[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Deleting items that are lost or long overdue

[Jason Stephenson]

Quite simply, we don't allow these items to be deleted for the reasons
you cite.

On 06/02/2014 09:41 AM, Michele Morgan wrote:
> 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?
> 


-- 
Jason Stephenson
Assistant Director for Technology Services
Merrimack Valley Library Consortium
1600 Osgood ST, Suite 2094
North Andover, MA 01845
Phone: 978-557-5891
Email: jstephenson at mvlc.org