Bug 7716

Summary: Statistical/analytic item type
Product: Koha Reporter: MJ Ray (software.coop) <mjr>
Component: CirculationAssignee: MJ Ray (software.coop) <mjr>
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE QA Contact:
Severity: enhancement    
Priority: P3 CC: arm, gmcharlt, katrin.fischer, veron
Version: unspecified   
Hardware: All   
OS: All   
Change sponsored?: Sponsored Patch complexity: ---
Documentation contact: Documentation submission:
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Description MJ Ray (software.coop) 2012-03-14 16:00:36 UTC
There exists a statistical patron type which notes that a book was issued but does not actually issue it. We need something like that which does the same but also notes who the book was issued to. We think it should be statistical item type(s).
Comment 1 Ian Walls 2012-03-14 18:19:57 UTC
Is the goal to record that a specific person 'used' something, but didn't borrow it? This kind of thing could have wide-reaching implications for all kinds of statistical tracking, like door counts or computer usage.

Item types don't have the same structure as patron types, though.  Patron types are two-level, with the 'super types' being Adult, Child, Organisation, Professional, Staff and Statistical, and each patron category being an exemplar of one of those types.  Item types are flat, which would mean we'd need to set some kind of flag at the item type level to indicate that it's "statistical" or not.

There would also be the issue of creating biblio records for these items, and keeping them properly segregated from the actual bibliographic materials the library lends.

I think maybe the thing do to is create a way for Koha to record arbitrary stats, linkable to various objects like patrons and items, that can be called from anywhere in the system.
Comment 2 MJ Ray (software.coop) 2012-03-19 16:51:54 UTC
(In reply to comment #1)
> Is the goal to record that a specific person 'used' something, but didn't
> borrow it?

I think the goal is actually recording the printing-off of infinitely-reproducible items or the issuing of login tokens for e-documents.

> [...] Item types are flat, which would
> mean we'd need to set some kind of flag at the item type level to indicate
> that it's "statistical" or not.

If we want to be massively general, yes, but if it is basically a type of infinite item, do we need the flag?

> I think maybe the thing do to is create a way for Koha to record arbitrary
> stats, linkable to various objects like patrons and items, that can be
> called from anywhere in the system.

Don't we already have that, with the logs?  It feels like the unsolved part is the auto-returning of "checked out" items.
Comment 3 Katrin Fischer 2013-08-26 12:34:19 UTC
I am thinking this would be really useful for ILL. Libraries here receive copies of articles that the user can keep, but you still want to record it in the system, noting that the ILL request has been filled and filling the ILL hold request on the item. A statistical itemtype would serve this purpose well.

MJ, is there any code for this I could take a look at?
Comment 4 Agnes Rivers-Moore 2015-09-24 18:23:11 UTC
Yes - as others noted, a way to record activity other than borrowing, such as downloading e-resources, and using our resources in house (newspapers, computers) would be useful. A number of "statistical" items that we can "check out", update the borrower last activity, and show in the borrower history, but do not require checking in. Just my 2c.
Comment 5 Katrin Fischer 2021-03-05 13:14:45 UTC
I believe that bug 23207 could solve the use case here - marking as duplicate, please update if you disagree!

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 23207 ***