Wednesday Hint 3/18/09

Claim Returned Again

You should know that we no longer search the shelves for items before we bill them.

If a patron gets an overdue notice, by mail or email, that is their chance to let us know that they believe they returned an item. We’ll look for that item that has been claim returned, and we’ll look for it again before it bills.

And remember you can make any APL item claim returned. It doesn’t matter if it is not due yet, if it is overdue, if it is billed, if the patron claims to never have checked it out, if it was checked out at another library, or if it is already set to claim returned. Making it claim returned puts it on a list for us to check the shelves for it. And we’ll check them again and again, each time you make it claim returned.

Please do not make items owned by other libraries claim returned.

Use it whenever there is a question about something being returned or when the patron claims to never have initially checked it out. We don’t even care if it was checked out at another library.

It is important to remember to select the item, choose Claim Returned, and then choose the THIRD OPTION. That keeps the item in the overdue and billing notice cycle, and it doesn’t affect anything to do it or do it over again. But it does force us to look for it, and that is what we want.

You can renew it, before setting it to claim returned. But don’t override the maximum number of renewals.

(If you realize that you chose the wrong option, please tell a supervisor so that we can correct it.)