FAQ

How do I import patrons or items through FTP?

You’ll need to create a saved import. Go to the import you want and click Create Saved Import at the bottom of the window. Then you’ll need to enter a name and fill out the Settings tab with your preferences. Lastly, go to the File Source tab and select FTP or FTPS from the Protocol dropdown. Enter your FTP/FTPS server’s information.

If you don’t have your own server, COMPanion offers secure and private folders on our FTP server! If you do have your own server, make sure that it’s using up-to-date technology.

Want to check if it works? Click Test FTP Connection. From there, you can run the import whenever necessary.

Where do I find the results of a utility or import after it’s finished?

Go to Operations Management from your sidenav, or by clicking on the operation (wrench) icon at the top, and click on the blue “i” icon.

I need to import a MARC file from a vendor; how should I set the default settings?

When importing files from a vendor, the correct default settings will already be set, and you can simply select “Run.” If you have a custom import or specific needs when updating your titles or copies, we recommend calling Customer Support for assistance.

Learn more in our Import New Books scenario.

Do I need to modify my session start date?

Usually this is not necessary. The session start date is set when you scan your first item. You’ll only want to adjust the start date if you scanned an item elsewhere or in the wrong session, to ensure all your items are counted correctly in this session. For that reason we recommend waiting to complete sessions until you are finished with your whole inventory.

What if I am inventorying with transaction scripts for some of my items? Can I still use Inventory Management?

Yes you can! Inventory Management sessions will allow you to run reports on anything that has been inventoried in that session range. Exceptions will only show for items scanned in the inventory window, however, you can see exceptions for your transaction script when you import it > Operations > download the summary file.

Will my inventory info disappear if I navigate out of the inventory management screen?

Nope! When running inventory either through the circulation screen or inventory management, the info is stored in the copy information. Basically, your inventory info is saved each time you scan an item!

What reports can I use to collect additional statistics about my library?

See Collection Statistics for the reports we recommend for gathering statistics.

I just finished with inventory and all of my items are showing as lost! What do I do?

Oops! To prevent this in the future, remember to always use the correct start date and double check which items will be set to lost before completing inventory.

If you caught this quickly, you can restore from a previous archive (usually one from the night before). Please contact Customer Support so they can guide you through this process.

If your library had a lot of circulation or you made significant changes to Alexandria before catching this, you may need to plan a full inventory. You could use the Inventory Bookdrop Suppressed mode in Circulation to quickly scan items back in. This allows you to run your library as usual until you have time to do inventory again.

I’m not using the Inventory Management interface. How do I manually remove or permanently delete the not inventoried items which have been moved to Lost Status?

Choose Operations from the sidenav.
Select Utilities.
Add a new utility, and look under the Copies cateogry.
Under Copies, select Remove Lost Copies.
You have a few options to remove your Lost Copies.
1. If you want to remove all of them, click Run at the bottom right.
2. If you want to remove Lost Copies from a specific time period, make sure to alter the Copies Lost option under the Selections tab.
3. If you would only like to remove copies that were moved into lost during inventory, and not from patrons, you will need to specify this under the Options tab.

Tip: Weeded or discarded items can be removed using a similar Utility called Remove Discarded Copies

When I complete an inventory session in Inventory Management and the option to Declare Missing Items as Lost is checked, what items are moved to Lost?

Only the items specified by your session’s Call Number Range that were not scanned. Be very wary of this feature if you chose the session option to inventory the Entire Collection instead of a Call Number range.