Physical Storage location field, plus identifying free spaces on shelves

[Anna Dysert]

Hello! I've been trying to do something similar to what's described in this thread: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ica-atom-users/ZaNWemSct6U

and I was hoping I could ask some follow-up and related questions. 

I've also been trying to generate shelf lists of items on a particular shelf or in a particular storage area, via searching the locationInformation field. My question is, I can search the localInformation field in the accessions module, but cannot search the physicalObjectLocation in the Physical Storage module -- is it correct that both the physicalObjectLocation and physicalObjectType fields are not indexed and searchable? 

Another thing I've been looking at for one of our repositories is a method to identify free shelf space. I'm considering changing the Type taxonomy in the Physical Storage module to include numbered shelves, then uploading a CSV file with all free and filled locations (for example: physicalObjectName C-005, physicalObjectLocation Shelf Position 01, physicalObjectType Shelf 001). Empty spots would be identified as physicalObjectName EMPTY, physicalObjectLocation Shelf Position 02, physicalObjectType Shelf 001. This would allow me to search "EMPTY" and find all the available free spaces on shelves. Has anyone attempted anything similar for collections management? Can anyone spot any issues with this potential solution?

Thanks so much!

Anna 

[Dan Gillean]

Hi Anna, 

It seems you're right about the Location and Type fields not being searchable at present. Given that the module is already quite limited, it seems to render adding a type and location almost useless if you can't search it! Correspondingly, I've filed a bug ticket for this issue here: 

• https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/12459
  

I'm not sure how much work it would be to add these fields to the index and make them searchable in the physical storage module. However, as you may know from our business model and development philosophy, we rely on community support to enhance AtoM, so we can continue to maintain it as free and open source software. Generally, the best way to ensure that new functionality will be included in an upcoming release is to sponsor the development, or submit a community code contribution. 

If your organization might be interested in sponsoring this work, please feel free to contact me off-list; we can discuss further and prepare you a development estimate. If you have access to your own developers and might consider submitting a fix yourself, please be sure to review our development resources. In the meantime, I've added this ticket to an internal watch-list of bugs to consider for the 2.5 release. This is no guarantee (especially if it turns out to be a complex fix), but it will be considered as we finalize the next major release. 

Regarding your proposed strategy for space management, I think it could work! It's a creative way to work around the current limitations of the module. If you do try it, let us know how it goes, and what you learn along the way! 

Regards, 

Dan Gillean, MAS, MLIS
AtoM Program Manager
Artefactual Systems, Inc.
604-527-2056

@accesstomemory

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