Notifications

When the notification rules are defined, notifications can be sent to a patron’s email address and/or phone number, for example when a reserved item is ready to be picked up, or when items are overdue. The notifications can also be printed.

The following notification rules can be defined:

Reservation notice (a reserved item can be picked up at the library)
Overdue warning (the item due date is in x days)
Overdue reminder 1 (first reminder sent, y days after due date)
Overdue reminder 2 (second reminder sent, z days after due date)
Overdue reminder 3 (third reminder sent, xx days after due date)
Overdue reminder 4 (fourth reminder sent, yy days after due date)
Overdue reminder 5 (fifth reminder sent, zz days after due date)
Bill (bill sent, xxx days after due date)
Overdue reminder for reserved item (reminder sent directly on due date if the item is reserved by someone else)
Age group transition (a message sent to patrons that because of age, no longer belong to their previous age group)
Membership expiry warning
Debt reminder 1
Debt reminder 2
Debt reminder 3
Debt reminder 4
Debt reminder bill

One notification message contains a patron’s all items, if more than one item is overdue, ready to be picked up etc. You can set a fee for notification messages.

Overdue reminders for children are sent to the guarantor instead of to the child. Reservation notices and Overdue warnings are sent to the child. If no guarantor exists, all messages are sent to the child.

Note:
If a reminder on a preceding level is not sent for some reason (for example, a rule that prevents a certain patron category such as staff from being notified), the reminder on the next level will not be sent either.

Notification method

A patron can get notifications by print-out, email and/or SMS.

If an email address has been registered for the patron, the notification will always be sent by email (together with an SMS or as the only message). If many email addresses has been registered for a patron, the notification will be sent to the primary email address.
If the patron wants an SMS, you need to check the SMS box next to the phone number in patron details. If you add several phone numbers for which you check the SMS box, all the numbers will receive all SMS notifications.
If there is no email address or phone number for sending text messages configured for a patron, notifications can be printed in order to send by post.
See also: Printing notifications
You can suppress some notification methods for overdue reminders by using the Extra settings for the rule that you find when configuring the Circulation control/Enable overdue reminder rules.

Default notification email address

The default notification email address is defined for the consortia, account, authority or branch. For some notifications, for example reservations and acquisitions, you can define a specific notification contact. The notification contact on the lowest possible organisational level is used.

Go to the Configuration section in the main menu.
Under Circulation and notifications, click Notification contacts.
Select Default for your organisation in the list to view existing settings.
To add a new contact for notifications, click on Add contact and select a contact type in the list.

Delay of reservation notices

You have the option to set a delay of reservation notices. When the configuration is set up, the notifications will not be sent directly when the reservation is trapped in check in. They will instead be sent based on the new Organisation setting Delay for reservation notices (minutes) and when the scheduled job Generate reservation notices (delayed) is run. E.g. if the delay is set to 15 minutes in the organization settings and the job is run every 10 minutes, it can take up to 25 minutes before the notifications are sent. The two settings must be setup to match in a useful way.

Note: it is important to enable the schedules job when the delay is set. If the scheduled job is not enabled, the patrons will not get any notifications.

Managing scheduled jobs (manually)

You can send notifications to patrons manually.

Go to the Configuration section in the main menu.
On the Admin tab, click Manage scheduled jobs under Scheduled jobs.
Click Run now for the Generate overdue reminders job.

Notifications are now sent for all items matching the notification rules.

You can edit a scheduled job by clicking on it in the list. You may, for example, want to adjust the time a scheduled job is run, or cancel it temporarily.

You can get an overview of all scheduled jobs that have been run by selecting View status for executed jobs under Executed jobs.

Notification information

You find information about sent overdue notifications:

In the item details, the Use of item section.
In the patron details, the Notifications tab.

Internal notifications and notifications to suppliers

In addition to notifications to patrons, you can also set up notifications for other purposes.

You need to add notification contact settings and verify that the message texts are set up according to your needs.

Item on bill returned - to be sent internally when a billed item has been returned to the library and an external party might need to be contacted. The message is sent to the notification contact defined for overdue reminders. If this address is not defined, the default notification contact is used.
Last item deleted - to be sent internally when the last item of a reserved manifestation has been deleted. The message is sent to the notification contact defined for reservations. If this address is not defined, the default notification contact is used.
Acquisition order - to be sent to the supplier when ordering titles.
Periodical reminder - to be sent to the supplier if an issue of a periodical has not been received.