Tip for: 03.01.10

Just How Long is an Item Overdue before Declared Lost?

Enough is enough!  You have been sending overdue notices to that patron for how long?  You are almost certain that the item is lost, so what do you do?  Maybe a new feature in Alexandria will help in this situation!

You may now set a number of days that an item may be checked out before it is considered lost and automatically declared lost.  Since this is a feature in Policies, the number of days can be different for each Item Policy.  Patrons seem to become more motivated to return those long-overdue items when suddenly the overdue notices that they receive shows the item as lost with a charge for the cost of the item.

NOTE:  If you do not want Alexandria to ever automatically declare items lost, be sure to set the number to 0 for all your Item Policies.  The default is 999 days.

• Go to Edit on the menu bar and select System Preferences.

• Click on Policies in the Circulation category.

• Click on the Overdue tab.

• Select a policy for which you want to use this feature.

• Enter the number of days overdue at which point you want the item declared lost in the Declare lost when overdue field.

• Repeat this for each Item Policy.  Remember that if you have made exceptions for any groups of patrons, make certain to consider those exceptions and make exceptions in this field based upon those exceptions.

Click on Save in the upper-right corner of the window.

For v6: