Mystic Help

The [Lookup Manager] is laid out in a very similar way to most Mystic managerial dialogs. A list on the left hand side of the dialog allows you to choose a value that you wish to edit, as well as Category and Filtering options to reduce the number of values being displayed at any one time (the Keyword Category for example, may contain tens of thousands of entries).

When selected, the details of an entry appears on the right-hand side of the dialog. Depending upon what type of Category is being edited, fewer fields may be made available or entirely new editing sections that are specialised for that Category may appear.

Note however, that because the [Lookup Manager] is responsible for managing foundation data from around the Mystic database:

• Many values that can be found in the Lookup Manager may be created and managed by other functional areas (e.g. creating new Keywords while cataloguing in the Catalogue Item Manager) without the need to use this dialog
• A number of additional specialised functions and tools are provided (see main lookup help article for links).

Mystic divides the various foundation data into Categories, each of which is of a specific type (or usage). The Category Types are:

• Item Indexing
• Item Popups
• Item Qualifiers
• Reader Indexing
• Reader Popups
• Reader Qualifiers
• System

If you do not see a particular category in the Lookup Manager which you wish to edit, it may simply be that their display is turned off - this is done to reduce the number of categories displayed in the drop-down list box at anyone time to reduce confusion from the large numbers. In order to make it visible, select the [Options] toolbar tab and toggle on the toolbar icons in the [Reader Categories], [Item Categories] or [System] toolbar groups as required.

The Indexing Category Types represent foundation data which may appear in connection with a particular type of record (items, readers etc) any of which may be used multiple times within the same record. Such foundation data may therefore include Keywords and Contributors (i.e. Authors) as several different values of each type may be attached to the record.

The Popup Category Types represent foundation data which would normally appear only once within a particular type of record and therefore typically is used to populate drop-down lists where only a single selection can be made. Such foundation data may therefore include Publishers, Series Titles, Student Classes etc.

The Qualifier Category Types contain additional information which is combined with the above to add particular meaning to the specific use of that value in single cases. In the case of Contributors for example, individuals may be attached to items as Authors, Illustrators, Editors, Actors, Directors etc. and may be attached multiple times to the same record, each with a different Qualifier.

The System Category Types contain foundation data which is used to configure Mystic, or otherwise inform Mystic how to operate.

The Lookup Manager has a number of core categories of information which are available in all versions of Mystic, as well as a number of custom categories which may have been created by Esferico on the behalf of Mystic users or by suitably authorised Mystic users with access to the Category tools.

Standard categories include:

• Audience - item Audiences define what type of audience an item is intended for. In most educational environments containing a single age group, the default Suitable For All audience is typically used for all items. The audience set for any item is used in conjunction with the Reader Audience setting to determine whether the item can be borrowed by that individual.

• Categories - Item Categories (not to be confused with Catalogue/Category Types, see below) represent a foundation data pick-list of standard categorisations within a classification type. The Item Categories category therefore includes all of the possible values in something like the Dewey classification system. Unless a small-range classification is in use, they are typically not used by most library environments due to the excessive number of possible values involved.

• Contributors - The Contributors category contain all authors, illustrators etc. who have contributed to the creation of items stored in the catalogue. Often, staff simply refer to this data field as 'authors'. In most cases, the Contributor values are created and managed directly from the Catalogue Items Manager.

• Keywords - The Keywords category contains all keywords that have been attached to catalogue items in order to allow indexing, searching and filtering by both readers and staff users. By their very nature, the Keywords category can grow to significant numbers. Again, the addition of keywords is usually performed within the Catalogue Items Manager as a part of conventional cataloging.

• Languages - The Languages category is used to provide a list of languages which are used / supported by a particular item. Unless the library contains multi-lingual items, this category is rarely used by most library environments. A second use of this category however, is to provide a list of languages and language variants for use in the Mystic application language editor, which determines what words and phrases are displayed on buttons, menus, message etc.

• Provenance - The Provenance category lists the types of sources where the item or item information originated. The most common provenances in use as the names of vendors (who provide importable data about a purchased book) and 'Manual Data Entry'.

• Publishers - The Publisher category contains the list of publishers who have printed and produced a book, or the production company in the case of videos, movies etc. Typically, new publishers are created during the cataloging process within the Catalogue Item Manager.

