Extrapolating EXPECTED Dates

The Extrapolate Boxes option allows you to insert checkin card boxes that have the same frequency as a previously-created range of boxes.

For example, if you have a newspaper that publishes five times a week, Monday-Friday, you would create a checkin card with boxes for the first five issues. This allows you to establish the pattern of the serial. Then select those five boxes and use the Extrapolate Boxes option to create the remaining boxes for the card.

This option is especially useful for serials that publish in irregular patterns.

See Extrapolating EXPECTED Dates for Quarterlies for an example of extrapolating a common quarterly pattern for serials.

  1. Choose Serials Checkin from the Function list.
  2. Retrieve the checkin card.
  3. Select the boxes to extrapolate.
  4. Choose Extrapolate Boxes from the Box Menu or key Ctrl+O. Sierra displays the Extrapolate Boxes dialog.

Note that the Supplements and Indexes tabs are not offered in the Extrapolate Boxes dialog unless you have chosen the Add supplements and indexes option in the Setup tab and set the supplement and index parameters. See Editing Checkin Card Parameters for information on defining these parameters.

  1. In the Extrapolate Boxes dialog, enter the Number of times to perform the extrapolation.

If desired, you can change the system-supplied defaults in the

  • Cover date
  • Expected date
  • Starting Enumeration

boxes in the Issues, Supplements, and/or Indexes tabs. These values correspond to the first issue, supplement, and/or index you want inserted. See Overview of Checkin Card Fields for information on editing these fields.

  1. Choose OK to add the extrapolated boxes at the end of the card or choose Cancel to exit the dialog without making any changes.

The following example illustrates how to use the Extrapolate Boxes option to create a checkin card for a serial that publishes five times a week, Monday-Friday, starting the first Monday in January 2004. You can create irregular publication patterns in a similar manner.

  1. Create a checkin record or retrieve a checkin record that does not have a checkin card.
  2. Select the Card tab, and choose the Create Card button.
  3. Set the following options in the dialog (see Creating Checkin Cards if you need additional help).
Items on card5
Frequencyd Daily
Cover dateJan 5 2004
Expected date01-05-2004
Issues per volume50

Set the remaining options. The Create Card dialog appears.

  1. Choose OK. Sierra creates a checkin card with five boxes.
  2. Select the five checkin card boxes, and choose Extrapolate Boxes from the Box Menu in theTools menu of the menu bar.
  3. Set the following options in the Extrapolate Boxes dialog to create ten weeks of checkin card boxes:
Number of Times10
Cover dateJan 12 2004
Expected date01-12-2004
  1. Choose OK to create the extrapolated checkin card boxes.

Changing the Frequency for Quarterly Serials

To extrapolate the "EXPECTED" dates for a quarterly serial that begins the year with the Winter issue, the frequency of the serial must be changed to custom or irregular. Other quarterly patterns can be extrapolated without changing the frequency.

For example, the Winter issue is marked Winter 2004, but has an "EXPECTED" date in December 2003. To extrapolate this pattern, the frequency of the serial must be changed to custom or irregular. If the frequency is quarterly, the "EXPECTED" dates in the extrapolated boxes are incorrect.

To change the frequency:

  1. Choose Tools | Card Menu | Edit Card. The Edit Card dialog appears.
  2. From the Frequency drop down menu, choose Irregular or Custom.

After changing the frequency, you can extrapolate the boxes.