(Go-Live) Recommended Renew Workflow for VDX Requests

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Status	Decided
Scope	Go-Live
Description	Recommended Renew Workflow for VDX Requests
Decision	Renewal workflows for VDX requests do not require harmonization across campuses, and should be left for local teams to determine how best to handle the renewals. The Fulfillment and ILL FG has provided two workflow options for the new-to-alma campuses to consider when choosing a workflow that best suits their needs. Existing Alma campuses may elect to continue with their current workflows, or adopt one of the two workflows from UCD and UCSB described below.
Owning group	Fulfillment and ILL FG
Approver	PPC
Stakeholders	R = Fulfillment and ILL FG A = Fulfillment and ILL FG C = Fulfillment and ILL FG, ILL Ops I = ILL Ops, Fulfillment and ILL Local Teams, ICs
Decision-making process	Thumbs Up
Priority	Medium
Due date	6/17/2021

Recommendation

Renewal workflows for VDX requests do not require harmonization across campuses, and should be left for local teams to determine how best to handle the renewals. The Fulfillment and ILL FG has provided two workflow options for the new-to-alma campuses to consider when choosing a workflow that best suits their needs. Existing Alma campuses may elect to continue with their current workflows, or adopt one of the two workflows from UCD and UCSB described below.

UCSB has also provided their current workflow being used during COVID, because the UCSB ILL staff believe it can be a process to handle renewal requests for materials borrowed from WSILL lenders after SILS go-live.

Background

There will be two ways, potentially, that users can request a loan renewal:

Through My ILL Request, which will simply send an email to the ILL borrowing unit, which will need to manually handle the renewal in VDX and Alma.
Through Alma, in which case there is no good mechanism for informing the ILL unit. Different solutions have been tried

Recommended Workflows

UCD

We allow the patrons to renew in Alma. There are two steps toward facilitating that.

Fulfillment Configuration> Other Settings> Ignore Lender Due Date setting: Set “ignore_lender_due_date” to True
Configure temporary item creation rules for NCIP partners:
1. Basic Resource Sharing Configurations
2. For example: UCD uses three temporary item creation rules

Shields Library Use Only	For items less than one week VDX due date
Shields Long Loans	For items with VDX due date greater than 79 days
Shields 4 Week Loan Default	For items that have VDX due date between 8 days and 79 days

In parallel with allowing patrons to renew their material in Alma, we batch auto renew in VDX until the patron returns the item.

Identify transactions approaching due date.
1. You can either do a date-range search in VDX
2. or you can use the Jasper report developed by Ralph at OCLC.
  1. https://ucill.vdxhost.com:11000/login.html
  2. login: ucill password: sT4t157ics
  3. Use report: root>oclc>reports>UCILL>Requested Items Approaching Due Date
3. Identify transactions with No Renewal, Overdue, and Recalled status and recall them in Alma.
4. Renew everything else in a batch.

UCSB

Disable Alma renew and have patron renew in My ILL Requests. (To Disable Renew, make sure Ignore Lender Due Date is set to False. Configuration Path: Fulfillment Configuration> Other Settings> Ignore Lender Due Date)

Wait for renewal requests submitted by patrons. These would be submitted via My ILL Requests, via a local web form, or via email replies submitted by patrons in response to courtesy notices sent from Alma.
Determine if the item can be renewed. For items received from WSILL lenders that were designated as “no renewals” we, prior to receiving in VDX, perform a “Local Change Request Details” action and place “NO RENEWALS'' in front of the title so this is obvious to us and the patron.

Notices are sent to patrons via VDX user alerts to notify when an item cannot be renewed.
If an item is eligible for renewal, a renewal request is submitted in VDX with a desired due date based on the lender’s original loan period or the loan period given on previous renewals. The due date is changed in Alma based on this estimated loan period and the Local Due Date in VDX is changed to match.
Notice is sent via user alert of the new due date.

Later Steps

Renew Answer Yes filter is run:

Your Library’s Role = Borrower
Do not include Completed requests
Status = Received
Authorisation Status = Unread
Last Action = Renew Answer-Yes-Indication

The due dates given by lenders for successful renewals are checked to determine if there is significant difference from the desired due date. If so, adjustments are made – up or down – to the Alma / Local Due Date and a notice of the adjusted due date is sent to patron via user alert.

Renew Answer No filter is run:

Your Library’s Role = Borrower
Do not include Completed requests
Status = Received
Authorisation Status = Unread
Last Action = Renew Answer-No-Indication

For the results: the Alma / Local Due Date is shortened and notice is sent to patron via user alert that the renewal request was unsuccessful and the item must be returned.

This process requires quite a bit of maintenance, but as it was performed daily on a rotational basis it generally was manageable. Please note that this process also included requests lent by the UC campuses, which were the vast majority. However, as the due dates given by the UCs were generally long, local due dates could be bumped forward without formally submitting a renewal request to the lender; also, most items borrowed from UCs would be returned before the lender due date. The RLF items were the exception as they allowed multiple 1 year renewals.One weakness of this process is that it requires the patron to submit a renewal request. End users quite often ignore this responsibility.

UCSB re-activated ILL Borrowing and Lending in October 2020. As the UC’s were not lending physical materials we request loans solely from WSILL lenders that have indicated they are lending their physical materials. We decided that depending on patrons to submit renewal requests under the Covid situation was not a good idea. We began submitting renewals on behalf of our patrons for items borrowed since October 2020.

This scenario was outlined because UCSB ILL staff believe this can be a process to handle renewal requests for materials borrowed from WSILL lenders after SILS go-live.

To make this work properly we do the following on when receiving the item in VDX:

We set the Local Due Date to 1 week after the lender due date. This is so that courtesy notices from Alma will not be received by patrons prior to renewal.
If an item is designated “no renewals” then we place that in front of the title via LCRD action, and then set the Local Due Date upon receipt to one week before the lender due date.

Later Steps

In VDX we run, daily, a filter based on the lenders due dates. We find the items whose due date falls on the next day. If it is a Friday then we find items whose due dates fall on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (and also Tuesday if Monday is a holiday).
If an item caught in the filter is “no renewals” then, if the item has not yet been checked in, we send a notice to the patron asking for return.
For eligible requests we submit renewal requests based on the lenders loan periods.
We wait for the Renew Answer Yes responses and set the Alma / Local Due Date to one week after the lender due date.
In this scenario we do not send a renewal notice apprising the patron of the new due date.

Daily, we also run Renew Answer No filters. If a renewal is denied we shorten the local due date and notify the patron that the item must be returned.

Action Log

Action/Point Person	Expected Completion Date	Notes	Status

Action/Point Person	Expected Completion Date	Notes	Status
UCSB and UCD update this decision page with their workflows	6/10/2021		Done
Fulfillment and ILL FG reviews decision page and votes to approve and pass to PPC.	6/17/2021	Unanimous approval	Done
Decision is sent to PPC for approval, then sent to ICs, ILL Ops, and Local Teams	6/18/2021