Editing Information about an Item Group

Item Group Editor lets you make permanent or temporary changes in your database by changing the information in a specific field for multiple items all at once. Once you choose the items for your group, you can make changes in the items’ cataloging information. If the changes are temporary and you want to restore the original information at some later date, make sure that you archive the original information before making any changes. (For instructions, see Archiving Information about an Item Group.) When you edit item information in Item Group Editor, the new information becomes part of your current library database.

You can use Item Group Editor to edit information in these fields for a group of items:

Item Type
Location
Collection
Call Type
Call No.
Source
Price
Item Note
Item Status
Internal Note

If you archive an item status of “i” (Checked In) or “s” (Shelving Cart) and you change it to any other status, the restore command cannot return the status to “i” or “s”.

Item Group Editor also lets you edit archived data. However, because archived data is information that you are holding to restore later, you should edit archived data only after careful thought and planning.

Here is an example of how you might edit archived data. If you want to set all Halloween materials to a shorter circulation period for the month of October, you can create a group named “Halloween” and archive its data. Then you can change the ITYPEs of the items in the group to reflect the shorter circulation period and change the call numbers to direct users to the display case. Later, you may decide that you want to include only Halloween videos in your Halloween group. You can restore the archived data for the original group, choose only the videos to create a new Halloween group, and re‑archive the new Halloween group data, replacing the original archived data. You must change the ITYPE status and call number for the new Halloween group again and re-save the change. The ITYPE changes that you made in the first group change have been restored and are no longer in effect. If you saved those changes in a separate group with no archived data associated with it, you should delete that group since it now contains saved data that is no longer archived—only the new Halloween group information is archived. If you do not restore the first Halloween group’s archived data before you create the new Halloween group and re‑archive the new group’s data under the same name (Halloween), you lose the original call numbers and ITYPE of all the items in the original group except the videos.

Remember that archived groups contain original information that you want to restore at a later date. Use caution when editing archived groups.

To edit information about an item group

1 Do one of these options to display an item group in the List Item Group Editor window:
If you have not already created a group, create one. (For instructions, see Creating an Item Group.)
If you have previously created an item group, or want to use an existing group, do these steps:
Choose Group, Retrieve Group.

Horizon displays the Retrieve Group dialog box.

Click Groups to choose from a list of existing groups.
Choose the group that you want to display.
2 If you are making temporary changes, make sure that you archive the group information. (For instructions, see Archiving Information about an Item Group.)
3 Highlight the items whose information you want to change. (To highlight all items in the group, choose Edit, Select All.)
4 Click Edit.

Horizon asks if you want to make a batch change to all the selected records.

If you have no items highlighted, Horizon displays the edit window for the item that the select arrow was pointing to when you clicked Edit.

5 Click OK.

Horizon displays an Item Group Editor window:

6 Enter any information that you want to change for all selected items in the group.

If you are not sure what information should go in a field, check with your system administrator.

7 Save your changes.
8 If you plan to make other changes to the group at a later date (other than restoring the original data), do these steps:
a Reselect the items that you changed.
b Choose Group, Create Group to save the group with the first set of changes.

Horizon opens the Create Group dialog box:

If you have previously retrieved or saved a group during this session, Horizon displays the name of that group in the Group Name field.

c Do one of these options:
Enter a new name for the group in the Group Name field.

You can add a date as part of the name to help you keep your groups organized.

Click Groups to choose from a list of existing groups.

Note: If you use an existing group name to save your new group, Horizon replaces the existing group. You cannot recover any original information contained in that group. However, if the existing group references archived material, Horizon does not let you overwrite it; instead, Horizon returns you to the Create Group dialog box so that you can choose a different name.

d Click OK.

Horizon returns to the List Item Group Editor window.

 


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