Ephemeral Wizard

The Ephemeral wizard in the Special group of wizards in the Circulation module is used to charge items that don't have a barcode. Libraries may have items that they want to circulate, but it is not necessary to keep track of these items for overdue notices or billing purposes. Examples of the type of items you might want to use for this wizard are romance paperbacks or pamphlets.  

In order to use the Ephemeral wizard, a title record with an attached item ID must be created. Like the Checkout wizard, a patron barcode is used to record a charge and discharge for statistical purposes when using the Ephemeral wizard. Unlike the Checkout wizard, the item checked out to the Ephemeral wizard is immediately discharged. In statistical reports, nothing distinguishes these charges from regular charges. There are multiple ways to separate these charges including the method below:

• Using the Item and Display wizard, search by "Title" and enter "WYLD ephemeral charges" in the "Search for" field. This title record is shadowed.
• Add a dummy item record to this shadowed title record using a Cataloging module wizard, such as the Call Number and Item Maintenance or Add Item wizard.
• Attach item barcodes to this record using location EPHEMERAL.
• Add an item type and additional item cataloging policies as needed, such as item categories.

*Note: You do not need to use the title record above to use the Ephemeral wizard. You can create your own title record with your own "dummy" items attached. If you do create your own title record, you might want to include "Ephemeral" in the title, and make sure the title record is shadowed. Also, be sure the item records contain a location (or other item policy) that will only be used for ephemeral items, such as "EPHEMERAL".

Using the Ephemeral Wizard

The Ephemeral wizard works just like the Checkout wizard. 

1. First, you need to scan a user Id. You may use a patron card or you can create your own card to be used just for this wizard. 
   1. You can see examples of cards that have been created for this purpose by other libraries by searching by name in the Display User wizard.  
      1. In the Display User wizard, select the Display User helper.
      2. Choose "Name" as the "Index" and type "Ephemeral" in the "Search for" field.

2. Once items have been recorded as charged and discharged from your ephemeral patron (or your library patron) using the ephemeral item you created, you can build a transaction statistics report.  
    

Getting Ephemeral wizard stats

You can obtain Ephemeral wizard stats in both WorkFlows and BLUEcloud Analytics.

To create the report template in Workflows: 

1. Select the Reports toolbar.
2. Select the Schedule New Reports wizard.
3. Select the Administration tab.
4. Select the Transaction Statistics report.
5. In the "Report name" field under the Basics tab, enter a name for the report.
6. Select the Transaction Statistics Selection tab.  
   1. Next to the "Item home location" field, click the gadget and select "EPHEMERAL".  
   2. Select other item cataloging policies if needed.
7. Select the Transaction Selectiontab.
   1. You library should be selected by default in the "Transaction library" field.
   2. The default for the "Transaction date range" field is the last thirty days. Select the gadget next to the "Transaction date range field" to change the date range.
   3. Select the gadget next to the "Command" field. The command you want to select is "Charge User Part B."
8. Select the Transaction Statistics tab. This tab allows you to choose how you would like your stats to display. For example, you can select columns to be item category 1 and item type for rows.
9. Select "Save As Template" to save a copy of the template with your selections.
10. You can now schedule the report to run.

Using BLUEcloud Analytics

1. Select Shared Reports.
2. Select the Circulation Statistics folder.
3. Select the folder of the fiscal year you use: FY AUG-JUL, FY JAN-DEC or FY JULJUN.
4. Select a report that has "home location" in the title. For example, in the FY JUL-JUN folder, one report you could use is the "Circulation by item type, home location, and item categories" report.

If you were to use this report to gather ephemeral stats, follow the steps below:

1. For prompt 1, select your library.
2. Use prompts 2 and 3 to select a specific month or year, or Ø Use prompt 4 to create your own date range.
3. Select EPHEMERAL from the list of home locations for prompt 6.
4. Make selections for other prompts if needed.
5. Click "Run Report".
6. Save a copy of the template to your My Reports folder by selecting "Save As" from the Report Home drop-down menu.
7. Be sure the "Set the current prompt answers to be the default answers" check box is selected so your prompt selections are saved. Remember, the next time you run the report, in order to get different data, you must change the transaction date range.  
8. You can also use the "Circulation by item type, home location/item categories –Total Circulation" report (Shared Reports > Circulation Statistics >  FY JUL-JUN > Reports with Dynamic Dates).This report automatically runs last calendar month's stats. This way you can schedule the report.
9. For more information about reports in Analtyics, refer to the BLUEcloud Analytics Training Guide for WYLD Libraries.