Autodocs 1.5: Frequently Asked Questions and User's Guide

NOTE: Check with your IT staff to see if this is allowed. This procedure will disable some security features that stop macro viruses in Microsoft Access. If your IT staff says that you may not do this, you will need to allow macros after the security warning each time that you enter Access. For Access 2010, there will be a button that says, "Enable content" and then confirm that you want it to be a trusted document. You will click on that each time.

Step 1: Open Autodocs in Access.

Step 2: With Vista and Access 2007, there is an office icon in the upper left corner of the screen. click on it. At the bottom of the Office Window, click on the button that says "Access Options." With Windows 7 and Access 2010, There is a tab in the upper left called "File." Click on that, then click on "Options."

Step 3: A new window will open. On the left hand side, click on the button that says "Trust Center."

Step 4: On the right hand side of the Trust Center screen, click on the button that says "Trust Center Settings."

Step 5: A new window will open. On the left side, click on the button that says "Macro Settings."

Step 6: Select the radio button called "Enable all macros (not recommended)" and click "OK".

• How to get to the Tables, Queries, Forms, Reports and Macros: Instead of a database window, Access 2007 has a left-hand column called the "Navigation Pane." If it is minimized, you can expand it by clicking on the right-pointing double arrow at the top of the left margin.

In the Navigational Pane, there is one long list of objects. It starts with Tables, then follows them with Queries, then Forms, then Reports, then Macros. If the Nav Pane says "All Tables" at the top, these objects will not be separated by headings in the list. If you want to see all objects separated by headings, click on the dropdown arrow next to the phrase "All Tables" and the select "Object Type" from the dropdown list. Then in "Filter by Group" select "All Access Objects."

Explanation: MS Access 2013 no longer supports the dBase III format for importing data into Access tables, which is necessary for checking in materials using the Autodocs application. The solution below works, but it adds extra steps to the earlier procedures, which is regrettable.

1. Download the shipping list in dBase III format as you would have in times past. You don't have to name it "ship.dbf".

2. Open MS Excel, not MS Access as you would expect, but Excel, and then click on "File" and then "Open". Go to the directory where you downloaded the shipping list (possibly C:\access).

3. In the dropdown beside the file name, change the file type to "dBase Files". The shipping file should appear in the window. Click on it and click on "Open."

4. Once the table is open in Excel, inspect it briefly to see if the column names are correct. Sometimes GPO sends out malformed shipping lists, and this is a chance to repair it before it goes to Autodocs click on "File" and then "Save As" and then make the file name "ship" and "Save as type" set to "Excel Workbook." Close the spreadsheet in Excel.

5. Open Autodocs. In the uppermost tool bar, select "External Data." In the tool bar below, the leftmost item is: "Saved imports." If your steps are already saved, you can execute them together at this point and you are done. If not, you want the icon two to the right of the leftmost, which says, "Excel." Click on that icon. It will open a wizard to walk you through the importation.

6. Click on the first option on the first screen of the wizard, which says, "Import the source data into a new table." Click on the "Browse" button beside the "File Name" text box, and find the file you saved in step 4. Click on "OK" at the first window of the import wizard.

7. The next window asks about worksheets. There should only be one option, so click on "Next". The next window has a check box that says, "First Row contains column headings". Check that check box, and click on "Next." The next window allows you to select the data type for each field of the new table. Scroll to the right to the last field, called "Listdate." Highlight it, and then change its data type to "Short Text." Click on "Next." The next window asks about a primary key. Select the check box for "No primary key." Click on "Next." The next window asks which table you want to import it as. Keep the name as "ship" and click on "Finish."

8. The next window asks if you want to save the import steps. If you are confident you did them all correctly, check the checkbox to "Save import steps". Name it what you like. "Import-ship" is the default name it offered me, and that is the name of the saved import that comes by default with Autodocs 1.5.

9. Now open the Form "Switchboard" as you would have done before.

10. SKIP THE BUTTON CALLED: "Import Ship List: Step 1" and go straight to Step 2.

11. For future shipping lists, follow steps 1-4 above, but after step 4, you open Access, click on "External Data", then click on "Saved imports", highlight the saved import, and click on the "Run" button. That should execute steps 6, 7, and 8 automatically.

This will happen if your Autodocs loses some of its default settings. Converting from Access 97 to later versions makes that happen.

For Access 97 to 2003: Click on "Tools" on the Menu bar, then click on "Options," then click on the tab called "Edit/Find." Then deselect all of the notification flags on the right hand side of the Edit options. Then hit "Okay." This will suppress those messages.

