Textbooks

Textbooks Management is where you add, view, duplicate, move, and modify standard information about the items in your database.
To access it directly, add /textbooks or /tt-items to the end of your Alexandria URL.

Textbooks Video Playlist

Related Tips

Textbook Preferences

Textbook FAQs

Textbooks Management gives you a record list on the left, and shows the current record on the right. Navigate between the Textbook Tabs (Publication, Copies, Adoption, and Notes). Click the padlock to lock/unlock the interface for editing. 

Actions Menu

• Remove title. Permanently removes the textbook record and all of its copies.
• Duplicate title. Creates a new title that’s identical to the current title.
• Quick export. Quickly exports the selected title record as a .txt file 
• Move copies to this title. Moves copies to the current title from another title. This feature is helpful when a copy is mistakenly imported (or added) to the wrong title. Once you click on this option, a dialog box will pop up. Choose if you want to enter a barcode list or range to identify the copies to be moved. If Remove source titles with no copies is checked, titles that end up without any copies will be removed.
• Title statistics. Shows title-specific circulation information.
• Merge title. Get rid of duplicate titles, while retaining history for all copies, and updating the title history to reflect actual usage.

Copies are required to have a status of Available in order to be moved. Check a copy’s status on the Information tab of the copy record.

Basic Info

The basic information pane shows when viewing any tab, and contains the essential information for this title.

Title. Title of the textbook or asset.

Author. The suggested format is the author’s last name, followed by a comma, followed by the author’s first name (i.e. Downey, Phil). This field can also be used for manufacturer etc.

Title ID. This ID is defined by each school and can contain any combination of numbers and characters. Common Title IDs are the library call number, vendor stock numbers, or a unique course number. This should be unique for each textbook in your collection.

Title ID can be similar to a ‘call number’ but it must be unique. If you develop a scheme for your Title Ids, you can use them to easily select by specific ranges of titles in reports and utilities.

Textbooks FAQ

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:

1. Go tohttp://www.loc.gov/marc.
2. Click on Bibliographic under the MARC Formats section or Bibliographic under the MARC LITE section.
3. Use the Table of Contents to select a portion of MARC information you would like to learn about.
4. 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.

MARC LITE is a subset of the full MARC 21 Bibliographic Format. It includes all essential data elements that are needed to create bibliographic descriptions of information items. Records using only those elements are valid MARC records and may be integrated with fuller records without alteration.

How can I get a list of all items that are checked out and their due dates?

To get a list of all the items that are checked out along with their due dates, follow these simple steps:

1.  Select Operations
2.  Select Reports 
3.  Categories: Circulation 
4.  Select Loaned Items Information
5.  Select Run

Once the report is generated, you can see all the checked-out items along with their due dates. Any due date that appears in red indicates that the item is overdue.

School has started and I want to clean up my item records. Is there an easy way to clean up mediums and genres?

You can do this in Authority Control, which is the part of the program that helps a user manage terms and edit, modify, or even remove them when no longer in use. To access Authority Control go to Tools and select Authority Control. You will find terms listed under both patron and item field headings.

By using the gear at the top you can select “Remove unused terms” to clean up some of these fields. This will only remove a term if none are entered into an item or patron record under the corresponding field. If you have any questions about best practices for managing Authority Control terms we recommend you call Customer Support for guidance and advice. 

Over the summer our IT department wants to add or re-add the Chromebooks and iPads to our catalog. What are the recommended methods of doing this correctly?

If you have used Alexandria or Textbook Tracker to catalog non-book items such as laptops, chargers and other technology it is a good idea to use a specific item policy or policies to manage them. In most cases you will want a title record for something like a Chromebook to include all of the copies instead of 1/1 with titles/copies.

If you are using an import file, you will need to create a title record with an ISBN first so the import setting “Title update matching” works for title and ISBN/LCCN.

Read Cataloging Equipment to learn how to catalog equipment in Alexandria.

If you have any questions please call Customer Support at 1-800-347-4942 to get help with importing files.

How can I easily change the copy location or copy shelving?

The easiest way is by using the Set All Copy Locations or CH command in Circulation. This is much quicker than going into each item to change copy locations. Make sure to clear the command line when you’re done!  You can also run the Copies Information Report to help view and sort your items.

How can I import items into Alexandria?

Go to Operations > Import and select the category of what you are importing. Upload the file from your computer, and make sure to configure the field map. Note: Marc records don’t need to be field mapped. See Import for more information.