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Borrower Services provides options for users to view their current loans, reservations and charges. Users can renew their loans and cancel any reservations (if the Library chooses to enable this functionality).
Refer to Figure 6.1: The Borrower Services Action Bar.
The Borrower Services Action Bar provides access to the following options:
Allows the user to see a list of the Items he/she currently has on loan, showing the length of the Loan Period and the Due Date for each. The number of other people who have reserved each Work is also indicated. It may be possible to renew loans, if the Library chooses to enable this functionality.
Allows the user to see a list of the Items which he/she has reserved. It may be possible to cancel reservations.
This provides a summary of the user's current debts, i.e. outstanding Fines, Hire charges, Reservation charges and./or Miscellaneous charges if applicable.
This option is used to leave Borrower Services and return to the OPAC Main Menu.
Note: Some of the above Borrower Services may be unavailable, depending on local Library practice.
Access to Borrower Services is controlled by Borrower Number and PIN (optional). Refer to Figure 6.2: Access to Borrower Services (No PIN Required).
Security Rules, (obtained via OPAC Rules) can be set to control whether or not a Personal Identification Number (PIN) is required from the Borrower to access Public Reservations; the number of PIN retries permitted; OPAC and Borrower Services timeouts etc. Refer to Figure 6.3: The OPAC Security Rules List.
The following rules may be set for specific combinations of Operator Profiles and Site Profiles.
This field is used to indicate whether or not a Personal Identification Number (PIN) will be required for access to Borrower Services and Public Reservations. The field is modified using the <F6> ("Select") key to toggle between the "Yes" and "No" values. When a "No" is shown, OPAC users will not be required to enter a PIN with their Borrower barcodes before being permitted access to Borrower Services or Public Reservations.
Define here the maximum number of consecutive unsuccessful attempts a Borrower will be allowed to make when entering his/her PIN, before an exception is imposed causing a standard message to be recorded against the Borrower. A whole number between 1 and 255 may be specified.
Once the message has been recorded it will not be possible for the user to make further attempts without the message being cleared.
Select the message which is to be attached to Borrowers who exceed the number held in "max_pin_retries" (defined using the above field). Messages may be selected from a standard list obtained using <F5> ("List"). Alternatively you can compose an entirely new standard message for this circumstance following the instructions given in the System Manager Manual Volume 2: Application Maintenance, Section 2.10: Defining Standard Messages.
This field indicates the number of seconds of inactivity which will be allowed to elapse before an OPAC terminal will timeout to the main OPAC welcome screen. The system will wait for the predefined period shown (the default is 60 seconds) before timing out. A maximum of 32767 seconds may be specified.
If this is set to "0" then the OPAC Timeout function will be disabled.
This field indicates the number of seconds of inactivity which will be allowed to elapse before an OPAC terminal currently in Borrower Services or Public Reservations mode will timeout back to the OPAC welcome screen. A maximum of 32767 seconds may be specified.
If this is set to "0" then the Borrower Services Timeout function will be disabled.
This field determines whether certain users (as determined by the Operator Profile and Site Profile combination) will be allowed to select the "Exit" option from the OPAC main action bar. This option is useful if users are accessing OPAC over a network, (or for Library staff accessing OPAC from other Talis modules).
Use the <F6> ("Select") key to toggle between "Yes" and "No": when a "No" is shown this indicates that OPAC users will not be allowed to select the "Exit" option from the OPAC main action bar.
Use this field to control whether or not the Borrower will be ejected from the OPAC system when timeout occurs, instead of simply returning to the main OPAC Welcome screen. The value is modified using the <F6> ("Select") key to toggle between "Yes" and "No". When a "No" is shown, this indicates that OPAC users will be returned to the OPAC Welcome screen upon OPAC timeout, rather than being ejected from OPAC altogether.
For further details about completion of any of these fields, refer to Chapter 8: OPAC Rules.
The Loans List allows users to see a complete list of all their loans. The total number of Overdues and the total number of Recalled Items are summarised at the top of the screen. The total number of current loans is summarised on the message line. Refer to Figure 6.4: The Loans List (Borrower Services).
