zzArchived -- Smart Restart

Library Smart Restart Circulation Questions Spreadsheet

General Access Services Circulation Smart ReStart Checklist

Assumptions

  • ReCAP will not be shipping items so all patron requests for RD items should remain off.

  • Borrow Direct will not be shipping items at this time, so no changes to Borrow Direct request logic is needed at this time:

  • Recalls should remain off.

  • There will not be traditional physical reserves, but we can rely on staff to not transfer items to reserves collections/update to 3 hour loan policies

  • LAM hold desk is the only hold pickup location (to start)

  • HD requesting, not RD requesting (to start).  Item policy 01 requests for all (all libraries that were previously set to delivery to non-owning library for HD materials) libraries at HD should be requestable.

  • WID PUSEY LAM Stacks - 01 items.  

Questions

  • Hold desks

    • WID: should we enable all all available circ desk hold shelves?  Or just Main and Reshelving?

      • Only LAM, WID, and HD and route all requests to LAM

      • Main Circulation, , Carrel Circulation, Reshelving

      • No for - Reading Room, Newspapers/Microfilms Reading Room, Widener Study

      • Only LAM hold shelf will be put on

      • Francesca working on a workflow to pull and charge carrel materials to patrons for circulation.

      • Extend time to reshelve: Yes. Period: one week?

      • When will MED need to be activated? Hold shelf?

    • LTS will:

      • Turn on LAM, WID, return to HD desks

      • Extend time to reshelve for WID/LAM to one week

      • MED?

  • Hold notifications

    • Should we disable hold request pickup notifications?  Probably?  Kara is going to meeting; she thinks there is a way to batch.  using libcal for reservations.

    • We can add a link to libcal form to schedule pickup if necessary and/or otherwise adjust language?

    • scenario where requests are placed on multiple items from multiple locations. How will the pickup process work with respect to limited pickups?

    • Possibly turn on hold shelf processing so that holds are not activated until staff are ready to activate and send letters to patrons. NO

    • Need to do an end-to-end request to lending test using workflow

      • LTS will:

        • re-configure hold shelf letter language

          • Note that any activate next holds at active circ desks will mail out this letter if a requested item is returned...including MED etc.
        • configure requests report letter- not sure this will be used as of 6/9

  • Hold Requests

    • Who is eligible to place holds? faculty, students, staff, proxy borrower group

    • What items will be requestable to LAM 

      • All 01s (things that can leave the library)

      • Only certain 01s from certain collections

      • Only items on shelf should be requestable

      • What items/locations from HD (01 across all library HD locations)? 

      • LTS will:

        • restrict requests to 01 LAM, WID, HD

        • restrict requests to on-shelf items only

        • restrict loans to 01 LAM, WID, HD

    • Do we need to take any actions for requests currently on the hold shelf?

      • LAM has about 800 items on active hold according to Alma - items are at LAM and could be picked up.  Will need to be sorted. Can export list with name/HUID.

      • Should we cancel any hanging requests for graduating seniors?  HL access staff would manually cancel hold when they are sorting these.  They will manually send new notices unless the batch job works.  Would need to clean up the items first.

    • Do we need to take any actions for to do with waiting requests (pick list)? No need to do this.  Can library staff move title level requests along to move them along in process after initial cleanup is done?

    • Pick from shelf expiry is currently 365 days.  When should this be set back to 7 days, or a shorter period than 365?

      • More than 7; 365 is fine.

    • Hold shelf period is also set to 365 days (for items on active hold shelf); however, many holds at LAM have "expired;" just FYI. AS will review and come up with a manual process for this.   Kara will confirm after the meeting if these are still associated with the patron.

  • Printers:

    • May need to add new printers


  • Fines/Fees:

    • Job which produces 45-day lost loans is not running.  Should we turn this back on?   Not until a critical mass of returns is determined.

      • Before job is turned back on we need to get a list of long overdue items with user group to try to determine how to proceed.

    • Should we extend the period before items go to lost? No changes at this time.

    • Should we extend the time period before lost items go to student billing (term bill)? No changes at this time.   

    • Should Termbill and AR export processes be re-enabled?  AR for RS will be turned on when cleanup is done. Termbill and rest of AR will not resume at this time.  Benson should move the rejects file out for resumption of AR.  We will turn AR off again before a cleaned-up version.