• Reading Levels - The Reading Levels category is not used by the majority of educational environments, though many SLS (School Library Services) promote correct reading level projects.

• Subjects - The Subjects Category is an additional indexing method, similar in nature to Keywords but usually restricted to a single, generalisation of the purpose of the item. While an item may have many keywords in place regarding the various topics within a book on medicine for example, the attached Subject may simply be 'Medical'.

• Vendor - The Vendor category allows the library to record where the item was purchased from. This category may therefore include the names of various vendors (Peters, Askews, Amazon, Waterstones etc.) as well as 'Education Library Service' etc. to record immediate intermediaries etc.

• Category (Catalogue) Types - The Category Types (or Catalogue Type) provides the ability to place an item into one of the specific sub-catalogues listed. Most educational library users place all items in the standard category (by default - no action is necessary for this), but specialist and community libraries may place items into specialised catalogues (e.g. donated collectors libraries); or higher education libraries who have specific subject catalogues (e.g. medicine, law etc.)

• HID Formats (i.e. Barcode formatting options) - HID Formats (Human readable IDs) define the format of how barcodes should be built or interpreted when scanned. In most cases, Mystic users define a single standard format and set it as the default.

• Keyword Packages - The Keyword Packages category is used only at the system level, to record which common keyword packages have been installed into the library database.

• Media - The list of possible media types stored in the library.

• Series - The list of item series to which the items belong. Item Titles are not stored in this foundation data system as it is assumed that each title is probably [mostly] unique. Series however, by their very nature, may contain many items and are therefore provided as a lookup to reduce the chances of duplication.

• Status - The current status (e.g. of items within the database. At the time of writing, the Status system is largely unused by most Mystic users die to the lack of complexity of their libraries.

• Storage Location - The Storage Location category contains physical storage locations of the items within the catalogue. In most cases of centralised libraries, Mystic users typically use the default Library entry. Where users have distributed libraries (such as classroom storage) or accessible locations around a school (e.g. spinners), there may be more storage locations available.

• Title prefixes - The list of title prefixes are used for correct catalogue listings. It is usual that titles prefixed by words such as The, A, An and other smaller prepositions, pronouns, definite and indefinite articles to be rotated to the end of the title so that the item is sorted correctly by its main intent. For example, 'The Lord of the Rings' would be automatically switched to 'Lord of the Rings, The' on saving the item.

• Contributor Qualifiers - Contributor Qualifiers include such entries as Author, Illustrator, Editor, Actor, Director and a number of other ways in which an individual can contribute to the creation of an item. Contributor Qualifiers are used to qualify how a Contributor assisted in the item creation, and may therefore allow the same Contributor to be added multiple times to the same item but with different Qualifications (e.g. an individual may be both the Author and Illustrator of a work, while it is common to be an Actor, Writer and Director of a film).

• Audience - The reader audience entries each represent named restriction measures which determine which items the reader is permitted to borrower. The names of Reader Audiences may not directly relate to Item Audiences as reader audience entries normally cover a number it item audience settings - reader audiences are therefore more descriptive of a group, such as 'Lower School', 'Upper School', Staff'. The default reader audience called No Restrictions for example, will have all item audiences enabled so that all items can be borrowed without limits.

• Gender - The list of possible Genders allows the library to record the gender or nature of the reader. These types are for information only however, and at the time of writing Mystic does not make any further internal use of the category. The category contains the expected 'Male' and 'Female' entries, but also the expanded gender types as well as types for reader accounts which are not individuals (e.g. for lending to a class or department).

• Protected Characteristics - The protected characteristics category is provided to store a list of protected characteristic entries that can be attached to reader records. See below for a special note on their use.

Special note on gender and Protected Characteristics: Mystic is a library management system and it has been sometimes argued that the storage of certain types of information is not justified under the GDPR and other Data Protection legislation. Such legislation correctly states that data should only be recorded that has an appropriate use.Mystic allows the storage of such information however, so that reporting of library use can be performed. Historically, the use of these reports have allowed library staff to show irregularities in library use that has then been rectified.

• Age Range - Age groupings into which Readers can be placed to restrict access to various types of item in the catalogue. At time of writing, the Age Range group is only used for library information and does not directly influence circulations rules (instead, see Audience).