For Access 2007: Click on the upper left corner Office Icon, then click on "Access Options" at the bottom of that pane, then in the left menu click on "Advanced", which will give a new frame on the left side of that pane. Look for the "Editing" section and its "Confirm" subheading, then uncheck the confirm options for "Record Changes", "Document Deletions" and "Action Queries." Save your changes, and the annoying messages should go away. (But watch out, if you delete records they will go away without confirmation!)

For Access 2010: Select file in the upper left corner, then click on "Options" at the end of the list. On left-hand of the pop-up select "Client Settings." Scroll down to the header "Confirm" and unselect the three checked boxes; "Record Changes", "Document Deletions" and "Action Queries." Save your changes, but be aware that you will no longer be warned when you are about to delete or alter your records.

Autodocs 1.5 requires that you have MS Access 2007 or later.

IF you are running an older version of Autodocs that is from 2003 or earlier, you need at least MS Access 97 to run Autodocs. You also need to have all of the Access 97 Wizards loaded. You will also want to use the AutoFAQ and User's Guide, version 1.4, click here to access.

For Access 2007, see Section 0.A. above for security warnings.

Download the zip file and unzip it. Read the text file "Autodocs Readme First.txt" first, and then follow the instructions in the rich text format called "Autotutorial.rtf". The sample procedures manual in the zip file will also help.

First, examine your check-in operation. List the categories of items that you handle. What gets sent to a separate department, such as periodicals? Are some items put in a vertical file, and given different labels? Are some items separately housed in another library or department?

Next, compare your list to the following description of how Autodocs is designed, and note what would need to be changed. Then read the relevant sections describing the tables and how they are interconnected. Write down what you are changing and keep it in a file. I rarely send out upgrades, but it does happen. If you load upgrades, you may need to alter them in order to get them to work with your modified system.

I shipped Autodocs with a subset of Winona State's exceptions and shelflist already in it for demonstration purposes. To delete the sample data and start these tables fresh, on the Switchboard menu, at the bottom, click on "Autodocs Setup." Initialize each of the tables, then disable future initialization. By disabling the initialization, you or someone else will not accidentally wipe out your shelflist by reinitializing it.

• Part A: Getting and cleaning up the data

1. Open a Firefox browser (mine is currently version 28.0), and go to Item Lister.

2. Select Data Output Type "Selections (Y) and Non-Selections (N) in a single column." Type in your depository number and hit submit.

3. Once data has loaded, select "Download .CSV" at the top of the page. You will be asked to open or save this file. Select to save it and place it somewhere you can remember.

4. This CSV file has two problems. First, the first two lines of the file are not needed. Second, the item numbers that are pure numerals are put in single-quote marks. One solution is to open the file and delete these things. One technique is to open it in Wordpad, then Replace All of the single-quote marks with nothing. Then delete the first two lines of the file.

• Part B: Importing into Access

1. Open Microsoft Access.

2. Open AUTODOCS.

3. WARNING! You might accidentally delete valuable information. If you want to save your old selection profile, in the navigational pane right click on the table called ITEMPROFILE and select "Rename." You could rename it to something like "ITEMPROFILE_OLD." If you are just starting with Autodocs and you are ready to create your first ITEMPROFILE, you can select "delete" instead of "rename." This will delete the sample selection profile that came with AUTODOCS as a demo.

4. On the top menu, click on "External Data," then in the left-most block of options, click on "Text file." When the window opens, click "Browse" and find the file that you had saved. Leave the setting for "Import the source data into a new table in the current database" checked.

5. The file should be delimited, click Next. Then select that it is "Comma" delimited.

6. When you get to the window where there are columns, click on the first column, and do the following: a) Change the field name for the first field to "Itemno" with just that capitalization, and b) for that first field, change the "Indexed:" to "Yes (no duplicates)" For the second field, change the field name to "Select?" with the question mark, and leave it unindexed.

7. Choose "no primary key".

8. Call that new table "ITEMPROFILE", capitalized exactly in that way (initial letter only).

9. After the table is installed, highlight it, and then right click to get options. Select the "Design view". In Design View, after the Select? field, add a field called "history" that is "text" type and has length 50. You could also shorten the field lengths for the other fields from 255 characters to something more reasonable. The longest item numbers are nine characters, and the Select? field should only be one character.

10. If you want to retire your old item selection card file, first, think hard about losing the historical data and compare it to the labor of keying in that history into Autodocs.

I shipped Autodocs with a subset of Winona State's Superceded List already in it for demonstration purposes. Autodocs 1.5 is also shipping with the complete Superseded List from 2002, the most current year. Before initializing the Superceded List, make sure you have set up your own selection profile of Item Numbers in the ITEMPROFILE table first (see section I.D. above).