The information displayed for each Title includes the Title and Barcode of the Item, the date the Item is due to be returned along with the number of times this Item has been renewed. Any reservations against the Item and the Loan Type are also summarised.
If an Item Query is opened elsewhere in Talis, the status of the Item is changed to "Query". The Query flag ("Q") appears against Items in the Borrower Loans List which have queries attached.
If the user has no current loans a message box displays explaining that he/she has no outstanding loans.
The user can select the <F11> ("Borrower Menu") key to go back to the Borrower Services Action Bar Menu at any point.
It is possible to renew an item on the loans list by moving the cursor to the correct line and pressing <F4> ("Renew") to renew the Item.
The system will ask the user to confirm each renewal. Providing the renewal is successful (i.e. providing there are no exceptions and the user is happy with the Due Date suggested), a Renewed flag ("R") will appear to the left of the Item. Multiple Items may be renewed by marking them in this way before leaving the list and returning to the Borrower Services Menu.
Exception conditions may prevent renewal. There are many reasons for failure to renew; if there are any exceptions against the user or item, a message box will display to the user saying:
This item cannot be renewed, please see a member of staff
Should the user attempt to renew an Item again during the same session a message box will display to inform them that the Item has already been renewed.
The Renew option may not be available, depending on local Library practice, in which case <F4> ("Renew") will not appear on the function key template.
Public renewals may be conditionally allowed or disallowed by Borrower exceptions or standard messages associated with the Borrower. Refer to Exception Conditions.
Before proceeding with these instructions you must have:
In particular it is assumed here that you have already defined all the necessary details for your Library system with respect to:
To make Public Renewals available as a workable option within Borrower Services you need to set the correct enablement permissions for an OPAC User.
To do this, select Permissions from within the Parameters area of online Utilities, and choose the Enablements option.
Having accessed the Enablement Rules List by entering OPAC User (or whatever your OPAC users are known as locally) at the Enablement prompt, scroll down the list to "OPAC - Public Renew" and use the <F6> ("Enable") key to toggle the enablement permission from "No" to "Yes". This controls the display of the <F4> ("Renew") function key.
For further details about setting this enablement, refer to the System Manager Manual Volume 2: Application Maintenance, Chapter 9: Managing Enablements.
If you have not already done so, complete the Loan Rules for each Site Profile/Borrower Type/Item Type combination required, and the appropriate Loan Type Rules for each Loan Type. The parameters of particular relevance are:
You may have defined these rules already; if so, skip this section.
Loan Type Rules and Loan Rules, (obtained via Circulation Rules within online Utilities) control the renewal-related parameters explained below.
Refer to Figure 6.5: The Loan Type Rules Form.
The Maximum Renewals field on the Loan Type Rules Form specifies the maximum number of Renewals permitted for each Loan Type. The system will accept any whole number up to 99; i.e. up to one hundred consecutive issues of a given loan item. The maximum number of renewals allowed for a given loan type may be edited directly using this numeric field.
If this is set to zero then renew will not be possible for this Loan Type rule.
It may be the practice in your Library to use Unseen Renew rather than the ordinary Renew option when Borrowers request to renew Items which they have not brought to the Library, or when they make their renewal requests by phone. Recording the fact that the physical copy has not been seen by Library Staff at the point of renewal helps prevent damaged or missing Items from going undiscovered too long. If the count of consecutive Unseen Renewals exceeds the Maximum Unseen Renewals parameter (defined here) then an exception message will be presented, indicating that the user must present the book at the counter in order to renew it again.
Type the maximum number of Unseen Renewals permitted directly into this numeric field. The Maximum Unseen Renewals field will accept any whole number in the range 099. A zero ("0") disables Unseen Renewals. It is advisable to set the Unseen Renewals parameter to a value lower than normal Maximum Renewals parameter (of which it is a logical subset).
Note: If your Library is not interested in enforcing Unseen Renewal exceptions, you are advised to set this parameter to 99; thereby making it exceedingly unlikely that the exception message will display.
The ability to renew loans via OPAC and TalisWeb OPAC may be restricted so that specified Loan Types may not be renewed publicly, even when these renewals are permitted by staff using the Renewals option in Talis Circulation.
