• Product: Aleph
• Product Version: 20, 21, 22, 23
• Relevant for Installation Type: Dedicated-Direct, Direct, Local, Total Care

Description:
In order to address the problem of multiple volumes being considered like copies / like items for hold purposes  we are considering populating the z30_enumeration_a with the Z30-ITEM-SEQUENCE (via SQL). Can you think of potential problems with this?

Note: This is with tab15, column 11, = "N" -- *not* for a specific item only.

Resolution:
There are two things to be considered:

(1) There could be two copies of multi-volume set. A patron may want to place a hold on volume 6. Ideally, volume 6 for copy 2 would be recognized as a like item of volume 6 for copy 1, but if the z30_enumeration_a field is different, then it will not. What you *could* do in these cases is to change the z30_enumeration_a in copy 2's items so they are the same as those in copy 1's items. Such cases may be few enough that this would be workable.

(2) The z30_enumeration_a affects the sorting of the items. The items are sorted by the method selected in tab_z30_sort. If the Z30-ITEM-SEQUENCE numbers of the volumes in the multi-volume set are not in the same order as the actual volumes, the z30_enumeration_a (derived from the Z30-ITEM-SEQUENCE) could cause them to sort in the wrong order. If this seems to be a problem and if you want the z30_description to have priority in sorting, you could specify sort "03" {"by volume (description) and location and item status"} as the sort for "non-issue" items (tab_z30_sort, column 5). 

{Note: it may be possible to move the number from the z30_description (the "1" from "v. 1", for instance) into the z30_enumeration_a rather than using the sequence number. That would avoid the above problems.}

• Article last edited: 12-Mar-2016