Circ Updates

From Laurie Covington:

Hello,

There have been a bunch of questions about circulation related things so I thought I would put everything all together in one email to simplify things.

·    Items returned that have been water damaged:  Please be careful when handling the items.  Separate wet materials from dry materials.  All damaged items should be checked out to the storm damaged user record that has been created for each location.  XXX XXX HARVEY DAMAGED MATERIAL, user id is similar: XXX-HARVEY-DAMAGED.  Example:  RIN RIN HARVEY DAMAGED MATERIAL.  Check out all damaged returns and items damaged inside buildings to your unit's account.  *Do Not use regular DISCARD accounts.  The items do not need to be stamped.  If it is only a few items, please discard them according to normal procedures.  Contact Collection Development staff if you have a large volume of items.

·    If customers call or come into the library and report their items have been lost in the flood waters, please check out the items to the Harvey Damaged Material accounts as well.

·    Due Dates:  All items that were due starting August 26^th have been extended to be due on September 29^th.  This includes Hot Spots.  Locations that have not previously circulated Hot Spots should review the Hot Spot instructions training information on the Training Portal (http://training.houstonlibrary.org/library-function).  Hot Spots were assigned to particular locations so if one is returned to you, please email Saima Kadir the device barcode and the location. 

·     Holds:  We have suspended the cancelled holds reports for now.   Holds for closed locations should be handled on a case by case situation.  Staff should work with customers for holds at other locations that are still not open.  If possible, re-place the hold, putting the customer at the top of the queue if necessary.  The holds from STE have been moved to JUN.  Holds from LAK and KAS have been moved to TUT.  We are working to reactivate the holds at KEN with a new pick up location of HIL.  FIDS knows that future holds for STE, KAS, LAK, and KEN should be sent to these alternate locations.  FLO holds will be moved to STA tomorrow.

·    ILLs:  Check your ILL shelf and contact ILL to see if the customer can still pick them up or not.  Most of them have expired and they need to be sent them back to ILL.  New ILLs have been suspended for now.  We can work with customers to re-place ILL requests once we open ILL back up.  If any ILL items are damaged or reported as damaged, please contact ILL so they can contact the lending library.  Contact Tunisia Powell at 3-1447 with questions.