To delete the sample data and start these tables fresh, on the Switchboard menu, at the bottom, click on "Autodocs Setup." Then click on Initialize Superceded List. That button deletes the sample list and runs the complete list against your selection profile to arrive at a list that reflects your check-in. After you initialize the Superceded List, click on the button to disable future initialization. By disabling the initialization, you or someone else will not accidentally wipe out your shelflist by reinitializing it. If you are using an old version of Autodocs and want to upgrade the old 1996 Superceded List to the 2002 list, download the SuperC 2.0 database and follow the instructions.

Autodocs does not use all of the fields that the SUPERCEDED table has. You can delete some of the fields by highlighting SUPERCEDED and clicking on the "Design" button. Then highlight the left edge of the field that is not needed (so that the entire line is highlighted) and press the "Delete" key. The fields needed by Autodocs are: CLASSNO, TITLE, ITEMNO, and Retention Notes. The others may be deleted. Also, the length of the fields may be shortened. In my depository, the SUPERCEDED table has fields of these lengths:

• CLASSNO 35 characters
• ITEMNO 10 characters
• TITLE 255 characters
• Retention Notes 200 characters

Your depository may have local retention practices that differ from the guidelines on the official list, so you will want to review your own list and make changes to the SUPERCEDED table before using it.

Note: the data in the Access table of the 2002 List of Superseded Items was put into that form by Tom Tyler.

The EXCEPTIONS table has preset flags for three cases: 1. where the item gets sent to cataloging, 2. where the item gets sent to the periodicals department, and 3. where the item gets stamped Reference, No Circulation. Those just happen to have been the three classes of exceptions that I was dealing with at Winona State when I created Autodocs. However, it can be used to signal the person checking in the material for any special instructions connected to an item number or a sudoc stem within an item number. See section 4 of the procedures guide included with this distributionfor more information.

The fields in EXCEPTIONS in Autodocs 1.4 and later are:

• ITEMNO, which contains the Item selected class number of the series that gets special instructions. ex. 0507-Z-01.

• CLASSSTEM, which contains the truncated part of the Sudoc number for the series in question. ex. HE 20.8109:

• DOCSORLC, a large field where you can put any sort of special instructions. It should have been called "Notes." It's name comes from instructions on whether the series gets cataloged in Sudoc (docs) or in Library of Congress (lc), hence "Docs or LC". But you can put anything in here, from the title of the series, to any sort of instructions. In version 1.3, this field gets inserted into the Main Shelflist "Notes" field.

• Cataloged?, a boolean field that indicates whether it gets cataloged.You can ignore this field.

• Periodicals?, a boolean field that indicates whether it gets sent to periodicals. You can ignore this field.

• Reference?, a boolean field that indicates whether it gets stamped Reference. You can ignore this field.

• Label, a boolean field, that controls whether Autodocs will automatically generate a label or not. If you leave the Label field as a zero or blank here, when you check in the documents, there will be no label generated unless you manually select it during check-in. You may want this feature if you are routing the document to periodicals, and they do not want a SuDoc label on the item.

• DONOTWEED, a boolean field that indicates that for items in this series, your depository keeps them permanently, rather than considering them for weeding every five years. This field was added in version 1.3 in preparation for later versions that will have queries to search for and construct lists to consider for weeding. Those later versions of Autodocs never materialized.

LABELCHANGES has fields for matching items in the checkin process to series for which locations are different in the library. Once it matches to a new item, it will automatically change the Location and Call Number fields in the check-in record to the correct location and number for that series. The fields are:

• CLASSSTEM, which, as in EXCEPTIONS above, contains the truncated part of the Sudoc Number that is constant for that series (such as L 37.25:Oc 1/). It does not have to end at a colon, but can be any piece of Sudoc number.

• ITEMNO, the number for the class of items selected, such as 0001-A-02. These first two fields have to match the corresponding fields in the check-in record (the IST record) in order to automatically make the change.

• LCCALLNO, the new number or string to appear in the Call number field in both the labels and in the final shelflist. If you do want to produce a label that says top line "Periodicals" and second line "FDA Consumer", then put "FDA Consumer" in the LCCALLNO field.

• Notes, special instructions for handling the label/shelflist changes, exceptions, etc. These notes do not appear in the CHECKIN form for the processor to see. For notes that the processor will see, put them in DOCSORLC field in the EXCEPTIONS table record for the same series. (yes, that is confusing.)

• LCLocation, a field that will change the string that is in the LOCATION field in the checkin record (the IST record). The default name for the location in the IST is "Government Documents." The string in LCLocation can be anything. Its name comes from the fact that it was originally only for records that get cataloged in the Library of Congress Classification. Possible strings for this field are: "Periodicals", "Compact Storage, Third Floor" etc.

