelving will not be required between certain libraries, departments, and circulation desks. This reduces redundant work effort by not automatically putting items in transit for reshelving when the libraries are close to each other. This does not affect other transit types, such as hold shelf, work order, and processing.
A new link, Reshelve Without Transit Rules, is now available in the Fulfillment configuration menu. By default, a rule is created with no input parameter and an output parameter set to false to maintain current functionality.

for more information see: https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/030Fulfillment/080Configuring_Fulfillment/020Library?mt-draft=true#Configuring_Reshelve_Without_Transit_Rules

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  • Anonymous commented  · 

    May I ask if there is an ETA for this development?

  • Anonymous commented  · 

    Is there an ETA for this development?

  • JMC commented  · 

    Thank you! Our circulation students well be SO happy!

  • François Renaville commented  · 

    Thanks, Moshe, this is really great news!
    When you write “We plan to enable setting up a 'No Transit' relation between libraries, or between libraries and work order departments.”, can your confirm your solution based on a new relationship will also be effective when a Work Order Department is directly managed at the Circulation Desk level, like when checkbox ‘Supports Digitization’ is checked?

  • C Havely commented  · 

    This is great news! I like the idea of setting up the "No Transit" relationship between work order departments to. Thanks for that idea Moshe...

  • AdminMoshe Shechter (Alma Senior Product Manager, Ex Libris) commented  · 

    Hi,

    We have identified several use cases where scanning an item in one location should not require another scan in at another location in order for the item to be considered available. A simple example may be where libraries are physically next to each other (at times two floors of the same building). Putting an item scanned in at one library in transit to the other causes redundant scan in actions. Use cases involving moving of items from work order departments to permanent library shelving locations have also been described.

    I believe these use cases fall in line with the use case you are describing.

    We plan to enable setting up a 'No Transit' relation between libraries, or between libraries and work order departments. This means that items that would normally require a second scan in will no longer require this second scan in in order to be considered available.

    Thank you for a great idea !

    Moshe

  • JMC commented  · 

    AMEN!!!!

  • Erin Grant commented  · 

    Although we are a larger library, the option to eliminate some scan in operations would still very much help alleviate bottlenecks we are having with several of our technical services workflows post migration.

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