LINK 2.0 Koha

Problem Item Reports and the Annual Batch Deletion - Part 2

Problem Item reports are run each November and May for items with “Problem Item” statuses assigned at least one year prior to the report date. These reports help libraries to keep track of all items that have “problem” statuses and to take appropriate action on these items according to their local policy.

• Items with a status of Lost + Charge, Lost & Paid for, Missing, Trace, Damaged, Lost in Transit and Missing Inventory that appear on the May reports but are not resolved will be batch deleted in July.

• Items marked Claims Returned, AV Repair, Defect Reported, Mending, In Processing and Parts Missing are not included in the annual batch deletion.

Libraries should have internal workflows/procedures for dealing with items with these problem statuses. Here are some examples. This list is not exhaustive:
 - Were broken items mended?
 - Were replacement parts ordered?
 - Did patron pay for damages?
 - Were magazines with Current Issue/No CKO status correctly updated?
 - Were items marked as In Processing correctly checked in?
 - Do patrons with Lost + Charge items need to be reminded about payment?

Here are the Problem Item [PI] Reports:
PI: Not for Loan (In Processing, Current Issue/No CKO, Unavailable, Bindery) This report is run monthly and is posted in the Reports Calendar.
PI: Damaged. This report is run in November and May and is posted in the Reports Calendar.
PI: Not Lost (AV Repair, Defect Reported, Mending, Part Missing). This report is run in November and May and is posted in the Reports Calendar.

PI: Lost (Lost + Charge, Lost & Paid for). This report is run in November and May and is emailed to the Director of each library.  This report is not posted in the Reports Calendar as it contains patron information.

Trace reports and the Long in Transit reports are run twice a month (2nd and 4th Tuesday) and are posted in the Reports Calendar.

Please contact the ILS Help desk if you have any questions about the process or problems accessing these reports.

What to do if you don't charge overdue fines for "Check in/Check out" transactions.

Occasionally you may encounter this pop-up when checking out items to a patron: 
There are a variety of reasons why this can happen but you have to make a decision; click "Yes, Check Out" to the current patron or "No, Don't Check Out" and leave the item checked out to the previous patron.

IF you choose to check out to the current patron and IF the item was overdue on the previous patron's record, this "Check in/Check out" does not credit the previous patron's overdue fines.

If it is your library's policy to credit the previous patron's overdue fines, follow these steps:

1. Click the "NO, Don't Check Out " button.
2. Open Koha in a new tab.
3. Select the Check in function on the main page.
4. Select the “Forgive overdue charges” Check in option.
5. Check in the item.
6. Un-select the “Forgive overdue charges” checkbox and click the Submit button to clear that check in option.
7. Go back to the original Koha tab and continue checking out the item to the new patron. 

 

Submitted by E. Kersten/Pinney Branch, Madison Public Library

Printing reports after the Firefox 20 upgrade

Some libraries have reported problems printing both the Hold Shelf Action report as well as the Holds Queue report after this recent Firefox upgrade.  We recommend that you access Koha through a different browser to generate and print these reports.  Here are the 2 best options:

Option 1:

• Open a Chrome web browser (if you do not have this installed already you can install it yourself)
• Log into Koha http://scls-staff.kohalibrary.com
• Generate your Holds Queue Report  
• Hide the Patron column
• Select Print from the Control icon at the far right of the Address field.
• Confirm your Printer and then click Print.
• Log out and CLOSE CHROME.
• Resume Koha work in Firefox.

Option 2:

• Open an Internet Explorer (IE) web browser
• Log into Koha http://scls-staff.kohalibrary.com
• Generate your Holds Queue Report
  • IMPORTANT:  If you have IE8, you will not be able to hide any columns on the report.  If you have Windows 7/IE9, you will be able to hide columns in the report.
• Log out and CLOSE IE
• Resume Koha work in Firefox.
  • If you were unable to hide columns when printing this report, you should shred the report when you are finished. 

We are working on finding a better resolution to this problem and will update you as soon as we can.

 

What else needs to be done after changing a patron's barcode?

When you have to change a patron’s barcode (Card number field), here's a list of other tasks you may have to do if the patron uses the following library resources:

 LINKcat

• Enter the new patron barcode in the patrons’ OPAC login field.
  • NOTE: If the patron has a custom OPAC login (something other than their barcode, then do not enter the new barcode in this field). The patron will be able to use either their custom login OR their new barcode to log in.
• Access: patron will be able use the new barcode to log into LINKcat immediately. 

