Batch Update Items Improvements

I'm compiling several suggested improvements for the Batch Update Items tool in the Catalog module into this one post.

First, make Batch Update Items user specific rather than license specific. Currently, if our Collection Coordinator is working on a query set within BUI, the same query set shows up when our Circulation Coordinator opens BUI. The two of them cannot work on different projects, so one must wait for the other to finish their project before starting theirs. It's like allowing only one patron record to be up at a time amongst all staff. This delay can become especially problematic when the current query set in BUI is part of a project that takes several days to complete. Allowing each user to work in BUI independently would greatly improve the tool.

Second, add what I am going to call a "tab" feature to BUI. As mentioned above, staff are currently only able to work on one project at time in BUI. We have run into many instances where our Collection Coordinator runs a query within BUI for a multi-stage, multi-day project, but then needs to use BUI to complete a smaller project that has just come up that may only take an hour or two. Unfortunately she cannot exit out of the larger query because status changes made to items in the meantime will affect the results of the query, which messes up the project. For example, if she is working on recall and uses BUI to query a set of books, then exports the query and takes the printout into the stacks to pull the books, she needs to be able to reconcile what she finds in the stacks with the list in BUI, and to be able to then update the books in the query when she has finished the reconciliation. However, if a book's status changes while she is looking through the stacks, then it might not appear in the query if she has to run it again. So she leaves the query open until the whole project is completed.

Instead of this current limitation, we suggest some feature that will allow a user to "tab" through queries without them being rerun, much like you can tab through webpages in your web browser. You can only look at one page at a time, but you can have several kept in a static state waiting. So far we have come up with two options for implementation. First is the more manual option of being able to import a query into BUI. This feature has been requested before, and since other query tools in KLAS allow you to import data sets this option doesn’t appear to be too much of a stretch. Second is a more automated option where KLAS caches a query data set and stores it on a local server with the caveat that the data set will be cleared after a certain amount of time (say, 1 month). That way KLAS doesn’t get bogged down with stored data, and you can work with exactly the same data set without having to worry about the query being run again, and you can switch between multiple data sets with ease.

Both of these improvements together would make BUI a lot easier to work with, and improve staff efficiency. We use BUI a few times a week on certain months, and some added flexibility would go a long way.