The Lender can change the Service Type after they select the Action Shipped. Midway down the following page is the Service Type drop-down menu. Select the appropriate option and click Submit. You can also change the Service Type when doing Bulk Action Shipped.
The Borrower can change the Service Type after they select the Action Received. Change the Service Type 1 drop-down menu option and click Submit. You can also change the Service Type when doing Bulk Action Received.
]]>You may want to try searching by author or ISBN instead of title if you can’t find something. Use the Request Advanced Search option. Select the Borrower or Lender radio button to help limit your search. You may need to further limit by checking the Display Not Supplied requests box or selecting the Authorization Status of Complete. Choose the option of Author or ISBN from the drop-down menu options and enter your search term. If you choose to search by author you may want to try truncation like with title searching, for example %grisham.
Don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions.
]]>It's also very important to respond to Borrower Conditional requests. Make sure to perform the responsive action Conditional Reply-Yes or No. Do not just send a Message or the other party will not be able to update the request. If you are contacting your patron for more information you may want to change the Authorization to Acknowledged for the request as a way to let yourself know that something has been done. You can do this by selecting the Acknowledge button on the results display. Do something to move the request along, because someone has taken the time to ask you a question and they are now waiting for a response.
Renewals are a similar matter. As I explain in detail with my Sept. 26 blog posting http://blogs.minitex.umn.edu/mnlink/2006/09/renewals.html if you don't respond to a renewal request it is common practice to assume that the renewal has been granted.
The Messages at the bottom of the Lender and Borrower queues may also require a response. When one party chooses the Message option it will show up here. At the very least there will be some communication that will need to be followed up on with these Messages.
If you have any questions about this posting or any others, don't hesitate to contact me. If you find that you are always struggling to catch up on your workload, please let me know. I'll try to help in any way I can.
]]>First, it is important to clearly state what your conditional question is. There is a list of Reasons in a drop-down menu when you select Answer Conditional, but it is better to add a note. You can do both. When you add a note, leave the New Note Type as ToCurrnt Lndr.
Second, your conditional request will expire the next day if you do not change the Answer Date. I would suggest that you add 14 days to the Answer Date. 2 weeks should be enough time for the end user to be contacted and the Borrower to respond. If the Conditional expires the request will move on to the next lender in the rota. The Borrower will see the Answer Date information in the Audit Answer Details and also in the Service tab it will display as Date in Answer.
]]>One way to use Bulk Action is to first select the Requests button, and then select the Bulk Action option at the top of the screen. You would use this method when you will be scanning or manually entering barcodes into the ILL Numbers box. If you're scanning numbers it will likely enter a new number on a new line. If you're typing numbers in, you can just separate each number with a space. When you have populated the box with the request numbers you would like to Action, choose the appropriate Action from the drop-down menu and click Submit.
The other method for using Bulk Action is to bring up a Work Queue file, such as Borrower Not Supplied. On the far right hand side of the screen check the boxes of the items you want to Action, or use the Select all option at the top of the page. Click Submit when you have all the items you want to Bulk Action. The request numbers you have checked will populate the ILL Numbers box. Choose the appropriate Action or Complete.
After Submitting the Action, an appropriate second screen will follow. You will sometimes see the option to select Service Type. DO NOT select a Service Type from the drop down menu. If you're going to change the Service Type from Loan to Copy non returnable or vice versa, you should probably do it one at a time.
When the processing of the requests is finished, your request numbers will be listed as Successful. Occasionally some of the requests will not process correctly and they will be listed as Failed. Requests will come back as Failed if the Action was not valid for that specific request or if there was some other problem with the request.
Make sure to assign the Due Date if you are marking the item Shipped.
If you are using the Action ANSWER NONSUPPLY don't forget to select a reason. In the past I have had some people ask me about the reason and I suggested that it wasn't that important. I have come to realize that it is very important to add a reason if possible. Many libraries forward this information to their users.
When using Bulk Action for Returns (or any time you process Returns), it is very important to make sure that the paperwork matches the item you are Returning. Also make sure all parts are included.
