MnLINK VDX Blog

We don't want to penalize our users for problems on our end. They don't always understand all of the intricacies that go on behind the scenes to make their material appear at their library.

This situation arose the other day. A request is Shipped by the Lender to the Borrower. The material subsequently is lost while in transit to the Borrower. This request will continue to count against the user's request limit until the request is removed from your patron's account.

An option would be to remove the patron name from the request. You can not delete the patron name from a request, but you can replace it. To do this you would need to have a valid library card. Most likely you would use a dummy or test card. You need to choose Local Change Request Details as the Action. Select the Borrower tab and enter the new card number in the Client Barcode box and click on the Validate button. This should change the Client Name and in turn remove the item from the previous patron when you click on the Submit button.

Another option would be for the Borrower to manually Complete the request. It is usually not a good idea to Complete an active request. Completing the request will remove the request from the user's account, but it will still be open for the Lender. You may want to add a Local Note with an explanation about why the request is Complete. If the Lender sends a Message, the request will reopen for the Borrower even though it has been Completed.

Posted by Nick at 4:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Luckily it doesn't happen very often, but when it does what a pain it is to deal with. You know what i mean, the user who accidentally chose the wrong Pickup Location. There is no easy way to deal with this one because even though you can change information in the request with the action Local Change Request Details the information on the Lender's Pick Slip does not change. When the material arrives the only way to know the changed Pickup Location is to select Details and look under the Borrower tab. Who wants to do that on every request? So what is the best way to handle these changes?

With the introduction of the Cancel button on ZPortal we can always tell our users to Cancel a request that has the wrong Pickup Location and place another request. This option works best if the request is not Shipped. Once the item is already Shipped by the Lender and another request is created that copy is unavailable to fill the new request.

Another option is to wait for the request to arrive and the patron is notified that their request is available. You can have your patron contact their library and have them ship it to another location for pick-up.

Of course you can always use my old tried and true method of sticking Post-it note reminders around the edge of your computer monitor to remind you of the many important changes that need to be made and things that need to be done.

The reason I bring this issue up is I am asked this question occasionally by our users and I don't have a real good answer for this one. I refer these questions back to your library and you're the people who need to know what to do with the information. If someone has a good way to handle this type of problem let us all know. Somebody out there must certainly have a better suggestions than mine.

Posted by Nick at 3:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)