CUNY Aleph Catalog Optimization Projects: Acquisitions & Serials: Orders & Subscriptions

A library seeking clarification about this project should contact Nancy Macomber prior to April 18, 2019. (This was agreed on at the Acquisitions Committee meeting.)

The project itself should be completed before fiscal year end, i.e., July 1, 2019.

Interpreting the Reports

Serials Open Orders

• The price is .00 or .01. This means that there was no payment for this title in the prior fiscal year. Check to see if you still have a subscription to this title.
• If there is a price and the remaining encumbrance is 0, it means that this subscription has been paid in the current fiscal year. If the same amount appears in both the price and remaining encumbrance columns, it has not been paid this year.
• If the price and remaining encumbrance are blank, the order could be for a depository item, a gift or some other type for which no payment is expected. It could also be because the budget was not encumbered in prior fiscal year nor in the current fiscal year.
• If there is no date in the TO_DATE column, it means that the subscription is not linked to the order. These subscriptions should be linked to the orders (instructions below).

Serials Claims / Subscription Patterns

• There is an entry for each not arrived issue for which items have been created by opening the pattern for the volume(s). If you look at the item record you will see an item process status of NA.
• The issue date can be very old. The issue may or may not have been claimed but it was never checked in.

Specific Remediation Steps

No longer subscribe but the title still appears on the open order report.

Action: Close the order (set the order status to CLS, VC or LC), close the subscription (enter an appropriate To Date), and delete items for any expected issues that have not been received. Changing a subscription end date to ‘today’ will set it to expire.

Order is closed but the title still shows up on serials claim reports

Action: Be sure the subscription is closed and all remaining items for expected issues deleted. Changing a subscription end date to ‘today’ will set it to expire. Leaving it open will result in Alma creating a new open order during migration.

Subscription has been canceled and the older volumes remain in the collection but the record is suppressed. When the subscription was canceled, all items were deleted. Records without items are automatically suppressed.

Action: Add an item. This will unsuppress the record so that it will display in the catalog.

Order for the online version is on a print record.

Action: Get a record for the electronic format and move the order to it from the print record. We must separate print holdings from electronic holdings, and part of the purpose is to separate the orders.

Order has not been encumbered. This causes problems when entering invoices because the budget must be entered manually.

Action: Highlight the appropriate order, if more than one, and click on Encumber, type in an active budget code and the encumbrance amount (can be .01) and press enter or Add Budget.

Orders and subscriptions are not linked. Sometimes subscriptions have been created on records with no orders and then the orders added at a later time. We have learned that during migration the LSP will create an additional order if the subscription and order are not linked.

Action: To link a subscription to an order, go into the Subscription List, enter the vendor code, open the Order no. dropdown and click on the order number, and click on Update.

Issues that will never be received show up on claim reports.

Action: Enter the volume information in the summary holdings indicating the missing issue(s) and delete the items for the arrived and not arrived issues.