Loan statuses are defined for each circulation metainstitution.- that is, the settings are shared (and identical) for each library in a shared circulation system. However, it is possible to limit the Statuses which can be selected to specific locations (see below for details) and it is therefore feasible to set up (say) statuses “Lost1”, “Lost2”, “Lost3” as slightly different flavours, to be used by different institutions.
After choosing this option an overview screen with codes already defined will be presented:
Loan status code: the “code” assigned.
Description: the description of this in the user’s current language.
In use: whether this code is available for use or not.
In addition, it is possible to define an “icon” to be displayed against items/loans with this status – this is shown in the left hand column. (All of these are described below).
: choose this option to create a new code. See section 481.17.1 for more details.
: select a code and then this option to amend its details. See section 481.17.1 for more details.
: select a code and then this option to create a new code based on the settings of the selected code.
: Allows the status to be annotated with a comment. See section 481.17.2 for more details.
: Allows you to define how this special status should be displayed in the WebOPAC. See section 481.17.3 for more details.
: use this option to define the locations for which the selected status can be used. See section 481.17.4 for more details.
: Starts the batch processing of the loan statuses. See section 481.17.5 for more details.
: choose this option to create a new code. An input form will be displayed. This is a “tabbed” form, split into 3 sections, as shown. There is no major significance in the three different parts –it only serves to group the settings logically together.
Code This is simply some unique key to the parameter. In most circumstances this is not displayed (and the description used instead); it is just some “code” e.g. “Claimed”.
For a new entry, this field may be amended. It may not be changed once the parameter has been completed.
Description This is the description of the parameter, and is used in staff displays. The setting shown is in the current language of the user. For a multilingual site, this setting must be amended for each language required.
Display icon For current loans for which the loan status is set, this icon is displayed in the list of items on loan and various places to highlight that there is something special about the item. There are 15 icons to denote item statuses.
The Blue letter I is also used when there is only a status note (and no specific code). The Yellow triangle is displayed when the loan is at its penultimate renewal, and therefore reserved for this use.
Item display status (staff) The wording to be used when displaying the details of an item to which the loan status has been applied. See also section 481.17.1.1.
Valid for Defines the contexts in which this status may be applied to an item. This combo entry offers one of the following choices:
· Loans – it may be applied only to items on loan
· Not Loans - it may NOT be applied to onloan items.
·
Either - either of the above; the status may be applied regardless of whether the item is on loan or not.
· Not selectable - this is used for the “AbnormalReturn” status which is only generated by the system.
Circulation Status This is used to indicate how items with this status should be “described” for external interfaces (like SIP2 or when exporting item records) – it may be selected from
· Nothing Special
· Claimed returned
· Lost
· Missing
· Other
See also under Report when item found.
In use: check this box when the code may be used
Delete when not used Setting the In Use flag OFF prevents this loan status being applied (and it is not even offered as a valid choice). Such codes may not necessarily be simply deleted, if they have been used against an item. The Delete when not used flag tells the system to remove this setting when there are no longer any items for which this code is applicable.
Suspend fines, Generate overdue fines - See the separate discussion of fines handling in section 481.17.1.2.
Suspend overdues - Instructs the system to suspend overdue production for this loan.
Create invoice - This defines whether a replacement charge should be generated when this loan status is applied.
Retain as loan (days) - Depending on what the status means in practice, if an item is on loan when the status is applied, it may be relevant to take the item “off” loan, or to leave it on loan – or to leave it on loan for a few days. For example, if the status is simply applied to cause overdue fines to be suspended, then this would be set to 99999 i.e. to leave the item still on loan. Alternatively, if the item is known to have been destroyed, then this should be set to 0 – i.e. take it OFF the list of items on loan for a borrower.
However, for statuses like “claimed returned” some libraries have a policy of leaving the item as recorded “on loan” for a period, whilst further investigations are made. At the end of this period, if no further action is taken, then the item will be removed from the list of borrower’s loans (and this status logged against the borrower). If it turns out that the item is found quickly, and that they had indeed returned it, then the item can be simply returned in the normal way and this status is not logged against the borrower.
