We are looking for the best way to handle items that are severely overdue. These
are items that are overdue enough to make it unlikely they will be returned, but
not overdue enough that we want to write them off and remove them from the
records of the patrons that checked them out.
Ideally, here's how we would like these overdue items to behave:
The items should NOT appear in patron or staff catalog searches.
The item information should be visible on the patron record.
Staff should have some way to search for the item in the client.
It should be possible to check the item in should the barcode be scanned at
Checkin.
We have looked at deleting these items, but then they can't be checked in
normally and are no longer searchable by barcode in the staff client, so there
is no way to find the patron record.
We have looked at unsetting the opac visible flag, but these are still visible
in staff searches.
We have also looked at marking the items Lost and charging the patron the cost
of the item, then deleting them. But again, they can't be checked in normally
and are not searchable by staff.
We have encountered the problem where a long overdue item had been deleted, then
was returned and reentered into the system with the same barcode. This resulted
in an available item and a long overdue checked out item visible on the patron's
record with the same barcode, which is very confusing for patrons and staff.
How do others handle these types of items?
--
Michele Morgan, Technical Assistant
North of Boston Library Exchange, Danvers Massachusetts
[email protected]
