2023-03-27 Meeting notes

General Check-In

5

All

Bursar integration/export

Investigate/inquire how UCSC & UCD export fees to bursar

10-15?

Sahra/Antonio?/Nicole?

Follow up on the UC Consortial Block Decision for 04/05 blocks.

UCSC & UCD export fees to bursar, causing balances to zero out. is there a way to generate a report that is not tied to fine/fee balances? The goal is for Libraries to have local control over 04 or 05 blocks and if something is kicked out to the bursar’s office, it adds another layer of complexity and time) into the process.

Notes from last meeting:

UCSC doesn’t block people because of fines. Would rather just have the patron reach out about returning/replacing a block. Once the process goes to the bursar’s office, the Library is out of picture.

Action items from last meeting:

• UCSC will inquire about what happens on the AFN if a patron is blocked (or unblocked but still has business with the bursar). See email ->

• UCD haven't had a chance to sit down with billing coordinator yet. Will hopefully get something in writing for next week.

Email from Nicole @ UCSC:

It was settled that since we care more about the return of books rather than fines payment that we would keep all fines and fees listed on network user accounts in order for home institutions to place blocks on accounts. This is a change from what we currently do/have done in the past which was to use bill posting as the event that would get the patrons attention.

With that being said, we are still working out the finer points of how to proceed if a patron actually cannot return an item and needs to pay the fine through the bursar's office rather than return items.

Email from Antonio @ UCD:

I spoke with our Billing Supervisor and clarified our current block / billing process:

1. As mentioned before, fines / fees are zeroed out once they are exported to the bursar’s office. We do not add them back onto the account.

2. Network and non-affiliate users are billed through our Library Finance department. These bills are paid directly to the campus cashier’s office.

3. We only block borrowers for Overdue Recalls. However, these blocks fall off once fines / fees export to the bursar and we do not add them back on.

Waiting for now. 3/30 Consortia Block meeting was cancelled to provide the team additional time to make final edits on the decision page. Additionally we’re hoping to hear back from ExL on the questions we proposed.

Expired network user records

UCR student was trying to loan an AFN item from UCLA. The UCLA stub account was expired which prevented them from loaning the UCLA book at UCR.

n/a

All

Action Items from last time:

• Each campus will verify that Patron Role expiration field is be blank.

Not sure if any discussion is needed?

Is there any documentation available/instructions for finding this information?

• Link here

→ need Fulfillment Configuration Administrator role to view/update settings.

Config>User Management>Paron files>Patron Profile

Make sure “expire date is blank”

Schedule E reporting

• What reports are people using?

• How have you had to modify them?

20?

All

Merced uses “Count of Items Loaned by Patron Type” found in the analytic catalog Shared Folders>Alma>Fulfillment>Reports and edits it. Added a filter for Physical Item Details - Item Policy (to remove room keys, white board markers, etc); and filtered the Loan Date to begin July 1 and end June 30 (to capture whichever FY we’re looking at); when we run the report we remove “network” and use the total.

Data being reported on may end up changing. Reviewing scheduled, what should be collected, where is this information coming from in the future?

ex: resources type vs material type.

Removing from agenda for now. Will probably revisit when/if systemwide review of statistics & analytics is complete.

Offline Circulation Tool

• Are you using it?

• How do you like it?

15 (could probably push to next meeting if needed)

All

Open

UCR: Not much different than document by hand. Just have to make sure staff clears out file from C drive on the computer after uploading into Alma, otherwise the transactions are still listed in the file and you’ll be uploading old data. Have to “finish” out the whole process. Can’t check in any “regular” stacks materials - if it has holds it won’t trigger. Also don’t know if users have fines/blocks. No different than by hand, just easier than to type or write out barcodes.

UCSC: The software hasn’t been updated in a long time. It’s convenient in the sense of consistency. It prevents people from creating their own processes. Won’t do on-the-fly offline reporting. It might be worth giving feedback to ExL to update their software so it can detect holds, etc.

UCB: Made decision not to use it because of how many libraries we have. dont want inconsistencies of checking in our out materials. have it on a checklist to review the pros/cons again. Also don’t do manual checkouts. Can’t read everyone’s handwriting, and everything will have to be input before checking things in. Probably won’t go in that direction inside the next year. Will place items on the hold shelf, but will not circulate if the system is down (or without network).

UCI: opted not to use. best used on one terminal, otherwise it’ll mess up during upload. so we just do manual circulation when the system is down. one for general collection one for course reserves.

UCLA: manual circulation. but we have instructions for how to use offline, so we’ll figure out if we want to use it. everyone is excited to try it, but we’ll see.

UCD: same as riverside.

UCSC: same as riverside.

UCM: track offline on paper.

Fulfillment Work Plan

Ongoing review and update as needed.

Link here.

5

Ross

Housekeeping

Wrap up/Topics for next time

5

All

NEXT TIME: Review some older plans/docs/pages

Please review the linked pages (->) to ensure information is accurate and up to date. If any changes need to be made and you can’t edit, let me know and I’ll see what can be done.

• AFN potential issues & resolutions

  • confluence page here

  • google doc here

  • for what it’s worth the google doc is more recent than confluence…but we should probably consolidate these pages into confluence for distribution.

• Library Fulfillment Directory

  • doc here

• Precursor document to the Fulfillment director/resolution pages above. Can this information be consolidated into those two pages?

Open