Ordering materials
Introduction
Acquisitions allows you to order materials, track the expenditure of your collections funds, track invoices and set up policies for manual claiming. In this chapter, we’re going to be describing how to use the most essential functions of acquisitions in the Evergreen system.
When should libraries use acquisitions?
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When you want to track spending of your collections budget.
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When you want to use Evergreen to place orders electronically with your vendors.
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When you want to import large batches of records to quickly get your on-order titles into the system.
If your library simply wants to add on-order items to the catalog so that patrons can view and place holds on titles that have not yet arrived, acquisitions may be more than you need. Adding those on-order records via cataloging is a simpler option that works well for this use case.
Below are the basic administrative settings to be configured to get started with acquisitions. At a minimum, a library must configure Funding Sources, Funds, and Providers to use acquisitions.
Managing Funds
Please see the Fund Administration documentation for information about setting up Funding Sources, Funds, and Fund Tags.
Ordering
Providers (Required)
Providers are the vendors from whom you order titles.
Please see the Providers documentation for information about setting up Providers.
Distribution Formulas (Optional)
If you are ordering for a multi-branch library system, distribution formulas are a useful way to specify the number of items that should be distributed to specific branches and item locations.
Please see the Distribution Forumals documentation for information about setting up Distribution Formulas.
Helpful acquisitions Library Settings
There are several acquisitions Library Settings available that will help with acquisitions workflow. These settings can be found at Administration → Local Administration → Library Settings Editor.
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Default circulation modifier - Automatically applies a default circulation modifier to all of your acquisitions items. Useful if you use a specific circulation modifier for on-order items.
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Default copy location - Automatically applies a default item location (e.g. On Order) to acquisitions items.
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Temporary barcode prefix - Applies a unique prefix to the barcode that is automatically generated during the acquisitions process.
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Temporary call number prefix - Applies a unique prefix to the start of the call number that is automatically generated during the acquisitions process.
Preparing for order record loading
If your library is planning to upload order records in a batch, you need to add some information to your provider records so that Evergreen knows how to map the item data contained in the order record.
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Retrieve the record for the provider that has supplied the order records by selecting Administration → Acquisitions Administration → Providers. Alternatively, you can access this from Acquisitions → Provider Search.
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Double-click the Provider name in the results grid to retrieve the Provider.
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Select the Holdings Definitions tab.
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Add the MARC tag that contains your holdings data in the Holdings Tag field.
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To map the tag’s subfields to the appropriate copy data, select the New Holding Subfield button. Add the appropriate subfield and name, and select Save.
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If your vendor is sending other data in a MARC tag that needs to be mapped to a field in acquisitions, you can do so by selecting the Attribute Definitions tab. As an example, if you need to import the PO Name, you could set up an attribute definition by adding an XPath similar to:
code => purchase_order xpath => //*[@tag="962"]/*[@code="p"] Is Identifier => false
where 962 is the holdings tag and p is the subfield that contains the PO Name.
Preparing to send electronic orders from Evergreen
If your library wants to transmit electronic order information to a vendor, you will need to configure your server to use EDI. You need to install the EDI translator and EDI scripts on your server by following the instructions in the command line system administration manual.
Configure your provider’s EDI information by selecting Administration → Acquisitions Administration → EDI Accounts. Alternatively, you can add a new EDI Account from the EDI tab in the Provider Details interface. Click New EDI Account Button. Give the account a name in the Label box.
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Host is the vendor-assigned FTP/SFTP/SSH hostname.
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Username is the vendor-assigned FTP/SFTP/SSH username.
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Password is the vendor-assigned FTP/SFTP/SSH password.
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Account This field enables you to add a supplemental password for entry to a remote system after log in has been completed. This field is optional for the ILS but may be required by your provider.
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Owner is the organizational unit who owns the EDI account
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Last Activity is the date of last activity for the account
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Provider is a link to the codes for the Provider record.
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Path is the path on the vendor’s server where Evergreen will deposit its outgoing order files.
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Incoming Directory is the path on the vendor’s server where Evergreen will retrieve incoming order responses and invoices.
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Vendor Account Number is the Vendor assigned account number.
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Vendor Assigned Code is usually a sub-account designation. It can be used with or without the Vendor Account Number.
You now need to add this EDI Account and the SAN code to the provider’s record.
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Select Administration → Acquisitions Administration → Providers. Alternatively, you can access this from Acquisitions → Provider Search.
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Double-click the Provider name in the results grid to retrieve the Provider.
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Select the account you just created in the EDI Default field.
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Add the vendor-provided SAN code to the SAN field.
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Select Save to save your changes.
The last step is to add your library’s SAN code to Evergreen.
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Select Administration → Server Administration → Organizational Units.
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Select your library from the organizational hierarchy in the left pane.
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Click the Addresses tab and add your library’s SAN code to the SAN field.