  • Scan & Deliver and ILL

    • Scan del: should be available? Any changes? (these links are currently not disabled).  No change for LTS.

    • ILL: any changes to links necessary (ILL request BOOK links currently off).  No changes for LTS.

  • Loans

    • Auto-renewals were extended to 36 months for Fixed Due date loan rule (extended from 30 months). No extended renewals for Special Borrowers (28 day loan period TOU). Should any changes be made to this? No changes right now.

    • Should the standard term loan dates go back into effect? Normally on August 10, new term due date is set to February 10 and eligible loans roll forward to new due date 7 days prior to old due date.  Yes, August 10 we will update them.   They will autorenew at that point if the items are eligible for renewal.

    • Any special handling for ILL item due dates? No.  We will rerun the jobs to renew.

  • HD
    • Need to work with GFA to make on prem primary.

      • Pat to put in ticket with GFA to switch back on X date.
      • MOving server back on June 17th.
    • Need to reenable HD/Alma integrations
      • LTS will reneable the batch processes on reentry date (targetting June 22 now). Requesting will be turned on when we enable requesting again in Alma (tentatively June 25th).

Workflows to Test

Front Door Pickup Testing

  • Patron Physical Item requesting works as expected (requests only on LAM/WID/HD items that are "on shelf")
    • No requests available for locations not mentioned above
    • No requests available for Item Policies other than 01
    • No requests available for items "checked out," "in transit," or any other status

All tests conducted with Staff permissions and desired pickup of Lamont. When the item was requestable, only Lamont appeared as an option for pickup location, as desired, except where noted in the Result column.

Library

Collection

Policy

Status

Item Tested

Desired Result

Result

Lamont

GEN

01

on shelf

32044133775627

successful

Lamont

GEN

01

in transit

32044070931423

unsuccessful

Lamont

GEN

01

on loan

32044025900903

unsuccessful

Lamont

GEN

02

on shelf

32044035028935

unsuccessful

Widener

GEN

01

on shelf

32044089508600

successful

Widener

GEN

01

in transit

32044080996663

unsuccessful

Widener

GEN

01

on loan

32044079588257

unsuccessful

Widener

GEN

02

on shelf

32044080333743

unsuccessful

Gutman

HD

01

on shelf

32044136852175

successful

Gutman

HD

01

on loan

32044030443972

unsuccessful

Gutman

GEN

01

on shelf

32044030458475

unsuccessful

Law

HD

01

on shelf

32044125672030

successful


(but, Law was a pickup location option)

Law

HD

01

on loan

32044097238869

unsuccessful

Law

GEN

01

on shelf

32044140351271

unsuccessful

Tozzer

HD

01

on shelf

32044042920587

successful

Tozzer

HD

01

on loan

32044043454503

unsuccessful

Tozzer

GEN

01

on shelf

32044043110972

unsuccessful

  • Requests appear on appropriate pick lists

Library

Collection

Policy

Status

Item Tested

Desired Result

Result

Lamont

GEN

01

on shelf

32044133775627

LAM picklist

Widener

GEN

01

on shelf

32044089508600

WID picklist

Gutman

HD

01

on shelf

32044136852175

HD picklist

JP cannot confirm

Law

HD

01

on shelf

32044125672030

HD picklist

JP cannot confirm

Tozzer

HD

01

on shelf

32044042920587

HD picklist

JP cannot confirm

  • Marking items missing on Pick Lists. What happens if the item is missing at Lamont/Widener/HD, but available at a currently unrequestable library? Does the user's request get cancelled and they get notified? Or does the request go to the item at the unrequestable/closed library?
    • Tested with 32044071260293 (BAK and WID holdings)- request was initially on WID item; marked as missing and the request was canceled. Patron was notified.
    • Placed title level request on MMS ID 990114086260203941 (holdings at GUT GEN, WID GEN, and DIV HD)
      • Pickup options included LAM and DIV
      • Request successful, item appeared on WID pick list
      • Marked WID copy missing, item did not appear on GUT picklist, instead has Workflow step "Waiting For Remote Storage," which is ideal
    • Placed title level request on MMS ID 990146646200203941 (holdings at GUT GEN, WID GEN) in HOLLIS QA
      • Pickup option was LAM
      • Request successful, item appeared on WID pick list
      • Marked WID copy missing, no opportunity to add custom note to user, item did not appear on GUT picklist
      • Request no longer on patron account
      • JP didn't receive cancellation email initially because email wasn't in the appropriate table. Follow-up testing resulted in receiving a cancellation email.
  • Items "Returned" change the item to "On Hold" and the user gets modified "Item Available" notice that includes the link to making a reservation

