Notices (Sierra)
You can print or email the following types of circulation notices, depending on the permissions assigned to your Sierra login.
Table of Contents
- 1 Notices That Should be Run by All Members
- 1.1 Bib or Title Paging List Notices (Run Daily)
- 1.2 Creating a Bib or Title Paging List Notice
- 1.3 Bills Notices
- 1.4 Creating a Bills Notice
- 1.5 Courtesy Notice (Optional)
- 1.6 Creating a Courtesy Notice
- 1.7 Hold Cancellation Only Notice (Run Daily)
- 1.8 Creating a Hold Cancellation Only Notice
- 1.9 Hold Pickup Only Notice
- 1.10 Creating a Hold Pickup Only Notice
- 1.11 INN-Reach Paging Slips Notice (Prospector Libraries Only)
- 1.12 Creating INN-Reach Paging Slip Notice
- 1.13 Item Paging Slip Notice (Run Daily)
- 1.14 Overdue Notice
- 1.14.1 Overdue Variables
- 1.15 Creating an Overdue Notice
- 2 Notices Specific to Certain Library
- 3 OTHER NOTICES (INFORMATION ONLY)
- 4 SAVING NOTICES (Save & Save As)
- 5 Sending Manual Notices
- 6 Notices Sent to Patrons
- 7 Paging Notices
- 8 Other Notice Features
- 9 How Often To Run Each Notice Type
- 10 Related Documentation
Notices That Should be Run by All Members
The notices sent to a patron are determined by Loan Rules for courtesy notices, overdue notices, hold pickup notices, cancellation notices and bill notices. Other patron notices such as statements of charges or checked-out items can be sent on an as-needed basis by library staff. Notices such as paging slips are generated according to hold parameters.
Bib or Title Paging List Notices (Run Daily)
The title-paging list contains a list of items that have been paged to fulfill a title-level hold. A title page is generated when you place a title-level hold and choose to page for the title.
According to the Patron Placed Holds (PPH) Best Practices document, the Bib or Title Paging Lists should be run daily at the same time. It is up to the participating library how many times a day these notices are run.
ALWAYS scan the item, even if the item is non-circulating. This way, the next library owning the item will get an item or title page slip. Sierra traps a hold for 24 hours. If your library does not want to fulfill this hold, choosing the option “Check in, and do not fulfill the hold” will move the hold to the next available item faster.
Paging and the Not Wanted Before Date - If a hold has a Not Wanted Before date in the future, the hold is queued for paging but does not display in the Title Paging list until the Not Wanted Before date has passed.
Possible duplicate entries occur if there is more than one hold on a title (either for the same patron or for different patrons); the same entry can appear more than once on your location's list. This can occur when two item level holds are placed on the same item. Both holds will appear in the item level paging slips. This will also happen when two holds get placed at almost the same time. Two simultaneous holds might appear in the bib/tile paging slips, but only one will actually get filled. Unfortunately, it is a system glitch that causes the slips to appear more than once on your notice list.
Once you run the report, pull the requested items from the shelf and scan the item barcodes using the Check-In (No Patron) function of Sierra.
At this point, the screen will give the choices of:
“Fulfill hold” will fulfill the hold for the requesting patron
“Check in, do not fulfill hold” (this option can be used for items that are in disrepair, non-circulating or have other issues. This will send the hold to another library.
ALWAYS scan the item, even if the item is non-circulating. This way, the next library owning the item will get an item or title page slip.
Read the screen to make sure the item is properly routed.
Cancel Hold will cancel the patron’s hold.
(Never Cancel Holds from this screen unless the print hold cancellation notice option is chosen. Otherwise canceling a hold will cause the marmot patron to lose their hold on the item without warning. (This process can also be managed by using the Search Holds module or / View Holds report or by moving the patron on the queue option.)
Items to be picked up at your own library can be placed on the hold shelf for patron pick up via standard notification options (e-mail, phone, letter, etc). Items should remain on the hold shelf for eight (8) days.
Returning items can be bundled together with the patron-initiated hold items traveling to the same location. The item barcode will be scanned and checked in when the item(s) reaches the owning library.
Missing items & Item status: If an item cannot be located, please change the item status on the computer or if time allows, replace the hold for the patron. The other option is to cancel the hold and send a Hold Cancellation Only notice, which will update the patron or the requesting library that a hold was canceled.
Creating a Bib or Title Paging List Notice
Go to Notices from the Sierra Function menu.
Click on the New icon.
