Reserves problems

This page is for documenting problems, issues and concerns with Ares in particular and Reserves in general.

Problems reported by Cayenna in March:

1. Diacritics do not import using Tom's Tools and worse they import as unreadable figures. Two choices, either copy and paste the correct diacritics from another program, or simply delete the extra figures and have any marking.  Both take much extra time.
2. For the items types (icons) to display properly in Blackboard, the Document type must be changed and then saved (which forces the Item status to "Available on Electronic Reserves"), the document status must be changed and then the item record must be saved again before closing.  (Resolution)
3. Saving, in and of itself, is a relatively long process when you have to do it this many times. (I recently spent a significant amount of time changing the above settings for over 100 items on a reserve list)
4. The call numbers do not import in a uniform manner, so each call number must be normalized if a usable pull list is to be printed or the items are to be sorted by call number in any fashion.
5. IT IS JUST SLOW! Particularly with Blackboard.
6. Since the items do not link directly to our catalog records, the information (particularly with regards to editions and Audio Visual materials, is incomplete.) This makes it difficult for patrons to know what they are looking at.  (This was an issue just today when a professor was using the online interface to find items on his own reserve list to bring to class and had to have multiple items pages to determine which exact one he was looking for.)
7. Since we cannot delete any accidentally added items to a reserve list, the lists can look quite messy and there is no way to clean them up.
8. We need more "Item statuses" that better describe items that are no longer needed for reserve. Perhaps like "Item no longer needed" - as opposed to "Item Cancelled by Instructor" so that we can see more accurately what actually happened with the item.  Additionally, now, in order to remove an item from the instructor view of the web interface, library staff must mark an item "Cancelled by Instructor" rather than "Cancelled by staff," which actually continues to display this to this status to the instructor.  In the cases where an item was accidentally added to the wrong list, this is a little awkward.  Although these erroneous items records can be recycled, there must be reserve list additions to take their place since they cannot be removed.  The notes field certainly helps clarify issues, but it feels a bit clunky and unnecessary.  This ties in a bit to deleting records.
9. When you are working with a class items list and go into a specific item record, when you return some item other than the one you were looking at is highlighted... - it makes it difficult to keep track of where you are in the list...