Item Type Wizard
The primary purpose of the Item Type policy is to identify an object’s circulation characteristics. Through the SirsiDynix Symphony policies, the library indicates such things as the loan period and fines for a particular Item Type. Additionally, the Item Type policy may be used to denote an object’s special characteristics for the benefit of the patron using the standard catalog, or for statistical analysis. The library establishes what terms identify material types in policies. Each Item Type policy establishes the name of the type, the number of holds that may be placed on it before triggering the use of an alternate loan period, and the booking characteristics of the item if it may be reserved through the Materials Booking module. Item Types identify what kind of material is housed in each of the permanent home locations. Identification of Item Types may be general or specific.
The delivered UNKNOWN item type should not be removed.
On SirsiDynix Symphony K12 systems, this wizard is referred to as the Item Group wizard.
From the List Policies window, you can create, display, modify, copy, or remove the Item Type policies. Click Close to exit the wizard.
Attributes
The Item Type wizard displays the following attributes.
| • | Name |
| • | Description |
| • | Hold Threshold |
| • | Booking Profile |
| • | Reservation Profile |
| • | Floating |
| • | Multi Circ |
| • | Saleable Item |
| • | Circulation Tax |
| • | Limit Number of Checkouts for this Item Type Across All Libraries |
| • | Maximum Number of Checkouts for this Item Type |
This attribute uniquely identifies a specific material type of an object. This name is ten characters or less, and may not include spaces or punctuation, except for dash (-), underscore (_), and dollar sign ($). Additionally, the pipe character (|) may not be used. The Item Type name associates an item with a Billing Structure and a Loan Period through the Circulation Rule policy.
This attribute provides more information about the policy and its use by the library. The description may be up to 60 characters in length. Although the Description attribute may contain spaces and punctuation, the pipe character (|) cannot be used.
If this Item Type may be circulated, the number of holds may be specified at which an alternate loan period will be used. If the number of holds on an item exceeds the Hold Threshold for that Item Type, the Alternate Loan Period from the Circulation Rule is used instead of the Loan Period. Typically, this attribute is used to shorten the loan period of high-demand items. Type a number from 1-25,000 for the hold threshold; the default value is 25,000.
The Booking Profile attribute identifies each Item Type’s interaction with the Materials Booking module. This attribute contains a valid Booking Profile policy for Item Types which may be booked, or is set to UNKNOWN for items which may not be booked. Only items with an associated Booking Profile policy may have a booking calendar established and have bookings on that calendar. Select a Booking Profile policy from the list. Use the Booking Profile Policy helper (Booking Profile Wizard) to create new booking profiles or modify existing profiles, if needed.
The Reservation Profile attribute identifies each item type's interaction with the Academic Reserve Reservations feature. This attribute contains a valid Reservation Profile policy for item types for which reservations can be made, or is blank or set to NONE for items on which reservations cannot be made. Only items with an associated Reservation Profile policy may have a reservation calendar established and have reservations on that calendar. Select a Reservation Profile policy from the drop-down list.
The Floating attribute allows you to indicate whether or not you want items of this type to be included in a “Floating Collection.” Select the Floating check box to set this attribute. If an item is assigned an Item Type policy with the Floating attribute selected, the act of discharging the item at a different library will not put the item in transit to its original owning library, but rather, the system will change the owning library of the item to the discharging library. This will not occur if the item is needed for a hold, booking, or reserve at any library. For more information about floating collections, see FAQs: Handling Floating Collections.
Note: For the floating item processing to work, the Global Configuration policy, Automatic Transit of Items for Circulation, must be set to automatically transit items.
You should take care in setting the Call Number Maintenance and Item Maintenance attributes of the Library policy if using the floating item feature. In spite of Call Number and Item Maintenance settings, the floating items will automatically be transferred to the discharging library
This attribute is not available if your system is configured to use the Float Items by Library Group feature.
The Multi Circ attribute indicates whether transactions for multiple-piece items of this type should be recorded in circulation statistics as one transaction for each piece, or as one transaction for the entire multiple-piece item. If this attribute is selected, the “Item has multiple circulating pieces” prompt displays during checkout for the user to enter the number of pieces. The Number of Pieces field in the item record is checked if the Multi Circ attributed is selected, but the value from the item record does not display in the “Item has multiple circulating pieces” prompt. By default, the Multi Circ check box is cleared.
For example, if the Multi Circ attribute is selected for the KIT item type policy, and a user checks out kit that contains three pieces, the “Item has multiple circulating pieces” prompt displays. The Circulation staff member types a 3 at the prompt and completes the checkout. WorkFlows records the checkout as three checkout transactions, one checkout transaction for each piece. If the Multi Circ attribute is not selected for the KIT item type policy, no prompt displays, and the checkout of the three-piece kit is recorded as a single checkout transaction.
This attribute indicates whether items of this type are eligible for sale within cash management transactions. By default, the Saleable Item check box is cleared.
Note: The Saleable Item option does not display in libraries using ISAM systems because Cash Management functionality is not supported for ISAM systems in 3.7.1.
This attribute identifies a valid Circulation Tax policy for the selected item type. The Circulation Tax policy is used to calculate the tax on sale items. This field can remain blank or be set to NOTAX for no-tax item types. Select a Circulation Tax policy from the list. Use the Circulation Tax Helper to create new Circulation Tax policies or modify existing Circulation Tax policies, if needed.
Note: The Circulation Tax option does not display in this wizard in libraries using ISAM systems because Cash Management functionality is not supported for ISAM systems in SirsiDynix Symphony version 3.7.1.
Limit Number of Checkouts for this Item Type Across All Libraries
This attribute indicates whether the number of checkouts for this item type should be restricted to a particular number for each patron across all libraries in the system.
If you enable this attribute, the Maximum Number of Checkouts for this Item Type attribute becomes available. There, you can specify the maximum number of checkouts allowed for the item type.
This attribute works together with the "Maximum Charges" attribute in any associated Circulation Rule policies. For example, if a patron with five DVDs already checked out wants to check out three more DVDs and the "Maximum Charges" value for the applicable circulation rule is ten (10), but, in the DVD Item Type policy, the "Limit number of checkouts for this item type across all libraries" attribute has been enabled and the "Maximum number of checkouts for this item type" attribute has been set to five (5), the patron won't be able to check out any more DVDs from any of the libraries in the system because of the limit set by the "Maximum number of checkouts for this item type" attribute.
Conversely, if a patron with five DVDs already checked out wants to check out three more DVDs and the "Maximum Charges" value for the applicable circulation rule is five (5), but, in the DVD Item Type policy, the "Limit number of checkouts for this item type across all libraries" attribute has been enabled and the "Maximum number of checkouts for this item type" attribute has been set to seven (7), the patron won't be able to check out any more DVDs from any of the libraries in the system because of the limit set by the "Maximum Charges" attribute.
If this attribute is not enabled, SirsiDynix Symphony uses the default behavior to determine whether or not a patron can check out an item, which is to use the value in the "Maximum Charges" attribute of the Circulation Rule policy associated with the checked out item's Item Type policy.
Maximum Number of Checkouts for this Item Type
This attribute specifies the maximum number of checkouts a patron can have that belong to this item type.
Note: This attribute only has effect after you enable the Limit Number of Checkouts for this Item Type Across All Libraries attribute.
Related topics
Cataloging Configuration Wizards
Circulation Configuration Wizards