Phone types and SMS messaging

SMS Text / Notices Reference Guide 

Which boxes should be checked for patrons to get which messages??

The box you check in the Notices By part of the address section of registration works together with the code type you assign to the phone number.  The right choices have to be made for the correct notice to be sent...or not sent.

If the patron wants SMS notices, your only phone options are the 2 mobile types.  To get SMS notices, the type of SMS notices boxes have to be checked.

But the above SMS in yellow has some issues. Please read the IMPORTANT NOTE at the end of this reference sheet.

Here is an explanation of what the different phone code types will produce:

h             Will get phone notice. If phone notice fails, they will get either email or print notice, depending on what is selected in the patron record. SMS is not an option (even if home number is a cell-mobile options MUST be used if SMS is desired)

h-no      Will get either email or print notice, depending on which option is selected in the address section. SMS is not an option (even if home number is a cell-mobile options MUST be used if SMS is desired)

m            Will get phone notice, unless SMS is selected. In that case only SMS notices will be sent. If phone notice fails, they will get either email or print notice, depending on what is selected in  the address section.  If patron wants text messages, choose this and make sure the types of SMS message boxes are checked. 

m-no     Will get either email or print notice, depending on what is selected in the address section, unless SMS is selected; in that case, only SMS notices will be sent. If patron ONLY wants text message with no other type of message if the text message is unsuccessfully sent, choose this and make sure the types of SMS message boxes are checked.

 

o             Will get phone notice. If phone notice fails, they will get either email or print notice, depending on what is selected in the patron record. SMS is not an option. 

o-no      Will get either email or print notice, depending on what is selected in the address section. SMS is not an option.

IF they only want email, then choose email, not standard.  Choose the appropriate “-no” phone, and do NOT check any of the SMS boxes.

If any SMS box is checked (they want a text message), a mobile phone has to be used. No other message type will be used as a backup if the SMS message fails.

3/1/22 -dh

IMPORTANT NOTE:

SJVLS notes a glitch in programming with SMS notices:

“In the case of SMS Hold Notices, if in the patron record “SMS Holds” is checked, then that is the only message they will get. Because of the current SMS settings by the vendor, SMS Overdue Notices will not count as a notice sent, so they will also receive a phone/email/print notice, depending on their settings for these.”

I interpret this as: if both hold and overdue boxes are checked, only the hold notice will be sent SMS.  The overdue will be sent by the other setting (email or standard).

If just OVERDUE is selected for SMS, then it will only go by text.

The glitch happens when both hold and overdue boxes are checked.

What is the easiest way to handle this discrepancy?

A straightforward way to not confuse customers is to simply ask the patron, “Would you like a text message when your hold is here?,”  and just let the standard selected notice handle the overdue issue. 

Other tips / Options:

• Encourage the customer to choose email notifications to lessen calls.
• Directly discuss which text a customer desires to have be priority, if they ask to have both.
• Let them know the limitations, if they ask.
• If we just select Overdue in SMS, that is the text they will get.
• For the sake of easier training, if a customer has an email address and doesn’t want calls or texts,  I usually just select m-no without checking any SMS boxes.
• If the customer absolutely loves calls, doesn't want texts and refuses to provide an email, “h” is the best bet.
• Note: SMS General has nothing to do with holds or overdues.  We don’t currently use this option.

3/1/22 – MH

SmartPay-Login restrictions

 There are a few instances in which patrons are not able to use SmartPay.

If the card is marked lost, the patron wi be unable log on to SmartPay.

If a patron has a lost item on their record and has one of the following btypes, they will be unable to log in to SmartPay:

• Pcoll
• Mcadic
• Mcjic
• Mcyaic
• Maincoll
• Majinco

Fresno's accounts are not blocked from SmartPay, with the exception of lost cards.

3/10/22-dh
    

Staff password structure

 

SJVLS turned on Horizon STAFF password complexity on February 16, 2021. It has not been on at all until now.

