Stock Take Scripts
We are planning on doing a stock take here at UCE – Birmingham this summer with a pilot over the Easter vacation. We will be using hand held scanners to capture item barcodes.
The planned process will be to produce a file (or table) of expected barcodes and compare this to an uploaded file of scanned barcodes (i.e. the items on the shelves). At the comparison stage I would like to produce 2 lists or reports.
1. A picking list of items which were not expected to be on the shelves. For example, wrong site, on loan, withdrawn, incorrect classmark, no bibliographic details!... These items can be found and then processed.
2. A list of missing items – which could then be put onto a ‘Missing at Stocktake’ ticket.
Producing the file/list of expected items is straightforward – the problem comes with comparing the expected/actual barcodes and producing the reports.
Has anyone written a script that does this or does part of this?
I know that I can use Excel to compare the files but the advantage of using perl is that I would be able to print title/author details on the Picking List report without having to go into Alto and manually capture this info.
Or does anyone have any other suggestions?
Thanks
Chris Langham
UCE – Birmingham
stock take
Hi,
Here at Salford we produced a list of items expected to be on the shelves using Business Objects (is this what you are using to get your file of expected items?)and then scanned the items actually on the shelves. We then put both lists into an Access database and from this produced 2 reports. One of items on the shelves that shouldn't be i.e. still on loan or wrong site and the second report of a missing list.
Stock Take Exceptions Reports in Access
Hello Julie,
Thanks for your reply.
Yes - I will be using Business Objects to produce the stock check list.
Thinking about producing the reports in Access. How easy is to get the bibliographic details of items of unexpected items for the report? Do you have get the details out of Alto and copy them into Access or are you able to do a lookup of the items in your database?
The details I'm looking for: are classmark, suffix, title and author. These will provide enough information for the person checking the shelves to quickly locate the items.
All the best
Chris
stock take
Hi
Unfortunately we haven't found away around that bit yet! We manually search for the details in Alto, take the details and then conduct shelf checks if necessary. We only do this for items that should be at another location. This tends to be a fraction of the total unexpected items as the majority are items that have a 'missing' status in which case we just change it to 'in stock'.
Having said that we might have to find another way to do it as we have just conducted our biggest stock take on over 400,000 items so even a fraction of that is still going to be huge. On the other hand to make life simpler we may just change the location of the item and not bother returning it to where it should be.
Stock take
We have done a few stock takes using Access ie we output from Talis into one file the barcode AND author and title etc of items expected to be in the sequences to be stock-took. We then read the barcodes on the shelves into a second file.
We then imported both files into Access, and ran Access queries to list the items (with bibliographic details) that were misssing from the shelves, and a similar query to list the barcodes (only) of items that were on those shelves that shouldn't have been.
You could always transfer this second file over to your Talis server and run an sql script to read it one line at a time and use sql to get the bib details and correct location for each barcode if you want.
This may seem cumbersome but I think it works quite well, gives the user a lot of control and produces nice output. There has always been a demand for Talis to produce a stock taking module but I think it would be no better than this and probably a waste of their time.
Thanks
Thank you both for your input.
I am going to attempt to write a perl script, since that should provide the neatest solution and require the least intervention during the stocktaking process. If I can't get the script to work then I am likely to use Access to do the comparison and generate the reports.
If I do get the perl script to work and I'm happy with it - I'll share it with the rest of the group on TDN.
All the best
Chris Langham
UCE - Birmingham
stock take
Hi Stephen
What you're doing with your barcode only data sounds interesting, could you share your sql query with us?
Thanks
Stock Take
Just came across this thread by chance and wondered if any of you had ever come across the Perl script that Ian Hendry (formerly of B-ham Uni) wrote? This compares a scanned in file of barcodes against a list of barcodes from Talis (using sql) and produces reports of missing items. I used this at Wolverhampton with great success. The input file generally needs some formatting, but was not too difficult to get working. I can send this script to anyone interested so they can see if it is any good. I believe Glyn Sinnar has also used this script.
Curwen Thomas
Harper Adams University College
Stock take
Hi Curwen,
I would like to take a look at this.
Thanks
Julie
j.hart@salford.ac.uk
Stock Take Scripts
We ran a Stocktaking exercise last year using the cat_stock.pl script created by Ian Hendry who used to work at the University. We had it tweaked to produce a list of barcodes rather than a title list, so we could then input into the bulk withdrawal script, but you are welcome to use it.
Michelle Thomas
LB Lambeth
Bulk withdrawal script
Hi,
Picked up this thread after searching for a way to withdraw items using a list of barcodes and thought that the 'bulk withdrawal script' mentioned here would really help us out. We're looking to withdraw stock through sql/perl rather than bulk option in Alto. Is this script available on TDN or was this created within your own instituation?
thanks,
Duncan Wilson
Collection & Systems
University of Salford
Stock take
Lancs County have a pretty comprehensive system of ongoing stock taking based various processes including Business objects, a variant of Ian Hendry's script, a script commissioned from Talis to update the missing stock, and NT share to download reports directly from networked pcs across the County into our unix box - most of it is cronned up (all the scripts run on the MIS so the data is in synch with the Business Objects report, except the Talis one which updates live items and runs overnight with update_daily_access_points etc
If anyone wants more info please contact me
Glyn Sinar
Information & Systems Manager
Lancashire County Library & Information Service
01772 534006
stock take
Hi all,
further to my comment on the 26th, we now have a perl script that provides us the bibliographic details, class number and suffix of items on the shelves that shouldn't be, it was a modification of the script to make items 'missing'. Contact me if you wish to discuss further or simply want a copy.
One thing that strikes me is that we are all doing the same thing but with differing approaches. I would like to refine our processes and wondered if anyone else here thinks it might be a good idea to get together and discuss?
Another thing I'd like to know is if anyone is willing to share their results, specifically the percentage of stock missing.
Thanks
Julie Hart
Collection Management Team Leader
University of Salford
0161 295 6370
j.hart@salforda.c.uk
Stock take scripts
If you and Glyn want to send the scripts and details to me I can publish them on the TDN (if you are willing)then there will be a central source for the scripts
Brian Crampton
Developer, Talis
I noticed this thread rather
I noticed this thread rather late, but just to add to this:
I know that I can use Excel to compare the files but the advantage of using perl is that I would be able to print title/author details on the Picking List report without having to go into Alto and manually capture this info
I would use Access rather than Excel, and use your original SQL to extract the author and title etc for all items that SHOULD be on the shelf (as well as their barcode of course). Then when Access compares this with the table of barcodes that actually ARE on the shelf it will include the required bibliographic data in its lost.
Regarding the problem of how
Regarding the problem of how to list author / title etc for the barcodes found on the shelf that shouldn't be there... my system, that we used at UMIST a number of times, uses Access to produce a list of the barcodes only. We then had a simple script that read these barcodes, one line at a time, and fed them onto an SQL query that read their details from the ITEM and WORKS table. See my post here
http://www.talis.com/tdn/node/1713
for a sample of how to do that.