Adding Bookshop Resources

Once an order has been placed with the bookshop, Peters book selling services will process the order and send an invoice for the chosen items. Once this invoice has been sent, a file will be created that can be used to import the book data into the library system.

Although you may be eager to add the items to your library catalogue as soon as possible, it is essential that this file is not imported until the resources have been delivered to your library.

The file which holds the bibliographic information for the purchased resources is called a MARC21 file. One of two types of MARC files will be created depending on the options that were selected when placing the order, A MARC file either with or without barcodes. 

If you selected to have books with pre-printed barcode labels already stuck into the books when they are delivered, then a MARC file containing the barcode numbers will be generated. This file can be imported directly into the library system and all your items will be catalogued with the barcode numbers attached.

If you selected to use your own barcode labels and generate specific numbers for the items yourself, then a MARC file with only bibliographic information and no barcodes will be created. This means that you will need to stick a barcode label into each book when the stock arrives and add them to your library system. A MARC file speeds up this process as it contains all the bibliographic data of the resources that have been purchased. When adding one of these items to stock the data is retrieved from the Custom Catalogue table, where book data is stored, separate to your live library catalogue. When you scan the ISBN of an item that is in the custom catalogue the data will be retrieved from here and added to the resource record card.

I Have Received the Books, What Now?

Once you have received the resources, the first step is to import your MARC file.