Patron physical item request – automatic cancellation of requests when ‘Date Needed By’ has passed:
I suggest that if the "not needed by " date is reached then the patron request is cancelled.
The only function of “date not needed by” for patron physical item requests is to prevent items from being put into transit from other locations if the transit cannot be completed by the required date.
However this is not clear to patrons and users ask us why we send Hold available notices when they already indicated a date when they would no longer need the item.
Staff also waste time locating items that Patrons have indicated are no longer needed, only to waste more time when they take the unused item off the Hold shelf when it eventually expires.
Jane Whiteside
shared this idea
The “Date needed by” field (also known as “Not Needed After”), which can be populated by the patron, was taken into account only in the “pick from shelf” workflow step, cancelling the request when the date was in the past without sending a cancel notification (since the patrons indicated that they are no longer interested).
Following this development, this behavior will be applied in other workflow steps in the request lifecycle:
Queued requests that are not yet active but are past their date needed by will now be canceled by the “Request – handle last expiration date” (to avoid recalling items to fulfill requests that are no longer relevant).
When an item is scanned in, if the “date needed by” of the request had passed, the request will be canceled.
When an item is placed on the hold shelf, if the date needed by is earlier than the regular hold shelf expiry, the hold shelf expiration date will be populated by the date needed by (so that the request will not remain on the hold shelf after the patron is no longer interested).
For more information please see Alma Release March Release Notes
https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Release_Notes/2021/Alma_2021_Release_Notes
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Lachlan Young
commented
We would support this planned solution, as it would allow us to avoid our current manual process of identifying and cancelling requests past their date needed by.
Part of this planned solution (part 2) has been included in the preview of the March 2021 release notes - can ExLibris comment on whether the other parts will also be released soon?
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Dear all, please see below the suggested design for this Idea Exchange, any comment is welcome. Thanks.
Current situation:
Currently, when a patron indicates the last date on which a request is relevant, it is used to:
1. The pick from shelf expiration is shortened by the needed-by date.
2. Automatic handling of expired requests can take into account whether the pick from shelf expiry was shortened when marking items as missing.
3. Automatic handling of expired requests checks if a request expired due to needed-by indication when canceling a request, and if so – no notification is sent to the patron.
The following is not affected by the needed-by date:
4. Transit process is not affected by needed-by date.
5. Placement on the hold shelf (an item can be placed on the hold shelf after the needed-by date is past).
6. Hold shelf expiration (item can remain on the hold shelf for longer than the needed period).Solution Description:
We are considering the following enhancements to the process:
1. Considering date needed by when calculating next step upon scan-in/return
When a requested item is scanned in, check if there's a date needed by.
If such a date exists and is in the past, cancel the request - notification should not be sent to patron, similar to when cancelling the pick from shelf request.
Show blue feedback message: "Request was cancelled: Date needed by is in the past."2. Updating hold shelf expiration date from date needed by
When an item is placed on the hold shelf, check if the request has date needed by information.
If so, and it is before hold shelf expiration date – shorten the time on the hold shelf so item will only be held until it’s needed-by date.3. Enhancing "Requests - Handle Expiration Step" job’s handing of requests with date needed by
• Queued requests (e.g. for an item that is on loan) – a queued request past its needed-by date should be considered expired and handled by the job, to prevent items staying recalled even though no one wants them anymore. Like all requests cancelled due to need-by date, no notification will be sent to the patron.
• Requests in transit - a request past its needed-by date that is in transit will not be cancelled, since the library needs to know the item is in transit. It will be “handled” by the scan-in operation (cancelled when the item is scanned in at the destination). -
Mike Rogers
commented
We also support this idea. ExLibris - can you please share an update on its status? I see it was added in July 2016 and placed "under review" in January 2020.
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Anonymous
commented
I agree: We support this idea. It would also be useful if it was possible to have a way of deleting physical item requests older then a certain date. Now it's only possible to delete all requests on a title, but that's not useful.
Giving us the chance to delete requests older then a certain date would be much more useful.Kristin Sandvik /INN
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Wenche Lind
commented
I agree
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Camilla Pellegrini Meling
commented
We also support this idea.
The fact that the request is active even after the date not needed by is wasting the
librarians time and confusing for the users. For the user, the "not needed by" is understood as an automatic cancellation at that date.Deleting request older than a certain date would also be useful.
Best regards,
Camilla Pellegrini Meling
Norwegian Police University College -
Ann-Louise
commented
We support this idea. It would also be useful if it was possible to have a way of deleting physical item requests older then a certain date. Now it's only possible to delete all requests on a title, but that's not useful.
Giving us the chance to delete requests older then a certain date would be much more useful.
Best,
Ann-Louise Skjager
Oslo Metropolitan University