Request confirmation printouts

Those who use the print option on the request confirmation screen in the NHAIS ILL System will find several superfluous fields have been removed from the printout so all the info should now fit on one page. Among the unused fields removed from the printout are Customer Field 1, Customer Field 2, Customer Field 3, Customer Field 4, Customer Field 5, and the ever-popular Customer Field 6.

 

Limits for patron-initiated requesting

The following applies only to libraries that allow patron-initiated requesting in the NHAIS ILL System. Libraries offering this to their patrons have been able to set limits on the number of requests per patron account since this system was launched in 2019. A drawback was that the chosen limit applied to staff-created requests as well. We're now able to have limits apply only to patron-created requests, with no limits for staff.

You can see how your location is configured at Staff Dashboard > ILL Administration > ILL Request Limits. If you see a check mark to the right of Default, no limits have been set.

If you see a number to the right of Default but no Staff entry under Patron Category, that limit reflected by the number applies to all requests at your library.

If you see Staff with the check mark to its right and Default with a number to its right, the limit applies only to requests created with a patron barcode login.

Get in touch with the NHAIS Help Desk (nhu-pac@dncr.nh.gov or 603-271-2141) if you need help getting the settings you want.

Here are details on the 3 types of request limits available:

• number active – sets the maximum number of active ILL requests allowed. A loan (returnable) request is considered active from the time it is submitted until the time that it is placed in Returned status (for filled requests) or has been deleted (for unfilled requests). A copy (non-returnable) request is considered active from the time it is submitted until the time that it is Received by the borrowing library (for filled requests) or has been deleted (for unfilled requests).
• number per week – sets the maximum number of ILL requests that may be submitted during any given week. The count is reset to zero at 12:01 a.m. each Sunday.
• number per month – sets the maximum number of ILL requests that may be submitted during any given month. The count is reset to zero at 12:01 a.m. on the first day of each month.

Note that libraries using the number active option may want to stay on top of deleting Unfilled requests in a timely manner. The system automatically changes Unfilled requests to Expired status once the need-by date has passed and deletes requests in Expired status after a year but your patrons may not want to wait that long before the count of active requests is reset for them. Statistical information associated with a request is retained even after the request is deleted.

ILL fixes and enhancements Thu 3/23

The NHAIS ILL System will be offline for up to 15 minutes tonight (Thursday, March 23) starting at 10 o'clock. Software updates include these fixes and enhancements:

-When printing a single shipping label in Chrome or Edge, a blank page would print after the shipping label. This has been corrected.

-The Lender’s Pending Pick List will now be left-justified rather than centered. This should make it easier to scan the first column to find items on the shelf, as in this example that lists Call Number followed by Title/Author/Request#:

-Libraries allowing patron-initiated requesting where staffers use SHAREit Lookup to enter their logins may see some changes to the display of lookup searches and results. The workflow remains unchanged.

ILL Lender? Yes!

As promised, the ILL Lender? column label has been restored to the Where To Find It display as of last Wednesday night's program update. However, the program is now showing a "Yes" for every location, not just the ones that are signed up for the NHAIS ILL System.

Auto-Graphics is working on a fix for this. Some of the catalogs searched by the NHAIS ILL System include holdings for multiple locations, not all of which participate in our automated ILL program. The "Yes" is supposed to indicate that the displayed location is a NHAIS ILL participant. It does not reflect whether the location is temporarily not lending because of vacation, illness, flooding, etc.

Even if the Where To Find It display can't tell whether a location is really an ILL lender, the lender list build process that happens after you submit your request is aware of who's participating and who's on vacation so place your requests as usual.

Makeup deliveries Friday for Tuesday-only libraries

This Friday (March 17), we plan to deliver to the following libraries that missed their once-a-week stops due to Tuesday’s storm.