As of now the following complexity will be required:

    Password Character length

• Minimum of eight (8)
• Maximum of 25 (25)

    Minimum Uppercase letters -at least one (1)

    Minimum Lowercase letters - at least one (1)

    Minimum Numbers - at least one (1)

    Minimum special characters - NOT required, but can be used

    Maximum number of consecutive number/character repeats - two (2)

    Other password changes:

• Password change is required every 180 days
• Cannot use the same password 2x in a row
• There will be a warning ten (10) days before your password expires
• You have the ability to change your own password at any time from inside Horizon (File>Change>Password)
• Account lockout will occur if you enter the wrong password five (5) times in a row you will be locked out of your account for 5 minutes
• Account will be disabled if you enter the wrong password ten (10) times in a row.  You will need to call the JSA to have it re-enabled.
• If your password expires and you do not login and change it within thirty (30) days your account will automatically become disabled

  4/15/21

New block categories

 

The next time staff go to add a fee to a borrower’s account the list of blocks will look a bit different. I removed the “Lost on Dynix” block, because it hasn’t been used since 2003, and it’s no longer relevant. I added two new fee blocks: print and repcard. The menu now looks like this:

Staff can use the print block type for fees associated with printing and/or faxing materials. Because this block type will already declare that it’s related to printing, I was thinking staff would only have to record information about number of pages printed in the comment, but how you want your staff to record any comments is up to you. 

Staff can use the repcard as a block type for fees associated with issuing replacement cards. 

The screenshot below shows what the blocks look like when they’re added to a borrower’s account.  

9/2020

How to change pick up location of a hold already on your shelf

 So the patron got a notice their hold was at your library.  They call and want you to send it to another library instead.  What do you do?

1.  Check out the item to yourself.  Screen will tell you the item is on hold for someone else, do you want to continue?  Say yes to override the original hold, and CKO.  Say yes to renew the borrower's request (this will put them back in the same place in the queue).

2.  Go to your patron's record.  

3.  From the CKO screen file menu select Borrower -> Request. 

     a. Highlight the item that needs the hold pickup location changed. Choose Edit. 

     b. Set pickup location to requested branch and save.

4.  Check in the item  (exempt) and it should trigger a hold for the original patron to go to the new location.

This can be done as a batch for a single customer,  but it will only work for items that have the same status (ex: all items in transit have to be batched together, items requested together, items hold together).  

9/2020

SMS (text) messaging

SJVLS libraries now offer SMS text messaging notification of holds, overdues, and general messages.  This is an opt in service, it will not be automatically applied.

There are 2 ways this can be set up:  either by staff in Horizon (the choices are under the phone number), or by the customer in the My Account section of Enterprise.

or

Some things to know:

• When an SMS HOLD message is sent there will be no phone, email or print message sent.
• When an SMS OVERDUE message is sent, customers will get *both* the SMS and their standard way of notification.
• "General” message examples are “Game of Thrones Season 5 was returned without disc 4” or “Your claimed return item, Game of Thrones Season 5 has been located on the shelf and checked in.”  The ability to add these messages will be added to some staff accounts soon (more on this to come).
•   In Horizon, only check SMS options for mobile phones (“m” or “m-no”), even though the options appear for “home” or “other”.  Checking SMS for home or other phones will do nothing.
• If a customer wants both email and SMS, set up the phone type as ‘m-no’.  If SMS and a phone message to their home phone is wanted, set mobile phone as ‘m-no’ and add a home phone number with the ‘h’ designation.
• Holds for eBook or eAudio items may be placed via Enterprise, but customers will not get a text message; they will get their usual email notification.
• The phone number the text messages are sent from is 8559132458.

  

 1/2020

Horizon auto-renewals

Horizon will now automatically renew items that are normally renewable items (not New & Now, etc).  It will do this if there are no holds on the item.

If a patron wants to opt out of having this service, simply uncheck the box at the very end of the borrower record:

11/2019

My List feature in the Enterprise catalog

The My List feature in Enterprise is designed so the user can create a temporary list of titles from their search results. Users can view the list, place holds on items in the list, sort it, add or remove items from the list, move items to a different list, or email the list. However, if they want to save the list for future reference, they must first login into their account. Otherwise, the titles will only be saved to My List for that particular Enterprise session.

• In Enterprise, click Login in the top right hand corner of the screen.
• Enter your library card barcode & PIN#. Click the Login button.
• Search the catalog.
• Click the Select an Action drop down next to an item you want saved. Choose Add to My Lists. A pop up screen will appear letting you the name of the item and that it was added to Temporary List.  To search for more items, close the pop up window.
• To review the list, click My Lists at the top right of the screen.

