Step by step guide to doing a Stocktake

Stocktaking with LibCode Suite

The Stocktaking process… We strongly advise that the everyday library tasks of Cataloguing and Circulating do not continue until the stocktake has been completed and Reconciled. (This can be broken up into VERY small sections to make it possible)

Clean out old stocktaking information

- Utilities / Stocktake / New Stocktake / at ‘Do you wish to purge all stock items and commence a new stocktake’ choose Yes.

Starting the stocktake

- Circulation / Stocktake / Add / ‘Do you wish the program to pause when an entered barcode is not found or the item is outside the stocktake parameters?"

No - If you are using a portable barcode scanner... jump down to * a few lines down! (See bottom of this page for documents about portable barcode readers)

Yes - this means you can Set the Parameters ("Parameters" are just selection criteria... ways to describe what part of your Library you want to stocktake! eg. Location Low=F High=F --> means the Fiction section)

- Set the parameters for the section of the library for the stocktake e.g. Dept = __ to __, Site = __ to __, Location = F to F... you could load the Data Entry program and look up a resource from the section you want to set in parameters screen to work out what each field should contain... Lowest and Highest possible data values should be set. __ (blank) to __ (blank) means field must be blank. Z's are the highest possible value... So __ to ZZZZZ means field can contain ANYTHING!

- To stocktake the whole collection, leave the parameter settings at the default settings... __ to ZZZZZZZ (all z's until full)

*- Start scanning item barcodes or downloading portable scanners into the Circulation / Stocktake / Add screen!

Check what’s missing in a section of the library

- You do this report now to see if you have missed adding any items into the stocktake (might have skipped a whole shelf!)

Utilities / Stocktake / Report / Missing... keep same parameters as setup in Step 2.

Scan in any overlooked items

- Circulation / Stocktake / Add..... keep same parameters as setup in Step 2.

Check for Loans Found (resources on shelves that are still on loan to a borrower!)

- Circulation / Stocktake / Reports / Loans Found..... return these items manually (if there's lot's call LibCode for a shortcut!)

View scanned resources using "parameters" to check data entry accuracy

- Circulation / Stocktake / View... keep same parameters as setup in Step 2 and see if you can spot any:-

RED items (Data Entry info does not match what you think it should)

BOLD items (Barcode scanned is not in the system at all!) Fix these records in Data Entry on the spot or pull the books of the shelves and put a sticky note on them to fix later)

- The list is displayed in the order you scanned the items so you can easily find the items on the shelf! (Two people makes this easy... one singing out what to find and the other scooting around the shelves!)

Reconcile the Stocktake - Tag all ‘stocktaken records’ with a stocktake date...

- (This step puts a date in the ‘Last Stocktake Date’ field to indicate when the items were last included in a stocktake. - items on loan will be included in this. The missing status will also be removed from any items that were previously lost, but have now been found through the stocktake. Utilities / Stocktake / Reconcile... keep same parameters as setup in Step 2.

It is REALLY IMPORTANT this step be completed as soon as the stocktake for the section has been finished.

Tag all missing items with an “M” Status and a Status Date

- This step marks items that have not been scanned into the stocktake with an ‘M’ for missing and a date

Utilities / Stocktake / Mark missing... keep same parameters as Step 3

Optional Step... Writing Off long time Missing Items

- You can "move" all barcodes that have been missing (M) for a long time into W for Written Off. Many people don't do this... they just Cull long time Missing items. The good thing is this removes "old" missing items from your Stocktake Missing reports.

To do the job just go into Utilities / Stocktake / Write Off... and be careful with the Status date that you set for the job... I suggest you do it for ALL records by clicking the Default button to reset criteria.

Print Missing Items Report

- This will give you a hardcopy of all items marked missing

Circulation or Utilities / Stocktake / Report / Missing... setup the parameters you used in Step 2 / Preview / Print

Start again at step 2 for next section of the Collection!

Instructions for the 4 Portable/Memory Barcode scanners we have ever sold and supported...

(If we've forgotten one, let us know!)

Cipher 1067M and LibCode Stocktake

Cipher 1166 and LibCode Stocktake

Cipher 1560 and LibCode Stocktake

MetroLogic and LibCode Stocktake

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Stocktake Related Instructions (General Stocktake Page)