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--- pergamonmystic:linkedhelp:lookup [2021/10/05 15:50]
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+++ pergamonmystic:linkedhelp:lookup [2021/10/06 09:11] (current)
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 ====== Mystic Help ======
-===== Lookup Manager Concept Overview =====
+===== Lookup Manager =====
 {{ :pergamonmystic:linkedhelp:mystichelp_lookup_0001.jpg?200|}} The **[Lookup Manager]** is a dialog intended to perform two specific functions, and is accessible only to suitably authorised staff users:
@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
   * Manage the various drop-down lists and foundation information which is used within other manager dialogs around the application
-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).
+In a quick overview, the **Layout Manager** sometimes fills users with trepidation, but in reality it follows the standard Mystic Manager Dialog process of:
-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.
+  * Select an entry to edit from the left hand list
+  * Edit the details when displayed on the right hand side
-In all other respects, use of the **[Lookup Manager]** follows the standard pattern:
-  * Select a Category and Entry to edit
-  * Edit the details
   * Update the details
-Note however, that because the **[Lookup Manager]** is responsible for managing foundation data from around the Mystic database:
+So why does the **Lookup Manager** seem so complicated? The reason for this resides primarily in the //type// of data that the Lookup Manager is intended to maintain.
-  * 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 links below).
 ----
-==== Categories ====
+==== Types (or purposes) of Data ====
-Mystic divides the various foundation data into **Categories**, each of which is of a specific type (or usage). The **Category Types** are:
+There are really three different types, or purposes, of data being used by a normal user of Mystic, as shown in the following diagram:
-  * Item Indexing
+{{ :pergamonmystic:linkedhelp:mystichelp_lookup_0002.jpg?400 |}}
-  * 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.
+A good example of how this data is used is in the combination of an **Item** record with a **Reader** record to perform a function, in this case a **Circulation** which generates its own record in the database recording that the circulation occurred.
-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.
+Feeding information into these three higher level records however, is the **Mystic Expanse** - essentially, a potentially vast amount of small **foundation** data records. These foundation data records provide everything from Keywords to Contributor names, Class names to reader circulation limits (Circulations Profile), to the very configuration of how Mystic should perform.
-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.
+When you use the higher data records, such as the Circulations function, Catalogue Items or Reader Records, you do so using a dedicated Mystic Manager Dialog which is intended //just// for that purpose. To provide a dedicated editor for every type of foundation data in the Expanse however, would mean that you would need to keep track of of tens of different dialogs (possibly hundreds in the case of some Mystic licenses, where you are allowed to create your own data categories in the Expanse).
-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.
+For this reason, we do it all through a single Lookup Manager dialog which is flexible enough to cope with many different types of data but using the same basic principles that you know from using other Managers.
-The **System Category Types** contain foundation data which is used to configure Mystic, or otherwise inform Mystic how to operate.
+It is usually the sheer number of different types of data which therefore worries users - but there is no real need to worry. Once you learn how to use on Mystic Manager Dialog, the others are almost identical with only the need to adapt to the few additional functions that you can use only in that area.
 ----
-==== Standard Categories ====
+Lookup Manager help articles:
-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:
-=== Item Indexes ===
-  * **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.
-=== Item Popups ===
-  * **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.
-=== Item Qualifiers ===
-  * Contributor Qualifiers
-=== Reader Indexes ===
-  * Audience
-  * Gender
-  * Protected Characteristics
-=== Reader Popups ===
-  * **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.
-=== Reader Qualifiers ===
-  * There are no **Reader Qualifier** categories at this time.
-=== System ===
-  * Accessibility Options
+  * [[:pergamonmystic:linkedhelp:lookup_overview|Full overview of Lookup Manager Foundation Data]]\\
-  * Audit Log Events
+  * [[:pergamonmystic:linkedhelp:lookup_using|Using the Lookup Manager]]\\
-  * Booking Destinations
+  *
-  * Closure Days
-  * Installed Lookup Packages
-  * Package Events
-  * Package Names
-  * Protected Characteristic Types
-  * System HUB
-  * System Information
-  * System Licenses
-  * User Group Names
-  * User Group Permissions
-  * User Permissions
 ----

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