OverDrive  

• Library staff must contact OverDrive with the old barcode and the new barcode and request that Overdrive staff merge the two accounts.  As soon as OverDrive staff receive the request via a Support form, they merge the accounts and patrons will be able to access their OverDrive holds and transactions using their new barcode. 
  • Using their OverDrive Content Reserve account, staff will login and fill out the Support form. 
  • If your library does not have an OverDrive Content Reserve account, you should read the Tech Bits blog on how to “Sign up for an OverDrive Support account”.  Please confirm that your library does not already have an account before registering.
• Access: patron will need to wait until the next day for the new card number to work (overnight authentication required).

Library Online

• Access: patron will need to wait until the next day for the new card number to work (overnight authentication required).

 Databases

• Access: patron will need to wait until the next day for the new card number to work (overnight authentication required).

Contributors include E. Harkins, WAU and SCLS staff.

Using Manual Invoices as Notes in the patron's Account screen.

As an alternative to leaving Notes and Messages on a patron's Checkout screen indefinitely, and having the information permanently lost when the Note or Message is deleted, you can enter a zero amount ($0.00) Manual Invoice that will be saved on the patron's Account screen in their Fines tab.

The following are examples that could either be saved as messages on the patron's account screen, as $0.00 manual invoices* or a mix of both:

03/20/2013 WAU "Special Note-Routing $30.00 cash to SUN for lost book The Name of the Wind bc#39078061391877. eh
03/23/2013 SUN  "Special Note-Received $30.00 cash from WAU for lost book The Name of the Wind bc#39078061391877. pm

A "Payment routing" message can be entered as a Message on the patron's Check Out screen and can be deleted once a payment received message has been recorded.

A "Payment received" message can be entered as a Message on the patron's Check Out screen OR can entered as a $0.00 manual invoice in order to retain the information that the payment actually was received.

Here's how to create a zero amount (0.00) Manual Invoice:

• Go to the patron's record/Fines tab.
• Click on the "Create Manual Invoice" button.
  
• Change Type to Sundry.
• Leave the Barcode field empty.
• Enter your message into the Description field- include date, branches involved, payment info, title and barcode of the item (see above examples).
  • Local library policy may dictate different wording for your message-the important thing to remember is that the more information you include, the better you can track down a solution if this item becomes a problem later.
• Make the dollar amount $0.00.
• Click the "Save" button.
  

*If you can't find routing info in the patron's messages when you're receiving money from a different branch, check the patron’s Account screen  and see if it was recorded as a zero amount (0.00)Manual Invoice.

Submitted by E. Harkins; Waunakee Public Library

 

Best Practices: Guidelines for entering Notes and Messages

Madison Public Library staff put together this document in 2011 and it was our first official "Best Practices" blog.  Except that it pre-dated the blog and only went out via email.  We hope you enjoy it in blog-format as well. 

NOTES

• There are two Note fields in a patron record: Circulation and OPAC.
• Notes are added by going to the patron’s Details screen and clicking “Edit” under “Library use”.
• Always include the date and your initials in a Note.
• The Note field is limited to 255 characters, but can be easily edited.
• The OPAC note displays in the patron’s OPAC account and in the Details screen in the Staff Client.  The Circulation note only displays in the patron’s Checkout and Details screens in the Staff Client.  ALWAYS copy an OPAC note into the Circulation note if you want staff to see the same note that you entered for the patron.  You don’t want a patron to say “I had a note that I forgot to return…..” and not be able to see the same note in the Checkout screen.
• Notes are displayed above the “Messages” section of the patron's Check out screen and should be used for issues that are important and/or time sensitive.
• Once a note has been edited, a record of the changes is NOT kept.

MESSAGES

• Messages are added by going to the patron’s Checkout screen and clicking “Add a new message”.
• Date and location are automatically added to messages, but initials should be added as appropriate.
• Once a message has been saved, it cannot be edited.
• Messages that are deleted are not saved. (We hope to change this in future development so messages can be saved.)
• You have an option to leave a message for “Other Librarians” or leave a message for the patron.
  • If you leave a message for “Other Librarians”, it will show up on the Checkout screen in red and staff at any LINKcat library can delete the message.
  • If you leave a message for the patron, it shows up in black (not red) on the Checkout screen and also in the patron’s account on the OPAC.  ONLY THE LIBRARY THAT ENTERED THE MESSAGE FOR THE PATRON CAN DELETE THIS MESSAGE.  For this reason, we recommend that any information that needs to be shared with both the patron and staff be put in both the OPAC note and Circulation note (See above.)  The exception to this would be a message for the patron regarding lost and found items.  XXX library would enter a message for the patron saying that their umbrella is in the lost and found.  It is unlikely that any other library other than XXX would need to delete that message.