Library

Collection

Policy

Status

Item Tested

Desired Result

Result

Lamont

GEN

01

on shelf

32044133775627

Returned at LAM activates hold, prints slip (ex date 1 year from today), and emails notice



Widener

GEN

01

on shelf

32044089508600

Returned at WID activates transit to LAM; Returned at LAM activates hold, prints slip (ex date 1 year from today), and emails notice


(print slip failed because JP didn't have her selected for the printer)


    • What happens if we try to activate a hold for an expired user?
    • Tested with some stale holds at LAM on sandbox- hold gets activated and patron is notified at the email address in Alma.
    • Created a hold request on item 32044105687420 for Nova Petzold (student 6/23/20 account expiration date) and put the item in transit to LAM.
    • Receive at LAM on  Julie Petzold and see what happens
      • Hold was activated and Nova was notified (sad)


  • Items checked out to users have appropriate due dates (at this time, September 10) and checkout receipt prints as expected

Library

Collection

Policy

Status

Item Tested

Desired Result

Result

Lamont

GEN

01

on shelf

32044133775627

Due 9/10, print receipt prints

Widener

GEN

01

on shelf

32044089508600

Due 9/10, print receipt prints


  • What happens to items checked out from LAM from a closed library (because they were in transit or on the hold shelf from the "before times")
  • Using item 32044118385301 (in transit from GUT to LAM for IDA91287):  
    • Item goes on hold and slip prints as expected
    • Item is successfully loaned with appropriate due date


  • remote storage workflow works as expected


Library

Collection

Policy

Status

Item Tested

Desired Result

Result

Gutman

HD

01

on shelf

32044136852175

HD picklist

JP cannot confirm

Law

HD

01

on shelf

32044125672030

HD picklist

JP cannot confirm

Tozzer

HD

01

on shelf

32044042920587

HD picklist

JP cannot confirm


Course Materials Digitization Testing

  • What happens when you cancel a request that is currently On the Hold Shelf?
    • From the Physical Item > Resource Request Monitoring sceen
    • From the Active Hold Shelf screen

    • From both screens, staff have the opportunity to send the original requestor a customized cancellation message

Processing Pre-Shutdown Hold Requests

Summary

There are currently items on all hold shelves from before the shutdown. To begin, we would like to notify users that their requests on hold at LAM and WID are available for pickup at Lamont. However, we only want to do this for students (including continuing ed), faculty, faculty proxies, and staff with active library accounts (we need to be mindful of staff and faculty whose accounts are renewing on July 1). Also, we can only lend Regular Loan (01) or Resource Sharing (41) items.

