by B. Kruger with comments/notes in red by K.Kilian
CATEGORY
Blocking (suspension)
BEST PRACTICE
How to block (suspend): Only block your own patrons. Only the home library can do this. Suspend the patron in Voyager; when prompted for a date, assign one well into the future. Should recommend a date, 20-30 years in the future? Put a note in the patron’s record that states what library requested the block, reason for the block, and lending library’s telephone number. Specifics are for each individual library. Put in whatever info is needed to cross reference the reason why blocking. Request a block for any of the following reasons: You are billing the patron. Patron has not responded to a recall. Doesn’t billing get accelerated? Multi-part item has been only partially returned. Item should not be discharged if all pieces not returned. Patron does not respond to bill. Will be blocked previously because of billing. Suspend and reinstate borrowers promptly upon request. Also, lending library should send clearance letter when item is returned and after any outstanding fines or fees are paid. If loaning a damaged item to a UB patron, make sure the item record contains a damaged note or status so that the UB patron is not held responsible when the item is returned. When a patron returns a UB book with obvious damage, do not discharge it. Return it to the lending library with a note. If you discharge the item, the lending library will not know who to bill for the damage. This will be an exception to discharging everything (including lost items). Waive all fines under $5.00. This is ILCSO policy. And remove from patron’s Fines and Fees record!!! If you have control over what prints out on your invoices (not all of us do), please make sure it includes author, title, and due date.
WHO
The borrowing patron’s library
Blocking (suspension)
The lending library
Blocking (suspension) Damaged items
The borrowing patron’s library The lending library
Damaged items
The borrowing patron’s library
Fines Invoices
The fining library The billing library
Lost book charges
Lost book charges
Notices Notices and bills
Patron contacts
Patron contacts
Processing fees
Never charge a patron for an item that has been discharged and appears to be lost in transit. Once an item has been discharged from a borrower’s account, they should no longer be held responsible for it. Who then will be held responsible for an item lost in transit? When an “assumed lost” book returns to your library, promptly cancel and remove the replacement charge from the UB borrower’s account. Patrons who have returned “lost” items, should not still be charged a lost book or replacement fee. However, patrons may still be held liable (and blocks should not be removed) until non-refundable processing fees are paid. The text on your notices should not include information that is only applicable to your own patrons, e.g., “Please pay at circulation desk.” If you deliver notices and bills via ILDS delivery, make sure they are ready to go into that school’s campus mail. In other words, they should be properly addressed and in envelopes. Personal information about what items patrons have should not be visible. Don’t ask your patrons to call other ILCSO libraries directly about billing problems; it’s almost always best for the billing office of the patron’s home library to contact the other library to resolve the matter on the patron’s behalf. This is a UIUC practice. What is UIC’s? What are other libraries’? Make sure you are giving correct information to patrons about their billing status with other ILCSO libraries. In handling billing questions from patrons, libraries should be aware that if the billing library uses the Voyager billing feed (UIUC and SIUC), charges no longer appear in the patron’s OPAC account once the charge has been fed into that library’s campus accounting system. If items borrowed by the patron from either of these libraries are more than one month overdue, it is quite possible that the charge has already been transferred over. Libraries using Bursar Transfer should NOT be submitting UB billing. ILCSO says it doesn’t work, but UIC’s experience is that it does, but creates many problems for crediting because of disappearance of UB stub records. All credits need to be handled manually. Also if items are discharged and the stub disappears, the patron name cannot be reconciled with the exceptions report. Don’t set processing fees that are higher than your lost book billing (replacement) charge.
The lending library
The billing library
Library that produces the notice Library that produces notice or bill The borrowing patron’s library
The borrowing patron’s library
The billing library
Voyager profile settings
If you do not use the Voyager billing feed, make sure that your Voyager settings that pertain to billing and fines for UB patrons matches your actual billing practice. Discrepancies can cause problems for staff and patrons alike.
The billing library
Another topic that will be discussed is the status of the billing reconciliation proposal and the issue of billing when SSNs are not available. The billing reconciliation proposal was brought to circwrks and reviewed already. The final proposal was brought to IUAG and has not yet been given final approval. A big question still exists on how libraries should deal with billing when a SSN is needed and cannot be provided.