Deleting Empty Bib Records

Occasionally you will come across a title in the catalog that does not have any copies attached to it. We call that an empty bib record. System has several processes to "clean up" these empty bibs.

Once a month, System runs a routine that deletes all of the copies with a status = 'wd' or withdrawn. Any bib records that end up empty through this process are deleted in a separate process once or twice a month as staff time permits.

For bib records that end up empty from other processes, System tries to clean those up at least every six weeks, but sometimes it stretches out longer. These empty bibs are harder to do because System staff have to examine them one-by-one. In some cases, the empty bib is actually a current title undergoing cataloging and in the case of world language materials, it can take weeks to get items attached. In other cases, one of the System members may input on order record, but doesn't create any copies as they should. So it's not a simple matter of "just delete all the empty bibs".

If you encounter an empty bib record you think should be deleted, report it to Cataloging using the Catalog Correction Form found on OZ. Clean up is an ongoing process and just like doing the dishes, there's always a new batch to "wash" every day.


rev. 1/2020

Request List Numbering Oddity

Every once in a while you may come across a request list where the number to the left of the customer's name does not match their number in the queue. For example, in the screen shot below Customer #1 Hauser, Paul B is #46 in the queue. This is an occasional bug where the request order numbers do not get reset as they are filled. We don’t know why it happens. But it doesn’t affect the order in which the holds are filled.

Requests by Minors on R-Rated Movies

Most of the time, a minor is prevented from even requesting an R-rated movie since our policy restricts them from checking this type of movie out (http://www.fresnolibrary.org/card/vpolicy.html). However, sometimes you will see a minor's account on the request list for an R-rated movie. How is that possible? It's complicated, but everything hinges on the itypes of the items attached to the title and whether or not the request was made through Horizon,  ValleyCat or the Enterprise catalog. If you notice an R-rate movie with requests made by minors, here's what is happening:

> At least one of the copies will not have an R-rated itype.
> Usually these copies are from another SJVLS member. They will have an itype that restricts the item from checking out to another System member, but not address the R-rating. These itypes have the word "new" in the description.
> If the minor makes a request on an R-rated movie that has copies with this mix of itypes, ValleyCat will allow the request. It cannot analyze both of these circulation rules at the same time. So it ignores the R-rated rule and allows the request.
> However, if the request was made in Horizon or the Enterprise catalog, both rules will be enforced. And in fact, these requests by minors will never actually be filled. Horizon will ignore these requests, skip over them and fill the allowable requests.





rev. 8/2018

15-Day "Last Patron" Information

Effective September 2010, the SJVLS Administrative Council of Library Directors voted to keep "last patron" data in Horizon for 15 days. This replaces the previous setting of 3 days. This makes it easier to contact the last person who checked out the item in case it was missing a piece or damaged - even if the item is in shipment for a while. System determined that 96% of the items in shipment would be delivered within 15 days so this time period would be sufficient for the vast majority of items.

My List Problems and High Number of Titles

Beginning in June 2010, we began receiving reports from customers regarding problems using the My List feature in ValleyCat. Their My List account indicates they had an excessively high number of titles (usually 200+), but no titles are actually displayed. We've seen as high as 415 titles as shown below. If this happens, the customer is unable to see any of the titles previously in My List or add any new ones.

You may also see this error regarding a problem with XSLT: 

We do not know what causes this to happen. The phenomenon has been reported to System and they are working with SirsiDynix to determine the cause/solution. Until the problem is resolved, here are a few things to keep in mind and tell the customer.

• Report the problem to Tech Support including the customer's name and library card number.
• In order to correct the problem, the customer's corrupted My List must be deleted. All titles that were on the list will be lost. There is no way to recover the titles.
• When multiple family members use the same computer to check My List, and one person has problems, the problem will spread to all the My List accounts of the people using that computer. Therefore, if one family member has My List problems, others should refrain from accessing their own My List accounts from that computer until the problem is fixed by the Library.
• This problem seems to afflict users who keep a very large number of titles in My List (i.e. 100+). It is advisable to use the Other Lists feature in My List to create smaller sub-lists.

Click the "My List" label below to see other postings with tips and tricks for using My List.

