Let's Talk about Fulfillment (I mean Alma, not life's purpose) 2/23/21

Notes from this session:

Newest "Known Issue": I-Share/AFN material "trapped" on expired hold shelf, unable to transit (posted 2/22/2021)

• CARLI Known Issue page: https://www.carli.illinois.edu/products-services/i-share/alma-primo-ve-known-issues
• We've heard from a few I-Share libraries that they have items currently on their Alma expired hold shelf's "Send to Institution" tab, that are unable to be transited back to the item's home institution, even when staff are following the correct "Best Practices: Alma Hold Shelf Maintenance" steps from the How To: Staff workflows for Alma Requests- Local and AFN page.
  • When they select the item's checkbox and use the transit button at the top of the screen, they receive a pop-up message that says "Item was put in transit," however, the item remains on the expired hold list and the status is not updated to transit.
  • If they use the transit link for the individual item, there is no pop-up, but the item still remains on the expired hold list and the status is not updated to transit.
• Current work-around:
  • For items "trapped" on the hold shelf as described above, library staff can go to Fulfillment> Resource Requests> Scan in Items> Scan the barcode of the I-Share item trapped on hold.
  • Processing the item through Scan in items:
    • Should remove the item from the Expired Hold Shelf> Send to Institution tab.
    • May produce a "Resource Request Slip" letter (the pick from shelf letter) instead of the regular "Fulfillment Transit" letter; this is okay, since this is a work-around.

Recap of February 12th session:

• Wow we learned a lot real-time :)
• The March 16th webinar, Patron requests in Alma: A summary presentation on what we've learned will include a summary and re-cap.

On Hold Shelf Reminder Letter:

• Not to be confused with "On Hold Shelf" letter, the "On Hold Shelf Reminder" letter is used for notifying patrons of your institution's items that still awaiting pickup from the hold shelf. The letter is sent to both your patrons, and I-Share patrons with your institution's materials on hold.
  • Because of this, CARLI has made some edits to the letter so it will work for both situations.
• Suggested edits to the letter:
  • Change addressFrom to a proper email address
  • Edit message and/or following_items_awaiting_pickup to change the text found in the beginning of the letter
  • Video showing how to edit the letter:

    

Is it possible to place a manual recall on an item or is it only automated due to the settings you use?

• Adrienne briefly summarized the 4 methods for Recalls that she is working on documenting:
  • add citation to reading list; click ellipsis and request item be moved triggers recall
  • do physical item search, click ellipsis and request the item be moved temporarily or permanently it will trigger recall
  • if you have a bunch, create an itemized set and then run a job on the set to move all items and it will trigger recall
  • use work order, when set up work order dept, there is a checkbox that says "recall items", so that when an item goes through a work order dept it will trigger recall
• The documentation will be posted to CARLI website in various ways and cross referenced.
• With how we are using recalls, a recall will not change the loan's due date; staff must modify the due date for recalled items manually.

When to use "Scan in items" vs "return items"?

• Use return items when taking the item off of a patron's account, so, when clearing the book drop or when a patron returns an item to the circulation desk.
  • If the item was an I-Share item, this will generate a transit letter to route the item back; you do not need to do a second "scan in items" on the item.
• Use scan in items when the item is part of a transit or workflow process.
  • This includes when you are:
    • Processing incoming I-Share items from the ILDS purple bags
    • Processing returned local items from the ILDS purple bags
    • When filling a request from the pick from shelf list
• if item is checked out to a patron and you scan In Items it will RETURN that item and no longer be checked out to that user

If an item has a pending hold, would that come up if you return the item or only in the scan in item?

• If I-Share item unpacking purple bag, incoming I-Share item is likely going to go on hold, always do Scan In Items
• If local item that is returned and has a hold for next patron, when you do Return item and it should proceed to the next user with a hold on it (we think)
• If item expires on the hold shelf and has another hold from someone else, it will appear on the Activate Next tab there and can be processed along.
  • Fulfillment > Expired hold shelf.
  • Ex Libris documentation on Managing Expired Hold Shelf Items

Is there best practice for sending expired holds back to the loaning library?

