Salutations!

Today’s Topic: Materials Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time, or, No you can't add that book/DVD yet!

Excel tip: AutoSum

Remember to look closely at the packing slips of books/DVDs/AudioBooks that you purchase before you make your items available to patrons!! Frequently, there is an "On Sale date" or "Street Sale date" and it is illegal to release those items to the public before that date. Read More...

Publishers designate a specific date when titles may go on sale to the public.  This is to level the playing field so that small retailers (and libraries) aren't at a disadvantage when a long-awaited title is released. They ship the materials to distributors (and libraries) ahead of the date so that they have time to process the materials and prep displays, etc. But the retailer (or library) is not allowed to make the title available until the "On Sale Date."

Who remembers when the last Harry Potter novel was released?  Retailers (and libraries) opened at midnight July 31st, 2016. There were long lines of people waiting, hoping to get a copy that first day! Wild release parties with witches, wizards, and muggles, oh my!

So, when you are ordering materials for your library be sure to check the packing list and/or the publisher's website:

If you are going to add your copy to the database, you need to check it out to your library's IN-PROCESS user (IP-XX) or leave it ON-ORDER or somehow isolate it so that the system can't snag it to fill a hold. See "HELLO MOLLY A MEMOIR" in the above packing list? It has an On Sale Date of 4/12/2022.  Say you add your copy today w/o isolating it. There are 4 people waiting for it.  If it gets snagged for a hold, the patron will get notified, but you can't check it out to them until 4/12. By that time their hold will have expired.

If you look up "Hello Molly" in WorkFlows, you will see that both libraries processed it perfectly!!  Oshkosh hasn't actually barcoded their copy yet--still just the ON-ORDER status. Ripon correctly added their copy--barcode and all--and then checked it out to IP-RI, their InProcess user. 

Ripon can discharge their copy on 4/12 and it will be ready to fill the holds! 

Excel tip: AutoSum, or Alt = 

Say you have an Excel file of statistics. You want it to display the row totals and the column totals. You could put the Sum formula in one cell and drag the formula down the end of the rows and do the same thing along the bottom to total the columns, but there's an even easier way!!  Look at this table:

See how I selected 1 extra column and 1 extra row? Now all I have to do is press the ALT key and the = key. ALT =  and -- Hey, Presto!!  Instant totals!!

That's it for this week...

Share & Enjoy!
Karla