OpenBiblio

I noticed when using the Catalog Search report, I can look up Copy Info from the Title hyperlink. From there, I can view the status of the Item, and Edit it. In the Edit form, I can change the status to "On loan" without assigning the loan to a member. Is there any way to add this capability? I do not want it to be possible to check out a book without it being assigned to a member, but I do want to be able to check out a book from the Copy Info page. Thank you.

I'm not saying your request is a crazy idea, but I see several problems. 1) "On loan" is not identical to "Checked Out". The statuses a copy can have are defined in database table `biblio_status_dm` Among others there are: - 'out','checked out' - 'ln','on loan' Aren't those the same? Fact is that since OpenBiblio version 0.4.0 (or perhaps even before) there is a Help Page "Understanding Bibliography Status Changes" that distinguishes between these two statuses. Check out is allowed on page member info (Circulation tab), and on loan is allowed on page biblio info (Cataloging tab). Unfortunately the difference is not explained. My speculation is that the idea for "on loan" is that OpenBiblio should be able to show that an item is not available, while it is not registered to a member in the database. This happens in reality; for practical reasons sometimes a loan is registered outside the library system. But then it should be a Circulation feature. 2) Circulation feature requires authorization for Cataloging. Page "Edit Copy" requires that the staff member is authorized for the Cataloging tab, while checking out and registering as on loan is a feature that you would expect under Circulation. 3) Bug [Editing checked-out copies broken - ID: 1162251][1] There is an old bug in "Edit Copy" that allows staff members authorized for Cataloging to change status for a copy that is checked out. That shouldn't be possible, but apparently fixing this bug is not a priority. Until this is fixed it's a good idea to restrict the use of Edit Copy to staff members trusted to understand the Do's and Don'ts. [1]: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=1162251&group_id=50071&atid=458474

I can understand your points. For our small library, there is NO difference between checked out and on loan. I realize that removing the option for on loan is possible, but what I'd really like is to add "check out" as an item status, and either be directed to another page where member information must be entered, or to add another box for entering member information. Another possibility is to be directed to the circulation page upon clicking the link in the report or the "edit" link on the Item copy page. This is not preferred since it would require re-entry of the barcode info, but it would be acceptable.