2025-07-10 Resource Access Meeting Notes

Date: Jul 10, 2025 

Recordings

NOTE: RESOURCE ACCESS SIG USES EITHER ZOOM’S AI NOTES FUNCTIONALITY OR MICROSOFT COPILOT TO PROCESS THE TRANSCRIPT. If you would prefer that we do not use AI any session you attend, we are happy to! Please alert the convener at the start of the meeting.

Find all recordings here: https://recordings.openlibraryfoundation.org/folio/resource-access-sig/ (pw: folio-lsp)

Zoom

https://zoom.us/j/337279319 (pw: folio-lsp)

Attendees

@Martina Tumulla

@Dwayne Swigert

@Robert Heaton

@Claire Hoag

@Stephanie Buck

@Joseph A Molloy

@Laurence Mini

@Catherine Descanzo

@Tim Auger

@Susan Kimball

@Tobias Gostomsky

@Cornelia Awenius

@David Bottorff

@Thomas Trutt

Discussion Items:

Meeting Notes

📚 Requesting for Multi-Volume Series and Continuing Resources

🕒 11:07–11:54

📊 Presentation

• Steph presented a comprehensive update on the evolving feature set for requesting multi-volume series and continuing resources in FOLIO. Originally scoped as a title-level request (TLR) feature, the scope has expanded significantly and is now being treated as an epic due to its complexity and breadth.

• The core problem addressed is enabling patrons to request a specific volume or issue of a serial or multipart monograph without needing to select a specific copy. This is especially important for public libraries, consortia, and institutions with multiple copies of the same volume.

🔍 Use Cases

• Patrons requesting a specific volume (e.g., Volume 52 of Science) without caring which library supplies it.

• Patrons requesting a season of a DVD series (e.g., Walking Dead, Season 3).

• Reserve staff needing a specific edition of a textbook cataloged as a series.

• Patrons requesting a range of volumes (e.g., Volumes 33–83) without placing 50 individual requests.

• Institutions with partially inventoried serials needing to allow requests on volumes without item records.

🧩 Proposal

• Discovery Layer Integration: Patrons will be able to select multiple volumes via checkboxes in the discovery layer (e.g., Blacklight, Locate). These selections will be submitted as a single grouped request.

• FOLIO Processing: FOLIO will ingest the grouped request and convert it into multiple item-level requests, each processed independently through the standard request lifecycle.

• Controlled Vocabulary: A normalization mechanism will be introduced to standardize volume/part descriptors (e.g., “Vol.”, “V.”, “Volume”) using a community-managed controlled vocabulary. This will support deduplication and consistent request handling.

• System Agnosticism: The solution is being designed to be usable across different discovery layers and library systems.

⚙️ Complications

• Data Inconsistency: Libraries use various fields (enumeration, chronology, volume, year) inconsistently. Even within a single institution, data may not be normalized.

• Legacy Practices: Copy cataloging and historical practices have led to inconsistent metadata across millions of records.

• Technical Debt: Implementing this requires changes across multiple FOLIO modules (e.g., data import, inventory, requests).

• Performance: Bulk request processing and normalization must be efficient and scalable.

• User Experience: Avoiding free-text entry in favor of structured multi-select interfaces is a priority to reduce errors.

🧪 Discussion

• Susan raised concerns about the feasibility of normalization across institutions and the burden on libraries to clean up legacy data.

• David and Thomas confirmed that their institutions do not have normalized data and lack resources to clean it up.

• Tim emphasized the importance of a master transformation table and applying the 80/20 rule to get most of the data standardized quickly.

• Joseph asked how other systems (e.g., Library of Congress) handle this. Tim explained how Sierra used volume records to group items.

• Thomas described how their Blacklight implementation already supports multi-volume requests via checkboxes tied to UUIDs, but noted performance limitations.

• Steph confirmed that the Library of Congress is driving the initial implementation and that the first deliverable will focus on enabling grouped item-level requests from discovery layers.

✅ Decisions Made

• The first implementation will focus on enabling grouped item-level requests from discovery layers.

• Controlled vocabulary and normalization features will be scoped and developed later.

• The solution will be designed to be system-agnostic and usable across different OPACs and discovery layers.

✅ Decisions Made

📌 Action Items

📊 Data & Insights

• Normalization Challenges: Libraries use various abbreviations and languages for volume/part descriptors. No consistent practice exists even within institutions.

• Discovery Layer Capabilities: Some institutions (e.g., those using Blacklight) already support multi-volume requests via checkboxes and batch processing.

• Library of Congress Requirements: LOC needs a “thin thread” implementation to support bulk item-level requests from their Locate discovery layer.

• Controlled Vocabulary Benefits: Enables deduplication, consistent request handling, and improved user experience.

🔄 Follow-Up

• Follow-up meeting to be scheduled after architectural planning is complete.

• MMSIG consultation to be initiated during the next phase.

• Community feedback on the draft feature to be collected via Slack and comments on the JIRA ticket.

🐝 JIRAs

• JIRA:UXPROD-5398 – Epic – Requesting for Multi-Volume Series and Continuing Resources
  
  

  • Type: Epic

  • Description: Enable patrons to request specific volumes or parts of serials/multipart monographs without selecting a specific copy. Includes grouped item-level requests, controlled vocabulary for normalization, and system-agnostic design.