Troubleshooting - Work Orders Module

This is the fourth section of the Work Orders module to the Alma Overviews course. The video is at the top of the page, followed by the script.

In this video, you'll review:

Fixing an Accidental Work Order

If you create a work order by accident…

…and the item is in hand and belongs to your unit:

1. Mark the work order as Done, which sets the item to In Transit
2. Give it to the Circulation Desk or set your Currently At to the Circulation Desk, if you have those permissions
3. Scan in the Item to mark the item as In Place
4. Reshelve

…and the item was requested from another location and is In Transit:

1. Wait until the item gets to you
2. Mark the work order as Done, which sets the item to In Transit
3. Send it back to the owning library’s Circulation Desk
4. They will scan in the Item to mark the item as In Place and reshelve

*In either of these two cases, if the item belongs to a remote storage location, submit a ticket to LTS to fix.

…and the item was requested from another location but it hasn’t been acted on yet

– it’s not yet in Transit – you can go to the Monitor Requests and Item Processes list and Cancel the work order/request.

Note that the only time that Cancel works as expected is if the item is not already in the work order process (e.g., requested but not yet pulled from the shelf/marked In Transit). Otherwise, as we mentioned, Cancel will cancel the request but not the work order. Once the item is in the work order process at all, that process needs to be marked as Done before the item will return home and stay there. Otherwise, it will bounce back and forth between the owning library and the work order department until someone marks the work order as Done.

In general, if you create a work order by accident, the best way to eliminate it is to mark it as Done.

Fixing an Accidental Done

If you mark a Work Order as Done prematurely, set your location to the Work Order Department and use the Scan In Items screen to set a status, then scan in the item. Because you’re in the department for which you need the work order initiated, this will just start a new work order for the right place to the right status.

Use this same method if you are in Technical Services, have Received a new item and forgot to check Keep in Department. Go to Scan In Items, set your status, make sure Done is set to No, and scan in your item barcode.

Transferring an item in hand to another department or another work order type

If an item is in a work order for one Department and another Managing department of the same Work Order Type scans it in, the original work order is automatically transferred from the original department to the department that scans in the item.

Example: An item is in the Judaica Tech Services Department. A staff member at ITS 625 Tech Services scans in the item. The Judaica work order is transferred to ITS. This can be done on purpose to move items from one Tech Services department to another; if it is done accidentally, scanning the item back in at Judaica (and I will change my location to this) will transfer the work order back again.

If an item has had all its work completed in your department and you need to send it on to work in another Managing Department:

1. FIRST, initiate the new work order request on the item, usually by looking it up by a Physical Items search by barcode, adding a new work order type from the row action item list, leave Do not pick from shelf unchecked.
2. THEN, mark the current work order Done, and the item will automatically be en route to the next work order.

New Acquisitions Not Properly Marked as Done

Sometimes, Access Services staff receive a whole group of new items for shelving that all display alerts that they need to be returned to ITS or a Technical Services department. If this happens, they may not have been properly marked as Done during the receiving process. Circulation staff cannot mark the work order for these items as Done, because they are not in the proper work order department.

If this happens, Access Services staff can reach out to their Technical Services/ITS contact and email the list of affected barcodes to be marked Done.