Processing Hold Shelf Reports

Following the steps below will take the raw data provided by Kara and

  1. Kara generates a report for each Hold Shelf that includes the following fields: request date, barcode, base status, request status, primary identifier, user group, first name, last name, status (latest step), active request, process type, title, author, call number, item policy, temporary item policy, owning library, statistical category 1, statistical category 2, request ID, pickup location, expiry date, on hold shelf start time (days), current process, request type code, managed by library (latest step), managed by desk (latest step), and email
    1. NOTE: the fields in bold are additional fields that were not included in the LAM or WID reports, but would be useful in future reports for additional desks
  2. Unmerge cells and copy data to enable filtering
  3. Label all request from June or later as “FDP--leave as is”
    1. NOTE: these are likely only to appear on the LAM report (or any hold shelf that is currently a pickup location)
    2. NOTE: these are the items will probably appear on the exported set list as having 0 requests because they will be charged already
  4. Label all requests from December 31, 2019 or earlier as “cancel”
    1. NOTE: For WID, requests for departments (e.g. RS, JUD, etc. were left as is)     
  5. Identify items with multiple request
    1. Duplicate barcodes on this report
    2. Items with requests greater than 1 on the exported set list (to create:
      1. Copy barcodes to a fresh spreadsheet
      2. Deduplicate
      3. Create new set in Alma
      4. View items
      5. Export existing view
      6. Filter to greater than 1)
  6. Address items with multiple requests (items identified in 5a and 5b)—manually cancel through Alma all but 1 request (at most), mark requests as "cancelled" or "keep--process for FDP" in the spreadsheet
    1. Cancel requests from before 2020
    2. Cancel requests for expired users (honor requests for users expiring in July)
    3. Cancel requests for non-students (including Continuing Ed.), staff, or faculty
    4. If keeping the request for someone, cancel subsequent requests
    5. Notify active users via Alma, but not inactive ones
  7. Mark requests to cancel
    1. Requests for expired users (honor requests for users expiring in July)
    2. Requests for non-students (including Continuing Ed.), staff, faculty, or faculty proxies
    3. Requests for non-01 or 41 items (to check or temp item policy 89, because only perm item policies are in the report:
      1. Copy barcodes of remaining items to a fresh spreadsheet
      2. Create new set in Alma
      3. View items

      4. Export existing view

      5. Filter to policy 89)

  8. Cleanup labels, create worksheets

    1. Decision Labels

      1. At LIB CODE–keep
        1. NOTE: these are items may have only appeared on the LAM list because they are in route to LAM but are still at another hold shelf (processed for LAM preshutdown, but never made it to LAM because of timing; see: In Transit Items)
      2. cancel
      3. cancelled
      4. FDP--leave as is
      5. keep--process for FDP
      6. keep--process for FDP--might be on hold shelf under LAST, FIRST; if not, cancel and mark missing

    2. Worksheets
      1. COMPLETE
      2. Process for FDP
      3. Cancel via Batch
      4. ini_Vorlage
        1. TEMPLATE_Requested Item Available- Please Schedule a Pickup Time.txt
        2. SendEmail VBA code.txt
  9. Copy data with a "Decision" of "keep..." to the "Process for FDP" worksheet;
    1. Arrange and hide columns to support onsite work (last name, first name, primary identifier, title, author, barcode, call number, email, note, onsite staff update, Yes/No)
    2. Sort sheet by Last Name > First Name > barcode
    3. Search Alma for any missing email addresses and add them to spreadsheet
  10. Copy data with a "Decision" of "cancel" to the "Cancel via Batch worksheet
  11. Create set to confirm no request queues on requests that need to be cancelled
  12. Practice cancel job in Sandbox
    1. Create item set (make sure items only have 1 request and are on the hold shelf)
      1. Run Cancel Physical Items Request job3
        1. Cannot be fulfilled

        2. Null

        3. No (which will cancel all requests in the queue, but this is fine because of the QC check in Step 10; selecting Yes should only cancel the first request in the queue)

      2. Check requests are gone—confirmed, when items are returned they are routed to reshelving
    2. Test cancel job in Production
      1. Create item set (make sure items only have 1 request and are on the hold shelf)
      2. Run Cancel Physical Items Request job
        1. Cannot be fulfilled

        2. Null

        3. No (which will cancel all requests in the queue, but this is fine because of the QC check in Step 10; selecting Yes should only cancel the first request in the queue)

      3. Check requests are gone—confirmed
  13. Run full cancel job in Production
  14. Update "Cancel via Batch" worksheet with note of cancellation and date

Activating Holds

See: Activate Pre-Shutdown Holds

In Transit Items

We need a plan for the pre-shutdown, in transit items to LAM or WID (items sitting in bins or on hold shelves at closed libraries). The process outlined above is not feasible because we cannot get a report from Alma (that I, Julie Petzold, know of) that contains Library User IDs.

The simplest way forward is probably:

  1. Take item from bin
  2. In Alma search Requests >> Barcode


  3. Click on the Library User icon to confirm role and account expiration


  4. Switch the search parameters to Physical Item >> Barcode (the barcode should remain in the search bar, just click the search icon)


  5. Confirm Item Policy
  6. If eligible for loan... details TBD
  7. If ineligible for loan... details TBD