PILL Policy and Best Practices
- Details
- Published on Thursday, 15 September 2011 14:25
- Written by Maribeth Turner
PILL Damaged or Lost Materials Replacement Form
Local Availability Only
The Pathfinder Central Trail Blazers have decided to limit Local Availability Only to 1month.
Once a month the Pathfinder Central Manager (PC MGR) will:
• create a list of Local Availability Only items that have been on there for 1 month or more (starting in August).
• send these lists as a reminder to each library for their items and expect them to change availability for their items.
• contact the librarian directly and we will evaluate the situation together, if items remain listed as Local Availability Only
Please Note:
• If something truly doesn't circulate (even to your own patrons) then you can use the NOT FOR LOAN status, created by a special ITEM TYPE.
• When you mark items "Local Availability Only" and one of your patrons places a hold from home, your library will be skipped in the HOLDS QUEUE because Pathfinder Central considers it a "lost" status. In other words, other libraries are filling holds for your patrons when the item might be sitting on your shelf waiting for someone to walk in the door and ask for it!
• The system automatically removes Local Availability Only status the next time the item is Checked Out.
• For leased or borrowed items that have a "no interlibrary loan" rule, we can set up a NO HOLDS ALLOWED RULE or LOCAL HOLDS ONLY. There are already an ILL Borrowed AND Leased Materials item types with one of these rules applied.
This 1month limit will help move holds through the system more quickly. Pathfinder Central works best when our libraries share their materials openly and freely. We want to use our resources as efficiently as possible. This means getting books off the shelves. Remember the more your items circulate, the better your stats and circulation for the end of year reports!
If you are using local availability for an entire collection of local history items or ILL books, etc., please contact me. These should be put under a separate item type to help the system organize holds and circulate items efficiently.
PILL Damaged or Lost Items (By a Patron)
Reimbursement Procedure
When a patron returns a PILL item that has been damaged, or the item is long overdue or lost, Borrowing Library waits 2 months from the final due date for patron to return items, or pay replacement costs. Costs are determined by Lending Library’s policy. After 2 months, Borrowing Library pays the Lending Library for replacement of item. If lost item is returned, consult with Lending Library for reimbursement options.
Best Practices:
Lost Items:
- Items that the patron has lost or are long overdue. Lending library (DO NOT CHECK IN). Mark record as PILL Lost or Damaged.
- Items that are lost in transit (either via courier or mail) will need to be replaced using funds from the ILL Materials Replacement Fund. You can find the procedure on the Southeast Kansas Library System's Website
Borrowing Library:
- Count CDs, Tapes, DVDs, and other media components when returning such items. Recover lost discs, etc as necessary before returning to Lengind Library.
- Long Overdue/Lost Items:
- Run a PILL Overdue Report to track overdue PILL items your library patrons have borrowed.
- Send notices to patrons before the 2 month period is up.
- Returned Damaged Items:
- Borrowing Library—DO NOT CHECK ITEM IN.
- Fill out Damaged Item Form and attach it to item.
- Return Item to lending library to determine cost of repair/replacement. (Please date and initial form)
- Once lending library has determined the cost, add the fee amount to patron’s account.
- In the notes field, give detailed information about why the fee was given.
Lending Library:
- Before lending an item, note previous damage on inside cover of the item or in the notes field of the item record.
- Returned Damaged Items:
- DO NOT CHECK ITEM IN.
- Mark item record as PILL Lost or Damaged.
- Determine cost of repair/replacement according to lending library’s existing policy.
- Inform borrowing library the cost.
- Borrowing library will add the fee to the patron’s account.