Serials E-Checkin Overview

To use Serials E-Checkin, you must be assigned permission 487 (E-Checkin). See Permissions Used by Sierra for more information.

The Serials E-Checkin product offers your organization automatic, batch check-in processing for print and ejournal shipments.

This process includes the following steps:

Your organization codes the checkin records that will use Serials E-Checkin and gives the serials vendor (e.g., EBSCO) access to your E-Checkin Server (part of your Innovative system software).
The serials vendor obtains from your organization:
- the IP address for your system's E-Checkin Server login page
- a user name
- a password
The vendor logs in to the E-Checkin Server and sees the page used to upload Electronic Packing Slips (EPS).
The vendor uploads an XML file that conforms to the Innovative Interfaces DTD for Electronic Packing Slips. This file describes the contents of a shipment to your organization.
Upon receipt of the shipment, you process the EPS file. This automatically checks in the issues and updates their checkin records.

E-Checkin does not consider chronology values when matching EPS entries to checkin records. When enumeration values of an entry in the EPS match those of an issue on the checkin card, E-Checkin checks in the issue even if the chronology values do not match.

The vendor can create software to automate their connection to the E-Checkin Server IP address and upload of the Electronic Packing Slips. This does not change how your organization processes Electronic Packing Slips.

Partial Shipments

The EPS describes a physical shipment. It is not describing the shipment against an order. The EPS is a complete description of the contents of a single shipment.

You can check in only selected issues on an EPS. You do not need to check in all issues on an EPS simultaneously. See Checking in Selected Issues Using Serial E-Checkin for more information.

Using Accounting Units with E-Checkin

If your organization uses accounting units, the serials vendor will send Electronic Packing Slips to specific accounting units. No special set up is required.

This process includes the following steps:

You log in to Sierra. Your login determines your accounting unit.
You assign a vendor an E-Checkin user name and password. (See Vendor Administration Table.) This data is automatically stored in your accounting unit.
The vendor logs in with the vendor user name and password stored in your accounting unit and sends an Electronic Packing Slip. The Innovative software matches the EPS only to the records in your accounting unit.

Hypertext Linking to E-Journals

If the vendor includes hypertext links in an EPS, the links display in the checkin card boxes for the issues.

Hypertext links are typically used for E-Journals on the world wide Web. A hypertext link can also be used for journals that are published in both print and Web versions.

Inserting Barcodes in Item Records Using E-Checkin

If the vendor includes barcodes in an EPS and you check the Create Item check box when you process the EPS (see Processing an Electronic Packing Slip), the barcodes are automatically inserted in the BARCODE field of the item record.

Electronic Packing Slip Specifications

The specifications below are for vendors who supply the Electronic Packing Slips. They are provided here for your reference. Vendors can contact Innovative for more information about Serials E-Checkin.

Vendors must send an XML file that conforms to the Innovative Interfaces EPS DTD.
An XML file can contain information about only one shipment.
A shipment can contain one or more issues.
A shipment cannot contain a mix of electronic and print issues.
If one issue in the shipment contains barcodes, all issues must contain barcodes.
For each issue, the number of copies must equal the number of barcodes (if barcodes are used).
TRANSACTION TYPE "WITHDRAW" is for future use and is not currently supported.

This is an example of a valid EPS:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
  <!DOCTYPE EPS SYSTEM "eps.dtd">
  <EPS>
   <LOGIN USERNAME="ThisIsAssignedByLibrary" PASSWORD="ThisIsAssignedByLibraryAlso">
    <SUPPLIER>
      <SAN>
        ABCDEFG
      </SAN>
      <NAME>
        ABCDEFG Publishing
      </NAME>
    </SUPPLIER>
    <SHIPMENT DATE="2001-05-24" DATEFORMAT="yyyy-mm-dd" NUMBER="12345">
      <EPS_ISSUE>
        <SICI>
          123456789010101010
        </SICI>
        <TRANSACTION TYPE="CHECKIN"/>
          <MEDIA>
            <PRINT>
            <BARCODE COPY_NUM="1">
              1234 5678
            </BARCODE>
            <BARCODE COPY_NUM="2">
              2345 6789
            </BARCODE>
            <BARCODE COPY_NUM="3">
              3456 7890
            </BARCODE>
          <LINK TYPE="CONTENTS">
            HTTP://WWW.III.COM
          </LINK>
            </PRINT>
          </MEDIA>
        <NUM_COPIES>
          3
        </NUM_COPIES>
        <COPY COPY_NUM="1" COPY_ID="Main"/>
        <COPY COPY_NUM="2" COPY_ID="West"/>
        <COPY COPY_NUM="3" COPY_ID="South"/>
      </EPS_ISSUE>
      <EPS_ISSUE>
        <SICI>
          56789010101010
        </SICI>
        <TRANSACTION TYPE="CHECKIN"/>
          <MEDIA>
            <PRINT>
          <LINK TYPE="CONTENTS">
            HTTP://WWW.III.COM
          </LINK>
            </PRINT>
          </MEDIA>
        <NUM_COPIES>
          1
        </NUM_COPIES>
      </EPS_ISSUE>
    </SHIPMENT>
  </EPS>

See also:: Coding Checkin Records for Serials E-Checkin; Processing Electronic Packing Slips; Checking in Selected Issues Using Serial E-Checkin; Electronic Packing Slip DTD Description