The Complexity is Under the Hood: Building an Inventory Tool for Staff Use

While there are multiple ways within Alma to keep track of what items are on the shelf, each of them have different drawbacks that are less-than-ideal for large-scale use. To avoid these drawbacks, the Borough of Manhattan Community College Library developed a simple staff-facing tool using Python and the Alma APIs to update the item's inventory date field. To the end user, all they have to do is scan an item's barcode, but behind the scenes several functions are at work retrieving information from Alma, checking for issues like in-process items, and sending back updated item data. While it's seamless for the user, the real-time information and data updates are invaluable for large inventory projects. This presentation will discuss how the tool works, how it was developed and implemented, and some of the revisions made based on real-life needs and issues.