Tuesday, November 29, 2016

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

Monday, November 21, 2016

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

Friday, November 18, 2016

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

Borrower Moves From One SJVLS Jurisdiction to Another

If a patron has moved to Fresno County permanently, but was previously registered at another SJVLS library (Coalinga-Huron, Kern County, Kings County, Madera County, Mariposa County, Merced, Porterville, Tulare County, or Tulare Public), update their borrower record as follows:

i.   Update their address, email and/or phone as appropriate
ii.  Change the Location field to your branch code
iii. Change the BType to the appropriate FCPL code i.e. FAD, FCH, FYA, etc.
iv. Change the Bstat to the appropriate FCPL code i.e. f93705, f93721
v.  Change the Internet access to either Fresno Filtered or Fresno Unfiltered

It is not necessary to issue them a new library card.


rev. 4/2018