Southeast libraries
Brookline
Danville (THURSDAY)
Hollis
Litchfield

Southwest Routes
Bradford
Chesterfield
Colby-Sawyer
Francestown
Richmond
Salisbury
Sutton
Warner
Webster
Westmoreland
Wilmot
Winchester

North Country
Bartlett
Madison

Spring cannot come soon enough.

Charles Shipman
Supervisor, Reference Section
New Hampshire State Library
603-271-2144
Charles.Shipman@dncr.nh.gov

ILL fixes and enhancements Wed 3/15

The NHAIS ILL System will be offline for up to 15 minutes tonight (Wednesday, March 15) starting at 10 o'clock. Software updates include these fixes and enhancements:

-The "ILL Lender" column label has been missing lately from the Where To Find It section of the detail screen. Tonight's update will restore the label.

-When creating a request, field labels will be left-justified to provide a more uniform display.

 

All vans cancelled except SE-C route Tue 3/14

All of today’s van delivery routes have been cancelled with the exception of the SE-C route, which consists of the following libraries:

Nottingham
Epping
Hampton Falls
Seabrook
Kensington
East Kingston
Newton
Kingston
Fremont
Raymond
Deerfield
Epsom

Charles Shipman
Supervisor, Reference Section
New Hampshire State Library
603-271-2144
Charles.Shipman@dncr.nh.gov

SIP2, patron data, and SHAREit

Addressing a question recently raised on the NHAIS-L e-mail list concerning patron data shared via SIP2 with our ILL program:

"Is ShareIt considered a 3rd party vendor in this case? Would changing the SIP settings in Atriuum prevent ShareIt from auto filling patron contact information for requests?"

Yes and yes.

For libraries allowing patron-initiated ILL requesting, the ILS sends SHAREit the patron barcode, the status of the user, and whatever other information it is configured to send. If SHAREit receives data like patron first name/last name/address/phone, that will be stored in a user record created in SHAREit and is used to populate the request form whenever that login is used. If all that's received from the ILS is that the barcode is a valid user (no name, etc., attached), a user record is created in SHAREit with just the barcode. The user would then need to fill in at least the Patron's Contact Info and Patron's Last Name fields in the request form before submitting. SHAREit doesn't care what's in those fields--it could be a single letter or digit--but it needs to see something in those required fields.

The rest of this applies to all SHAREit libraries, whether allowing patron-initiated requesting or not. Any patron information submitted with the request form remains a part of the request and can be viewed by the patron or the borrowing library until the request is deleted. Lenders cannot see any patron information unless it was entered in the Borrower's Notes field. The system automatically deletes finished requests after one year but borrowers have the option to delete requests earlier. Statistical data is retained for deleted records but that does not include any patron information.

As with the ILS each individual library uses, there is a contract between the NH State Library and Auto-Graphics which includes specific clauses about protecting the confidentiality of library patron information. NHSL and A-G system administrators can see the data but we understand patron privacy requirements and keep what we see to ourselves. The contract between A-G and NHSL addresses data protection in significant detail and your ILS sharing this data with SHAREit should not be a cause for concern any more than having patron data in your own hosted ILS would be.

Why didn't I see that multi-copy request?

Responding to a recent letter to the NHAIS-ILL e-mail list seeking help with a multi-copy request that failed to yield the desired number of copies marked Shipped, a writer offered a copy and wondered why she never saw a request for the title in the NHAIS ILL System.

To answer that, suppose the borrower needs 4 copies and the NHAIS ILL System says it's found 8 potential lenders.

When the request is submitted, the system creates 4 requests, each having 2 potential lenders in the lender list. No locations are duplicated among the different lender lists. (For details on how lender lists are created for multi-copy requests, see a post from September 2021.)

If your library was second in the lender list and the first library marked the request Shipped, you'd never see the request. 

For borrowers, the Rebuild Lender List button on the Borrower's Full Record Display is an option to start over on a single-copy request but it's not designed for multi-copy requests even though the button is there. Sending a message to the NHAIS-ILL e-mail list is often the best option for borrowers when the NHAIS ILL System can't come up with the required number of copies.