Greater flexibility re: selection of document type in IRF/IRF edit forms
When an instructor selects the supply method in any IRF or IRFEdit forms, the document type for the item appears to be selected automatically based on the supply method chosen. For instance, Purchase selects the document type of Hard Copy; WebLink selects the document type of Web Page Link.
If we want Purchase to select for another document type, we cannot make this happen through the HTML code or through the Customization Manager (at least not that we could find). This is problematic when creating forms for new types of material, in which the supply methods given do not correctly map to how we will provide the items to users. For example, we recently created an IRF and IRF edit form for ebooks, and we would like the document type to correspond with the ultimate delivery method (Web Page Link) regardless of supply method chosen. If instructors choose the purchase option on the ebook form, it currently populates a document type of Hard Copy Reserve Item in Ares, which is confusing for Reserves staff and requires manual correction later once the ebook is available.
Is there a way to control the supply method so that the document type (or other fields) are not changed automatically? If not, other solutions to this issue? I think the concept of linking purchase exclusively to hard copy format is an outdated one that doesn’t reflect current acquisition models for many libraries.
Hilary Thompson
shared this idea
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Karen Janke
commented
Yes, this is annoying. The Document Type should correspond to the item format, not the supply method. e.g. if a prof puts in an article request and wants us to find it for them (e.g. the right URL), or scan from print, it defaults to Hard Copy Reserve Item, which an article is seldom likely to be.
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James Weber
commented
Just a second case, Book chapter & Article requests seem to be exhibiting similar behavior.
When the user selects the option to have staff pull the items (in the HTML: ...name= "SupplyMethod" value="StaffSearch" ...) the document type goes to hard copy.
These items are pulled from the shelves and scanned, then viewed on the web. Staff have to change the document type before printing so that our "article" templates will print. But also so that the items will appear on the web.
Though we own the items and staff have to pull them, they are not necessarily hard copy items. Having more control over how SupplyMethod and the Document Type field interact might be helpful to properly differentiate these requests.
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This is a good point. We'll research how the pages are working and see what we can do.
