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It’s just informational. If working in test and live at the same time, check here to see which one you’re in.
Personally I hardly, if ever, touch it. Most of it’s functions can be done elsewhere more easily. Things are a few things that only can be done here, though:
(When using the Ex Libris Documentation, bear in mind that some of the described features don’t work at all, some don’t work in our environment, some have never been set up here, and some have been turned off here).
I don’t use this much either, but it’s very helpful for changing log-ins and print options.
Most work in Aleph Acquisitions/Serials is done in the 3 main parts of the interface:
Information in them is contextual and varies based on what the contents of the other panes. Their size can be changed using the horizontal and vertical split bars.
The Main Tab has icons for Order, Invoice, Administration, Order Search, Serial, and Search. These allow you to switch to a different function to do something new. If wanting to to move through portions of a given order to different parts of the system, use the Navigation Map instead.
These bars provide quick and easy access to Serials/Acquisitions Data. The top bar is used for finding serials records, the middle bar for acquisitions, and the bottom bar for invoices. They are mostly used for number searches such as Order #, System #, or ISSN. The title searches do keyword searches and often get too many results, and other times they don't work and don’t pull up records that are there, so it’s generally best to use the search module or WebPac to do other types of searches. The invoice bar is also used for creating new invoices.
The Navigation Pane varies depending on whether you’ve selected Functional or Overview.
In overview, you always see the "Nav Map," a tree-layout summary of all of the records attached to a given bib record in all of the parts of Aleph. You can also "push" a record to another part of Aleph, using the buttons on the right-hand side of the page. I use this feature of the Nav Map quite frequently, because if you "push" a record from Acquisitions to cataloging, the record automatically opens in cataloging so you don't have to re-search.
Demonstration:Show how to use open parts of Nav Map to view information. Show how to use the Nav Map in overview to push a record to cataloging.
In functional, the Navigation Pane varies depending on whether you're in Order, Invoice, Administration, Order Search, Serial, or Search. The navigation allows you to view and navigate to records in other parts of the system, such as to bibliographic or item records in the cataloging menu.
Encumber will allow you to delete or change a budget, or to split the charges across more than one budget. You can also check the balance of a budget from here.
Demonstration:Pull up BC0627600016. Switch the budgets around. Check the balance.
Invoice allows you to view and edit the invoice line-item(s) associated with an order. It also allows you to navigate to the invoice, or to create a new invoice.
The arrival tab allow you to view, add, edit or delete an arrival associated with an order.
The item tab allows you to view, edit or add an item. Note that if an item is later moved to another bibliographic record, it will not it will no longer appear here.
The claim tab allows you to claim an item.
The order log allows you to see the history of actions taken with the order. These are system actions, and the order log is automatically kept as people work. However, you can also manually add an entry to the order log by clicking "Add."
Demonstration:Number searches, ISBN, ISSN, System Number, Utility number (OCLC) are all found in browse. Title searches are easily done via search, but for most other searches, I use the webpac and copy and paste the system number to find the record.
Demonstration:While Search has a great deal of additional features and functions, in practicality it's far easier to use the user-friendly web-interface. For example, to limit by Videos/Films (All) like we did earlier, you have to know MARC fixed field tags to do that in Search. If you are interested in learning more about Search features, talk to your catalogers or see the Ex Libris documentation in the Aleph Documentation Center at http://www.exlibrisgroup.com/docportal/logon.php, under Aleph, Tree Search, 18, Search.
Order search allows searching for a given order or set of orders in a lot different ways.
The basis of any search is the index, and there are a number of different ways to limit a search.
Types of searches that I tend to do here are vendor searches, for everything ordered from on order with a given vendor, and budget searches, and user searches (based on the initiator name field in the order). Note that you can right click on the column headers and customize the information showing there.
Demonstration: Find everything UMBC currently has on order with AmazonIn most places where you see an index list display, you can customize what appears there. Simply right click on the headers describing the information, and unclick the fields you don't want and click the fields you do want. You can also re-size the fields. There changes are made to the client on your computer, so that once you’ve made these changes on your computer, they'll always apply, unless your software is re–loaded.
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