Standing Orders - Overview

Order Purchase types

Physical - Standing Order Monograph Purchase Type and Print Book - Standing Order Purchase Type

These two purchase order types use the same workflow. The Print book - Standing Order type would be used for print books, and the Physical - Standing Order Monograph type would be used for a monograph of any other material type (such as CD, DVD, scores, etc.).
No inventory is created as part of the POL creation; a holdings record would need to be created separately in the Metadata Editor after creation of the POL.
Material is not received on the Receive New Material page, but rather through a unique workflow:
1. Create or choose a bibliographic record
2. Create a holdings record
3. Create an item record and add the standing order PO line number to the item
4. Add a receipt date for the item in the Physical Item Editor. See Receiving a Continuous Order for more detail.
These purchase types are designed for ordering material that is published from the same vendor in an irregular and unpredictable frequency, such as:
- Purchasing all the printed books by a particular author when they are published.
- A series of books which are not published on a regular basis.
- All pamphlets which a certain organization publishes.
These purchase types would be best for:
- Monographic Series standing orders for which each monograph within the series is analyzed on a separate bib record. Each title may be published by a different author, but all are under the same series, and you are subscribed to the series. The order is linked to a suppressed bibliographic record for the series; items are not described by this bibliographic record. Each item is issued under a different title and should be cataloged separately with its own bibliographic record that is linked to the series order. Each item circulates independently.
- Blanket or membership type orders for which receipts are described on separate bib records
- A subscription to an integrating resource, such as loose-leaf law materials that are delivered and then added to an existing physical item – The materials are described by the bibliographic record of the physical item attached to the order; each one is an update to this item. You do not have to create new items for each material that is delivered, since they are not circulated independently.

A note about migrated Aleph orders: Aleph O type orders that lacked any value whatsoever in the Aleph order Material type field, migrated over to this Alma Purchase type. This purchase type may also be a useful Purchase type for certain newly placed orders in Alma.

Physical - Standing Order Non-Monograph Purchase Type

This purchase type works in a similar fashion as the Physical Continuous purchase type. See Physical Standing Order Monograph and Print book - Standing Order Creation and Creating a Print Journal Subscription or Physical Subscription Order for more detail.
A holdings record is created as part of the POL creation; the items are created at the point of receipt.
Material is received on the Receive New Material page. See Receiving a Continuous Order for more detail.
This purchase type is designed for orders for physical items in multiple parts.
This purchase type would be best for:
- A multi-volume monograph for which you will receive volumes at unpredicted intervals, such as encyclopedia volumes. The volumes are described by the bibliographic record of the encyclopedia attached to the order. You must create items for each volume, since volumes may circulate independently.

A note about migrated Aleph orders: the following Aleph order types were migrated into this Alma Purchase type

Aleph O, all material types --> Alma Physical Standing order non-monograph
Aleph S, material type SM --> Alma Physical Standing order non-monograph

Receiving Workflow Options and Considerations

There are various ways to process the receipt of standing orders, based upon order type, but also based upon cataloging decision, item record placement and holdings record description decisions.

Items or Holdings – Linkage of an item to the continuous POL depends on the type of standing order:

- You can link an item to a POL only if the POL is a One-time or Standing order Monograph type
- You can link the holdings to a POL (and thereby link the corresponding item) if the POL is of type Standing order non-monograph or Physical Subscription. In Alma, this is referred to as Associate a PO line to the holding. See Adding and Removing PO Line Links to Items and Holdings for more information.

The choice of workflow depends on:

Whether receipts on the standing order are cataloged as piece-level bibs (i.e. analyzed), or collectively on the standing order bib
Whether the item records for the receipts are on the collective record or on the piece-level bibs
Whether holdings are described on the standing order collective record or on the piece-level bibs
See Receiving a Continuous Order for full details

Receiving Workflow Options

Aleph order type	Alma order type	Type of continuation	piece level bib?	Receive in receiving list	bib creation	item creation	edit/create holdings	POL link
O (All Material Types) S, material type SM)	Physical Standing Order, Non-Monograph	Multi-part monographs	no	yes	n/a	at point of receipt in receiving list	edit	automatic when create item in receiving list
		Analyzed multi-part monographs	yes	not necessary but is an option	yes	on piece level bib; add receiving date to the item	create on piece level; and/or update standing order holding (depends on nature of title)	can link from POL if standing order is One time or Standing order Mono must link from holdings (AKA Associate a PO line to the holdings) if standing order is Subscription or Standing order non-mono
		SSOs classed together; items on standing order; collective holding on standing order	yes	yes	yes	at point of receipt on standing order in receiving list	edit standing order holding; create piece level holding	automatic when create item in receiving list
		SSOs classed sep or together; items on piece level; collective holding on standing order	yes	not necessary but is an option	yes	on piece level bib: add the receiving date to the item	edit standing order holding (can do this from receiving list if desirable)	can link from POL if standing order is One time or Standing order Mono must link from piece level holdings (AKA Associate a PO line to the holdings) if standing order is Subscription or Standing order non-mono
O (NO value in the order material type field)	Print Book–Standing order OR: Physical Standing Order Monograph	SSOs classed sep; items on piece level; no collective holding on standing order Blanket orders/Memberships:items on piece level; no collective holding on standing order	yes: if classed separately no; if classed together but migrated to this Alma type because of the Aleph order coding	no	yes: if classed separately no; if classed together but migrated to this Alma type because of the Aleph order coding	created from the Holdings record, at point of receipt on piece level or existing bib; add the receiving date to the item	create piece level holding or use existing holding; units can decide whether to also record holdings on collective holdings	must link POL manually from item record
S (material type SE and all others EXCEPT SM)	Print Journal–Subscription OR: Physical--Subscription	SSOs classed sep; items on piece level; no collective holding on standing order	yes	no	yes	on piece level bib; add the receiving date to the item	create	can link from POL if standing order is One time or Standing order Mono must link from holdings (AKA Associate a PO line to the holdings) if standing order is Subscription or Standing order non-mono
S (material type SE and all others EXCEPT SM)		SSOs classed sep; items on standing order; collective holding on standing order SSOs classed together; items on standing order; collective holding on standing order	yes	yes	yes	at point of receipt on standing order in receiving list	edit standing order holding; create piece level holding	automatic when create item in receiving list