Re: best field for recording appraised value

[Alma Garcia <almag at mills dot edu>]

We originally put the prince in the PRICE field of the item records. 
This, however, caused problems for how our circulation staff since they 
charge a flat fee for all lost books plus a processing fee.  They were 
not happy with this.  We had III add a new field in the item record.  We 
  put the ACTUAL COST of the item that field.

Alma

Seeman, Corey wrote:
> Emily --
>
> Have you thought of using the PRICE field in the Item record.  This 
> would be completely different from the order information and by that 
> element alone, can help define the field.  The item fixed fields are 
> described on manual page # 103168.
>
> This way, you do not have to go back and add order records for things 
> that have been there forever and it can be used to keep values 
> independent of the amount that you paid.
>
> I am not sure if you are using that field or not.  You can also add a 
> note to the record stating when the appraisal of the item took place for 
> your records.
>
> When doing item statistical reports in Mill stats, it will total up the 
> PRICE field for all the records based on the elements of the fixed 
> fields.  So this will give you the appraised value of the items in a 
> certain location (assuming all have a value).  Since you probably do not 
> circulate a lot of items, the benefit to putting the value in that field 
> is that you would really not be using it for anything.  And if someone 
> checked out and lost a really expensive item, you would want them to pay 
> the full amount!
>
> The fact that you can easily get totals based on basically all the other 
> fixed fields in the item records should make your administration happy. 
>  A bona fide machine that goes "ping"!
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Best -- Corey

--
Alma García			Library Systems Administrator
Mills College Library		510-430-2021	
5000 MacArthur Blvd.		510-430-3155 fax
Oakland, CA  94613