Using Materials Booking

If your library has acquired Materials Booking, you "book" or reserve library materials for patrons for their future use. Unlike holds, the time period during which the patron will have access to the booked item is specified when you place the booking. You can book bibliographic materials and other materials, such as audio visual equipment and rooms.

You can book materials for hours, days, weeks, and months. When you place a booking, you can configure Sierra to create additional bookings on the item at specified intervals. For example, you can configure Sierra to create additional bookings for the same time of day for a given number of days in a row or for the same day and time for a given number of weeks in a row. You can place up to 400 bookings on an item record or for a patron record.

With Materials Bookings, you can also create events that can be used to link the different bookings placed for a patron. For example, you might create an event to link all of the bookings associated with a professor's course. An event must be associated with a booking. However, a booking can be created without being associated with an event. An occurrence is a booking that is associated with an event. If multiple bookings are placed for the same patron, and share the same Start Date and event, they belong to the same occurrence. For more information on these terms, see the Glossary.

Tasks you can perform in Materials Booking include:

Booking Specific Items Booking Specific Items from the Summary Tab Booking Specific Items from the Bookings Tab Booking Specific Items from the Patron Record Entering Data for Specific Item Bookings Booking Any Available Item Booking Any Available Item from the Summary Tab Booking Any Available Item from the Patron Record Entering Data for Any Available Item Bookings Adding Events Adding an Event from Bookings Event Maintenance Adding an Event from the Patron Record Entering Data for Events Created with the Add Event Button Viewing Bookings Viewing Bookings for a Specific Item Record Viewing Bookings for a Specific Patron Record Viewing Bookings in Bookings Maintenance Viewing Bookings in Bookings Event Maintenance Cancelling Bookings Cancelling Bookings from the Item Record Cancelling Bookings from the Patron Record Cancelling Bookings from Bookings Maintenance Cancelling Bookings from Bookings Event Maintenance Cancellation Prompts

Printing Booking Slips Printing Booking Slips from the Item Record Printing Booking Slips from the Patron Record Printing Booking Slips from Bookings Maintenance Printing Booking Slips from Bookings Event Maintenance Blocking Bookings Changing Pickup and Delivery Information Clearing Cancelled and Expired Bookings Modifying Occurrences Modifying Bookings Possible Messages (Materials Booking) Transit Time for Booked Items Viewing Bookings History Viewing Event Calendars Viewing Item Calendars