Sorting and Processing Items for Delivery

Fresno has changed how we mark and use our red and gray crates for sorting delivery materials. We used to mark crates for our rural branches with stripes and mark “FHQ” and “FRSN” for our metro branches. Starting now, we will mark all red crates “FHQ” and gray crates “FRSN.”

All materials for Central Circulation need to be in a “FRSN” crate. Those crates are not sorted and go straight to Central Circ. Even if you do not have enough materials for a full crate keep those items separated. Your driver will repack the materials if needed. If you have the room (and are not already doing it), make a specific space for the Central Circ crate in your shipping area.

For those items you do not separate, you can continue to put them in red crates or gray crates. These crates will be sorted at the delivery hub.

In an effort to save staff time and reduce repetitive motion injuries, staff should use only one (1) rubber band to attach the routing slip to an item in shipment as outlined below. Order number 33 rubber bands. This size is perfect to use on most standard, fiction-sized books, DVDs and CDs.

• Items in red, gray (non Central Circ) and yellow crates – 1 rubber band. Tuck the routing slip into the bottom of the item so the branch location is clearly visible on the front. Use one rubber band to secure it from top to bottom (vertically). These are crates that have a mix of branches and need to be resorted at the shipping/delivery hub.
• Items in blue, gray (Central Circ Only) and black crates - no rubber band just as usual. Tuck the routing slip inside the book/case with the HOLD/RETURN portion visible at the top. These are crates dedicated to a single branch and do not need to be resorted at the shipping/delivery hub.
• For A/V items in a case, do not insert the bottom of the slip inside the case. Simply wrap it around the bottom outside of the case with the rubber band. It is easier to remove the slip later and it saves your hands from opening yet another case.
• There may be some items that still need to have two (2) rubber bands to secure the routing slip so it does not fall off (i.e. an oversized paperback book). Use your own judgment.
• This applies to any and all materials we process at FCPL locations – even materials being sent to other System members. Other System member libraries may continue to use two rubber bands when they ship items to us. That is their prerogative.

Watch this short video for some Dos and Don'ts of attaching the routing slip to books, DVDs and audio books that need 1 rubber band. If you cannot see the imbedded video, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2GHOS4zKEw.

Processing Mail Returned Notices

Printed notices are sometimes returned to the library because of an incorrect address.

If the returned mail includes a new address:

• Update the customer's account as appropriate.

If the returned mail does not include a new address:

• Place the ACR: Address Correction Request block on the account. This stops any future printed or email notices from being generated. Any unreturned items will go into Lost status 60 days after they were due and the customer’s account will be charged accordingly.

Note: Do not replace the address with any other information or copy the old address to the Notes/Comments field.

Do not change the BType to FMR (Fresno Mail Returned). The use of the FMR BType has been discontinued effective October 2010.

Find Out Location of "Hold Shelf" Item

Here's two ways to find out the location of an item with a status of "hold shelf". Neither is very convenient, but they work.

Method 1

• F2 - Search for the item by title or barcode.
• Click Show Copies
• Click on the copy with the "hold shelf" status
• Send it to Copy/Item List (F10)
• Click Edit to open the item record, go down to where it says "Out to Borrower No."
• Look up the borrower# in circ and find out where the item is being held from their Blocks screen.

Method 2 (more cumbersome if there's a lot of copies with Hold Shelf status)

• F2 - Search for the item by title or barcode.
• Go to Request - View Title Request List
• Click on an item with "hold shelf" status
• Click Borrower Requests
• Look to see if that item matches the specific item barcode you're looking for.
• If not, go to another "hold shelf" item in the list and check that one's Borrower Requests.

How Holds are Filled

Here's an overview of how items are selected to fill holds within Fresno County. Horizon has a series of "priorities" it uses to select an item to fill a hold with a Fresno County pickup location.

BTW...nothing in the borrower's registration record affects how a hold is filled - not location, btype or bstat. It's all based on 1. pickup location and 2. where hold was placed (whose catalog was used or what location Horizon was logged into to place the hold). Also see Dos and Don’ts of Changing the Hold Pickup Location. 