• Circulation Profile - the Circulations Profile is the core setting which determines how many items are permitted to be borrowed by a reader, as well as for how long. Many Mystic users define a single Profile for conventional readers (set to be the default), and a single Profile for staff.

• Groups (e.g. Classes) - the Groups category lists the various groups into which readers can be organised. In the case of Education users, this category equates directly with school classes.

• HID Formats (i.e. Barcode formatting options) - HID Formats (Human readable IDs) define the format of how barcodes should be built or interpreted when scanned. In most cases, Mystic users define a single standard format and set it as the default.

• Locations - Reader locations should not be confused with Groups. Reader locations are used to define a physical location of a reader. Under normal circumstances, this category is used with a single default value or even not at all. Multiple reader locations are typically only defined by specialised library environments, or Mystic users with multiple physical sites (e.g. an Academy user with multiple schools, utilising a single library catalogue).

• OPAC Permissions - OPAC permissions define which features of the OPAC are permitted to an individual user when they login.

• Salutations - Salutations define the various prefixes that can be used for readers and include standard values such as Mr., Mrs., Miss, Dr., Prof. etc. They are rarely used in most educational environments, but see more use in industrial and commercial libraries.

• There are no Reader Qualifier categories at this time.

Unlike many of the categories for items and reader, most (not all) System Categories are not used to populate lists and drop-downs. Instead, they provide a means to turn on/off configuration settings which control how Mystic behaves.

• Accessibility Options - The accessibility options define which mechanisms of assisting access to the application are turned on. Some accessibility options (such as speech) are currently turned off due to limitations of cloud applications. (Note that speech accessibility can often be turned on using Browser based plugins).

• Audit Log Events - The list of Audit Log events that Mystic can add to the Audit Log when functions are performed by users. Audit Log events are typically not managed by Mystic users.

• Booking Destinations - Booking Destinations contain the list of locations for the delivery of pre-booked items. The most common (and default) entry is usually 'For pickup'.

• Closure Days - The closure days category lists the various algorithmic definitions which are used to generate when closure days occur within the library. Typically, the Closure Days category is used only by libraries who define loan durations as working days (e.g. 5 days out of 7 actual days) and need to define that weekends need to be algorithmically added to the loan duration for use by the calendar. In practice, most Mystic users calculate loans on a 7 days week, and the closure day system is not used. (Note: When closure days are in use, Mystic will also automatically add and remove days to account for holidays, end of years etc. and the loan duration may therefore be less than that expected.)

• Installed Lookup Packages - The installed lookup package category contains a single entry for each standard pre-built package that has been added to new library databases. Typically, this includes standard keyword packages requested by School Library Services. This category is human managed category.

• Package Events - Package Events contain the various types of event that can occur to items within a Package. In Mystic, Packages are a method to group together a set of items either temporarily or permanently for association together. Packages can be created for example, for stock checks or import and export to other libraries. Typically, this category is not human managed.

• Package Names - Package Names contains the various types of package that can be created within the BISON package manager. Typically, this category is not human managed.

• Protected Characteristic Types - The Protected Characteristic Types list the various types of characteristic that can be recorded in the reader protected characteristic category. As the various types are controlled by legislation, this category is typically not managed at a Mystic user level.

• System HUB - The System Hub category contains information necessary for the correct operation of the HUB bibliographic database system. While the contents of this category may be modified by staff users, once configured further modification is rarely required.

• System Information - The System Information category contains a list of individual values which each influence how Mystic performs its functions. This System Information category effectively represents the Mystic configuration. The meaning, purpose and settings of each entry in the System Information category is unique and should be configured on an individual basis.

• System Licenses - The System Licenses category contains the license information for your Mystic account. Without at least one entry in the System Licenses category, Mystic will not operate.

• User Group Names - The User Group names category contains the names of templates for user permissions which can be applied en-masse in order to create an approximation of a typical user of a particular type. Note that Mystic does not support true user groups - User Groups in this context are only approximations of settings. Typically, this category is not human manageable.

• User Group Permissions - The User Group Permissions category contains the permissions associated with the User group Names. Typically, this category is not human manageable.

• User Permissions - The User Permissions category contains all of the user permissions recognised by the Mystic application. Typically, this category is not human manageable. Note that this category contains the template permissions and is not associated with end-user implementations of those permissions. In order to manager user accounts, use the User Manager.

Mystic Linked Help Files
Pergamon Wiki Home