Let's Talk about Fulfillment (I mean Alma, not life's purpose) 11/05/2021

During this session held on Friday, November 5 from 2-3:30pm central, topics of discussion included:

• Announcements
  • Claims Returned:
    • A library noticed that items with a "Claims Returned" status were being changed to "Lost" by the overdue and lost loan job.
    • Email sent to I-Share Liaisons, I-Share Directors, and the Resource Sharing Interest group email list on 10/29
      • Ex Libris has told us that to prevent this status change, we need to adjust each Overdue and Lost Loan profile to leave the two claims returned statuses out of the “Loan Status” list. 
      • CARLI office staff will adjust each of the Overdue and Lost Loan profiles for each institution, for both local and I-Share patrons. Your library does not need to make any configuration edits. 
      • After CARLI Staff have completed the configuration changes, materials with a “Claims Returned” status will be exempt from receiving overdue notices and from having the transaction changed from “Claims Returned” to “Lost” status.
    • Follow-up email sent on 11/4:
      • The changes to the Loan Status lists in your Overdue and Lost Loan profiles have been completed.
        • CARLI has uploaded the XXX Process Type Changed reports, of which XXX is your three letter CARLI code, to Box. Library staff should review the report and determine whether the item should have the status set back to Claims Returned, or whether the status should remain set at Lost.
          • If the item should remain Lost, no further action is needed for that item.
          • If the item should be set back to the Claims returned status:
            1. Search for the item using a Physical Items search in Alma.
            2. Select Lost in the Process Type field.
            3. Select the name in the Borrower field.
            4. Next to the item, select the ellipsis > Found Item.
            5. Next to the item, select the ellipsis > Claimed Return.
            6. Optionally, add a note and select OK. The following institutions had no process type changes. The reports for those institutions simply say, "No items with a process type that changed from Claims returned to lost."
        • The following institutions had no process type changes. The reports for those institutions simply say, "No items with a process type that changed from Claims returned to lost."

          • ALP	EIU	JOL	MIL	RCC	SWI
            ARU	ERK	JUD	MLS	ROU	TRN
            BEN	GSU	KCC	MON	RVC	TRT
            BHC	HRT	LAC	NBT	SEI	UIC
            BRA	ICC	LCC	NBY	SFM	UIS
            CON	IEC	LEW	NCC	SIC	USF
            CSC	IIT	LFC	NLU	SIE
            CSU	IMS	LLC	NPU	SIM
            CTU	ISL	LNC	ONU	SML
            DAC	IVC	MCK	PRC	SSC
            DOM	IWU	MHC	PRK	SVC

