Re: [IUG] Inventory Express

[Ann Nez <acnez at u dot washington dot edu>]

Hi Barbara,
  We couldn't afford Inventory Express, but we found a free software 
that performs some similar functions.  We were most interested in 
finding an efficient way to load bibliographic information from Amazon 
and Baker & Taylor; it works great for that.  We've been using it for 
about three months.
 The software, JTAcq, developed by Jim Taylor (www.jtdata.com) allows us 
to simultaneously search any number of vendors (we have it configured for 
Amazon and Baker & Taylor at the moment), place orders and download 
bibliographic information and detailed order information.  The set up for 
assigning order detail (funds, vendor codes, requestor and selector 
information) is incredibly flexible, and you can do all sorts of cool 
things with the mapping for export.

The software has a number of other features that we haven't configured yet 
(such as searching your catalog for holdings, allowing selectors to review 
lists and select titles).  You can also configure the mapping to search 
OCLC for bib data (assuming you're a customer), and just use the Amazon 
bib data for titles not found in OCLC, but we haven't tried that yet.

Ann Nez
Collection Resources Librarian
University of Washington
Gallagher Law Library
William H. Gates Hall L133
Box 353025
Seattle, WA 98195-3025
Voice: 206-543-6516
Fax: 206-685-2165
acnez at u dot washington dot edu



 Message: 5
Date: Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:00:53 -0800
From: Frances Dodd <fdodd at sfu dot ca>
Subject: Re: [IUG] Inventory Express
To: IUG INNOPAC List <innopac at innopacusers dot org>
Message-ID: <6 dot 2 dot 5 dot 6 dot 1 dot 20080104174828 dot 01f584d0 at sfu dot ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

Hi Barbara,

Yes, we are using Inventory Express, with great success! It is useful
on its own, or as a supplement to regular order loads, if your
vendors are signed up. The vendors that have signed up with Inventory
Express are: Amazon, Baker & Taylor, BWI, Coutts, Ingram, and Midwest
Tape. And with our encouragement, more vendors will sign up in future.

We use Inventory Express to determine the vendor and to download the
record. We launch a search in Millennium across multiple vendors then
download the relevant record. It is very similary to Remote Search
(Z39.50) if you have that product, but instead of searching
catalogues, you search vendors. You still have to go to the vendor
and place the order as a separate step, but Inventory Express cuts
down the search process plus automates record creation.

Let me know if you have other questions.

Frances

At 12:12 PM 02/01/2008, you wrote:
> Is anyone out there using Inventory Express?  If so, what has your
> experience been?  We are trying to determine whether it would be to our
> advantage to use this product.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Barbara J. Storch
> West Palm Beach Public Library
> 100 Clematis Street
> West Palm Beach, FL 33401
> Telephone 561-868-7721
> Fax 561-868-7706
> E-mail: storchb at mycitylibrary dot org