Keep in status history - The system optionally keeps a history of loan status changes against the item record. For certain statuses this is probably not interesting – for example, for an item which was set to claimed returned (and then found), one would probably discard this information.
Note
The system always keeps the PREVIOUS setting for an item, when the loan status is cleared. For example, we keep a note that an item HAD been set to Lost even when it has been found.
Treat items as unavailable - For items set with this status, we need to know whether or not to treat them as unavailable.
Items with this status may be updated – Specify whether or not items with this status may be updated. The choices are:
· Yes – the item may be updated (e.g. in AFO 423)
· No - this prevents the item information from being updated (e.g. in 423)
· Warn – in this case you are warned of the status when trying to update the item information (e.g. in AFO 423)
“Item is “on the shelf” ** This is reserved for future use **
“Item is not reservable” the item can not be used for satisfying a reservation, when this status is applied.
Allow loan via SIP2 - if this is set, then items with this status maybe loan via SIP2.
Report when item found - When an item is issued or returned, trapped for the picklist or sent to another location (e.g. by AFO462), then the system will clear the special status (possibly logging this information historically, of course, as above). If this option is checked, the staff member will be warned and notified of this status during such activities. For example, for a status which simply suspends overdues, then it is probably not helpful to tell the staff member when the item is returned.
Discard fines - See the separate discussion of fines handling in section 481.17.1.2.
Change to loan status, After how many days - The idea behind this is that if an item has been marked as “claimed returned” for a long time, then it is fair to assume that it really is missing. The system will amend its loan status to the specified one after the assigned length of time.
Keep current (days) - All such statuses applied to an item on loan are logged against the borrower’s record (except when returned within the “Retain on loan” period). Clearly a borrower who repeatedly claims that they have returned items to avoid fines may be trapped. This parameter determines for how long such types of status are to be considered relevant. See the help on AFO 482 – Borrower file parameters – Block borrowers for more information.
Note
If a loan is set to a status code set to be “Claimed returned”, “Lost” or “Missing”, then if the item is subsequently issued to another borrower (and is of course still recorded as on loan) then an “Abnormal return” is NOT generated.
Clearing the special item status
The item status will be “cleared” at points within the system where the actual existence of the item is implied. Specifically then any item with a special status will have that status cleared by scanning it in Loans (AFO411), Returns (AFO412), Renewals (AFO413/Renewal by item). In addition the item transfer options (AFO462, 463) also imply the physical existence of the item.
The status may also be explicitly cleared from AFO423 (Edit items). Whilst the former situations imply that the staff member has the book “in their hands”, this option does not. The system may need further information about where the item actually is, therefore.
If the recorded location is the same as the current location, then the system will assume that the item really is “here”; otherwise the system will offer one of five options :
1. To relocate the item to the current location.
2. To relocate the item to the current location and then put it back into transit to its current managing location
3. To relocate the item to the current location and then put it back into transit to its current owning location
4. To take the last recorded location as the current item location
5. None of these
In the latter case, then the staff member must update the item data, put it into transit etc as appropriate, manually (and in fact option 4. will be applied).
When “found” in AFO411, 412 etc, then if the current location is NOT the item’s managing location, the item will be temporarily relocated to the current location.
The setting in the Loan status parameter “Treat item as unavailable” will determine how the item is to be considered. Effectively, if set, then items with such a loan status will be treated, effectively as if they are missing. That is, they may not appear on the reservations picklist and so on.
The setting of “Suspend fines” means that the system will no longer calculate fines for this loan (whilst the status is set). In various places, the system uses the idea of “fines owing” i.e. fines that would be payable if the item were to be returned. If “suspend fines” is ON, then no fines are considered to be owing.
The question then arises as to what happens if the item is overdue when the status is assigned – the “Generate overdue fines” setting tells the system to calculate and make payable any such fines. For a “Claimed returned” this would typically be set to NO;[1] whilst for a lost item, it is many libraries’ policy to charge the overdue fine (as well as a possible replacement charge).
Assuming suspend fines is “on”, then from that point on, the system will not calculate further fines. What happens if the item is “found”, for example after the user has claimed that it has been returned ? Normally, it would be expected that the claim would be accepted, the item is effectively returned and if this happened to be past the due date, then the fines would be discarded. However, it is possible to tell the system to calculate and make payable the fines, although this would be an unusual setting.