• Yes, those steps are on the How To: Staff workflows for Alma Request under the section "Best Practices for Hold Shelf Maintenance"

How can you look up an item by barcode?

• If you just want to look at an item record, you can search for the barcode as Physical Item
• Review of searches:
  • All Titles - find things in your institution or other I-Share institutions
  • Physical titles - will search by title in your institution only (network tab is blank)
  • Physical ITEMS - will only search your institution; can in put the barcode as a Keyword or as Barcode search
  • You cannot search for other institutions' item barcodes in Alma, but you can see the barcode if you do an All Titles search and click through into their holdings

Is there documentation that summarizes how to and what to search under the various tabs?

• Ex Libris Searching in Alma: https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/010Getting_Started/050Alma_User_Interface_%E2%80%93_General_Information/Searching_in_Alma
• CARLI Call Number searching: https://www.carli.illinois.edu/products-services/i-share/physical-res-man/call_number_search
• CARLI summary of Alma searching: https://www.carli.illinois.edu/products-services/i-share/alma-ui-search
• CARLI Migration Data Review search strategies: https://www.carli.illinois.edu/i-share/alma/prepare-datareviewsearch

I noticed there is a "Lost and Paid Status" available as an item process, but I'm not sure how that gets applied or if we can do it manually. Ex Libris pages didn't appear to be helpful on this. Any tips or info?

• Things NOT automatically going to lost at this time but the timeline will be discussed at CARLI Board meeting in March if it is time to turn Lost back on.
  • Overdue notices can be enabled, but not Lost processes yet.
  • Items might currently be lost in Alma in various ways:
    • Migrated as Lost from Voyager
    • Lost and Paid status probably won't be possible for these
    • Staff manually convert a transaction to Lost (look up patron record, look at transactions, use ellipsis to convert to Lost)
    • Once we begin using Alma Lost processes, the transactions in Analytics will be much more tidy and this status will likely be possible

When we turned off fines, can make an exception based on the patron group?

• Following the board decision to end overdue fines except for specific situations, I-Share libraries can set fines for only certain groups such as "community patrons".
• If you want to charge fines based on user group, you will need to set up Alma Configuraiton so that the fines only applies to those groups.
• Contact CARLI Support to walk through those changes.

How to fill a request for a multi-volume set:

• Scenario: We had a patron request an item that has 4 volumes. When we scanned a volume to fill the request, Alma asked if we wanted to attach that one to the request, we said yes, but it never seems to attach it anyway. So the process doesn't continue.
• When the request doesn't seem to fill, there are two things to double-check:
  • Double-check that when the "Attach" screen displays, you check the check box for the request before selecting to submit.
  • There is an extra step after you attach the item to the reqeust; you need to scan it a secon time to generate the transit letter.
• Directions on this workflow: How To: Staff workflows for Alma Requests under the section for "Supplying Library: Processing Requests that Need Additional Attention" then under "Requests with submitted Volume details."

How can I add a temporary record for a borrowed item from an out of state library to check out to my patron?

• No one in the call was sure; great question to ask to the CARLI email lists.

Loan Status Notice letter; not sent when using Alma's Automatic Renewal functionality.

• This is good to know. Perhaps not a surprise as Alma's auto-renewal notices are tied in with the courtesy notice, giving the assumption that patrons' would only receive a courtesy notice if their item CANNOT be renewed, and the patron can assume the item's due date is in the future otherwise.

Is there an update on analytics reports/data pertaining to OUR patrons with I-Share loans/fines?

• This information is not yet available.

Additional sessions of "Let's talk about Fulfillment (I mean Alma, not life's purpose)" are scheduled/have occurred.
Please register for future sessions if interested, or review past sessions for the discussion notes. All sessions are listed on the CARLI Event Calendar.