Locations

Defining the physical sites and branches that make up your library organisation

Locations allow Papyrus Cloud to manage a library organisation with more than one physical site — separate branches, campuses, departments, or buildings. Each location can have its own stock holdings, its own responsible person, and its own barcode number sequence. Staff users can be assigned to specific locations to restrict what they can see and do.

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What Locations Control

Once locations are defined, they affect four areas of the system:

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Stock allocation

Each stock item can be assigned to a location, showing where it physically lives in the organisation

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Member visibility

Users assigned to a location only see members, stock, and circulation records for that site

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User access

Staff can be restricted to a specific location so they only administer their own site

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Barcode sequences

Each location can maintain its own separate barcode number sequence for its stock items

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Do I Need Locations?

Your situation	Use Locations?
Single school or college library in one building	No — leave Locations unused. A Main Location exists by default and covers all stock.
One organisation with multiple campuses or branches	Yes — define a location for each site. Stock, members, and users can each be assigned to the relevant site.
One building with distinct departments or collections (e.g. Science lab, Sport department, Textbooks store)	Yes — locations can represent departments or collections within a single building, not just separate physical sites.
One library with a special sub-collection (e.g. Learner Support Materials)	Optional — a location can be created for the sub-collection to allow separate tracking and reporting.

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Using Locations requires a multi-site licence. If you are on a standard licence, the Location field is visible but creating additional locations beyond the Main Location may not be permitted. Contact support@papyruscloud.org to upgrade.

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Use Case Examples

Example 1 — Multi-campus school group

A school group has three campuses in different cities. Each campus has its own library with its own stock and librarian. Locations are defined as CT (Cape Town), JHB (Joburg), and KTH (Kwa Thema). The librarian at each campus is assigned to their location in Users, and can only see and manage their own site's data.

Example 2 — Departments within one school

A single school has a main library plus a Science Department resource room, a Sport Department equipment store, and a Textbooks store. Each is defined as a separate location (SCIENCE, SPORT, TB), allowing stock in each area to be tracked and reported on independently, even though they are in the same building.

Example 3 — Learner Support Materials

A library maintains a separate collection of Learner Support Materials that are tracked differently from the main library stock. A LSM location is created, and relevant stock items are assigned to it. Reports can then be filtered to show only LSM stock separately from the main collection.

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The Locations Screen

The Locations screen has two areas: an entry form at the top for adding new locations, and a list of existing locations below. Clicking a location in the list opens its detail panel for editing.

Adding a new location

Location Code…

Description…

Add

Field	Description
Location Code	A short, unique code used to identify the location throughout the system — in stock records, user assignments, and reports. Keep codes short and meaningful. Examples: CT, JHB, SCIENCE, TB. The code cannot contain spaces.
Description	The full name or description of the location. This appears in drop-down lists and reports. Examples: Cape Town, Joburg, Science Department, Textbooks.
Add button	Creates the new location and adds it to the locations list. The location will immediately be available for assignment to stock items, users, and reports.

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Choose location codes carefully. The code is used in stock records, user records, and reports and cannot easily be changed once items have been assigned to it. Keep codes short (2–8 characters) and use a consistent format — for example, city abbreviations for geographic branches or department names for internal collections.

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The Locations List

All defined locations are displayed in a table. The first row always represents the Main Location — the default location that applies to all stock and users that have not been assigned to a specific site. The Main Location cannot be deleted.

Location Code	Description
	Main Location
CT	Cape Town
JHB	Joburg
KTH	Kwa Thema
LSM	Learner Support Material
SCIENCE	Science Department
SPORT	Sport Department
TB	Textbooks

The list can be sorted by clicking the Location Code or Description column headings. Each row displays a button showing the location code — click the button to select that location and open its detail panel for editing.

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The Main Location row has a blank location code button. It represents the default site — all stock items, members, and users that have no specific location assigned belong to the Main Location.

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Editing a Location

To edit a location's details, click the location code button on its row in the list. A detail panel opens to the right of the list (or below on smaller screens) where you can update the location's settings.

Click the location code button on the row you wish to edit. The detail panel opens.

Update the fields in the detail panel as needed — description, responsible person, and barcode settings.

Click Update to save your changes.

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Location Detail Fields

When a location is selected from the list, its detail panel provides additional configuration options beyond the basic code and description.

Field	Description
Location Code	The unique short code for this location. Shown in stock records, user assignments, and reports throughout the system.
Description	The full name of the location as it appears in drop-down lists and on reports.
Responsible Person	The name of the staff member responsible for this location — typically the site librarian or department head. This appears on location-specific reports and correspondence.
Barcode Settings	Each location can maintain its own separate barcode number sequence for stock items held at that site. This allows each branch or department to use its own barcode range independently of the main library. Configure the starting number, prefix, and length here.

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Separate barcode sequences. If your branches each manage their own stock independently, setting up a separate barcode sequence per location prevents barcode number conflicts between sites. For example, Cape Town barcodes could start at CT10000 and Joburg at JHB10000 using location-specific prefixes.

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Once you have defined your locations, remember to assign each staff member to their location under Parameters → Users, and set the Location field on each stock item to indicate where it is held. Stock items with no location assigned default to the Main Location.