Home → Circulation in Evergreen → Circulating Items → Editing or Weeding Items

7.9. Editing or Weeding Items

Last Updated 05/15/2024

How to Edit or Weed Items

Editing Call Number and Item Records

Only certified Item Cats and Bib Cats can add or delete items, but Circulators have permissions to edit Item Attributes such as the Barcode, Call Number, Shelving Location, or Item Status of items, and may do so as determined by their local library system procedures and according to the requirements below. 

There are several ways to access the Holdings Editor - the interface to edit all holdings data - including via the OPAC View or the Actions menu on the Item Status screen.

The bibliographic record detail page displays library holdings, including the call number, shelving location, and item barcode. Within the Item Table tab in the staff client, the list of holdings displays two links, view and edit, underneath the item barcode(s).

Clicking on the view link opens the Item Status screen for that specific item.

Clicking on the edit link opens the Holdings Editor screen for that specific item.

Actions Menu

The Actions menu for items includes the option to Edit the Call Number or Item, such as in the Item Status screen, where you can select from the Edit menu options.

Edit Call Number

1. Click on the Actions menu and select Edit Call Number
2. Make your change in the Call Number Label field
3. Click Save & Exit at the bottom of the screen.

Editing Shelving Location

Circulation staff can edit the Shelving Location of items either individually or in batch using the Item Status screen (by importing a CSV file of item barcodes or scanning barcodes) or by adding multiple items to an item bucket. It is totally fine to change the Shelving Location of an item that is in a Checked out, In transit, or On Holds Shelf status. If items are Checked out when the shelving location is changed, for instance, they will automatically be routed to the new shelving location upon checkin.

Changing Item Status

Unlike edits to Shelving Location, before staff manually change any item's status, the item must be in the staff member's hands and already be in an Available or Reshelving status (or checked in first, to achieve an Available/Reshelving status). Do NOT manually change the item status from Checked out, In transit, Long Overdue, Lost, Lost and Paid, or On holds shelf to another status using the Item Editor screen, as this simply relabels the items and does not close the underlying transaction correctly in the patron account (for Checked Out, Lost, Long Overdue, or Lost and Paid); or target a new item to fill the patron hold (for In transit or On holds shelf items).

For example, you would never want to manually change an item from a Checked out status to Available (or any other item status, for that matter) instead of checking in the item, because that manual action does not close out the open circulation transaction on the patron account. The same would be true for a manual status change from In transit or On Holds Shelf to something else (such as Available). Evergreen needs to close out those automated processes and transactions during checkin. 

 Items marked Missing that cannot be found should also be checked in to an Available or Reshelving status before staff change to Discard/Weed status or delete the item. This prevents the items from continually showing up on missing items reports.

Editing Other Item Attributes

1. Click on the Actions menu and select Edit Item
2. Make your change in the fields you wish to change (shelving location, item status, etc.)
3. Click Save & Exit at the bottom of the screen

Staff can also navigate to this screen from the OPAC View tab in the bibliographic record by clicking on the Edit link for a specific item (next to the View link that takes you to the Item Status screen).

Replace Barcode

1. Click on the Actions menu and select Replace Barcodes
2. The original barcode will be supplied in the first field from the Item Status screen
3. Enter the new barcode number in the second field

Staff can also navigate from the Circulation menu Circulation → Replace Barcode, but will need to scan the original barcode in the first field before entering the new barcode in the second field. This can be a useful way to rebarcode multiple items.

Weeding Items

Circulators can change the status of items to Discard/Weed and/or add items to a shared bucket to allow catalogers to delete items in batch, even after the physical items have already been discarded.

Report Templates for Weeding

Within the Evergreen staff client, select Reports from the Administration box on the right of the Evergreen home screen or from the Administration dropdown menu.

You can find a list of available shelf list report templates in the Centralized Report Templates folder. To access this folder, go to the Admin folder in the Shared Folders section and locate the Centralized Report Templates subfolder. In here you can find the Inventory & Weeding Templates subfolder. You can find a video overview of the reports module and instructions for running report templates in the Reports knowledge book.