In a system such as Caspr you have multiple databases such as a database of all patrons and a database of all circulation material. Each database contains.individual records such as a record for each book and for each patron. These records are kept in the computer in a random order. They are generally not sorted into any order. So how is it that you are able to look at a list of books sorted alphabetically? The answer is an index.
An index is a separate file that keeps track of records in a particular order. This order could be by book title or author's name or by any other field in the record [A field is one part of a record. A book record might have fields for title, author, ISBN number etc. a patron record might have fields for name, card number, telephone, etc.] Thus if you want to look at all patron, alphabetically you are looking at the patron database as arranged by the name index.
For various reason the indices can be corrupted and no longer reflect an accurate sorting of the records. This means that all the data is probably still intact but it is not being sorted accurately. The solution is to re-index the records in the database.
If there is a problem such as a patron has checked in a book but the item is still listed as checked out.
If a patron you know is in the system doesn't show up
Anytime the records seem "out of whack"
In CASPR go to File and click on reindex.
You can select All or you can check off just Catalog and Patron
The process will take several minutes, maybe ten.
MVRHS 01/05/2000