This field is used to determine which Loan Types are renewable in OPAC and TalisWeb OPAC. There are two options, "Yes" and "No". The default value "Yes" means that public renewal is allowed (with the Due Date for the renewal being determined in the usual manner). This protected field is not editable directly. When the cursor is placed on the "Public Renew" field, the <F6> ("Yes/No") function key is available to toggle between the ("Yes") and ("No") options.
If a user attempts to renew an Item in OPAC, a check occurs to see if the Loan Type of the Item is renewable. If the check finds that the Public Renew parameter is set to "No" for the Loan Type of the Item in question, the renewal is disallowed and the existing message box is displayed indicating:
"This item cannot be renewed. Please see a member of staff"
Note: The maximum number of renewals permitted for an Item in OPAC is governed by the "Maximum Unseen Renewals" parameter on the Loan Type Rules Form. Unseen renewals also include telephone renewals etc. which may be entered in Circulation. If "Maximum Unseen Renewals" is set to zero then renewals are prevented, even if "Public Renew" is set to "Yes".
There are four Due Dates associated with each Loan Rule on the Loan Rules Form, as shown in Figure 6.6: The Loan Rules List.
Just two of these dates is of particular relevance for renewals, hence completion of these will be explained below:
Renew: Use of this particular field is mandatory. It is used for specifying the Loan Type rule and to determine the Due Date when renewing the loan of an Item of a particular Item Type to a specified Borrower Type at a certain Site Profile. Valid options may be entered by name or code or selected from a popup list.
If the Loan Type rule used has a Maximum Renewals value of zero then renewals for this Item Type/Borrower Type/Site Profile combination will be disallowed.
Reservation Renew: This field is mandatory. It is used for specifying the Loan Type rule and to define the Due Date for occasions when renewing the loan of a reserved Item of a particular Item Type to a specified Borrower Type at a certain Site Profile. Valid options may be entered by name or code or may be selected from a popup list.
Should you wish to disallow renewals of reserved Items this should be set to a Loan Type rule which has a Maximum Renewals value of zero.
For further details about setting Loan Rules and Loan Type Rules, refer to the System Manager Manual Volume 2: Application Maintenance, Chapter 3: Circulation Rules.
The Reservations List allows users to view the list of their outstanding reservations. This list includes all active reservations as well as those awaiting collection. The total number of current reservations and the number awaiting collection display at the top of the screen. Refer to Figure 6.7: Example Reservations List.
The information displayed for each reserved Item includes:
If the user has no current reservations, a message box displays telling them that they have no outstanding reservations. Refer to Figure 6.8: No Reservations Outstanding Message Box.
It is possible to cancel a reservation in the list by moving the cursor to the correct line and pressing <F6> ("Cancel") to cancel the reservation, as long as the <F6> ("Cancel") key has been set up in enablements. (Refer to System Manager Manual, Volume 2: Application Maintenance, Chapter 9: Managing Enablements).
Reservations with the following statuses can be cancelled:
The Library is able to define whether or not users can cancel reservations that are awaiting collection by setting the environment variable:
TAL_CANCEL_WAITING_RES=YES; export TAL_CANCEL_WAITING_RES <Enter>
If the Library does not permit users to cancel reservations of this status a message box appears informing the user that:
This reservation cannot be cancelled as the item reserved is awaiting collection
If the user presses <F6> ("Cancel") to cancel the reservation, a dialog box appears informing the user that the reservation will be cancelled and asking if they wish to proceed with the cancellation. If the user goes ahead and cancels the reservation then the status of the reservation will change to "Cancelled".
Should the user attempt to cancel a reservation that has already been cancelled, a message box appears informing them that it is not possible to cancel a reservation of "Cancelled" status.
Having followed the steps in this section a number of features could (according to your Library's policy) become possible:
Public Reservations are a specific sub-type of general reservations, and accordingly the Reservation Filter Rules component of Circulation Rules (accessed via Online Utilities) must be completed. Outline details only will be given in this chapter; further details see the System Manager Manual Volume 2: Application Maintenance, Chapter 3: Circulation Rules.