• Auto-renewals in Alma
  • Information on auto-renewals is available: https://www.carli.illinois.edu/alma-automatic-renewals-local-patrons
  • Resource Sharing Committee will send a survey for input on enabling automatic renewals for I-Share patrons on Monday, 11/08.
  • ​​Is there a way to limit auto-renewals for local patrons by user group?
    • Yes, you can select which user groups automatic loan renewals applies for. 
    • The rules can only be limited by the item's owning library and/or the patron's user group.
      • Auto-renewals cannot be set more granularly at this time (such as by item location or policy type).
    • See webinar linked above for directions.
  • How many times will the item be auto-renewed?
    • In the fulfillment "terms of use" that is governing the loan transaction, the "Maximum Renewal Period" governs how long, in total, the patron can have the item.
    • See webinar linked above for for information.
• Recent issue with newspapers showing articles in PrimoVE, but their permalink is CDI (so not connected to community zone collection). When they follow that link out of PrimoVE, they are told they do not have access. Even though they do, and they can access it through a different kind of search.
  • With the example reviewed during the session, the issue turned out to be that the editions were not matching and had different ISSNs.
    • When this happens, libraries can report direct to Ex Libris support, or, ask CARLI Support to report it. 
    • ​​​​​​​If it happens with an article in a collection if it is "Provided by CARLI" or "Activated by CARLI", please send to CARLI support so that CARLI can report it.
• ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​When our RFID reader pad scans items, it will sometimes scan another item as well with a very short barcode that was not the item we were scanning. Why is this happening?
  • The RFID reader is set to rescan the pad every few seconds, and if the library staff member (or patron) is in the process of moving the item to or from the pad when the re-scan happens, the scanner only catches a portion of the item's barcode.
  • ​​​​​​​Two I-Share instittuions, Moody Bible Institute's Michigan campus and Spertus Institute have shorter, non-prefixed barcodes. When a barcode on another item is mis-scanned, it will often match to a MBI or SCJ item barcode, even though it is not the item in hand.
  • Suggestions:
    • ​​​​​​​Most RFID reader pads have a setting where you can adjust how quickly it rescans; suggestion to adjust the value to be 30 seconds.
    • Waving the item under the barcode scanner, or moving the item sideways under the scanner, is more likely to result in a partial scan. Train library staff to scan appropriately for the scanner.
• ​​​​​​​Handling interlibrary loan (non-I-Share loans) renewals when the loan period is longer than the patron record's expiration date.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ ​​​​​​​Our institution creates brief records in Alm for materials borrowed by our patrons from OCLC, so that we can check them out in Alma. Sometimes a lending library will give us a due date that is longer than the patron's record's expiration date. Thoughts on what we should do?
  • ​​​​​​​Even though the loaning library is being generous, we'd modify the due date for the item to only go up to their record expiration date in Alma, and keep a note that if their record gets extended (because they do take more classes), you could modify the due date to give them the full loan period granted by the lending institution, it if you wish.
• In Primo VE if you are not signed in, some non-lendable-without-staff-override materials show as "Loanable", but then after you sign in, it shows as "Not Loanable" (because now it knows your patron group). What can we do to make these items always show as Not Loanable, whether the patron is logged in or not?
  • ​​​​​​​Ex Libris Knowledge Article explaining how Primo VE displaying Loanable vs. Not Loanable: https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Knowledge_Articles/Loanable%22_Policy_information_in_Primo_GetIt_tab_-_how_is_it_calculated%3F
  • When setting an item as not loanable in Alma Configuration at the institutional level> Fulfillment> Physical Fulfillment> Terms of Use and Policies> then choosing the correct loan terms of use that governs the transaction, you have three options for non-loanable materials, so that staff would need to perform an override to complete the charge.
  • All three options refer to the same two settings in the TOU:
    • Is Loanable
    • Due Date
  • Option 1: Is Loanable is set to Yes; Due Date is set to No Due Date
    • Circulation effect:
      • Staff will need to to an override to perform the loan.
      • The due date will calculate as immediately due; staff will need to modify the due date to be the desired due date.
    • Primo VE when not logged in:
      • Will show as "Loanable" when not logged in
  • Option 2: Is Loanable is set to No; Due Date is set to a loan period
    • Circulation effect:
      • Staff will need to to an override to perform the loan.
      • The due date will automatically calculate the loan period set in the TOU without staff needing to modify the due date.
    • Primo VE when not logged in:
      • Will show as "Not Loanable" when not logged in
  • Option 3: Is Loanable is set to No; Due Date is set to No Due Date
    • Circulation effect:
      • Staff will need to to an override to perform the loan.
      • The due date will calculate as immediately due; staff will need to modify the due date to be the desired due date.
    • Primo VE when not logged in:
      • Will show as "Not Loanable" when not logged in
• When will the "Hold Expired" date be included on the on hold shelf letter that staff print to put with the item on the hold shelf?
  • We've located the field in the metadata for that letter (the Ful Hold Shelf Request Slip Letter), but unfortunately, for incoming I-Share AFN items the field is blank.
  • CARLI Office staff have filed a case with Ex Libris to ask why the field is blank for incoming AFN items, since Alma does know the date (the date is included in the Active Hold List and in the letter emailed directly to the patron).
• The journal Young Children publishes one issue a year as online only, the rest are in print. We've noticed that when a patron is searching for an article from Young Children and find it in a source such as ERIC, they're taken directly to information about the online only issue, and they do not see our Primo VE options for the print issues (which are most of the issues). What can we do about this?
  • ​​​​​​​In Alma Configuration> Fulfillment > Discovery Interface Display Logic > Direct Linking, when this is turned on, this is the expected behavior; that the link to find the full text would take the patron directly to the full text, rather than having the patron make an additional selection in Primo VE to see the full text.
  • Since Young Children is an anomaly, it is probably worth keeping this "Direct Linking" turned ON since it works as patrons would expect for the majority of records.
    • There is currently not a way to have the settings behave differently for a single title.