Assigning Course Reserve Settings to Records

To use the Course Reserves function, you must be assigned permissions 48 (Course reserves) and 171 (View course records). To change a record's status, you must be assigned permissions 124 (Update item records) and 174 (Update course records). See Permissions Used by Sierra for more information.

When you add a bibliographic or item record to a course or change its status, you can edit the record's course reserve settings. A record's course reserve settings determine how the item circulates while on reserve and its active or inactive status.

To assign or change a record's course reserve settings:

  1. Add the record to a course or change its status.

    The Course Reserve Setting dialog box appears.

  2. Enter the following settings:

The specific options that are displayed vary depending on:

  • The record's current reserve status. For example, when you change an active record's status to inactive, the system does not enable you to change any setting other than the status.
  • Whether you are adding the record to a course or changing its status. The system displays different options depending on how you access the Course Reserve Setting dialog box.
  • Whether the item is already on active reserve for another course. The system disables all settings except the item status for items on reserve for other courses. If you want to change the item's location, item type, and call number settings, you must remove it from the other course(s), make your changes, then add the item back to the other course(s).
Location
The value to assign to a reserve item's LOCATION fixed-length field (or to the LOCATION field in each item attached to the bibliographic record) while the record is on active reserve. The system uses the location along with the item type to determine the loan rule to use when checking out the reserve item.
Item type
The value to assign to a reserve item's I TYPE fixed-length field (or to the I TYPE field in each item attached to the bibliographic record) while the record is on active reserve. The system uses the item type along with the location to determine the loan rule to use when checking out the reserve item.
Display course name as call number
Indicates whether the system writes the COURSE field to a CALL # field in the item record or bibliographic record when the item goes on active reserve.
Item status
Indicates whether the bibliographic record or item record is on active or inactive reserve.
In course reserves, when the term "status" is used, it refers to this field, not the item's STATUS fixed-length field.
Select Active to show the record in the course reserve list in the WebPAC. Select Inactive to hide the record.
It’s possible to use Sierra to suppress bibliographic and item records from display in the public catalog in the WebPAC. But a suppressed record is still displayed in a course reserve list in the WebPAC if this Item status field is set to Active. This allows you to make some records discoverable using course reserves, when needed.
If you set the status to Inactive, you can't change the location or item type at the same time. The changes to the location or item type are not saved.
When you assign a record's reserve status, you must also specify how long the record should retain its status (that is, how long before the record appears in the list of records whose status should change). Possible values are:

Active until end of the course
Sets the item's status to Active until the date in the course's END DATE fixed-length field.
Active until <date>
Sets the item's status to Active until a date you specify.
Inactive until end of the course
Sets the item's status to Inactive until the date in the course's END DATE fixed-length field.
Inactive until <date>
Sets the item's status to Inactive until a date you specify.
Use date currently set
Changes the item's status without updating the active/inactive until date. This option displays only when you change the status of a group of items you have listed.
Use for all selected items
Instructs the system to use the selected settings for all items you have chosen to add to the course. This option displays only when you select more than one item to add to a course.

  1. To save your changes and update the records, select OK.

    The system displays the number of records whose status changed. For example:

Operation complete
Successful: 2
Errors: 0