Issuing items
Use this section to issue an item now or in the future i.e. for an advance booking of a loan.
Issuing is a two-step process. First, a loan record for the item must be created. In this step, you will fill out information about when the loan is being made, to whom it is being made, and any other information around it. Loan records can be created in many ways:
From the Loans Menu, clicking Issue Loans or Issue Productions.
Starting on a record in the Catalogue database and clicking Issue Loan on the side button strip.
If you are using CalmView and have set up Calm-based document ordering, researchers on your CalmView site can assemble a basket of items and create a loan record requesting them.
Once a loan record has been created, it must be either authorised (when it is actually delivered to the borrower) or cancelled. This can only be done from inside the Loans database. Authorising a loan fills in the TimeIssued field.
On Issue, a loan number is given. This is needed when returning the item.
Definition of Lead Days
Lead Days is the notice required (in number of days) to produce an item, for example, if it is kept in an out store.
Creating a Loan from the Loans menu
Select Loans Menu, Issue Productions. This displays a search dialogue box asking you to identify the item that has been requested. If your search retrieves more than one record, you can select the correct one by browsing through the overview of retrieved records and then clicking OK.
If the correct Item has not been retrieved in your search, you can choose to Cancel or Retry.
You can only issue a single Item, not a Collection or branch of a tree.
If you do not have an OrderStatus field on your Catalogue record or it is empty, you will warned at this point and asked to confirm if you wish to continue with the issue. CalmView requires an entry in this field for document ordering, but Calm does not need it for productions.
A second search dialogue box is displayed asking you to identify the Researcher (user) making the request. This searches the separate User database, and therefore anyone using this service needs to be entered in the User database first.
If your search retrieved more than one user record, either select the correct record or search again.
You will be prompted to enter the reason/usage for the loan and where it should be delivered to.
A booking date box is displayed and prompts for the date the Item is required. The default is set as today’s date.
Remember to include any lead days, (recorded on the item's Catalogue record), when you are determining a suitable booking date. If the item has lead days, closed dates will need to be taken into account as well. For example, someone wishes to book an item tomorrow, which is a Friday, the item has 2 lead days but the office is closed on Saturday and Sunday, so the item will not be available until Tuesday, this would need to be reflected in the booking date.
If you change this default booking date, Calm will check that this is not a “closed date” for example Sunday (you can set these in Administration Menu, Parameters Menu, Loan Parameters) and that the date has not already passed.
Once a valid date has been entered, Calm will check for conflicting productions i.e. it will look for other bookings for this item on the day you are requesting. If conflicting bookings exist, the process will be aborted.
If there are no conflicting loans, the record will be stored in the Loans
database. This record can be searched for, retrieved and issued when required.
(All bookings due for production today are shown in the Today's Loans
option from the Loans Menu).
You are then prompted to enter another Item. You can choose either to identify
another Item and Researcher as above, or click on Cancel.
Creating a Loan from a Catalogue record
On a record in the Catalogue database,
an
button
is available on the side button strip. When this button is clicked, a loan record will be created for
this particular item in the archive loans database. This button only creates a loan for a single item, not a Collection or branch of a tree.
When the Issue Loan button is clicked, the procedure is the same as from the Loans Menu, as described above.
If you do want to loan multiple items, this can be done using the 
button. Note: this button can only be used by Calm administrators. To create loans for more than one item at once, open each
item you wish to loan in a hit list (and no other items). Then, click the
button. Loan records for every item will be created in the archive loans database. These loan records must then be authorised one-by-one, however.
Authorising a Loan
To be authorised, a loan must already exist in the Loans database (see above for how to
create a Loan record).
From the Archive, Loans menu, choose 'Today's Loans' or 'Search' to find the loan you wish to issue.
With the relevant loan record on screen, press
in the side button strip. Confirm issue of this item. (You can stop the
confirmation message appearing by checking the 'Don't ask again this session.'
box on this dialogue). The item will now be issued, the time issued is
automatically added to the loan record.