Modification of On Hold Shelf letter

See Best Practices for Decision Pages and Tags for groups

Legend: NOT STARTED IN PROGRESS STALLED DECIDED

Executive Summary

Problem Statement

Patrons are given a false expectation that they have the ability to pick up material through a Resource Sharing request at time of requesting, only to discover they have a block at the point of checkout (at the final step of the resource sharing process).

From our (Fulfillment) perspective, patrons should be notified that a block on their account may not prevent them from requesting a particular item, but it could prevent them from check out.

Recommendations

We recommend modifying the On Hold Shelf letter text to include the following text after “This material may be picked up at…” but before “The material will be held for….”.

<div style="border:1px solid black"><i><b><u>Please Note:</u></b> You will not be able to borrow the item if you have any active fines/fees at any UC Campus.

<p>You can verify the status of your account online by logging in to your institution's library account and reviewing the Fines + Fees tab for each campus listed.</p>

</i></div>

This code snippet includes a block-level element that will add a visual box around the text in the email. The box does not cause a problem with accessibility or screen readers.

Impact

Reasoning

As a consortium, patrons should have the same expectation of services (including suspension of privileges) across the UCs. Patrons should not be given inaccurate information that they have access to material through request when they are blocked at the point of loan. Additionally, library collections throughout the UC should be considered equally important. Thus, adding this unified text to all On Hold Shelf letters will help keep messaging between campuses consistent and deliver a uniform message to all UC patrons.

Background

Copied from the Consortia Blocks Decision Page.

Following implementation of SILS, it was discovered that patrons with cash limit or manual blocks on their library account could place AFN requests through UC Library Search, only to be blocked at the point of checkout.

Alma allows for patron account blocks through both cash limits and manual blocks. Manual block options available to all UCs are:

• 01 – loan

• 02 – loan, renew

• 03 – loan, renew, hold

Additionally, Ex Libris has created two consortial blocks for UC as follows:

• 04 - AFN request

• 05 - AFN request, loan, renew, hold

Currently, there is no consistency across UCs in cash limit amounts or how they are applied. Additionally, consortial blocks 04 & 05 are only available at two campuses (UCLA & UCB). There’s no UC-wide policy on the use of consortial blocks.

Cash blocks are the first type of block to be incurred by the patron for overdue material and are only impacted locally. Though cash blocks prevent loan of material, it does not prevent requesting through UC Library Search.

Existing Alma functionality allows for manual user blocks 04 and 05 to apply to the home campus and push out to other UCs. 04 & 05 blocks at other UCs do not push back to the home campus, as per Ex Libris documentation. This lack of communication between UCs prevents a comprehensive methodology for effectively blocking patrons between all UC campuses. For example, a borrowing patron has a manual or cash limit block on their Network stub record at another UC, they are not currently blocked from placing new AFN requests from that UC. The requested item would be sent from the lending UC to the pick up location without any indication of a problem. It is not until the actual checkout phase that library staff would be alerted of the delinquency account block, preventing the loan. Additionally, though the patron is blocked from checking out AFN or walk-in materials from the UC with the block, they can still make AFN and walk in requests from the other eight UCs with impunity. This also applies to patrons with manual or cash limit blocks on their local home accounts. Currently, local delinquencies do not block patrons from making AFN requests through UC Library Search, though the patron will still be blocked from checking out the UC material at their home campus.

A subgroup consisting of members from the Resource Sharing OST and Fulfillment OST identified current Alma configurations for Cash Limit and Manual Blocks (cohort only) across all UCs, as well as performed extensive testing to evaluate current behavior and impact of cash limit and manual 04 & 05 blocks. Results of testing are summarized in the chart below.

Dependencies

Modifying the On Hold Shelf letter is a temporary solution until a more permanent fix is implemented.

Questions to consider

Action Log