• Additional, a field that changes the third line of the label. The third line is by default the first 40 characters of the title, and allows the person checking in the document to match the title with the document. Unfortunately, LABELCHANGES does not give you the option of leaving the default title, so if there is a monographic title in the checkin record (the IST record), it will get over written if there is a match with an entry in the LABELCHANGES table. The logical thing to put in Additional is the series title, but other things may be desired.

LABELCHANGES is a very misleading name, because it doesn't just change the labels. It changes the fields for Location and Call number in the Checkin record, which then goes both to the labels and then becomes the final shelflist record. So if you actually catalog something in Dewey or LC, and you do not add that series to LABELCHANGES, then your shelflist will say that the item is in Government Documents when it isn't. See next answer.

This aspect of Autodocs seems to be an example of poor design, because the EXCEPTIONS table is separated from the LABELCHANGES table, but it is not. The EXCEPTIONS table tells the person processing the documents that there is an exception in processing for that series, such as an exceptional location. But it doesn't go in and alter the location on the label. Nevertheless, the location and call number on the label are recorded in the Main Shelflist as the location and call number of the document. That creates a problem. If you only have an EXCEPTIONS record, the series changes location, but the shelflist record says that it is in Documents.

This fact means that even if you check the box in the EXCEPTIONS record to suppress the labels, if the document is sent to a different location, you need to change the location and call number that would have gone on the label. How do you do this? Use the LABELCHANGES table. It also matches Item number and Sudoc stem, and then alters the location and call number for the label and the shelflist. So for every item in the EXCEPTIONS table that changes the location (say to the LC or Dewey collection) and the call number (to an LC or Dewey call number), you need one entry in EXCEPTIONS and another entry for the same item in LABELCHANGES.

If you use Marcive, you can use the EXCEPTIONS table to signal which item numbers are cataloged Marcive. In those Exceptions records, one might leave the Sudoc number blank, since any sudoc under that item number gets a Marcive record. But for series that one already treats exceptionally, an EXCEPTION record with a sudoc stem interferes with an EXCEPTION record with no Sudoc stem and causes unpredictable behavior. So you have to roll all exceptions for a Marcive item number into one Exceptions record.

Here is where the LABELCHANGES table becomes good design. Because LABELCHANGES is separate, you can still use it to change the locations and call numbers for specific series within an item number, even if the whole item number is listed in Exceptions with a blank sudoc stem because of Marcive cataloging. The LABELCHANGES table turns out in the end to be good design, if you retrofit the Exceptions records to handle blank SuDoc stems.

Altering the structure of any table (tables store the actual data, like the shelflist) is tricky and a pain in the neck. The reason is because the queries that manipulate the data, the forms that display the data, and the reports that print the data usually refer to the fields by their names. So changing a name in a table (adding a field, dropping a field, changing the purpose of the field) means that you have to find every other object (query, form, report) in the database that handles those fields, and change them.

So plan ahead (or plan to fix things because you didn't plan ahead). Think of the different things that you do to incoming documents, and ways that you use your shelflist. Then decide what fields you need where, in order to accomplish that goal.

The most likely tables to alter are: Main shelflist and EXCEPTIONS, because those are the most customized to the local operation. To change Main Shelflist:

• Change these tables: Shelflist Initial, Intermediate Ship Initial (this holds the structure of the IST between instances of the IST,)and possibly SUPERTEMP initial.

• Change these queries: Intermediate Update Label and format status [format] (there are four different ones, one for each format), Shelflist Append Current SL, Shelflist Search General (a very tricky query, watch out), Shelflist Public Search, Shelflist search for shipping list num, Shelflist search superseded Sudoc, and possibly SUPERTEMP append current.

• Change these forms: CHECKIN, Shelflist Search General Entry form, Shelflist Public Search Entry (you should only add fields to these two forms that you have designated as required in your Main Shelflist), Shelflist Gen Results (2 of them), Shelflist Public Results(2 of them), Shelflist Initialize, Shelflist superseded Sudoc search form, Shelflist Test for Shipping List Number.

To change EXCEPTIONS table:

• Change these queries: EXCEPTA, EXCEPTB, EXCEPTION Search (although this one probably need not be modified), EXCEPTIONS Setup.

• Change these forms: CHECKIN, EXCEPTIONS Update.

• Change these reports: Items with exceptional processing.

Results are usually displayed within a form. For example, the results for the shelflist general search for technical staff are displayed in the form called Shelflist Gen Results Tech Full. You need to find the form where the button exists to generate the display or print out, open that form in design mode, look at the properties of the button in question, find out what macro or report or form that starts, close the form, open the display form or report indicated by the button properties, and add or move fields accordingly.

