Question and Answer

Tech Lending Guidelines & Best Practices

 

 

In-person and Phone Renewals:

  • Check the number of items to make sure we have enough to renew

  • If we do, attempt to renew and If Alma allows it, go through with the renewal 

    • Double check the due date—it might not be a full 21-day renewal! 

  • If Alma prevents it, let the patron know we can't renew the item 

  • Do not confirm or offer a renewal until it Alma has allowed it to go through

  • Availability numbers are no longer 100% accurate. Popular items may be available but will be fulfilling requests later. The best way to check availability is to attempt renewals 

  • Not at any point offer or attempt to check the item in and back out to a patron 

  • If an item is checked in, it could be associated with a Booking request. At that point, Alma will not allow the item to be checked out—there will not be an override option 

 

Circulation best practices (particularly for high-demand items): 

  • If we have an item on the normal circulation rack, bring it out to the desk 

  • Let the patron know we’ll check to see if that item is available for check-out 

  • Attempt to check out the item 

    •  If Alma allows it, give it to the patron 

      • Double check the due date—it might not be a full 21 day loan! 

    • If Alma does not allow it,

      • Let the patron know that there is a booking preventing the system from even offering a single day’s worth of loans 

Don’t at any point indicate that scanning the item in to Alma means that we are checking it out to the patron  AND Encourage patrons to place bookings on high-demand items, even if we are able to check one out to them right then 

 

Current renewal limits - staff should be aware of item renewals but patron does not have this info.  Even if we have enough, items may not renew due to bookings. 

 

  • PCs-- 2 items 

  • Portable Recording Studio -- not renewable 

  • 3D Scanners -- not renewable 

  • Everything else-- 2 items 

  • Note, some items we only own 1-2 of, essentially making them non-renewable 

  • VHS Player 

  • MIDI piano keyboards 

  • Camera Lenses 

 

Current High Demand Items: 

  • Wifi Hotspot 

  • Macbooks 

  • Graphing Calculators 

  • iPads 

  • Surface Pro Tablet

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