Frequently Asked Questions

Answer: Yes, Shelf Control can help you shelve multiple terms at the same time but you would need to create a separate run for each term. At this time, we are unable to mix two terms into one shelf plan. If you are shelving two terms at the same time, simply identify, through our OPTIONS process, which shelves will be used for one of the terms and make a run for that term. After that you can go ahead and run the other term, changing the OPTIONS process to identify the shelves used for the second term.

Answer: Yes, you can use Shelf Control without updating your Prism Course Request Header data, but any course without a header will not be considered in your plan. If you would like to leave space for a course without an adoption or where the adoption is late, you will need to enter the Course Request Header information for that course. (If you are not currently uploading header information, please speak with someone at CBMS Support and they can walk you through the process. There are other benefits to updating Header data such as obtaining actual enrollments.)

Answer: With Shelf Control you can easily exclude a particular course from your Shelf Plan by going to the Shelf Control Options page. Here you can eliminate Courses, Sections and even whole Departments.

Answer: Shelf Control looks at your Course Request Headers to find out which ones do not have a book detail. If Shelf Control finds a Header without any associated book data, it will look at your course history to see how many books were used in the past and build the appropriate space into your plan.

Answer: If a single term code in your database is used for multiple stores and you can identify and create a list of the courses that don't belong to the store needing a Shelf Plan, you can create a Plan for just one store. (e.g. If you are shelving for store #1, simply create a list of courses in the database that are only shelved in store #2 and save it as a .csv file. You can then upload that file to the "Remove Courses" function on the Options Page. This will ensure that you only include one store in your plan.

If both stores will be stocking books for the same courses, Shelf Control may or may not be able to get a perfect fit. Go ahead and run the plan without creating and uploading the file described above.

Answer: Shelf Control will look at current term data to determine a space allocation for books already on your list and old term data for courses with missing adoptions. If you have complete Course Request Header data, Shelf Control will always leave space for courses where the professor has yet to order a book.

Answer: No, if Shelf Control is unable to generate a shelf plan for your store, you will not be charged.

Answer: If Shelf Control is unable to fit all titles to the your shelves, it will tell you that we cannot get a fit. This means that given your current booklist, your missing adoptions, the history of book use in your store, the shelving options that you have chosen and the configuration you uploaded, Shelf Control needs more shelf space in order to create an organized and easy to use shelf plan.

Answer: Often, in these cases, all you need to do is revisit the options page and apply an option that you may not have used before. Combining like sections within a course, for example, can save a lot of space and may be just the thing to fix a non-fit problem. Subscribers are welcome and encouraged to run as many shelf plans as they would like using various combinations and rankings of our standard shelving options until they are satisfied with their fit. If changing your options continues to net a No Fit response, you may also want to take a look at your shelf configuration; have you included all available shelves in your configuration file? Are your shelf dimensions correct?

Answer: In this case, an Alloken representative will make an analysis of your last run to see if anything can be done to help. In very few cases, we find that a store does not have enough shelf space to create an organized and easy to use Shelf Plan. Alloken may be able to help you state your case to administrators. After all, cramped bookstores can be confusing to students and lead to poor customer service if employees have difficulty assisting them.