Step-by-step Lender Overdue Items

Owned by Meghann Weldon (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Nov 18, 2024 by Chris Lee
3 min read

1. To find items that you have lent out that are long overdue

Similar to identifying overdue borrowing requests, you can go about this two ways:

  • Using analytics

Open the analytics report "Lending Requests with due date more than 90 days ago". Either search for the title or navigate to Shared Folders/Community/Reports/Institutions/CalState/Resource Sharing.

This report shows lending requests filled by your library that have passed their due dates by at least 90 days and have not yet been marked lost.

Schedule this report on a regular interval and it can be emailed to you or whoever handles following up on these items. More information on scheduling analytics reports can be found in the Alma Online Help.

  • Filtering your Lending Requests queue

Use the facets to filter the queue down to  items with:

  • Due date = “Older”

  • Status = “Overdue request” (though if you want to look at other statuses with an older due date that’s good too)

Manually select the requests with due dates of 90+ days ago. Although the due date in the lending request is different than the loan due date issued to the patron, since either date has long passed at the point you’re doing the search you can use either one.

2. Do a search/shelf check for the item.

Search your own shelves and check-in/shipping area. Request a shelf check from the borrowing library also. If both shelf checks come back empty move on to step 3.

3. Mark the lending request lost

Marking requests lost is done manually. Click Edit and update the Request Status to “Lost”. You can also use the check boxes in the queue and use the “Change Status” function. For Screenshots of this see step 1 of the Lending process for Lost and Paid CSU+ items above.

Send a General Message to the borrowing institution indicating that the item has been marked lost.

4. Proceed with local procedures to consider repurchase or item withdrawal

Each institution should adhere to their own local replacement processes for lost CSU+ items.

Once the library wants to do anything with the item (withdraw, delete, etc.) the item has to be scanned in to remove it from the Resource Sharing Request process type and put back “in place”. Alma won’t allow any level of cataloger to do anything with an item that it believes has been shipped off to fill a request. Once the item is scanned in the Lending Request will be marked complete and no longer be marked lost.

The impact of this limitation is somewhat minimal. The lost status of the borrowing request and the loan at the partner institution will be retained. However if you are looking for a gross measure of lost lending requests this will have to be done by using an NZ report measuring lost borrowing requests, limiting the report to your institution as Lender.

There is currently no workaround for this as of August 2018. However the Alma roadmap indicates that at some point in 2019 workflows related to lost/missing resource sharing requests will be improved so hopefully this will remedy the issue.

 

Contacting the borrowing institution:

If you would like to follow up with the borrowing institution about the status of the item or to request a shelf check at any point in the lending process feel free to do so. General messages (created in Alma, attached to the borrowing/lending request) are recommended as an initial course of action. If you do not receive a response to the GM contact the individual on the CSU+ Contact Sheet found on the RSFC wiki. Please be respectful and recognize that each library has determined the most effective method of getting items back from their users and they may not match the methods used at your institution.

 

Lost not overdue? Step-by-step: Lender Lost CSU+ Items