The most important feature of the Main Shelflist is that I established the Sudoc number as the primary key field. What that means is that the Sudoc number must be unique in order for the record to be added.

The strength of this feature is that if you accidentally check-in the same shipping list twice, it will not load duplicate records. The bad part is that if GPO messes up and assigns two different items the same Sudoc number, the second one is bounced out. See Check-in Question D to diagnose what has caused an item record to fail to be added to the shelflist.

Fields that are required in the table are: CLASSNO (Sudoc number), TITLE, ITEMNO, LISTDATE, and FORMAT. If you try to save a record that is completely missing anything from any of these fields (even a blank space counts as something), Access will reject the record. Without these required fields, the general search form would not work correctly.

The Fields are:

• CLASSNO Text 50 characters

• TITLE Text 100 characters

• ITEMNO Text 10 characters

• LISTDATE Text 8 characters

• LISTNO Text 12 characters

• FORMAT Text 10 characters (Autodocs has four formats so far: Paper, Mfiche, CD-ROM, and Diskette.)

• NOTES Memo a variable length text field that cannot be indexed

• LOCATION Text 50 characters (What shelf area it is located in)

• LABELNO Text 50 characters (What is the call number on the item--LC, Sudoc, Dewey, etc.)

• LABELADD Text 50 characters (Any additional text on the label, like plainiffs.)

• parsed_usca Text 180 characters (a string created from the sudoc number that sorts)

• DONOTWEED Yes/No (If this item is retained permanently. Not currently used, for future development.)

1. Compacting: After using Autodocs, you should periodically compact the database. The normal operation of Autodocs creates and destroys numerous tables. These take up phantom space until you compact the database. Warning! Sometimes your Access program will compact the database, and then name the compact version "db1.mdb" and place it in the same directory as the uncompacted version. You will need to first note the name of the file for the Autodocs database, then delete the uncompacted database, and then rename "db1.mdb" to the correct name.

Access 1997 to 2003: To compact the database, on the top menu, click on Tools, then Database Utilities, and then Compact Database.

Access 2007: Click on the Office Icon in the upper left corner, then click on "Manage" and then click on "Compact and Repair Database.

Access 2010: Select "File" in the upper left corner, click on "Info," and select the "Compact & Repair" Button.

2. Backup: You will want to back up the Autodocs15.accdb file periodically (maybe once a week). Just remember, if your harddrive crashes, there goes everything that you haven't backed up. A simple backup would be to right click on the Microsoft Windows Start button in the lower left corner, then click on Explore. Then navigate to the directory that has your copy of Autodocs. Then highlight Autodocs and right click. You can the select "Copy" in the menu of options. Then you can click away from the list of files, and then right click to get another list of options. Select "Paste". The new file might be called something like "Copy of Autodocs15.accdb" You can then either keep that copy there, or move that copy to another drive. Personally, I keep one backup to the database in the same directory as the main file, one back up on another disc drive and a third copy on a CD-ROM stored away from the computer. The last back up I renew once every three months.

3. Deleting multiple shipping lists: During check-in, if you already had a shipping list in Autodocs under the table name "ship", the new list collides with that name and is given the name "ship1" or "ship2" etc. and the old list is still "ship." Then when you get to the check-in screen, you will see the old list. Periodically, go to the database window, click on the "Tables" tab, and look for tables with names like ship1, ship2, etc. delete all of these. They are just shipping lists that had collided with a shipping list that was already in Autodocs.

On the "Shelflist Operations for Staff" screen, there is a button for "Rebuild Sudoc sort field in Shelflist." Press that and wait five minutes for large shelflists.

Autodocs uses a customized version of Stan Price's algorithm from SuDS (with his permission). Stan's algorithm works by creating uniform sized chunks of characters. The alphabetic substrings of the Sudoc number are preceded by a character that sorts before a number does. The numeric substrings are filled in with leading zeros. The colon is the only piece of punctuation that is not ignored by the algorithm. It is replaced by a block of characters that sort prior to either numeric blocks or alphabetic blocks.

Stan made each block 15 characters long, and allowed 16 different substrings of letters and numbers. I ran some tests on two years worth of Sudoc numbers at my depository, and found that the longest substring was 9 characters, and that the highest number of alternating strings was 14. So in the Autodocs version, the blocks are 12 characters long and there can be 15 of them. This makes for a sorting field of 180 characters, which takes a good bit of room in a shelflist record.

If a substring is over 12 characters, that substring will simply not be part of the sorting string. So some Sudoc numbers may not be sorted correctly, however, the long strings then to be at the end, things like ED 1.8: G 43/SERBOCROATIAN. So missing that last string will not cause catastrophes. If there are more than fifteen blocks of characters, things get uglier. The whole field for sorting ends up blank, and so the record will be sorted at the beginning of any list sorted by sudoc. That will hopefully be rare, and not cause great hardship.

