Piece lists & counting
Where a copy's piece list comes from, and what the two lists on a linked toy mean.
The list a copy counts against
Every piece count in the system — the return-desk checklist, "how many should be in the bag", the printed bag label — reads one list per copy. Usually that is the shared catalogue record's list, and there is nothing to think about.
A copy brought in by an import is different: it keeps your library's own list, the one that came across with it. The toy's Pieces section shows that list under a Your library's list badge, with the catalogue's list below it for comparison only. Editing the list there edits yours; the shared record is untouched, and no other library sees the change.
This is deliberate. Your lists are the product of years of counting real bags, often written at a different level of detail than a catalogue entry — "Assorted balls ×20" where the catalogue names five colours. Both are true, your bag labels are printed from yours, and nothing is gained by making you choose.
"Catalogue lists 20 pieces · yours counts to 15"
When the two lists disagree on the total, the toy's page and the inventory list show that as a quiet badge. It is information, not a task — it never blocks anything and never asks you to act.
It compares the two lists, so a copy you have recorded as permanently short (say, two cards missing since it was donated) does not badge for that on its own. That is already recorded and already explained. It badges the part that isn't.
Adopting the catalogue's list
Adopt the catalogue's list switches a copy over so it counts against the shared record instead. Do it when it is naturally cheap — you're reprinting the bag label anyway, you've bought a replacement copy, or you're mid-stocktake — not as a chore to work through.
What happens: past missing/found records and any per-copy quantity overrides move onto the catalogue's pieces wherever the names match. Names that don't match stay with your old list and are reported to you as a count, rather than being quietly dropped. The printed bag label will need reprinting — that is the real cost of adopting, and the reason to do it at a moment when you're printing anyway.
If you change your mind, Undo puts the copy straight back. That works for a short while afterwards, while your old list is still on file; once nothing refers to it any more it is tidied away and there is nothing to go back to.
"You're the first library to count this toy"
When you add a toy whose catalogue piece list nobody has ever counted against — usually one seeded from another library's import — you'll be asked whether the list matches what's in the box. You're the person holding a fresh, complete one, so you're the best-placed person there will ever be to say.
It matches records the check and the question is not asked again for that record. Fix the list opens the piece editor there and then.