Returning Items from the Catalogue archive

January 1997

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When Athenaeum was introduced, the technique for returning archived items was a bit complex. Since version 2.0.5 was introduced, this was greatly simplified.

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When you "dispose" of items in Athenaeum, because the items are lost, damaged or old, you first mark the items for disposal by clicking on the "Dispose" check-box and supplying a reason for the disposal. You will find the "Dispose" check box on the Admin Tab in the catalogue or the "More Detail" overview.

Remember, that this only "marks" the item for disposal. It does not move them out of the catalogue (however, Athenaeum will not issue items marked for disposal&endash;this is one of the many tests that Athenaeum performs when issuing items). To actually dispose of the item, you must go to the Catalogue Utilities menu and click the Archive button.

Clicking the Archive button sends the entry for that item to the great library in the sky (also known as the catalogue archive or catarc_.fp3). We don't completely purge the entry for the item for two reasons.

Firstly, the disposed items need to be accounted for at the end of the year. Secondly, the disposed item might magically turn up later on. In the second case, it is very easy to return the item to the catalogue. To do this, do the following:-

1. From the Catalogue Utilities menu, click the "Go Arc." button
   
2. Click the "Fast Find" button on the Catalogue Archive menu (this is different to the normal catalogue fast find and only searches the archive) and enter the criteria for the item you wish to return.
   
3. In the list of items that match your fast find criteria, look for the item to be returned to the catalogue. If you don't find it, try the find again until you do. Click on the item to be returned to show its detail.
4. You will now see more information about the item. At the bottom right of the detail screen, click the "Send to Cat button" to return the item to the catalogue and remove its entry from the catalogue archive.
   

That's it. You're done.