LINKcat News

Links to the print notices

At the suggestion of one of the libraries, we have added two more links to the list at the top of the ILS Reports page.  The links are:

• Print Notices (non-holds): This link takes you to the webpage for the overdue and billing print notices.  You will still need to enter the username and password for the notice page like you do currently, the link is just in a convenient location.
• Print Notices (holds): This actually takes you to the page of the Circulation manual that tells you how to access the holds notices.  Hold notices are on the file share so they're not directly available from the link.

Hopefully this will make printing the notices easier.  Thanks Marshall for the suggestion.

News Summary for 11/30/2015-12/31/2015

News (in case you missed it!)

• 12/23/15 30,594 items and 2,512 bibliographic records (with only withdrawn items attached) were deleted in the monthly batch deletion of withdrawn items.
• 12/23/15 41,557 patron records were purged from the database this morning for the 2015 Purge of Inactive patrons.
• 12/18/15 Instructions for converting patron records from Juvenile to Adult and Limited Use-Juvenile to Limited Use (or Adult) have been posted in the Patron Record and Registration section of the Circulation Manual.
• 12/16/15 4,125 bibliographic records were added and/or updated in the database between 11/20/15 and 12/16/15.
• 12/16/15 SCLS ILS staff will be deleting the Not for Loan status "Exception" in January 2016. See the blog post for more information.
• 12/16/15 Reports for the 2015 Purge of Inactive Patrons have been sent to all libraries. Please read the blog post for more informaiton.
• 12/7/15 The monthly LINKcat.info and LINKcat Mobile reports for November are posted.
• 12/4/15 The UNIML (University on the Go) Shelving Location was deleted from Koha.
• 12/4/15 The BSR (Bestsellers) Shelving Location has been added to Koha.
• 12/1/15 The monthly Koha reports are available online.

Koha Known Problems--Recently Added & Updated:

 

• 12/16/2015 FIXED. Testers report that there is no longer a time lag. 11/11/15 NOT COMPLETELY FIXED. Testing in the Sandbox showed this problem fixed; testing in Production still produces a time lage anywhere from 5 seconds to 2 minutes. Re-reported to LibLime. 6/16/2015 Time lag between placing a hold and having it trapped. Libraries have found that when they place a hold and immediately check the item in to trap it for the hold, the item is not trapped. They have to wait a few minutes, check it in again and then the item is trapped. Problems only started occurring after 3/4/2015 4.18.09 point upgrade. This has been reported to LibLime. (5/6/2015) (SCLS Support ticket 3033)
• 12/15/2015 New. Search to Hold by item barcode skips screen. If you use the Search to Hold button from a patron's Check Out screen, you typically get a screen that provides Place Holds buttons pre-populated with the patron's info. Library staff have reported that since the 4.18.18 point release, using this feature and searching by item barcode skips the screen wit hteh patron-populate Place Hold button and goes directly to the Item Detail screen. This has been reported to LibLime. (12/15/15) (SCLS Support ticket 5541)

 

 

Documenting payment for Lost Item(s) - Best Practice

Have you ever come across a refund on a patron's record and the only info you have to go on is someone's initials and library code in the description field...now you have to start researching--what is the title, who owns the item, was the item returned within the refund period, etc.  This can take quite a bit of sleuthing and time!

Staff at the Pinney branch of the Madison Public Library have come up with one solution that will save lots of research time.  When you are applying payment for a lost item, apply the payment for each lost item individually and use the PAY button in the Action column for the line item (not the check box or pay all button).  This will allow you to enter information in the "pay fine description field" that will then show up in the refund description field if the item ever gets returned. (It also shows up in the Fines Account History description field) This does create a small bit of work on the front end of things but saves a tremendous amount of time on the back end.  

Here is what we do when documenting the payment for a lost item:

1. First determine who owns the item.
2. In the Fines / Account screen, click on the Pay button in the "action" column (do not use the check box because it does not save anything you enter in the description field)
3. Copy the barcode and title of the lost item and then Paste it at the beginning of the description field
4. Then enter who owns the item: "39078075696022 Ducks Go Vroom PIN item"
5. If the item belongs to a different library, we enter "10.00 cash sent to MID, edk/pin" at the end of the info in step 4. If the item  belongs to MPL, we enter "no refund after 01/01/16 edk/pin"  (whatever the last refund date would be) at the end of the info in step 4.
6. Then click the Submit button.

If you are sending money to another library--don't forget to "Add a new message" on the patron's CheckOut screen as well  "sent $xx cash to MID for lost item "Ducks go Vroom (75696022).  edk"

IF a patron has multiple lost items--do this process for each one.

If a patron has fines in addition to the lost items--first pay each lost item separately and then clear the remaining overdue fines using which ever method  you prefer.

IF you don't want do all of the steps---at a minimum--just enter the barcode and title info (steps 2 and 3).  This would still cut back on the amount of sleuthing you would have to do.  

If you have any questions or want clarification of anything here--don't hesitate to contact me.  Erica Kersten.