The other parameters controlling Public Reservations are principally entered via the Borrower Reservation Rules component of OPAC Rules (accessed via Online Utilities). Refer to Defining Borrower Reservation Rules.
Other aspects of OPAC Rules which have a bearing on the implementation of Public Reservations include:
Only outline details can be given on this chapter; for further details consult Chapter 8: OPAC Rules.
Before proceeding with these instructions you must have:
In particular it is assumed here that you have already defined all the necessary details for your Library system with respect to:
Note: OPAC will use the same Reservation Filter as defined for use in Circulation at a particular Site. If there is an express requirement to use a different Reservation Filter for OPAC, it will be necessary to set-up an OPAC location.
A Library may set up a general Reservation Filter per Site, for use in both Circulation and OPAC Public Reservations. Reservation Filters determine which Items for a given Work are included in the reservation. Criteria for inclusion in a reservation include the Item Type and the Item Home Site.
For example, the Library may wish to limit reservations to "ordinary loan" Items at their Home Site. The default Reservation Filter is setup within Site Profile Rules. Refer to the System Manager Manual Volume 2: Application Maintenance, Chapter 6: Site Profile Rules if further instructions are required.
Reservation Filters are applied globally across all terminals at the given Site Profile, and determine the Item Types and/or Sites which will be involved when deciding the Items to be involved in a reservation. The filter provides a flexible means of specifying the criteria against which reservations may be satisfied.
The Reservation Filter Rules Form (within Circulation Rules) is used to specify the rules which will be applicable to each Reservation Filter. This form allows you to define various filterrelated rules. Refer to Figure 6.9: The Reservation Filter Rules Form.
These rules fall into two groups, namely:
The former group of filterrelated rules comprises:
The "Public Reservations" group of parameters at the bottom of the form is more specifically to do with OPAC Public Reservations and includes the following filterrelated rules:
Instructions on completion of each field on the Reservation Filter Rules Form are provided below.
This field displays the current count of Sites included in the current filter. Items will be suitable for inclusion in a reservation request if their Home Sites are represented in this count. It is possible to view a list of these Sites using <F5> ("List"). The Sites actually marked with the "S" flag (the Selected symbol) are included. Any number of Sites may be selected for inclusion in the filter, if applicable, using the <F6> ("Select") option.
This field shows the current count of Item Types to be included in this Reservation Filter. Items will be considered suitable for inclusion in a reservation request only if they are of the Type(s) represented beneath this count. You may view a list of the Item Types using <F5> ("List"). Select the Item Types for inclusion in the filter, using the <F6> ("Select") function key. Each Type selected will be marked with the Selected symbol ("S") indicating that it will be included in the filter.
This field instructs the system whether or not to include only Items which are loanable to this Borrower. Use <F6> ("Select") to toggle between "Yes" and "No". When this field displays a "Yes" value, only loanable Items will be included in the filter. If you leave this field set to "No", Items will be considered eligible for satisfying the reservation regardless of whether the Borrower may normally have them on loan.
The <F6> ("Select") function key is used to toggle between "Yes" and "No". Setting this field to "Yes" means a Public Reservation will only proceed if there are no copies on the shelves. If one or more Items are not on loan the user will be informed in OPAC that the work cannot be reserved, as copies are available on the shelf
This field is another "Yes" and "No" toggle, editable using <F6> ("Select"). All copies of the Work identified by the filter as suitable for inclusion in the reservation will become recallable using the MIS recall scripts. Which Items the Recall is set for are conditioned by the set-up of Public Reservation Weightings and the Public Recall Limit in Borrower Rules.
A "Yes" means that recall flags are generated online, ready for running when MC_REC (or MC_REC2 - MC_REC4) are fired. A "No" means you anticipate running the MIS utilities "MC_REC_SOON" and "MC_REC_LONG" instead, which have their own logic for working out Recalls.
For Public Reservations the filter provides options to specify the Site at which the reserved Item is to be collected. When a Borrower places his/her own reservation via OPAC Borrower Services, there are four alternative default Collection Site Types which might apply to the filter. This field is used to specify the type of Collection Site which will be used for public reservations. The options are:
Select the option required from a list of Collection Site Types obtained using <F5> ("List").
