In transit transactions

Issue in transit items

The Issue In Transit transaction is available as a transaction type in the Circ.Desk screen. If an item returned by a user is required to satisfy a reservation at a different location, you can issue the item with the transaction type of Issue In Transit. The receiving library can then select a Return In Transit transaction and issue the item to the reserving user. Alternatively the Issue In Transit transaction may be used if a user has borrowed a copy of an item from their home location and returned the copy to a different location.

 Note: if you intend to use the Issue / Return In Transit feature you should use the Layouts menu at the top of the screen to select the Issues/Returns/Renewals (In Transit) layout.

1. Change the Transaction Type to In Transit Issue.
2. Enter the location in the In Transit Loc field – you can add the location from a search or you can type in the Location KeyID if you know it.
3. In the Copy field scan or enter the copy barcode. Repeat for all items to be issued.
4. As you enter the barcode, OLIB displays the Title of each item in the Transactions box. In the Copy column, the 'to' Location is displayed after the copy barcode in parentheses. The Transaction Type shows as In Transit Issue .
5. Once the item has been issued, click Clear.

 Note: In Transit items that have a Hold, no longer trigger an Item to Collect message for the reserving user, until the item has arrived at the pick-up location and has been re-held for the user.

When the copy is received by the library it has been sent to – the system will recognise that the item has been in transit:

1. Scan or enter the copy barcode.
2. OLIB displays a message, such as "This item belongs to Main Library [cmc024]"
3. An In Transit Receipt transaction will be performed automatically and be visible in the Transactions box.

There is no need to set the Transaction Type or In Transit Loc. The item will be held again for the reserving user if appropriate and the item can now be issued to the user in the normal way.

 Tip: the above message defaults to displaying the item location's long description. It can be changed by the system manager editing circulation message cmc024 and replacing <CP_LOLD> with (or adding) <CP_LOSD> and/or <CP_LO>.

When an item is issued in transit, a check is made to confirm whether the In Transit To location is the same as the Collect From location if a Collect From location was specified when the reservation was placed. If it is not, OLIB displays a message and Library staff can continue with the transaction or abandon it:

Reservation held alert

This alert is delayed for a held item so that the user does not receive the alert before the held item is received at the reserving location. The alert is not sent for 60 minutes after the item is held. If during that time you perform an Issue in Transit then the Reservation Held alert is set to status -

do not transmit the alert now until a Return in Transit is performed on the item

When the item reaches the library where the user will collect it and you process Return in Transit, the alert is set back to awaiting transmission and will be sent the next time the SendAlerts process wakes up.

Configure the delay period: in the Notices domain, do this on the Reservation Held notification in Minutes After Hold. You can set any number of minutes up to 999. (If you do not set it, a default of 60 minutes is applied). These minutes take account of library opening hours, so it only counts the time the library is open. If you have only one location and do not intend to make use of the In Transit function, you may prefer to set this value to a low number.

Send On / Do By: - In the Alerts domain, on the Reservation Held record, this is the date and time at which the alert will actually be sent.

Circ Issue Notice: The Circ Issue notice to use if the item is issued before the Reservation Held alert has been sent.

When the reservation held notification is set to have a delay to allow for ‘In Transit’ functionality it may be the case that the item is issued to the user and sent by post before the reservation held notification has been processed. The act of issuing the copy means that the item is no longer held and the reservation held notification will not be sent. Using Circ Issue Notice you can send an issue alert instead.

As usual for notices, create your own copy of the Example Circ. Issue Notice. However, it does not have to be enabled for it to be sent in lieu of the Res. Held alert that it is linked to. It will be sent regardless of whether it is enabled or not.

 Caution: do not enable the Circ Issue notice, otherwise it will be sent every time an issue transaction is completed.

Note that the Circ Issue notice when used in place of the Reservation Held notice should also only include tags from BORROWERS, COPIES, TITLES - not circulation transaction tags (<CT_XXX>).

Issue In Transit alert

An alerting email can be sent to the Location where an In Transit copy has been issued. For example:

To configure:

1. Go to the Location(s) records that will be receiving In Transit copies. In Issue/Renewal/Return Parameters: In Transit To Alerts, enter the email address of the library / person(s) who should receive the In Transit email alert.
2. In Alerting> Notices, create a copy of the Example Circ Issues In Transit Notice. Set the Transmit Type field to To In Transit To location. Enable the notice.

Note that if you want different notices to be sent to different locations, you should configure a separate Circ Issues in Transit Notice for each location. In the notice’s Locations field enter the location code of the receiving location, e.g. MAIN.