• When a hold is placed with a Fresno pickup location, Horizon first checks to see if any Fresno items are available (checked in) to fill it.
• If there is an available Fresno copy and there is more than one copy checked in, Horizon will select the copy that has been sitting on the shelf the longest.
• If there are Fresno copies, all holds with a FCPL pick up location will be filled first before holds at other jurisdictions. That is how a Fresno customer can be #10 in the list and receive their copy before #1-#9 who have pick up locations outside of Fresno's jurisdiction.
• Note: Horizon is not so finely tuned it can select the geographically closest item to the pickup location. So don't expect Horizon to look at only metro items to fill metro pickup locations first, then go further afield to the east and west side locations. That degree of fine tuning is not possible.
• In some instances when everything else is equal, the time of day the pull list report is run can factor into which Fresno copy fills the hold.
• Also, as soon as an item is returned and checked in, it may go to fill a hold regardless of who has it showing on their pull list at that moment. That is why you may check in an item from your pull list only to discover it is not needed any longer to fill a hold.
• If there is no Fresno copy available, Horizon will look for an available copy at another jurisdiction to fill the Fresno hold.
• There are some Fresno items that will only fill holds within Fresno County: video games (FVIN) and reference (FRE). These items are not available to fill holds outside Fresno County.
• This link (https://www.sjvls.org/services/special_loan_rules) shows the loan policies by format for each SJVLS jurisdiction. This tells you what items are allowed to fill holds from one jurisdiction to another.

Similar priorities apply to every jurisdiction. Horizon will always look to see if there's a copy of the item in the same jurisdiction as the pick up location before looking further away.


rev. 2/2020

When Hold is Missing from the Hold Shelf

Sometimes, the customer's hold cannot be located anywhere in the branch - even though it shows it was checked into the hold shelf. If this is the case, follow these steps to reinstate the customer's hold in the queue so they receive the next available copy. 

• Make sure the item has a status of "hold shelf" and is not misfiled and/or in the back room.


• If you still cannot find it, then CKO the item to your branch’s library card account for problem items.*


• Select Yes at “Do you want to check it out to: "your library's problem account"


• Select Yes at “Renew this borrower’s request?”


• The borrower will be reinserted back into the hold queue to receive the next available copy.**


• Check in the item using Damaged Mode. This will prevent the missing item from filling any more holds.


• Click Edit Item and change the status from "dmg" to "trace".

*Many branches have one or more library cards they use to handle problem items, phone holds, etc. If you do not have this type of card, create a new borrower as ‘BRANCH NAME’ PROBLEM BOOKS (i.e. FRESNO CIRCULATION PROBLEM BOOKS). Use day created for the birth date.

**If for some reason they fall to the bottom of the holds queue, contact the Jurisdiction System Administrator to request the customer's hold be reinsterted into the queue in the correct position. 


rev. 5/2015

Access Type Field in Borrower's Record

The borrower record contains a field called: Access Type with two possible options for Fresno patrons:

> fnoflt - Fresno Unfiltered Internet (for borrowers 18+)
> ffltr - Fresno Filtered Internet (for borrowers under 18)

Access Type determines which type of filtering is applied for that borrower.  We must abide by the CIPA (Child Internet Protection Act) rules, and therefor borrowers under 18 must be filtered.  We use filtering software, and the company we use sets the filtering categories.  If a customer disputes a website being blocked, you may send a request to have the site unblocked via the message that appears on the screen.

Email Notices and SPAM Blockers

If the customer's email account has the spam blocker turned on, it may block email notices coming from the library. Their email service may be rerouting the notices to their "junk/bulk" mail folder or blocking them altogether. Either way, the customer should adjust thier spam or junk mail settings so that email from the following email addresses is allowed through to their inbox:

• frbounce@fresnolibrary.org (sends out holds and overdue email notices)

In some cases, they may need to turn down/off their spam blocker to allow one of our notices to come through. Then they turn it up/on again once the frbounce and/or noreplysjvls address is allowed through as a valid sender. As staff, you can work with the customer to place some sort of test hold to generate an email notice, have them adjust their spam blocker and the next day (after 11 a.m.) see if the email notice gets through. In most cases, this type of adjustment will fix the problem.

