Setting Up Serials Records

Serial holdings records with publication patterns are required for serials processing in Polaris. Once serial holdings records are set up, issue and part records are predicted and created automatically. Other optional serial records, such as subscription records, serial item templates, and route lists can be set up to facilitate serials processing.

Important:
Staff members who handle serials must have the required permissions set in Polaris Administration. In addition, Polaris Administration parameters and profiles control how information is displayed and processed in Polaris Serials. See Serials Administration Overview.

After the appropriate serials processing options and permissions have been set in Polaris Administration, the next step is to create serial holdings records for the serials titles in your library. A serial holdings record contains the title, copy, order, and supplier information for a serial title. It also specifies the publication pattern so that issues or parts can be predicted automatically. The information in serial holdings records, combined with Polaris Administration settings, control the display of serials in Polaris PowerPAC and Mobile PAC.

Next, you can create optional serials records, such as item templates for automatically creating serial item records at check in (if your library circulates or tracks serials), and subscription records to manage all your library’s subscriptions from one list. Finally, you can set up serials claiming, serials labels, and route lists.

You have various options when paying for subscriptions in Polaris Acquisitions. If you are using Subscription records, you can automatically create renewal purchase orders when you renew a subscription. If you are not using Subscription records, you can use a prepaid purchase order that automatically creates an invoice and expends the funds, or you can create an invoice without a purchase order. The invoice for the subscription may have line items linked to serial holdings records (see Add an invoice line linked to a subscription ). Or, if you simply want to pay a supplier for all your subscription renewals in one step, you can create an invoice with a single line item unlinked to any bibliographic or serial holdings record. For more information, see Creating Invoices.