Question

Overview of counting Reserves Circulation in Voyager Prepackaged Access Reports.

Answer

Reserves circ is much like regular circ. At the time of the charge, a CIRC_TRANSACTIONS record is created. At discharge, the record is moved to CIRC_TRANS_ARCHIVE and the historical_charges counter in the ITEM record is incremented at that time.

The various RESERVE tables (RESERVE_LIST, RESERVE_LIST_ITEMS, etc.) in Prepackaged Access Reports keep track of what is on your reserve lists. There are also some counters that allow you to see how your reserves are used, but it can be quite complicated as is shown in the following text.

There are 2 ways to count reserve circulation:

The first is by using the CIRC_TRANS_ARCHIVE table. You can do this if an item that is put on reserve is given a distinctive temp item type, or a distinctive temp location, or if your reserve desk has its own circ happening location. To do this, link from CIRC_TRANS_ARCHIVE to CIRC_POLICY_MATRIX and from there to either ITEM_TYPE, LOCATION, or CIRC_POLICY_GROUP. The advantage of this approach is that you can count reserves circulation even when items are no longer on reserve. The disadvantage is that you cannot tell what reserve list the item was on

The second way of counting reserve circulation works only while an item is still on reserve, but you can tell which reserve list or lists the item is on. If you use this strategy, you might want to collect your statistics before you disperse your reserves at the end of the term. To do this, link from RESERVE_LIST to RESERVE_LIST_ITEMS to ITEM and use reserve_charges in ITEM. Be aware that the circulation for items on multiple reserve lists will be counted for all the lists that they are on.

Additional Information 

When an item is on a reserve list, there's a record for it in RESERVE_LIST_ITEMS. When an item is turned on on a reserve list, the on_reserve field in ITEM is set to "Y" and an open-ended record is written in RESERVE_ITEM_HISTORY.

While an item is turned on on a reserve list, the circulation count is collected in the reserve_charges field in ITEM. When an item is turned off of a reserve list, that value is copied to the reserve_charges field in RESERVE_ITEM_HISTORY and the field is zeroed out in ITEM.

At the same time, the expire_date in RESERVE_ITEM_HISTORY is set. Reserve circulation is also recorded in CIRC_TRANSACTIONS and CIRC_TRANS_ARCHIVE in the same way that non-reserve circ transactions are.

So, if you want to count reserve circ separately from non-reserve circ, you need the RESERVE_ITEM_HISTORY table to tell you when the item was on reserve.

• Article last edited: 19-Oct-2020