The Collection Site is often set to the Terminal Site, or the Item Home Site to avoid the need to place books in transit.
Note: Since the Collection Site will not necessarily be the location of the Item being reserved, this could result in many copies being placed in transit. To avoid the need to place Items in transit or set up multiple TalisWeb OPACs, Libraries now have the option to set the Collection Site to the Item Home Site. This effectively permits Libraries that do not wish to transit Items between Sites to insist that a Collection Site be chosen which holds the Item already.
When specified for the Public Reservation Default Site Type, the Item Home Site option causes the system to check that the Work to be reserved has Items whose Home Sites match those Sites specified in the Sites for Inclusion filter. The Reservation Filter then selects copies that are less heavily reserved, and chooses the most reservable copies from the specified Sites. A list of these Sites is displayed in the OPAC (and TalisWeb OPAC) Public Reservations screen. The Borrower is then able to select his/her preferred Collection Site(s). Depending on the Multiple Item Home Sites setting, the Library may optionally permit the user to select more than one Site.
Note: The <F6> ("Select") option is only allowed if the value in the Public Reservation Default Site Type is set to "Item Home Sites". If it has been set to any other value (including blank) then <F6> ("Select") is disallowed and the message line states:
Selecting "Yes/No" is only available when the default site type is Item home sites
The <F6> ("Select") key is used to toggle between the "Yes" and "No" alternatives on the Multiple Item Home Sites field. When this field displays a "Yes" value, the Borrower can change the Collection Site to one or more Sites from the nominated set of suggested Sites. In the latter case, the system uses the same rules (above) again to narrow the choice down to a single (best) Site.
When this field is set to "No", the Borrower can only select one Collection Site from the suggested list.
A specific named default Collection Site should be given here when the Public Reservation Default Site Type has been set to the Named Site(s) option. The Site named here will be the one from which Borrowers will collect their reserved Items.
Note: The default Collection Site specified here will display in the OPAC Public Reservation Form as the "Preferred Collection Site".
This field is used when you want to give Borrowers the option to select a Collection Site of their choice.
A list of specific named Collection Sites may be setup. This field displays the current count of named Collection Sites. You may view a list of all potential Collection Sites using <F5> ("List"), and then mark the Sites for inclusion in the list of Sites selectable online by the OPAC user with <F6> ("Select").
Note: When a list of Collection Sites is defined here, Borrowers may select a specific Collection Site by selecting the <F5> ("Change Site") option on the OPAC Public Reservation Form.
Use of this field is optional: if a list of Collection Sites is not defined then the <F5> ("Change Site") option will not appear on the OPAC Public Reservation function key template.
This field specifies the next Filter which should be applied to a Public Reservation request if the current Reservation Filter fails to locate any Items for recall.
Clever use of this field in several Filters allows multiple Reservation Filters to be chained together. Successively broader Filters may thereby be attempted until a suitable copy of the reserved Work is located for recall (or until no more Filters have been defined in the chain). The system will stop attempting to apply the next Reservation Filter when nothing is shown in this field or when the Filter name shown here is identical to the Reservation Filter name shown in the header of this form.
For further details about completion of the above fields, refer to the System Manager Manual Volume 2: Application Maintenance, Chapter 3: Circulation Rules.
Setting-up OPAC Public Reservations Rules is in many respects similar to defining the Circulation Reservation Rules as described above. Refer to Figure 6.10: The Opac Borrower Reservation Rules List.
The Borrower Reservations Rules List (within OPAC Rules) enables you to set various parameters for specified Borrower Type/Site Profile combinations, including:
You may use this field to define the charge which will be incurred when a reservation is initially placed by an OPAC user.
This field is used to specify the number of Items that will be reserved when a Borrower tries to place a public reservation.
Note: This should not be confused with the limit on the number of reservations that a Borrower may have, which is defined in Borrower Rules within Circulation Rules.
This field enables you to place an upper limit on the number of Items which may be recalled using autorecall, thereby restricting the number of copies of the Work which will be suitable for inclusion in the reservation and which may be recalled automatically. The system will accept any whole number up to a maximum of 99.
If this is set to "0" then no Recall Letters will be generated.