To save a Temporary List, follow these steps:

• Make sure you are logged in to your account.
• Open My Lists. Your Temporary List will be listed.  
• Click the Select an Action drop down and choose Save Temporary List.
• In the pop up box name your list and click Save.
• Your saved list will appear in the left hand column with the number of items in the list in parentheses.

There are other things you may do with items in your saved lists.  These include placing holds, deleting specific items, emailing, printing, moving items from one list to another, and copying the item to another list.  These functions are all done from the Select an Action dropdown.

4/2018

Video Game Hold Limits

Video game checkout and hold limits are separate from other items limits.  As of April 23, 2018 both the checkout and hold limits will be set at 5.  This means a customer may have a maximum of 5 games checked out and 5 games on hold.  If they are at their limit of games checked out, self-check will not let them check out any more; a game currently checked out would have to be returned before they could check out another.


4/2018

Phone Codes in Borrower Registration

Horizon offers the following options for coding the patron's phone number in their record.

h.................. Home
h-no............ Home, No Telephone notices
m.................Mobile, with Telephone notices SMS
m-no............Mobile, No telephone notices SMS
o..................Other, with telephone notices
o-no............Other, No telephone notices


Here's a few tips on when to use what code:

> If the option doesn't say "No Telephone notices", then that option uses Telecirc to notify patrons about holds/overdues. (h, m, and o all provide the patron with Telecirc notice service.)  If SMS text messaging is enabled these notifications are via SMS (see entry "SMS text messaging" for indepth information)

> No land line, but the patron wants to receive their notices by phone? Use m - Mobile with TeleCirc allowed, do not enable SMS

> A business phone, message phone or other phone contact should use one of the o options.


rev. 1/2020

Number of Holds Allowed

The majority of FCPL borrowers are allowed up to 30 holds (with exceptions noted below). This 30-item hold limit should not interfere with our 25-item maximum check out policy since it would be rare indeed for all 30 holds to arrive at the same time. If this does prove an issue, you can show the patron how to suspend some of their holds. See posting(s) related to "Suspend A Hold Request".

• 0 holds allowed: FLTTR, FMR, FPAY, FSURF, FCOLL


• 30 holds allowed: All other Fresno borrower types - including staff

Note: Cancelled and Expired Holds do not visibly show on the customer's request list. However they are still technically part of their request list and therefore count towards the overall total. If you suspect a "hidden" request in a customer's request list is preventing them from placing additional request, contact the Jurisdiction System Administrator, who will check with System Office.

rev. 1/2018

How much to charge if an item has no listed price

If an item does not have a cost in the record, the correct amount to charge is the average cost of items that have the same collection code.  This amount is located in the Collection Code record and can be accessed through the Table Editor in Horizon.  If you do not have access to the Table Editor, please call the Jurisdiction System Administrator in eServices to get the price.

If you have access to the Table Editor follow these steps:

1. Double click on Table Editor to bring up the Code Lookup box.
2.  Scroll down to the 'collection' entry, highlight it, and press enter.  
3. The next box is called 'Indexes'. 'Collection' should be highlighted at the top of the box.  Type in the collection code for the item you are looking up (collection code can be found in the item detail status) in the 'Search for' box, press enter. 
4. Click and highlight the entry on the next screen then press the enter button.
5. You will see the 'Avg Replace Cost' about halfway down the screen. 
6. Click 'Close' when done, then x out of the Table Editor.

rev. 5/2018

Baby cards-duplicate barcodes

There are some baby cards that have duplicate barcode numbers.  Most of these cards have been distributed to branches or to local hospitals to give to newborns.  When you try to register a new customer with a card number that has already been used you will get this error message:

 

If you get this message, try another card and destroy the duplicate card.

 Please remember to still use the ‘fba’ btype when issuing a card to a newborn, even if you end up giving the parent a traditional (non-baby) card. 

Addition July 2017:  Please destroy any baby cards received before  July 2017 and only use stock received after that date.

rev. July 2017

Duplicate Borrower Check

There is a new feature in Horizon to help avoid making a duplicate card for the same borrower. 

This is the duplicate borrower check feature.  This feature looks at the name, birthdate and phone fields.  If the new record you are creating and an existing record match on 2 of the 3 fields, Horizon will show you the matching record(s) and give you the opportunity to check the match in more detail.  This feature is to assist in finding duplicates, not be the only method.  You will still want to check manually with a DL number and name.  The duplicate check feature doesn’t have the option to check on the DL number, so it is important you do this manually, as always.

