How to add items to Polaris
Answer
When you receive item via donation or you purchase, and there is an existing bibliographic record for the item, you can add the item yourself. Item records pull data directly from bibliographic records. Bibliographic records are created by the catalogers at the four regional systems of TRAC.
The required information needed in each record are
- Call number
- Collection
- Shelf location
- Fines
- Loan period
- Renewals
- Who can place holds
- Additional notes for contents, damage, etc.
Creating Items
To create an item, you will most likely start by searching in Polaris by the ISBN on the book. If the item is not a book, like a DVD or video game, it will probably have a UPC that can also be searched.
If you’re unsure which you have, newer ISBNs usually start with 978 and are 13 digits long while UPCs are generally 12 digits. Older ISBNs are 10 digits long, but most of the time books will say "ISBN" before the numbers. Periodicals sometimes come with an ISSN that is searchable, but these can be harder to locate. They’re eight digits long with a hyphen in the middle.
Once you find the appropriate bibliographic record you can click the ‘Create Item Records’ icon or go through the Tools drop-down menu and select ‘Create Item Records’.
After you’ve clicked ‘Create Item Records’ a new window will pop up called ‘New Item Record Options’. From here, you can add your barcode, price, and call number information. Selecting a template from the Template drop down menu, labeled ‘(None)’, will auto-fill the rest of the information (Branch, Collection, etc.). Clicking ‘OK’ will create an unsaved item.
The ‘New Item Record’ window will replace the ‘New Item Record Options’ window and you’ll have a chance to review it before saving it and adding it to the system. If you didn’t fill any information in earlier, you can also change all the fields at this point. If your item contains multiple pieces (i.e., Audiobooks, Kits) now is the time to add a ‘Check for contents’ note in the ‘Notes and Notices’ menu. Most notes added will generate a pop-up when the item is checked in.
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Choose ‘Check for contents’, ‘Needed for program’, ‘Send to Cataloguing/Technical Services’, or ‘See note’ and use the ‘Free text:’ box for the specific information (4 CDs, Need for display, On wrong record, etc.)​ |
When you save a newly created item, a label is automatically generated in the Label Manager. If you don’t want to use the labels, make sure to clear the label manager or eventually Polaris will tell you the manager is full (its capacity is 500).
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