The sorting field that my version produces does not mix directly with Stan's original sorting field. I used different fill characters. He had reported that the characters he had chosen do not sort properly in Access 2000. I tested it and that is correct. I altered the algorithm so that it does sort properly in both Access 97 and 2000.

Does the algorithm sort Sudoc numbers correctly? It does not put two digit years after years ending in 99. So "I 19.42/4:00-4001" comes before "I 19.42/4:99-4001". But does any computer sort that correctly? Otherwise, it is theoretically possible to have Sudoc numbers that do not sort correctly, but such numbers rarely if ever come about in practice. For example, these two numbers would be transformed into the same sort field:
A 1.2:1/1-1
A 1.2:1-1/1

Short answer: because I couldn't fix my program. Long answer: if you have changed the Sudoc number in the Main Shelflist, the field that allows sorting by Sudoc does not get rebuilt. Because of that, the record will sort by the old number. So after each Shelflist search, you get a warning that you should rebuild the sorting fields for the entire Shelflist.

This rebuilding would be unnecessary if some Access Visual Basic hot shot fixed the parse algorithm so that an individual record's parsed_usca field was updated after the CLASSNO field was updated. I have included the defective Access form under the name "Defective Search Results" for anyone who wants to take a crack at it. It successfully updates the individual parsed_usca after the CLASSNO has been updated, but it freezes Autodocs and forces you to reboot the computer after each update (not good). Please let me know if you fix this problem.

See the separate file called procedures14.rtf for the procedures for check-in. You can see a quick overview in section I.B. above.

There are a couple of ways to add an item to the shelflist.

Method One: One method is to append the item to a shipping list that you are already checking in (a shipping list of the same format of materials). This method is safer than method two, but slower and less convenient. Begin to process the shipping list by importing it. Then before clicking the "Create Check-in List" button, click on the "Add to or Edit the Shipping List" button located to the left of the main sequence.

Click on the "add a new record" button. It is important to include the correct item number, as that number with the SuDoc number is used to perform operations with exceptions and superseded lists. Fields that are required by the shelflist include: Sudoc Number, Title, Item Number, List Date, and Format. (The program automatically fills in the Format field). All of these fields are text fields, and "required" simply means that the field is not allowed to be totally blank. So if there is no data for a required field, you could put in the word "None." If a required field is null, the computer will not admit the record, and you will have to start over.

Why is this method safer? Because the new item is run against the helper files that might provide notes and detect older superseded versions of the item. But if you are not worried about these issues, throw caution to the winds and use method two.

Method Two: Another place that one could add to the shelflist is to first search for the item using the general shelflist form for staff (not the public search form that does not allow updates). Click to search and retrieve the full records. (You will want the Full record to see all of the options that you can add.) Click on the Arrow-Star button at the bottom to get to a blank entry record. Fill that in and click on the "Save this Record Now" button. If you want a label, just click on the "Add to the Labels to Print" button. This method is faster than method one, but you may miss important exceptions details.

It depends on how you handle claims. See procedures14.doc for the two alternative ways of dealing with claimed materials.

Basically, if you alter the Sudoc number in order to claim, then you just search the shelflist for the claim record, and edit the SuDoc number. Just make sure that you rebuild the sorting field afterward. If you deleted the it to be claimed, then you import the old shipping list again and delete all of the other items except the claimed one.

If you discover that there was an error on a list, you can correct the problem at each stage of the check-in process. If you have followed steps #1, #2 and #3, and you spotted the error in the Check-in form, you can do several things. If the error is with a field in one record, but the error did not prevent the record from getting to the point of the check-in form, then you can simply click in the box and delete the error and retype. If the error was a faulty item number, and the item did not appear in the check-in form even though you select it, then close the check-in form, and abort the check-in list (abort step #2). Then click on the button to the left of the main column of the check-in process that says "Add or Edit the Shipping List." See IV. B. above for details about adding items.

Sometimes the date is wrong on all of the records, or the shipping list number is wrong. If you already shelflisted the shipping list, and want to go back and change something, you can go to the "Shelflist Operations for Staff" and click on "Search by shipping list number." That will pull up all items with that list number in their record. You can then edit the records directly from that results screen. Don't forget to change the label fieldand then eventually rebuild the sudoc sorting field.

You could automate and make global changes, but that requires building a Access query, which takes a lot of skill and effort.

