LINKcat News

News Summary (11/1/2018-11/30/2018)

 

 News (in case you missed it!)

• 11/27/18 9,658 bibliographic records were added and/or updated in the database between 9/28/18 and 11/26/18.
• 11/27/18 23,537 items and 2,917 bibliographic records (with only withdrawn items attached) were deleted in the monthly batch deletion of withdrawn items.
• 11/26/18 The minutes from the November 13 Meeting of the Circulation Services Subcommittee are now available online.
• 11/26/18 The minutes from the November 14 Meeting of the Collection Maintenance Subcommittee are now available online.
• 11/26/18 The minutes from the November 12 Meeting of the Discovery Interface Subcommittee are now available online.
• 11/19/18 Annual Bulk Order of Patron and Item barcode labels has opened.  The order form is available from the ILS Support/Forms page and also from the ILS Support/Circulation page; Get Information/Barcodes.
• 11/2/18 The monthly Koha reports for October 2018 can be found online.
• 11/2/18 The monthly LINKcat.info and LINKcat Mobile reports for October are posted.

 

Marking another library's item as Damaged - don't do this at home.

Actually, the line should also read "and don't create invoices at your library for Damaged item charges (or any other kinds of charges) for items owned by other libraries" but that seems a bit wordy.

LINKcat libraries do not change the Damaged Status of items owned by other libraries OR create invoices for Damaged items owned by other libraries.  We have policies and procedures that back up this statement:

• ILS Policy - Charges for Damaged, Parts Missing, Defect Reported items 
• Circulation Manual - Section VIII Problem Item statuses and workflows; Part D Problem Items statuses: Defect Reported, Part Missing, Damaged
• Circulation Manual - Section VII Fines and Financial Transactions, Part J e-Commerce: LINKcat online credit or debit payments

The last bullet point is why I'm posting this information.  Beginning in 2018, some few library staff have marked items owned by other libraries as Damaged and have created invoices to charge the patrons.  Whether they have done this while in communication with the owning library or not, this causes a problem when the patron pays for the charges using our online e-Commerce payment option. 

When SCLS staff are reconciling the e-Commerce online payments, we disburse payments, except for Lost items, using the Transaction library.  When a library other than the owning library creates a Manual Invoice on behalf of another library's item, and the charges are paid for online, the funds will be disbursed to the library that created the invoice.  

So, please remember this statement: LINKcat libraries do not change the Damaged Status of items owned by other libraries OR create invoices for Damaged items owned by other libraries.

We will be making adjustments to the 2018 Q4 e-Commerce Disbursement Report to correct the erroneous disbursements but please please please remind your staff (or teach your new staff) to follow the policies and procedures.

Thank you for your attention.