[Wactclc-alma] Overnight reserves

[Thomas, Kirsti]

Sally,

I really don't think you can make Alma work that way.  Like you point out, you're asking Alma to treat something as a 2 hour loan during part of the day, but then treat it like a 6 hour+ loan later in the day.

Why don't you change most of your 2-hour loans to 4-hour loans?  I'm guessing that if you give the 4 hour loans a 2 hour grace period, this will get you a little closer to the behavior you want.  If you think about it, you're already giving these things a 4-6 hour loan period anyway.  You may as well set Alma up to do what you're *really* doing rather than what you *say* you're doing.

You could keep a few copies as 2-hour loans (overnight or not) for the high demand titles.


Kirsti S. Thomas
Library Technical Services Manager
Seattle Colleges
kirsti.thomas at seattlecolleges.edu



From: Wactclc-alma [mailto:wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu] On Behalf Of Sally Sheedy
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2018 16:04
To: 'WACTCLC Alma Discussion' <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>
Subject: [Wactclc-alma] Overnight reserves

Hi all,

We have 2-hour reserve items that can circulate overnight if they're checked out within the last 2 hours of the day. That is, the terms indicate that if the due date/time is when the library is closed, the items become due when the library opens. Then we have a 2 hour grace period, because we don't want the overnight items due the very first thing - a student might otherwise have to come in well before the first class to avoid fines.

Staff have recently been overriding a lot of earlier circs to be overnight and they find that onerous. After some discussions by others, I've been asked to have these items circulate as 2-hour items up until 3pm but then switch to overnight (already happening in summer since we close at 5pm). Starting fall, we go back to closing at 9pm four days a week; how do I get an item to switch from 2-hour to overnight six hours before closing? I think this is a case of "you can't get there from here."

In the academic year we close at 5pm on Fridays, and are open from noon to 4pm on Saturdays. I don't quite know what we'd want to have happen with these materials on those days, but I'll see first if what they want so far is possible.

Anyone have ideas?

Thanks.
-Sally

Sally Sheedy
Systems Librarian
Whatcom Community College Library
237 West Kellogg Road
Bellingham, WA 98226
360-383-3287  (library 3300, college 3000)
ssheedy at whatcom.edu<mailto:ssheedy at whatcom.edu>
library.whatcom.edu

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