Re: The use of I-Types when setting up Millennium

[Mieko Yamaguchi <iss053 at bangor dot ac dot uk>]

Mandy,

Apologies for not replying to this earlier.  I know you posted another set
of questions in the light of responses from others but if it's ok I'd
like to reply to your original questions.

As you know a matrix of I-type, P-type and Location (in the item record)
determines the Loan rule.  You can use all three elements (as we do) or if
you don't have too many different loan rules you can only use two elements
(P-type and Location) as our partner library in the consortium does.

The OPAC usually diplays the Location from the item record along with
the call number/shelfmark and circulation status for each copy.  The
location should be where the user can find the physical item and is the
same location that is used to determine the loan rule.  I *think* you
can also display I-type from the item record in the OPAC.  I suggest you
check with Sheffield Hallam University.  The display of I-type to indicate
the loan period assumes that the loan period for any item is the same for
all borrowers.  Alternatively if copies with a particular loan period are
all shelved together then you can make the display format of location
codes explicit, e.g. "1 week loan".  Or if you have a separate shelving
sequence for reserve/short-loan books you can designate their location
as "1 day loan" or whatever.

Finally, I-types are not used for searching purposes in the OPAC.  If you
are thinking of limiting searches by material type, e.g. books, videos,
etc., a fixed field code in the bib record is used for the purpose.   We
like many other libraries use bcode2 (relabelled Mat Type) for this.

I can send you a list of codes we use if you are interested.

Mieko

On Fri, 11 Feb 2005, Mandy Phillips wrote:

> I've got the I-type - P-type - Location - Loan rule thing (I think)
> however at present we don't really use I-type as we don't have limits
> set on how many types of one item a patron can borrow. We use the GMD's
> to limit searching.
>
> Can anyone tell me the benefits of using the I-type versus the GMD for
> searching purposes, and if we do use I-type does it just have to be
> circulating items (as opposed to non-circulating)..
>
> We have 3 week, 1 week, 1 day, overnight and end of day loan lengths -
> would we be better using these as item types? (Although if we have  5
> copies of a book, they could all be on different loan lengths)..
>
> I think the III example on CS Direct has confused me more than
> anything!
>
> Any help would be appreciated..
>
> Mandy
> Edge Hill