If the table Main Shelflist has the Sudoc number as the primary key (see section III.C.), the system should prevent the same record from being shelflisted twice, because the Sudoc number is a unique string. If when you shelflist the records you get an error that some items were not shelflisted because of a primary key conflict, then one of the new records had a sudoc identical to a previous record. Click on "Verify shipping list in the Shelflist, or on the form "Shelflist Operations for Staff" search by shipping list number. That search will pull up all items with that list number in their record. You can then compare to the paper list in front of you and find which ones failed. The act of shelflisting also deletes the check-in list and the shipping list, so to begin the process again, you have to reimport the shipping list. Then in this second go-round, edit the shipping list to change the offending sudoc number. Be creative. If you can figure out the correct number, great. If not, you might want to add /ITEM 2 to the end of the Sudoc number. That way, when the corrections are issued, you can search under the Sudoc number to retrieve the item. Then follow the remaining steps of the check-in process. This second time, when you shelflist the list, all of the other records except the failed one will fail to be shelflisted, because their Sudocs will not be unique (they are already in there).

The recommended way to add a shipping list that is not already electronic is to enter the items at the end of another shipping list and then check the combined shipping list into Autodocs; however, you can add them to the Shelflist directly if you are daring. See IV. B. for instructions about adding to the end of a shipping list.

The situation of the missing electronic copy of the shipping list is much more common for the microfiche. In the microfiche case, our technician checks the paper list against the shipment, does any claiming that needs to be done, and sends the items to the public cabinet. Then she keeps the lists in a file and checks them every couple of months to see if they have appeared. They usually do. Only after a long wait does she add the items to the end of another shipping list.

If for some reason you want to download the shipping lists to a directory other than c:\data\access, you can perform the following steps.

Changing the download/import directory

1. Open Autodocs.

2. Find the macro named "ship import." (Access 1997 and 2003, go to the Database Window, then click on the Macro tab to see all macros. Access 2007 and later, look in the Navigational Pane on the left hand side for "ship import", for help see Navigational Pane.) Then highlight "ship import" and right click to get a menu of options. Then select "Design view". Click on the header that says "ImportExportData," this will open an editable screen. Rename the field "Database name" to the path you desire.

3. When you are finished, click the X in the upper right corner of the macro to close it. Then click "Yes" in the window that asks if you want to save changes.

Note: For Access 2013, you cannot use the import function. The location for importing the shipping list depends on the location specified in the "Saved import" that you use. To change the location, create a new Saved import with the new location. See 0.C. for how to import.

Uffa da, don't do that. Or if you do, remember that the list's date will not have the century. So a date of Jan 1, 1998 will have 980101. When you go to search for records to weed from that year, you just have to remember to search for year 98 rather than year 1998. I could build in a check-in for old items, but someone would have to pay me.

IV.I. When I click on the "Search shelflist" button, it brings up the "Shelflist superseded SuDoc search form". Is the new item info supposed to be manually entered into this form?

Here is the scoop on the "Shelflist superseded SuDoc search form". Autodocs takes the stem of your SuDoc number (usually up to the colon) and performs a search against the Main Shelflist automatically. You do not have to manually enter the SuDoc number in to this form. This form is the results form, which displays all records in the Main Shelflist with that stem.

An Example:

So let's say that you are checking in the record for ED 1.2:D 63/10/2001. Autodocs will see that everything with the ED 1.2: stem gets superceded, so it searches for ED 1.2: and returns the results. Not at the top of the results form that your original SuDoc number is shown in the box called "New SuDoc Number." You then need to look through the results and see if you have an earlier version of that document. If you find one, such as ED 1.2:D 63/10/999, you then click on "Add this record to the Superceded List" (if you are building a list of superceded items to pull from the shelves) and then click on "Delete this record from the shelflist" because you are getting rid of that item. When you have either succeeded in finding an item to replace, or have ascertained that there is no such item that needs replacing, you can click on "Quit this Form" and go back to your checkin. After quitting the form, if you have changed a SuDoc number in the Main Shelflist without deleting it, you need to rebuild the "Shelflist Sorting Field." There will be a pop up window that asks you if you want to do that.

Labels are made from a separate table. The table has to be created at the beginning of the session (unless there is one from the previous session), and then with each shipping list, information for labels is added to it. Then it is printed out and deleted at the end of the session.

Go to the base level database window for Autodocs. Then click on the tab that says Reports. Click on the report called Ship Labels. That is the report that prints the labels. Click on the Design button to pull up the report in a design window. You can now change the text or add a date function, delete a field or anything you want. Watch out, though! If you add things that alter the exterior size of the report, the current type of labels will not hold the label text properly. When done, click to close the design window and accept the changes.

The current report for the labels uses Avery no. 5160. You might be tempted to use a different kind of label, but since you will be going through boxes and boxes of these labels, it would probably be just as easy to use the default report form and buy a new box of labels. However, if you really want to use a different type of label, you can use the label report wizard to create another report for the labels that you do have.

