Transferring Mobile Collections

To use Mobile Collections, you must be assigned permission 367 (Mobile Collections Management). See Permissions Used by Sierra for more information.

To move a mobile collection from one location to the next along its route, you must transfer the collection. The collection's schedule as defined it its route determines when a collection is eligible to be transferred. To keep collections moving on schedule, check the status of the collections at your library once per day. The system enables you to transfer only those collections with a STATUS of "Due" or "Late".

To transfer a mobile collection:

Choose Mobile Collections from the Function list.
(Optional) Print a pick list and retrieve each item in the collection that is currently at your location.
Select the collection you want to transfer.
Choose Tools | Transfer or the Transfer icon. The system prompts you to confirm the transfer:

Perform transfer?
To complete the transfer, choose Transfer. To continue without performing the transfer, choose Cancel. If you choose Transfer, the system attempts to transfer the items. If the transfer is successful, the system updates the collection and its items, then sets the items in transit to the next location. If the collection cannot be transferred, the system alerts you accordingly.

Unavailable Items Not Set in Transit

When you transfer a collection, the system sets in transit only those items that are not checked out and have a STATUS of '-' (AVAILABLE). When an item that could not be transferred is next checked in, the system sets it in transit to the next location on the route.

Send the items to the next location in their route.

When the collection arrives at the next route stop, staff must check in the items to clear their in-transit status.

How the System Updates Transferred Collections

When you transfer a collection, the system updates the collection and its associated items. The specific updates depend on the collection's position along its route, as shown in the table below:

Position in Route	Updates
First transfer only	When you first mobilize the collection, the system: Writes the value from each item's LOCATION field to an OLD LOC variable-length field in the item record. Adds a collection ID note to each item. Updates the item's LOCATION to the first destination in the route. Sets the collection's STATUS to Active.
Subsequent transfers	As the collection moves among destinations along its route, the system updates each item's LOCATION to the first destination in the route and updates the collection's STATUS.
Final transfer	When you transfer a collection at its final destination, the system demobilizes the collection as follows: Updates each item's LOCATION to the collection's final destination. Deletes each item's OLD LOC variable-length field. Deletes the collection ID note, if the Remove MESSAGE information field from Items setting is enabled for the collection Updates the collection's STATUS to "Route Complete".

Collection ID Notes

Collection ID notes in item records indicate that an item is part of a mobile collection. Notes consist of the collection's ID, name, status, and completion date for demobilized collections. For example:

MOBILE:86:Medieval Warfare:COMPLETED 03-17-04 01:38PM

Depending on the field your library chose when setting up Mobile Collections, collection ID notes can either appear in a designated COLLECT ID field or in a MESSAGE field.

Conditions that Prevent Transfer

The system cannot transfer collections that contain deleted items or items that belong to another mobilized collection. If you try to transfer a collection that contains a problem item, the system displays a list of problem item records and one of the following error messages:

The following items are in other active collections:

The following items do not exist:

To resolve the problem, you must remove the problem items from the collection, then try again to transfer the collection.

See Also:: Mobile Collections Displays