First, let me say that I think the Manage Item Records tool found on the Check In screen is good. For basic item edits, it is superior to editing via the Item Details screen in many ways. It has better permission controls, better item history logging (see attached image if you're unfamiliar with this), and allows edits to more than one item at a time (a lighter, more intuitive version of Item Bulk Changes). That said, I think a few changes could take this tool from "good" to "great".

First, I think that having an independent option on the Check In screen for "Manage Item Records" that would allow staff to add items to the list without first performing another action on them. I've attached a quick mock-up, but this would allow staff to use the Manage Item Records tool without inadvertently putting an item in transit, removing it from an account, or updating usage statistics. I also think surfacing it this way would increase it's overall usage... perhaps even replacing the Item Bulk Edit tool for many common changes.

Second, I would like to see more fields surface for editing here, primarily the Loan Period field. Our new items use a shorter loan period, so that has to be changed when items are no longer "new". This results in a lot of staff requesting permission to edit the Item Details when they really only need access to 2-3 fields (Shelf Location, Loan Period, and occasionally Collection). With the granularity of these permissions, it would be easy to allow all staff at a given branch to edit these required fields for their own items without exposing all of the other data fields to potential edit without a clear record of changes.

My third and final change is more of a forward thinking response to potential future issues with surfacing more fields in the Manage Item Records tool: Hide data fields for staff that don't have permission to edit them. While I don't think that every data element needs to surface in the tool, I can see potential for it to become cluttered if too many options are added. I don't think that's an issue for any staff who would legitimately have access to all of the different data fields, but it could certainly be overwhelming for staff who only need access to a few of them.

Again, I really like this tool and think it has a lot of potential to help staff manage specific data fields without the need for full access to Item Details or Bulk Edit tools. Hopefully others agree, but I'd love to hear other people's comments on how they balance data integrity/permissions with broad needs to edit Item details.