No L in Front of Lost Library Card Barcode

Do NOT put an 'L' in the front of a lost library card Barcode field. This may have been the practice at one time, but it's not any longer. Continuing to do so will negatively affect other Horizon processes.

Note: Normally, the Barcode and Barcode ID fields should always match. However in the rare case when a borrower declares their card lost, but does not want another one issued, it is okay to edit the Barcode ID field to have an L in front. This will prevent the lost card from being used as a secondary look-up point for some processes. 

Rev. 5/2018

Data Entry Standard for Borrower's with No Phone#

If the borrower does not have a phone number, enter 000-000-0000 in the phone field of the borrower's record. Set the phone type to h-no (Home-No Telephone Notices). This is part of the Borrower Registration Data Entry Standards set by the San Joaquin Valley Library System.

Phone Notice Customer Is Mailed a Notice

Scenario: your customer's account is set to receive their notices by phone. So why did receive a notice in the mail?

Reason 1: The automated telephone messaging service (TM3) calls the customer to deliver the hold or overdue notice. If it is unsuccessful after 3 tries (no answer, line disconnected, fax machine, not ringing, etc.), that notice will be printed and mailed via USPS the next business day. Look at the notification block on the customer's account to see whether it was complete or incomplete.

What can you do? Verify the customer's phone number. Do they have an answering machine? There are a few types of answering machines that do not work with TM3.  TM3 only recognizes these area codes. Do they have an alternate number? Would they like to try email notification instead?

Complete - the notice was delivered by phone

Phone Notice Incomplete - TM3 could not deliver the notice so it will be mailed the next business day.

Reason 2: Final overdue notices (we've told you before, but you'll be charged if you don't return the item) and lost notices (the item is now lost and you owe this much) are always printed and mailed - regardless of what notice type the customer has selected. Click here to see how much time elapses between the first overdue and lost notice.

Dos and Don’ts of Changing the Hold Pickup Location

You can change the pickup location of a customer's hold, but only in certain circumstances...otherwise the hold will never be filled.

Scenario: your customer has moved and wants to pick up all their outstanding requests at the branch closest to their new home. It is okay to change the hold pickup location for a customer’s hold as follows:

• The old and new pickup location must be within the same library jurisdiction. So you can change it from Clovis to Fig Garden. But never Beale Library (Kern County) to Fig Garden (Fresno County).*
•  You can change the pickup location anytime before an item is attached to the request or if the status of the request / item = transit hold / transit request. If it's already on the hold shelf or expired, no dice. 

*Do NOT Change Pickup Locations from One Jurisdiction to Another Jurisdiction

Why? Because this method circumvents the holds rules in place for each jurisdiction so there's a good chance the hold will never be filled because the item will never appear on the pull list of an owning library. 

Yes, Horizon will let you change the pickup location from Beale Library (Kern County) to Fig Garden (Fresno County), but the request will never be filled. Even your customer is #1 in the queue, all the other requests will just jump over it as they are filled first. 

Some staff have tried to 'help' their customers who have been blocked from placing a hold on a title by making the request through say Kern County’s ValleyCat page (or in Horizon under a Kern County Location). After the request is made with a Kern County pickup location, they manually change it to one of Fresno's pick up locations. This 'work around' does not help the customer. In fact, it pretty much ensures they will never get the item - even if Fresno buys their own copies. 

The customer should wait and place a hold on that title when there are requestable copies available. Chances are that will occur shortly if it's a new popular title. If not, staff or the customer can make a Request for Purchase or an ILL as appropriate. 


rev. 5/2018