Embedding/including/adapting/working with of external software for media transport

… posted this into the Ressource Management SIG with the false topic … probably the wrongest place on planet earth, way too short and not enough coffee

“I wonder if the management of various closed storage rooms could be a part of FOLIO (aka defining printers, opening hours, transport stations and even statistics here). Those who know the LBS software from OCLC will know what I mean […]”

As there’s a lot of discussion about stack rooms/storage rooms here (and thankfully Uschi Klute is at the top of her game) I’m more interested into the … well … special features/apps of storaging: statistics/reporting, printing and especially the embedding of transport stations and bin tables for media transport. Two years ago we tested WMS and it was nearly a complete failure here …

We have a brandnew University Library in Marburg/Hesse and the very expensive “Medientransportanlage” is one of our key technologies. The MTA isn’t directly linked with our library software. Its “Easycheck Sofware” uses in a more hard-coded way the transport stations and storage rooms which are featured at the storage rooms of our library software:

Library Software:

Code: MAGNC0
Description: Magazin numerus currens
Printer: marlis_4
transport_station: 11
Loans: 341
Default loan indication: 0 (4 weeks)

… translated into our MTA software:

[…]
Bin Table .MAGNC|*.1
[…]

*.1 represents not the transport station but the standard bin where the media is sorted in. We definitely prefer a structure like the trusted one because the Easycheck Software has its limits.

CM

Hello Christian. Welcome to the FOLIO project community.

One of the best ways to think about FOLIO is as a platform of library-oriented apps – similar to how a smartphone provides a platform for apps. One of the key benefits of this approach is that, like smartphones, anyone can develop an app for a specific need. Many in the project are focused on creating apps for the core functionality of a library (managing users, ordering items, and so forth). A few independent software development teams are also working on apps for their specific needs.

To the best of my knowledge, no one is working on an app for FOLIO that meets the needs you describe. The application programming interfaces (APIs) for FOLIO are publicly published on dev.folio.org, and it should be possible for a software development team to build the kind of interaction you are seeking.

Hello Peter,

many thanks As a newbie I needed a few days to realize that the location complex of circulation is more or less settled in FOLIO. It seems that the analysis and solutions are very well worked out … but probably without the special features we can find at the LBS software HeBIS and GBV use? Going into detail with an example: one of the transport stations of our mighty “Medientransportanlage” goes offline because it has a physical defect. Now we quickly have to use another transport station because all the items which use that transport station (in the worst case thousands of our RVK collection) would run through our “Medientransportanlage” without ever finding … well … home or causing an overflow. In LBS I simply would change the defined transport station in the “storage_room” for RVK. This operation takes a second and all is fine. As a Systems Librarian who is responsible for circulation/loan since 20 years I was always grateful that my software had such a quick and uncomplicated repair kit

Thanks, Christian. That is a good example of how exceptions to routine operations need to be considered in designing the workflow.