FAQ

Will the Advance Patron Grades utility also update homerooms?

No, the Advance Patron Grade utility will only update the Grade (Level) field. All other information, including homerooms, will need to be updated manually, with a utility, or with an import file.

I noticed that I have ten extra patrons that I was not aware of. Who are these additional patrons?

The ten additional patrons you see are default System Patrons in Alexandria. These specific patrons cannot be removed, but they can be very helpful to you and your library. To learn more about System Patrons, please visit our System Patrons support center page.

How do I advance my patron grades?

Everyone updates their patron records differently. Advancing patron grades may already be taken care of if you use patron imports or a SIS integration.

If not, go to your Grade Table Preferences and click Advance All Grades once. Check a patron record to make sure it worked properly.

For further help, please visit Patrons Preferences.

Advancing grades does not also change policies. If your patron policies match grade levels, see our Patron Imports Best Practices for instructions on updating those.

How can I be prepared for the beginning of the school year?

The beginning of the school year can be stressful. Please visit our free online Support Center for all our Beginning-of-Year Procedures. Following our recommendations will ensure you are ready to start at the beginning of the year.

How do I check in a Temporary item barcode?

Temporary items are checked in the same way as other items. However, once the temporary item is checked back in, the transaction record and temporary item (barcode) information are removed from Alexandria. As a result, you will no longer be able to see any information regarding the temporary item after it has been checked in.

I am adding several eBooks to our collection. How should I catalog them?

Cataloging eBooks is simple but slightly different from what you may be used to. Unlike a book with a physical copy, eBooks do not require a copy barcode. Please visit our free online support center for Best Practices for eBooks to find out all the steps you will need to catalog your eBooks.

I have multiple copies of the same book with different title records. Is there a way to combine them?

Yes, merging the title records is an easy process. Please follow the steps below to complete this:

Open Items
Search for the title records you wish to merge and choose the one you want to keep
Unlock the program
Select the Actions Menu
Choose Move Copies to Title
Enter the barcodes of the copies you want to move
Select Save

Once you have moved the copies, you can delete the title record you no longer need.

How can I add an email address to send out notices?

To start sending email notices, you must first configure your email preferences. Please refer to our email preferences page for step-by-step instructions.

Which MARC tag and subfield do I use?

In Alexandria, it’s easy to catalog items whether you understand MARC tags and subfields or not. However, if you can’t find a spot for the information you want to add in a title record, you may need to switch to MARC View and add it that way. So… where can you go to find information about what each tag and subfield represents?

The Library of Congress (LOC) website has a special section devoted to MARC tags and fields, which shows what each tag and subfield represent and examples of how each is used.

To get to the Library of Congress MARC webpage:

Go tohttp://www.loc.gov/marc.
Click on Bibliographic under the MARC Formats section or Bibliographic under the MARC LITE section.
Use the Table of Contents to select a portion of MARC information you would like to learn about.
Use links from the resulting page to view specific tag information.

You can also click Read About This Tag when looking at a specific tag in MARC View to go straight to the relevant LOC page.

Now that I have done my inventory, how can I remove my lost and discarded copies?

Before making any changes, it is recommended that you run the Discarded Copies and Lost Copies reports to get a list of what will be removed. To do this, follow these steps:

Go to Operations
Select Reports
Categories: Copies
Select Lost Copies
Select Run
Repeat the steps for Discarded Copies

Once you have reviewed your reports and are ready to remove the lost and discarded copies, follow these steps:

Go to Operations
Select Utilities
Categories: Copies
Select Remove Lost Copies
In the Selections tab, you can enter the selections you want to filter your utility. You can just leave this section blank to remove all discarded or lost copies.
Select Run
Repeat the steps for Discarded Copies

Please keep in mind that using these utilities will permanently remove all lost and/or discarded items from your Alexandria database.