Page Comparison

Below is a description of each Borrowing Status that you might see in Alma:

Active General Message:

Because we occasionally see requests with bad rotas or for e-books, articles, etc., The GFT is  encouraging lenders to send General Messages to the borrowing library rather than rejecting the requests.

That way the borrower can respond more quickly and provide better customer support for their patrons. Borrowers need to keep a close eye out for these messages and attend to them as quickly as possible!

General Message alerts will display in the Tasks box on your desktop:

You can also facet for these messages in your Borrowing Requests queue:

To read the message, click on Edit and then select the General Messages tab:

Follow-up processing will vary depending on the nature of the message. Choose  whichever option is most beneficial for your patron (i.e. re-request, ILL, cancel, ask lender to reject, etc.), then Dismiss the general message to clear it out of your Tasks queue.  Review daily (as needed).

Cancelled by Patron:

These request have been cancelled by the patron from their Primo account. Nothing more needs to be done. If by some chance you still receive the cancelled items through the courier, wand it in the item under “Scan In Items” and that should automatically route it back to the lending library.

Cancelled by Staff:

This is where requests get routed when the locate process fails and Alma is unable to generate a rota. Once a request goes into Cancelled by Staff, your patrons should receive an automated cancellation email encouraging them to submit an ILL request. THis is also where requests end up if a staff member cancels the request manually in the patron’s Alma account. No further action is required.

Expired:

Expired requests are similar to those that have been Rejected by Partner. They’ve been non -supplied by all the libraries in the rota, but in this case the request expired out of the final partner’s queue rather than being rejected. The patron should receive an automated cancellation notice prompting them to submit an ILL request instead. No further action is required.

Loaned Item to Patron:

These items are currently on loan to your patron.

Locate Failed:

You should not see this status very often on the borrowing side. When a request is initially submitted, it undergoes a brief locate in Process step. If a patron or staff member cancels the request before the locate process has been completed, it will turn up in this queue. Check the Audit tab for possible causes. Submit a new request if you think a mistake was made, then route this request to Request Completed.

Locate in Process:

Locate in Process Is the starting point for every new borrowing request. This is where Alma checks the NZ for holdings, availability, and requestability information and then tries to from a rota. Usually this step only takes a couple of seconds, but sometimes Alma encounters network problems and fails to send the request out properly. Your best option here is to create a new borrowing request for your patron in Alma and then manually route the first one to Request Completed.

Physically Received by Library:

These items have been received by your library and are either waiting on the hold shelf for your patron, or are in transit to another pickup location.

Ready to be Sent:

Once a request has been submitted, it is automatically supposed to go to the first library in the rota. However sometimes it gets hung up on the borrower's side. Click send and that should force it along to the first partner in the ROTA. The request will then switch over to your Request Sent to Partner queue.

In cases where a borrowing request gets stuck due to a timeout error Alma will automatically try to resent without any further staff intervention. If a request doesn't get re-sent automatically and clicking on send does not forces the request to the owning library, that is usually indicative of a problem with the lender’s  library or location configuration. Contact them vy email and ask them to check the configuration details for the item in question.

Rejected by Partner:

Means the rota has been exhausted and no library can supply the item. Your patron should receive an automated cancellation notice prompting them to submit an ILL request instead. No further action is required.

Request Completed:

A borrowing request is automatically completed once it has been  checked in by the owning library. This is the logical end point for a successful CSU+ request.

Sometimes problems can occur on the borrowing side that complicate this process. For example:

• When an item gets returned at a branch library but doesn’t get scanned in again at the “resource sharing library”. Process Type= Transit
• When an item doesn't get checked in properly off the patron’s account in Alma but still gets sent back to the owning library. Process Type = Loan
• When an item gets turned around in the courier and returned to the owning library without ever being received by the borrowing library. Process Type= Resource Sharing Request

The easiest way to identify these errors is to look for completed requests that were not returned properly. Here is a simple report you can run in analytics (under borrowing Request) to track down these workflow errors:

The cleanup required on these requests will vary depending on the process type in which they are stuck. Run this report at least once a month.

Request Sent to Partner:

Request in this queue were submitted successfully, a rota was formed, and the request is now being considered by the owning libraries. Once the lender ships the item, the borrowing request gets updated to shipped physically.

Returned Item to Patron:

You should only see this status if your resource sharing library supports multiple branch libraries. In this case the patron had returned the item to a non-resource sharing library and now it is in transit back to the resource sharing library. Once the resource sharing library scans in the item it should automatically update the request to returned item to partner

Returned Item to Partner:

These items have been returned by the borrowing resource sharing library and are now in transit back to the lending library. Once an item has been cleared off the patron’s account Alma should automatically delete the temporary item record from the borrower’s local catalog.

Shipped Physically:

These items have been shipped by the lender and are now in transit to the borrowing library

Waiting For Cancel Response:

Requests appear in this queue when the borrower initiates a cancellation. THe lender is supposed to be notified automatically