RCLS: ILS Services: Inventories

Inventory Steps

1. Decide what collection(s) you can reasonably inventory (i.e. scan or key every barcode of items on the shelf) in a period of 1-10 days. Attempting to stretch out the inventory of a particular collection longer than 10 days will introduce a greater likelihood of items being checked out before they are inventoried.
2. Use the Symphony Inventory Information form at right to let the ILS staff know what collection(s) you will inventory and the exact start date of the Inventory. They will run the WorkFlows “Set Inventory Date” report that stamps the inventory start date on all items in the target collections that are currently checked out and let you know when you can begin.
3. Inventory barcodes of items using the MobileStaff Inventory option; or in WorkFlows using the Inventory Item wizard. Note: Do not use MobileStaff's OFFLINE MODE when conducting an inventory. Doing so may cause the loss of inventory data.
4. Wait for Overnight Processing and run the Not-Inventoried report in BlueCloud Analytics. If you need assistance with this, contact the RCLS ILS Department.
5. Search shelves again for the items listed on the report. If not found, either manually check them out to the nnnDISCARD user or request that RCLS batch change them to DISCARD.
6. For detailed instructions, see the Additional Resources box below.

Do we need to inventory new items as they arrive?

RCLS ILS Staff is working with ByWater Solutions to make various changes to item records as the data is migrated to the new system. One of the things we hope to do is to automatically update the "Date Last Inventoried" field to match the "Item Created" field if the "Item Created" field is greater than the date we started systemwide inventory (12/12/23). If you are adding new items to a collection that you've already inventoried and curated, you do not need to inventory the new items.

What about rented or borrowed collections?

The inventory process is designed to keep track of and account for permanent collection items over their lifetime. There is little value in inventorying rented or borrowed items (such as books from McNaughton or temporary items loaned by other organizations) because 1) they have pre-determined short shelf lives and 2) these collections are typically accounted for in external documents such as contracts or vendor invoices. There is little danger of these items becoming "ghost items" if you follow your library's procedure for removing rented book records from the ILS when they are sent back. 

Caveat: If these rented books share a home location with permanent items, they will be inventoried as staff scan items in that home location. There is no harm in this and it's likely not worth identifying and skipping those items manually.