Note: This assumes that "Auto Recall" is set to "Yes".
The field (abbreviated onscreen to "Pub res last date/days") is used to specify the default Last Useful Date for reservations placed via OPAC. This is the last date after which the user will be considered to no longer require the current work. Reservations will be cancelled automatically when this date is reached.
You may define a period to the Last Useful Date as either:
This parameter controls whether users will be allowed to amend the default Last Useful Date.
Use the <F6> ("Select") function key to toggle between the "Yes" and "No" options. A value of "Yes" means that the <F4> ("Change Date") option will be present on the Public Reservation function key template.
Recall Due Soonest acts as a "tie breaker" when there are several copies of the Work out on loan which could satisfy the reservation. This field may be toggled between a "Yes" or "No" value using <F6> ("Select"). A "Yes" value in this field indicates that the Item(s) due back from loan soonest will be recalled. Alternatively, if this field is set to "No", it means the system will recall those copies of the Work which have been due back from loan the longest.
For further details about completion of the above fields, refer to Chapter 8: OPAC Rules (Defining OPAC Borrower Reservations Rules).
Public Reservation Weightings (from Utilities, Parameters, Rules, OPAC, Pub res weightings) enable you to create or edit the relative weightings of Public Reservations placed by OPAC users for certain Item Type and Borrower Type combinations. Refer to Figure 6.11: The Public Reservation Weightings List.
Note: The Borrower Type/Item Type combinations are those that the Items are actually on loan to; for example, you might wish to make Long Loans to Professors the least recallable/reservable combination.
For each Borrower Type and Item Type shown, you may assign the Public Reservation Weighting. The weighting range for Public Reservations spans from "0" to "9", with any weighting less than or equal to "5" meaning non-recallable. A weighting of "9" represents the most reservable weighting.
If further details are required, refer to the Chapter 8: OPAC Rules.
Public reservations are disallowed when a variety of exception conditions and/or messages occur. Customers then have to contact a member of staff for assistance. Flexibility has been introduced to save staff time by allowing certain exception conditions and messages to be ignored. Libraries may now choose which exceptions and specific error messages associated with the Borrower will allow/disallow customers making public reservations via character-based OPAC or TalisWeb OPAC.
The conditional allowance/disallowance of public reservation based on parameters involves four environment variables:
These environment variables work in the same manner when customers attempt to use:
Under normal circumstances, there will be certain instances where users will be disallowed from placing a Public Reservation for certain Items. The conditions which will result in a message box indicating that the reservation cannot be placed are as follows:
Only the barest testing instructions can be provided here. Having set all of the above parameter details to the settings required by your Library:
Check that the Public Reservation Form is accessible via the Options Menu (obtained using <F10> ("Options") at any point in OPAC after a Work or Item has been identified).
Check that a PIN is/is not required in conjunction with the User-ID when attempting to access Public Reservations (and OPAC Borrower Services).
Check that the <F5> ("Change Site") option is/is not present on the function key template of the Public Reservation Form, according to the details specified against "Collection Sites" field on the Reservation Filter Rules Form (within Circulation Rules). The relevant single/multiple Site selection options should be available to the user, depending on the details specified against "Public Reservation Default Site Type" and "Multiple Item Home Sites" fields on the Reservation Filter Rules Form. Refer to Section 6.7.2: Defining Reservation Filter Rules above, for further details.
Check that the <F4> ("Change Date") option is/is not present on the Public Reservation Form's function key template, depending on the details specified against "Editable Date" field on the OPAC Public Reservation Rules Form (within OPAC Rules).
If Public reservations is not working, it is advisable to check the following:
This list enables Borrowers to view their outstanding charges, if they have any. Charges will be displayed, broken down by category:
with the Total Owing summarised.
Refer to Figure 6.12: Example Borrower Account (Charges List).
The user must press <F11> ("Borrower Menu") or <F12> ("Back") to clear this screen.
If the user has no charges a message displays to say that there are no outstanding charges, as shown in Figure 6.13: No Outstanding Charges Message Box.
The options available from the Borrower Services Menu are as follows:
This chapter also described how public renewals and reservations can be implemented in Talis.
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