ELT's Absent Items

Owned by Julie Petzold
Last updated: Jan 25, 2022 by Kara Young



About this page

FUWG Project Name:

Page content contributors:

Kara Young, Julie Petzold

Contents:

Brief description of project

Develop plan for handling lost, claims returned, and missing items in Alma to resolve patron account issues and ensure an accurate catalog in a timely manner.

Information gathering

  • Reports for collection development
    • Group met with Ardys
    • Proposal might need to go to CCDSC; Laura and Amy can bring to committee
  • Jackson needs to test loan status "lost"
  • Investigate whether items can be withdrawn automatically on an automated schedule (dream big)

4/17/20 Updates

  • Jackson has some testing to finish up
  • Share documentation with FWG
  • Next steps is for it to go to CCDSC

4/30/20 Updates

  • Amy will bring to CCDSC in an upcoming meeting
  • Do we want "claims returned" items to be "requestable"?

5/14/20 Updates

  • Next meeting is and this is on the agenda

6/10/21 Updates

Testing

  • Come up with a test plan to allow the ELT Absent Items group to answer their questions about what is possible. Questions, from the Absent Items group:

    • Is possible to change the configuration of the loan policy “lost” so that when items become lost they are no longer requestable
      • KY: I configured this on sandbox (circ fulfillment unit only)- needs testing. Wondering what the workflow is for removing lost items (I thought requests on lost items were tracked for collection development purposes to determine whether to re-order such items?).
    • and also so that the manual or automatic change of loan policy for a given item will move or cancel any existing requests on it.
    • Would be possible to turn off the automatic billing of lost items (set for $100) and manually bill patrons through Alma later?
      • KY: Lost billing is set up on TOU rule. So for regular, circulating items (fixed due date), we'd be turning off the auto bill for everything. But yes, this is possible, and it is also possible to manually bill.
  • Laura did the Sandbox configuration, but needed to “hit the batch job Sandbox” so items went to lost
  • Jackson:
    • There doesn’t seem to be anything “lost” and “requested”
    • More testing details are possible
    • Claims Returned to “not requestable.” Is this possible, Jackson couldn’t find documentation on this? Laura will look.
      • KY: configured on sandbox (circ fulfillment unit only)- needs testing.
    • When Jackson manually changed an item to “lost” the open request(s) wasn’t automatically cancelled
      • In production, request is likely cancelled as part of nightly request job cleanup. See Requests- handle expiration step. We can probably test this on sandbox and see if this job does it automatically.
  • Question: how do other circulation libraries (AJB, Dumbarton, Berenson, Fung, Wolbach, Center for Hel, Arboretum, Radcliff) that aren’t represented by FWG or ELT get input on policy changes
    • Spruill will ask Alma hours contact and ask who would be the best contact for Alma Fulfillment config changes
    • Laura will ask Bill to get a complete list of circulating libraries for FWG to aid in future communications


Recommended practice or policy

  • Approval needed?  (Determine by who and how to obtain)
  • ELT will move forward with LTS support as needed.
  • Closing project (1/24/22).


Communication plan