]]>The Pick slips generally have all of the information that we should need to identify a specific item that is being requested. The information that is on the Pick slip comes from the bibliographic record chosen by the end user. This can be found by looking at the Database/# line on the Pick slip. The Title line should display the title and the subtitle and series information. The rest of the information on the Pick slips is fairly self explanatory. Remember to look at the Request notes to see what special instructions have been provided to assist in filling the request with the correct item. Occasionally with compact discs your catalog will have more than one title match for classical music and other CDs. Look at the Publisher Info to make sure that you have the correct item. Look at the Description to make sure the item has the correct number of discs. The Database/# line will also have a publisher number for the requested item. All of these together will help you supply the correct item.
Sometimes there just isn't enough information on the Pick slip to identify what is needed. This would be a good time to use Conditional and ask for more specific information. As important as it is to use Conditional to ask for more information, it is equally important to respond in a timely manner to Conditional questions as a Borrower. For more information about using Conditional check out my June 20, 2006 posting. http://blogs.minitex.umn.edu/mnlink/conditional_requests/
]]>Response: Once the last possible lender in the rota responds ANSWER NONSUPPLY the request moves into the Borrower’s Not Supplied work queue. In ZPortal they do not see Not Supplied, the user sees the status Currently unavailable through MnLINK. 30 days after the request moves into the Borrower Not Supplied queue the system will automatically Complete the request. Your library has the option of Completing the request sooner. Once the request is marked Complete, either manually by your library or with the 30 day default Complete, the request is no longer viewable by your user in their ZPortal account.
Just an added note, 30 days after any request has been marked Complete the Client Name and Client Barcode are removed from the Borrower Details of the request.
]]>Response: Good question. The requests previously placed are still active. Those requests have the name and barcode used for requesting attached in the Borrower Details. You can do a Client Barcode search for that user in VDX to locate all of the requests if your user contacts you about their status, but the user can not access the account via ZPortal. On your circulation system’s end, if you remove the barcode from the user account you will only be able to match the MnLINK request up with the patron by looking at the Borrower Details. If your library leaves old barcodes attached to the patron circulation record and somehow denotes that it is invalid, you may still be able to search by the barcode on the bottom of the Pick slip depending on your system’s capabilities.
To search in VDX for Client Barcode, you can either do a Simple Search or Advanced Search, and format the search with your 3 letter code, hyphen, patron barcode (e.g. cce-22086000000000).
]]>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.
]]>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.
]]>If you are using the Basic search it is a Keyword search. It will search for your term(s) anywhere in the bibliographic records of your chosen Search Profile. Let's say you want to find the title Beauty and the Beast. It often works best to pick out 2 or 3 main words when using the Basic Search. Keyword searching tends to work best when you drop the less important words like conjunctions and articles. In this case it would be best to search for the 2 words Beauty Beast. If you are sure of a title phrase you can search for that by putting quotation marks around your search terms and the MnLINK Gateway will only look for those words in sequence. In this situation you would enter the terms like this, "Beauty and the Beast". Even though I am using them here, upper and lower case characters do not make a difference in searching.
]]>When you want to use Simple Search you change the radio button under Borrower then you enter your library's 3 letter OCLC code, hyphen, barcode: e.g. hco-21972123456789. You will get no results if you only enter the barcode. This Simple Search will only look for active requests.
When you use the Advanced Search you change the ILL no. to Client Barcode and then format the search in the same manner as the Simple Search (3 letter OCLC code, hyphen, barcode). With Advanced Search you can search for Not Supplied requests by the patron when you check the Display Not Supplied Requests. You can also search for Complete requests using the Client Barcode by selecting the Authorization Status of Complete. Remember, Complete requests will only retain the patron barcode for 30 days.
]]>There are 2 important numbers here for us, the ILL number and the TGQ. The ILL number is your party's identifying number when you are the Borrower or Lender. This is the number you scan for searching and actioning a request. The TGQ is the other party's ILL number when they are the Borrower or Lender. TGQ is one of a drop-down Field search options for Advanced Request Search. I don't believe anyone is using the TQ, and I am not aware of any place where the STQ is currently being utilized in our system.
For more information on the ILL Protocol Implementers Group, you can read all about the standards here http://www.arl.org/access/naildd/ipig/ipig.shtml.
]]>