Entering New Items Using ISBN Lookup

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ENTERING NEW ITEMS USING ISBN LOOKUP

If you are using Baslogue to manage a library containing books, you can speed up the process of entering new books into the catalogue by using ISBN Lookup. This requires that you have an active internet connection so that Baslogue can access OpenLibrary.org. For more information on setting up Baslogue for use with ISBN Lookup see the section Setting up ISBN Lookup for entering new books.

To enter a new item using ISBN Lookup, select the "New Item Using ISBN Lookup" button (by clicking on it or pressing F4 on the keyboard) from the Catalogue Tab on the main window. This button is only available to those users who have permissions to edit and add to the catalogue: the "Super User" role in the Standalone Edition, and those users with the "Allow Editing of Catalogue Items" permission granted in the Database Edition).

Once you have select the "New Item Using ISBN Lookup" button you will see the following dialog:

This dialog assume that you will be using a barcode scanner. If you have a barcode scanner attached to your computer (see Setting up a Barcode Scanner for further details) then simple scan the barcode which is found on the back of most books. This barcode encodes the ISBN for the book. Alternatively, if you do not have a barcode scanner, you can simply type in the barcode number or the ISBN (without using any spaces or dashes) and click OK.

An ISBN Lookup will then be performed at OpenLibrary.org using your active internet connection. If no records are found for this ISBN you will receive a notice and then be presented with an empty dialog. If a record is found you will automatically be placed into the New Item dialog, with the appropriate fields already filled in. You can then modify the information as desired and save the new item, or cancel the creation of the item. An example is shown below:

Once you have successfully saved a new item, you will immediately be presented with the Scan Barcode dialog as shown above, ready to scan a new item. If you have no more items to scan, simply click Cancel.

Tips for Speedy Entry of Multiple Items

If you have a lot of books to enter into the catalogue, the following tips can be useful:

Begin the process by pressing F4 on the keyboard. This saves having to use the mouse.
Use a barcode scanner - a simple "keyboard wedge" barcode scanner is all that is needed. Almost all barcode scanners will scan ISBN barcodes on books without any special configuration needed.
If you have performed a successful ISBN Lookup (i.e. details have been found for the ISBN that you scanned or typed) the cursor will be placed in the Barcode ID field in the Catalogue Item dialog, and the barcode value will be highlighted (see example above). This means that, instead of having to click the OK button, you can simply re-scan the same barcode. This will overwrite the barcode value with the same value - and save & close the dialog. You will then be immediately placed into the "Scan Barcode" dialog, ready to scan the barcode for the next book.

So, assuming ISBN details are found for three books, the sequence to enter those three books are as follows:

        Press F4 on the keyboard
        Scan Book 1 barcode
        Scan Book 1 barcode
        Scan Book 2 barcode
        Scan Book 2 barcode
        Scan Book 3 barcode
        Scan Book 3 barcode
        Click Cancel (or press Escape on the keyboard)

This means that while entering books you do not need to touch the keyboard or mouse, assuming that details are found for all books. When no details are found for a particular book, you can enter those details manually, and then resume the above sequence.

Note: any catalogue item fields which are not explicitly mapped for ISBN Lookup (see ISBN Lookup Setup) will be be populated with the values entered for the previous item. So, for example, if each item should receive the same Item Type value (e.g. "Book" in the above example), you can specify this for the first item, and all subsequent items will automatically receive this value.