In order for this duplicate borrower check to match, it must be an exact match on 2 of 3 parameters:

Name: the name has to match exactly (although case and punctuation are not considered).  For instance, "smith, john" and "SMITH JOHN" are a match.  "Smith, John J" and "Smith, John" are not a match

Phone: the phone number has to match on all characters, including dashes.  However, phone type isn't considered in the match

Birth Date

You will see the duplicate borrower check screen if there is a matching record after you press “save” when creating a new record.

 

 Again, this is an additional method of catching duplicate records, not the only one to be relied upon.


rev. 5/2018

New Access Type

When registering customers we have had 2 choices for ‘Access Type’ : filtered or unfiltered Internet.  As of today there is now a 3^rd choice: No Internet.  This option should only be used when a parent or guardian requests it.

So, here are the abbreviations and associated types:

ffltr - Fresno Filtered Internet

fnoflt - Fresno Unfiltered Internet

fnoint - Fresno no Internet -NEW

Until the library card application is changed, please ask if the customer you are registering wants Internet access for the card you are creating, and use the appropriate access type.


rev. 5/2018

Forgot PIN Feature in ValleyCat

ValleyCat now has a 'Forgot PIN' option that allows the user to reset their 4-digit PIN themselves - IF they have an email address in their Horizon account. Here's how it works.

If they don't have an email address is their Horizon account, they get this message:

If they do have an email address in their Horizon account, they'll get this message. Obviously, if the email address on their account is someone else's, out of date or has a typo, they won't receive the Reset PIN email as expected despite this onscreen message.

Note: they don't need to also have 'email notices' selected in order to get the email; just an email address. 

Click on the link in the email.

The user is automatically logged into their account once they click Reset PIN.

If they try to enter a PIN with more than 4 digits or any other type of character:

This feature is NOT available in the Enterprise catalog.

rev. 5/2018

Horizon 7.5.4 Bug: Corrupted Prior Circ Info When 'Transit Hold' Item is Checked in as Damaged Twice

If a transit hold item is checked in as damaged twice in a row, the circ_history record is corrupted. That second damaged checkin will change the borrower on the Prior Circ Info to the borrower who requested the item, not the borrower who last checked it out and presumably damaged it.

This is a known bug for the Horizon 7.5.4 upgrade and may be fixed in the next upgrade.


rev. 4/2018

Renewal Options and Limits

When you renew an item for a patron, the following message always appears: 

• Clicking "Yes" (the items are present) is categorized as an "Other Renewal".

• Clicking "No" (the items are not present) is categorized as a "Phone Renewal".

An override message displays if the borrower has reached the renewal limit for the selected item. The wording of this override will be slightly different depending how the previous renewals were counted: "Other" or "Phone".

Either way, you can override the maximum number of renewals under certain situations as permitted by library policy (i.e. no outstanding holds on the item). Note: not all staff have Horizon permissions to override the maximum.

rev. 4/2018

Where does the email address go in a customer record?

In regards to the new Perm/Mailing/Temp address types, if the borrower has more than one address, it does make a difference which type their email address is attached to.

If a customer has:

• Perm Only – Use Perm to set email address & related fields
• Mailing & Perm – Use Mailing to set email address & related fields
• Temp & Mailing/Perm – Use Temp to set email address & related fields. When those dates expire, it will revert to whatever method is set in the Mailing/Perm.

Note: This affects hold and overdue notices. Preoverdue notices don’t care where the email address is listed on the record; they are controlled by a separate program. Lost notices are always printed and mailed to the borrower. If

In case, the email is not put on the proper address type, don’t worry. The notification will still be sent by print or phone (based on other settings in the record). 


rev. 4/2018

Unusual Emails of ValleyCat Records

Recently, a peson from another state called to report they were receiving emails like this for titles/items in ValleyCat. They have never been a borrower. What's going on? Are they being spammed? 

No, someone is not using ValleyCat to spam people. Unless we get more reports, this is most likely one person trying to harass another person by emailing them ValleyCat records.  It only happens once every few years. Actually ValleyCat isn't a very effective way to spam someone, since you can only email from the search results screen, the only thing you can change is the subject line and you can only send one record/email at a time.

Tell the person receiving the annoying emails to add the 'From' email address pictured above to their spam filter to prevent any more of these emails from reaching them. 


rev. 4/2018