Searching for ILLs in Horizon

Effective April 12, 2010, all interlibrary loans (ILL) that are filled will utilize Horizon’s patron request and notification system to make the process easier for patrons and staff. You can search for an ILL using the following methods:

Customer's Request List

• The ILL will appear on the patron’s request list as soon as a copy has been located at another library. It can be viewed by staff from Horizon or by the patron through My Account access in ValleyCat. The date of the request is the date the item was requested from the owning library - not the date the patron completed their original ILL request form.

Horizon Search

• All ILL titles begin with “I L L/” followed by the title as one long word (i.e. I L L/10MinuteToughness).
• Seach by Title Browse: enter I L L/ to browse the list of all ILL titles in Horizon. If you know the title of the ILL, enter I L L/ followed by the title as a single word. For example, to find the ILL titled 10 Minute Toughness, do a Title Browse search for "I L L/10minute".
• The requested item is first given a barcode beginning with FILL followed by the OCLC request number (i.e. FILL61289480). This tells you it has been requested and we are waiting for the item to arrive. When the item actually arrives, it is given a standard item barcode.
• Search by barcode: To locate all of the ILLs that have been requested, but have not yet arrived, enter FILL********. After the item arrives, the ILL is given a standard item barcode.

ValleyCat Search

• ILL items will be difficult for customers to find in ValleyCat because both the bib record and the item record have been marked “staff only”. Customer cannot find ILL titles using any keyword search option. They might discover ILL titles by using Title Browse and enter ILL. If they do happen to discover an ILL title, there's a note included in the record that says: "This title is not available for general circulation". They could still place a request on the item. However, if this happens, staff should ignore any holds on the ILL to anyone else besides the original customer. The ILL should always be returned to Central Circulation's ILL Department when it's returned.

Interlibrary Loan Hold Notification via Horizon

Effective April 12, 2010, all interlibrary loans (ILL) that are filled will utilize Horizon’s patron request and notification system to make the process easier for patrons and staff.

New ILL Notification Procedure

• As soon as ILL staff finds a library willing to fill the ILL, the title is entered into Horizon and a hold is placed on the customer’s account.
• All ILL titles begin with “I L L/” followed by the title as one long word(i.e. I L L/10MinuteToughness).
• The requested item is given a barcode beginning with FILL followed by the OCLC request number (i.e. FILL61289480). This tells you it has been requested and we are waiting for the item to arrive.
• When the item is received at Central Circ, the FILL barcode will be replaced with a standard barcode. The item will be checked in through Horizon and the normal routing procedure for holds will begin. All ILLs are processed using the same wrapper format as before.
• When the ILL arrives at the branch, check it in via Horizon. A hold shelf slip is printed and a hold notification is sent to the customer using the method specified in their account. Store the ILL behind the behind the desk for pickup. Note: It is recommended that ILL customers have their notification set to email or phone so they are notified in a timely manner.
• When the customer picks up the ILL, check it out to them with the stated due date. Self check will block check out of these items. They cannot be renewed.
• When the item is returned, check it in. A return routing slip to FRSN is printed. If someone else has placed a hold on the item, ignore the request and return the ILL to FRSN.
• When Central Circ receives the returned ILL, they will delete the item record. The bib record will disappear automatically within one month.

Other Things to Remember

• If we cannot fill the ILL (not available at all or no library will lend it), ILL staff will put a “message to the borrower” on the customer’s account that includes the title of the ILL and the reason it cannot be filled.
• An ILL request will now count towards the maximum of 30 requests allowed per borrower in Horizon. They are limited to maximum of 5 ILL requests per month.
• The FIL Itype will allow holds. No renewals are allowed.
• Never place a hold on an ILL title via Horizon or ValleyCat. If another patron wants that item, a completely new ILL request should be initiated.
• It will be difficult for customers to discover ILL titles in ValleyCat, however it's not impossible. They could place a request on an ILL title. Just remember, the ILL should always be routed to FRSN when it is returned by the original customer. It should never be placed in the shipment to fill another hold at another location.
• If the ILL appears on the expired holds list, ignore it. It will be easy to spot since the title will begin with “I L L”. Follow your usual procedure for holding these items.
• ILLs will still have the white wrapper and should still be placed on the top of crates in the shipment so they are easy to spot for check in.