KLAS User's Guide: Equipment

The purpose of this section is to give you a basic overview of the Equipment Module in KLAS. It includes basic information for navigation and understanding of the parts of the module. Where available, are Guided Practice exercises that can be used to help better understand essential tasks used by staff. Also check the Shortcuts and Tools tab that contains how to use queries, Excel and Batch Manager for Reports to expand the capabilities of using KLAS.

This exercise is designed based on a Guided Practice module, that has been included as a separate document for printout. This only covers the very basics in an organized way to allow you to get up to speed with the Equipment module. As you gain experience by using it in everyday work situations you will discover that there are ways beyond what's shown here. As you get more proficient, use of the keyboard shortcuts contained in the Shortcuts and Tools tab may be useful.

Let's begin

Log into KLAS with your assigned username and password. For help with this see the note about username and password on the Shortcuts and Tool tab.

From the KLAS desktop - 

select the Equipment button -  This is the fifth button from the left. This will open up the Equipment Service screen.

This screen has various tabs and buttons specific functions within the module. What you choose will depend on the specific equipment function you need to do.

Explore the Equipment Services screen

Use the find button -   or the Navigation menu - "Find", to find a specific type of machine or piece of equipment. You can search by Model ID, Model Name, MFG Part Number, Item Barcode or Serial Number. Find is the same regardless of the tab you are on.

You can navigate from record to record using the arrow buttons -  or the Navigation menu. This is very useful when you have a set of records from a query or when you want to explore equipment items that have similar names and such.

Add Comment button -  allows you to add a comment to the piece of equipment for future reference. The most common ones (Old Patron ID and Patron Transfer) have categories their own categories to make finding them easier. These comments automatically are given a date of entry.

Check Out button -  allows you to check out equipment as they go out to patrons

Check In button -  allows you to check in equipment as they come back to the library or are added to inventory

Circulation Maintenance button -  allows you to change whether a piece of equipment is available for check out, needs to be repaired or anything else having to do with the status of the equipment

Transfer Equipment button -  allows you to transfer ownership of equipment in or out of the library from other libraries, multistate centers or NLS

Equipment Services tabs

The Equipment Services screen is composed of tabs that display different kinds of information about each type of equipment offered. Starting from left to right:

• Model - contains an overview of the piece of equipment, including model ID, model name, equipment type, status, whether it has a serial number, if it's a consumable, notes about this type of equipment and an overview of availability of item of that type
• Statistics - circulation statistics and how many of the type of item were added
• Holding - this refers to the holding shelf where the item type resides
• Items - has the information about individual items that at being tracked by barcode. Allows searching by specific item based on machine number, serial number or barcode. Shows item history as well
• Consumable - is active when the piece of equipment is a consumable and doesn't need to be tracked. Used as a way of counting how many are in inventory
• Requests - list requests for a particular type of equipment. Allows you to assign or unassign equipment to patrons using the assign -  or unassign -  buttons
• MARC - unused tab for equipment 

Exporting to Excel from Equipment

Export allows you to export data to an Excel spreadsheet from any browse table in a screen where available. This is most useful when you want to use data found in equipment searches or request searches, for example to create labels or to manipulate and use data. It's useful to share findings with others, since from Excel you can print off or email results without having to open KLAS to examine them.

To Export use the Export button - ,  Go to the Function menu from a results screen and select Export or the Keyboard shortcut Alt+Ctrl+X.

For more detail on Exporting to Excel see - the Excel section in the Shortcuts and Tools tab.

Some common Equipment uses of Export

• List of Equipment requests – for example you want to look at a long list of requests. It may be easier to export them into an Excel file to read separately or track patron requests
• List of Machines and their serial numbers, who has them, current status, etc. This will allow you to have a sortable list of machine inventory