more efficient workflow for cataloging pre-cats

[Jason Etheridge]

Currently the workflow for cataloging a pre-cat item goes something like this:

1) Retrieve the destination bib record
2) select Actions for this Record -> Holdings Maintenance
3) create a volume if necessary
4) select desired volume and then Actions for Selected Rows -> Mark Volume as Item Transfer Destination
5) pull up the Item Status interface and scan your pre-cat barcode into it
6) select the item and then Actions for Catalogers -> Transfer Items to Previously Marked Volume

It would be faster if staff could re-use a pre-cat barcode in a normal Add Items workflow and have the needed transfer happen behind the scenes so that circulation history was still preserved. Some libraries resort to deleting such items and then re-using the barcodes, which loses the history.

I don't have any code to offer for this currently.

[Michele Morgan (mmorgan)]

Setting this to Confirmed. The current workflow as Jason describes is quite cumbersome and not intuitive. If the normal Add Items/Volumes workflow could be made precat aware, it would be an immense improvement. The workflow could be something like this:

- Locate or create bib record
- Locate or create Volume and Item

When a barcode that exists in a precataloged item is entered into the copy editor, a message would pop up displaying the barcode, the dummy title, author and isbn, and provide an option to use the precat item.

If the user opts to use the item, it would be transferred to the existing or newly created volume.

If the user opts not to use the precat item, another barcode would need to be entered in order to save the item.

[Mary Llewellyn (mllewell)]

The current method is so cumbersome, we've instructed our libraries to delete the pre-cat barcode when the item is returned and start from scratch when cataloging with that barcode.