 

EXAMPLES OF NOTES AND MESSAGES

NOTES:

1.      Parts Missing

a.      Item is returned with a part missing.

b.      Add the Part Missing note to both the OPAC and Circ note field.

c.       When patron returns the missing part, the note is removed from the OPAC note.  The Circ note is deleted if the parts are matched up, or the Circ note is updated to reflect that the missing part is being sent to the owning library.

d.      The Circ note is deleted when the parts are matched up.

2.      Administrative Stop

a.      Note Administrative Stop and the reason in the Circ note.  Include date, location, and initials.  Also DEBAR(patron account flag) in order to prevent checkout.

3.      Payment Plans

a.      Put details in the Circ note.  Remember to change the Patron Category to Limited Use.

MESSAGES:

1.      Old Holds Authorizations from Dynix were transferred into Messages, but the way they transferred resulted in duplicate wording and dates that are confusing.  Help us cleanup these Hold Authorizations by creating a new message:

a.      Click “Add a new message”

b.      Under “Predefined notes”, click “Hold Pickup Authorization”

c.       In the message box, type “For Joe Smith, Jan Smith…..”

2.      New Holds Authorizations should be entered by following the same steps as above:

a.      Click “Add a new message”

b.      Under “Predefined notes”, click “Hold Pickup Authorization”

c.       In the message box, type “For Joe Smith, Jan Smith…..”

3.      Damaged Items:

a.      Use “Add a new message” to provide details about a damaged item and routing it to the owning library.

4.      Lost and Found:

a.      Click “Add a new message”

b.      Under “Add a message for:”, click the name of the patron.

c.       In the message box, type “Umbrella left at XXX. Will be in the lost & found until 8/24/11”

d.      This message will appear in the patron’s account on the OPAC and in black letters on the Checkout screen.  XXX library can delete the message when the item is picked up or discarded.

Receipt or No Receipt - that is the question ...

Not everybody wants a due date receipt and to save us from having to ask so often we started adding Messages to patrons' Check Out screens. 

• Click on the "Add a new message" hyperlink.
• Don't choose a pre-defined heading.
• Based on the patron preference, enter either "NO RECEIPT" or "PLEASE PRINT RECEIPT".  

It's a quick to add and easy to see if you use capital letters.  The two word phrase vs the three word phrase helps to differentiate between the two messages as well.

--submitted by E. Kersten/PIN

Circulation documentation: a constant evolution.

Over the last 11 months, the Circulation Services Committee has been working hard on updating Sections of the Circulation Manual;  updating and streamlining the Problem Items forms and revising and developing other procedures and guidelines.  They are still working on a variety of projects and we post revisions practically every month. Please check out the updated documentation on the following web pages:

Circulation Manual

Circulation Workflows

and review the recently re-recorded Circulation Tutorials we wrote about in the 2/22/13 LINK 2.0 blog post.

 

 

 

Reminder: do not use the Manual Credit button.

Here's an updated reminder for you to share with your staff and co-workers:

When staff use the Manual Credit button to create a credit on a patron's account, the patron's balance is credited.  However, we are unable to apply the credit to a specific debit amount in order to resolve the account, which leaves both the original debit and the new credit as amounts Outstanding in the patron's record.  Both amounts also display in the patron's PAC account and on the patron's Check Out page.  In May 2012 the CSC recommended and the ILS approved banning the use of the Manual Credit button. 

If you have a question on how to resolve a debit amount without using the Manual Credit, please contact Heidi O. and she will assist you.  If you have patron records with manual credits and debits that you would like to see "resolved", email the patron barcode and the specific line numbers in the patron's Account screen to Heidi O. with a request to clear the Amounts Outstanding.

Newly revised Circulation tutorials

Jean A. has completed recording 4 more of the revised Circulation Tutorials: How to make items Claims Returned, Renewing items, Applying Payments,and Applying Write-offs. They have been posted to Koha Circulation Tutorials, listed under the Koha Tutorials section on the ILS Support/Training page.

In order to shorten the length of the tutorials, we made them very task-specific.  Some of these topics lead naturally into other areas and tasks, but we were trying to keep length under 3 minutes.  Every tutorial refers to the specific section of the Circulation Manual where staff can find more information on each subject.

The next three scheduled for recording are Holds, Creating Manual Invoices and Searching for patrons.  If you have a topic or task that you would like to see made into a short tutorial, please send the information to Heidi Oliversen, hjo@scls.lib.wi.us.