Inventory with Evergreen
1. Evergreen Set Up:
- In Evergreen go to Circulation → Check In or Circulation → Item Status.
- If using Check in, enable Checkin Modifier ()Update Inventory.
- There will be a red bar with Update Inventory across the top of the screen.
- Scan the items in.
- If using Item Status, select all items on screen and click Actions → Update Inventory.
- Here’s what the screen should look like:
- You can customize the fields you’d like to see (examples: Title, Location, Circulation Modifier, Call Number, Barcode) by click on .
2. What does Update Inventory do?
Update Inventory will add the inventory date to the item’s quick summary once it is checked in with Update Inventory.
- To find this, go to an item’s record and click on view next to the barcode
- A new tab with the quick summary will open and the bottom left you’ll see Inventory Date.
3. Reports
The Inventory – Scanned Items Count by Shelving Location report counts the items that have been checked in/out or otherwise had their status changed (including being checked out, marked missing or lost) during the inventory period. The date when you started taking inventory should be entered as the Copy Status Changed Time when running the report. The numbers are broken down by shelving locations.
- Administration -> Reports
- Under Shared Folder Templates-> balsamcentral-> Circulation (BALSAM)
- Check the box next to Inventory – Unscanned and click Submit.
- Fill in the template
- Report Name
- Choose folder
- Change to False (default is true)
- Select as many in list and click Add
- Select as many in list and click Add
- Date that you began inventory
- Unclick HTML Output and Bar Charts
- Choose folder
- Save Report
- When the report is ready go to My Folder -> Output and open the folder you saved the report in
- Click the box next to the report and click View Output Report
- The report will download as an Excel document.
- The Excel document will show you Shelving Location, Call Number, Title, Barcode, Current Status (missing, lost, available, checked out), Latest Inventory date (which is an empty column, so you can just delete it).
4. Sample Workflow based in COA’s Inventory
- We made a map of the library and labeled all the sections including all displays. As sections were scanned we used pencil to drawn Xs over the sections on the map.
- Every person had a laptop with a with barcode scanner on a rolling bookcart, the floor, and a chair (we found different things worked for different people)
- We set up bookcarts and shelves for the issues:
- barcodes not in system – The system alerted that the barcode doesn’t exist, which meant either the item wasn’t cataloged or the barcode didn’t fully scan or the item’s ISBN was accidentally scanned instead of the barcode when the item was cataloged and needs to be fixed.
- barcode won’t scan – The barcode wouldn’t scan after numerous attempts and needs to be replaced with a new barcode.
- Scan away! Pay attention to the columns on your screen to watch for cataloging issues that need fixing.
- We found items in the wrong place
- Run Report and view results.
- All the items marked available are items that didn’t get scanned during inventory and are presumably missing. To be sure, we went and checked the shelves for all the items marked as available. Some we had simply missed during the scanning, but most we not there and their status was then changed to missing.
- Documentation
SITKA Inventory Documentation https://docs.libraries.coop/sitka/_running_inventory.html