To do this, go to the base level database window for Autodocs. Then click on the tab that says Reports. Click on the report called Ship Labels. Then click on the Design button. Investigate each field and find out what form it comes from. Then close Ship Labels. Right click on Ship Labels, and rename it something.

Then find out from your label company what the Avery number equivalent is to their labels. Then click on New, and use the label wizard to create a new report that performs the functions that you want equivalent to the old Ship Labels. Name the new report Ship Labels. Why start from scratch rather than edit the old report? I have found that editing a wizard-created report often gives weird results, so I would recommend that you rename and replace. When the new report works correctly, delete the old report.

I do not know of foil-backed labels that come on 8 x 11 inch sheets. The standard supply catalogs do not list them as an option. If you want to use foil-backed or other continuous feed labels, then you will have to investigate whether Access has an option for dealing with continuous feed labels. Maybe it does, I haven't looked. I know that foil-backed labels stay on documents better than regular labels.

If you do not change the type of label or the size of the print fields, there is a mark on the Check-in form that indicates the end of the label. Note below the "Call No." box, there is a black mark. If the call number extends past that black mark, the end of it will not appear on the label. For long Sudocs with parts of sets, there are sometimes very long words that can be creatively abbreviated on the label. When the number is longer than that line, abbreviation is called for (or a hand-written label).

The EXCEPTIONS table has a field that can automatically suppress the production of labels. If you have not then after the upgrade from Autodocs 1.1 to 1.2 gone through your EXCEPTIONS table and added a "Yes" to the Produce Labels? field, then for those exceptional series, the label will be suppressed. If this is what is causing your problem, you need to go to the "Other Operations" page, and select "Edit EXCEPTIONS table." Then go through each of the exceptional series records, and check the Produce Label? box.

Another possibility is that the record never got to the point of shelflisting. You might want to do a shelflist search by shipping list number to verify just what was added. In any case, one way to add the item to the next batch of documents being processed, reimport the shipping list, and check it in again. In the check-in form, make sure that the label check box is selected. When you perform Step #4, you will get errors about violating unique keys, and the records will not be shelflisted, but they will be placed on the list of records to get labels.

What probably happened was that in your Web Browser, someone had recently saved a file from the Web to a directory on your computer other than the directory that Autodocs looks in for importing the shipping list. The default directory for downloading/importing is "C:\data\access". Whatever directory was the last one to save files to is now the default download directory. When you are about to save the new shipping list as file ship.dbf, make sure that you are saving it in the proper download/import directory (c:\data\access, or whatever you have changed it to, see How do I change the download directory?). If you save it to some other directory, Autodocs cannot find it, and you will keep importing the last ship.dbf that was saved to c:\data\access as the new shipping list. See section II.B. item #3 for information about cleaning up the junked shipping lists.

See the checkin procedures in procedur.rtf or procedur.doc for complete instructions on downloading the shipping lists for processing.

You apparently have not yet clicked on "Autodocs Setup" and initialized the EXCEPTIONS table. Initializing that table will delete the sample exceptions entries that were sent as a demonstration.

For some bizarre reason, the Access object that executes the function of editing the shipping list occasionally disappears. I don't know whether the person checking in the documents accidentally deletes it, or if it gets deleted by Access as part of a malfunction. In any case, I have had to replace this object several times in the course of maintaining Autodocs. Here is what I do:

Go to the Autodocs web site and download a fresh version of the zipped Autodocs application. Save it on your computer in a known location (like the Desktop). Open you own version of Autodocs.

Access 2003: First, make sure that WOUTSHIP2 is missing, by looking for it in the Database windonw. Click on the Forms tab, and then look at the end of the list of forms for WOUTSHIP2. If it is really missing, follow the instructions below.

On the top menu, click on "File", then on "Get External Data" and then on "Import." Locate the fresh version of Autodocs and click on "Import". In the new window, click on the "forms" tab and then highlight "WOUTSHIP2" and click on OK.

Access 2007 and Later: First, make sure that WOUTSHIP2 is missing, by looking for it in the Navigation Pane on the left side of the screen. If it is really missing, follow the instructions below.

On the Access top menu, click on External Data. In the Menu below the top, in the Import section, click on "Access". When the import Access pane opens, click on "Browse" to find the fresh version of Autodocs. When you have located the fresh Autodocs, click OK. Below the location, check the radio button beside the label "Import Tables, ... into the current database." Then click on OK.

A new pane will open. Click on the "Forms" tab at the top, and then scroll down the list of forms and highlight WOUTSHIP2".Click on OK.