2024-09-09 Resource Access Meeting Notes

Magnus presents the work currently done for floating collections, i.e. items that are not housed permanently at a specific library, but will remain at the library they were checked-in at. The functionality is based on

a flag added to the location record indicating that items from this location will be floating, and
changing only the temporary item location when checking in floating items - the permanent item location and permanent and temporary holdings location will remain unchanged.
Whether an item is floating is determined by the item's effective location at check in. This allows using other temporary item locations with floating disabled (e.g. for an exhibition) if an item from a floating collection is temporarily to be put into transit back to a specific location.
A floating item will only remain at the library it is checked-in at if the service point is associated with a location that has floating enabled. Current work includes the handling of only one location with floating enabled per service point. If there are use cases existing in institutions that would require handling more than one location for floating items at a service point, this could be added.

Discussion points

Display of locations in the discovery layer
Experience form Chicago with VuFind and holdings locations being the default is, that using item level locations tend to be confusing for patrons, particulary for multi-volume works. Charlotte will follow up with colleages, whether they have a recommendation for VuFind. EDS at LiU shows only the effective location, so it is no issues there. In other cases local adaptations have been made to discovery layers to handle the display of temporary locations.
Making changes for floating items in the permanent holdings location instead of the temporary item location would eliminate the need for special handling on the discovery layer. However, using the temporary item location has some advantages as well, e.g. being able to use the original information from the permanent holdings location for statistical purposes, or returning items to the original library if required for any reason.

Currently the flag for floating in the location record is set in the back-end. Feedback on any preferences (checkbox, yes/no selction) for how to integrate the flag into the UI is highly welcome. No preferences indicated by meeting participants.