Hi Rachel, We have gone the other way: many item types and few collections. This is a post I wrote at the time when I was trying to decide how best to use item types and colelction codes. http://library-matters.blogspot.com/2009/03/dont-be-afraid-of-using-lots-of-... Cheers Jo. On Tue, Jan 25, 2011 at 8:48 AM, Owen Leonard <oleonard@myacpl.org> wrote:
The OPAC currently lists item type only so we assume we should actually use this to identify different collections.
The most important factor to consider is that at the moment item types can be used to set circulation policies and collection codes cannot. Other than that they're fairly interchangeable. You can set the "AdvancedSearchTypes" system preference to show either item types or collection code on the advanced search page.
Because circulation policies can be set per item type we have set up a few general item types for circ rules: circulating, videos and DVDs, audio books, and non-circulating. Then we have a lot of collection codes which we use to classify various combinations of audience, material, and genre.
As log as you're giving your patrons and staff the right categories to narrow their searches and you've got the circulation policies in place that you need, there's not a wrong way to do it.
-- Owen
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