There is possibly a difference between the actions to be taken if the item “appears” as the result of an action taken in backup or self-service, hence the different options for offline or staff activity. Clearly the option to ask what to do is inapplicable for offline.
Finally, note that once if the item is overdue when the status is set, and overdue fines are generated, then no further fines will be calculated. So, for example, if the setting leaves the item on loan for a “probationary” period, and it is subsequently returned, then the overdue fines will be discarded. (On the other hand, if it was NOT overdue when the status was applied, then no fines would have been generated and subsequent returns of the item when overdue would generate fines!). What this comes down to is that the system will only generate an overdue fine ONCE for a given loan transaction [2]– any other logic becomes hopelessly confusing to staff and borrower.
: Allows the status to be annotated with a comment. This is used to show some annotation as to how the supplied combination of settings is meant to behave. This Comments function is also available to systems managers to “explain” the setup of the parameter, if they wish to use it. After selecting a code and choosing this option an input form is displayed:
Note
Comments are NOT multi-lingual - and are meant for the use of specialised staff only.
Some statuses may require different wording in the online or WebOpac. For example, a simple “Suspend overdues” would have no impact on the status of the item itself - it is still on loan.
For others, such as Claimed returned, then it is appropriate to display “Claimed returned” in the staff functions, but simply “Not available” in the WebOpac.
: Allows you to define how this special status should be displayed in the WebOPAC. Select a code and then this option. The following screen will be displayed:
Select a language by double clicking on it. A form will be displayed, where you can enter the desired wording:
Display for items in main OPAC: how should such items be described from the point of view of the bibliographic data.
Display for borrower loans: if they are loan, how should they be described when listed as loans against the borrower’s record.
Note
These displays will OVERRIDE any other item statuses – e.g. rather than a due date the system will show “missing” in the OPAC.
If these fields are left EMPTY, then this status is ignored and the “normal” status will be displayed (in other words the status applied is not interesting to the public) - for example, the fact that Fines have been suspended is not relevant to the OPAC.
One feature of the transfer processing is the ability to limit the locations from which an item can be sent to a missing manager.
: use this option to define the locations for which the selected status can be used. After selecting a code and choosing this option an input form is displayed:
This is a form where the full list of locations (belonging to the current circulation metainstitution) in the form Institution/Location is shown in the left hand control. Selected locations can be moved to the right. Those on the right may NOT use the loan status. By default, a given loan status is available to all locations.
There are several time-dependent processes associated with the loan status settings, as described above. These are
· To change the loan status automatically from one state to another
· The period for which the loan status setting is considered as “current” for a borrower
· The period for which the loan stays as a loan (the Retain on loan period setting)
· The ability to remove codes completely from the system (when teh Delete when no longer used parameter is ON)
: Starts the processing of the loan statuses. After choosing this option the system will switch to the standard dialogue for scheduling processes.
When this process is started in batch or memory, a report will be available via AFO 642. The report is written out based on the language code found in the UserID record (AFO 611) which is used to start / schedule the process and the output will not change to the current viewer's language as it is written out as part of the processing.
Report example:
Results of loan status processing : 16 Nov 2006 18:45
Total of items processed : 2366
Total of items with current loan status : 48
Total of items with changed status : 2
Total of items taken off loan : 0
Total of borrowers processed : 5157
Total of borrowers with statuses changed : 1
Total loan status codes deleted : 1
· Document control - Change History
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Version |
Date |
Change description |
Author |
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1.0 |
unknown |
creation |
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2.0 |
May 2006 |
updates for release 2.4.1 build 16 |
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3.0 |
September 2006 |
updates for release 2.4.1 build 17 |
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4.0 |
October 2006 |
updates for Loan Plan (Lenen Loont) |
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5.0 |
March 2007 |
updates for release 2.4.2; changed terminology; corrected some errors; updated notice production info; extended parameter descriptions in section 481.15.1.4; added SIP2 option in 481.15.5; updated doc hyperlink |
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6.0 |
April 2007 |
updated various sections related to reservations |
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7.0 |
May 2007 |
various updates |
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