New or Edit Catalogue Item

Baslogue^{^®}

CATALOGUE ITEM DIALOG

The Catalogue Item dialog is one of the main dialogs within Baslogue^®. This is where you define everything to do with an item - its name, author, status, etc... You get to this dialog by selecting New Item, Edit Item or View Item from the Catalogue Tab on the main screen.

NOTE: The columns (fields) available for a catalogue item can be customised using the Display Options dialog. Therefore, the fields that you see below may be different to what appears for you. Please refer to the Display Options dialog for further information.

The colour of the dialog changes depending on the status of the item:

Available for Loan. This means the item is available to be taken out on loan.
Currently On Loan. This means that the item is currently on loan
Unavailable for Loan. This means that for some administrative reason the item is not currently available to be loaned out.
Lost. This means that the item has been lost.

When an item is Available for Loan, it looks like this:

Item Type - you can type in anything you like here. Previously used values appear in the drop-down list, but this field will accept any new value. This field can be left empty.
Item Name - type in the name of your item here. The Item Name does not have to be unique. You may differentiate between items by using one of the other fields, if needed.
Item Sub Number - a further way if identifying your item. For example, "Disc 1". This field can be left empty.
Item Sub Name - yet another way if identifying or distinguishing items. Enter whatever you like, or leave it empty.
Category - if you want to categorise your items, enter a category here. Previously used values appear in the drop-down list, but this field will accept any new value. This field can be left empty.
Location - intended to record where the item is physically shelved. Enter whatever value you like. Previously used values appear in the drop-down list, but this field will accept any new value. This field can be left empty.
Author Surname - enter the surname of the author, if the item has one. This field can be left empty.
Author First Names - enter the first names of the author, if the item has any. This field can be left empty.
Author Other - enter other types of author information here - for example if the author is not a person but is actually a company or group. This field can be left empty.
External Item Code - If there is a secondary cataloguing system that you would like to use, you may enter its number system here. For example, you may like to enter the Dewey Decimal number. This field can be left empty.
Barcode ID - Enter the Barcode ID of the item here, if you are using barcodes. This field can be left empty.

TIP FOR ENTERING BARCODE --- If you have already put a barcode label on the item, then instead of typing in the Barcode ID using the keyboard you can click into the Barcode ID field and then scan the barcode using the barcode scanner. This will put the Barcode ID into the Barcode ID field and then immediately save and close the dialog. So it is recommended that you do this as the last piece of data to enter into the dialog, otherwise you will have to open it up again.
Status - select the desired status (see above for list of statuses).
Due Date - this is only active when the status is "Currently on Loan" (see below). Select the date when this item is due to be returned.
Person (on loan to) - this is only active when the status is "Currently on Loan" (see below). Select the person who is taking the item out on loan.
Checkout using Scanner - this is only active when the status is "Available for Loan". Click this button to check out an item by scanning a person's card while you are in this screen. You will get a dialog box like this:

Scan the person's barcode, and you will be returned to the item dialog screen with the status changed to "Currently on Loan" and the Due Date and Person fields set appropriately.
Return Item - this is only active when the status is "Currently on Loan" (see below). Clicking this button will set the status back to "Available for Loan" and clear the Due Date and Person fields. This button does exactly the same thing as manually selecting the "Available for Loan" status.
View History - this allows you to view the history for this item - i.e. when items were loaned out, returned, etc... See Item History for further information.

Below are examples of how the dialog looks in its other states:

Currently on Loan

Unavailable for Loan

Lost