Overview
Shelf locations are used to help locate an item in the library that is not in its “permanent” place. An item can have a collection code that denotes its typical permanent location in the library, along with a shelf location for its current, temporary location. New book areas and displays are examples of temporary locations that are appropriate to make shelf locations. Here’s a screenshot of the Shelf Locations table in Polaris SA:
Shelf locations are primarily finding and searching aides, helping patrons and staff locate items within the library or filter search results. Shelf locations are considered an item’s temporary home, unlike a collection code which is an item’s permanent home. The recommendation from the CLC is if you want to temporarily highlight items that have multiple different collection codes, then a shelf location is a good solution.
PAC Display
You can choose to display the shelf location in the PAC using item availability: display shelf location SA setting. Please enter a HelpDesk ticket if you have any questions about this setting or if you want to enable or disable it.
Using with Collection Codes
The CLC recommends when cataloging new items, that you assign the permanent place as the collection code, and then a separate New or Display shelf location. When the item ages out of New status, the shelf location can be removed via a bulk change and then the item can be filed in its permanent collection code location.
Temporary Shelf Locations
The CLC does NOT recommend using the “Temporary” shelf location in the item record, because it’s not recorded in a table in SA like Shelf Locations; it’s just a flag that there is a temporary location or not. For that reason, there isn’t a way to search for specific temporary location names. In addition, the temporary location is not visible in the PAC.
Usage report
This report shows shelf locations by branch and the number of items assigned to each shelf location.
If you want to add, remove, or modify any of your shelf locations, please enter a HelpDesk ticket.