The New Job box will appear. The Notice Type always defaults to Overdue. Under Locations will be your library or library branch. Note: Make sure to not change from your library location to All. This would send out notices to all the Marmot libraries.
Use the Notice Type drop-down menu to change from Overdue to Title Paging List.
You may want to sort the Title Paging List notice. Click on the Sort By button.
This will bring up the Sort Notices box. To sort the order in which the notices are generated, click Sort By. The system displays the Sort Notices table, which consists of three columns:
Line: The order in which the entry is applied. In other words, the system sorts the notices by the entry in Line 1 and then sub sorts them by the entry in Line 2.
Type: The record type that contains the field by which the system sorts the notices. You can choose fields from three record types: Bibliographic, Item, or Patron.
Field: The field in the selected record type by which the system sorts the notices (e.g., Location or Call #).
Double click on the box under Type to bring up the Select Me box. For this example, we are going to use the Type of Item. Click on Item, and click the OK button.
Next, we are going to double click on the box under Field to bring up the Select Me box again. This time, we are going to pick the Fixed Field of Location. This will sort the notices in alphabetical order by the location of each item.
We are going to add a second line to this sort. Click on the Append button to add a second line.
We would repeat steps 7 & 8 to add the Type of Item, and Variable Field of Call #. This would sort the list first by location and next by the item call # for each of those locations. Click the Save button.
This will change the information on the button to Sorted By Location, Call#. Next, we will review the Select Template button. If you do not want to use a template, skip to step 14.
Click on the Select Template button to add a Print Template. If you do not have a Print Template in your preferred templates, you will see everyone’s print templates. Contact the User Services ILS Administrator to have a print template created for your library. If you see your template, highlight it and click Select. If you want to use a Print template, but your Select Template button is grayed out, contact Marmot.
The Select Template button will be renamed to include the print template name.
Click the Save icon. This will bring up the Select Form Printer box to set up the printer for your Title Paging Lists notice. The Sierra Printer Setup explains more about the Local and E-mail Printer options.
For this example, we are going to pick the E-mail Printer option. Once the prompts are followed to add an email address, we will get the Save Job As? box. It is best to do a naming convention that includes your library name or your 2 or 3-letter library code, and the name of the notice. If you run your notices manually, you could also include how many times to run the notice in the Job Name (i.e. EVG Title Paging Slips 1x a day). You could also use Bib instead of Title. If you have branches, you should include that information as well. You cannot save the selected parameters until you choose a Job Name. When finished with the Job Name, click OK.
This will put the Job Name at the top. Click the Close icon.
The newly created notice will show up in the Notices for your library or library branch. The notice drop-down was for Title Paging Lists, but the Notice Type is Bib Paging Lists. This change is made within the system.
Bills Notices
Billing for lost items is based on the patron’s home library’s rules (not the owning Library). You must run the highest level of overdue notices in order to generate replacement bills for unreturned items.
When sending notices by mail, the best practice is to send a copy to the patron’s home library.
Sierra can generate the following bill:
Replacement Bill - The system generates a replacement bill when you mark an item lost or when a patron fails to return a checked-out item. When marking an item lost, it causes the system to bill the item immediately, rather than in the normal cycle of notice printing and billing. Mark an item as lost only if you need to bill it immediately; for example, if a patron wishes to pay for a lost book before a notice has been prepared by the system.
Billed Items Fee Collection: The home library for the Patron Place Hold (PPH) borrowing patron PH) will collect all billing fees for lost items from their patrons. The item's home library will not collect the money. According to the PPH Best Practices, you will not charge each other for items lost in the PPH process.
Billed items to Lost items: The owning library may contact the lending library to mark items lost on their patron’s record, which will allow the owning library to delete or modify the record as they see fit.
No money is exchanged between libraries for lost items. Lending libraries should contact owning libraries to see if they will accept a replacement copy and if only an exact copy is acceptable or if a newer/different edition is acceptable.
A list of libraries that will accept a replacement copy is available on the Marmot Patron Placed Holds Help. If a replacement is not accepted by the owning library, a replacement copy can be added instead to the borrowing library’s collection, which will make the item available again in Marmot. Each library will determine the price they will bill to their own patrons for lost PPH items.
Stolen and damaged books are handled like any other lost book. The owning library should work with CLIC if an item is damaged by the courier.
Creating a Bills Notice
Go to Notices from the Sierra Function menu.
Click on the New icon.
The New Job box will appear. The Notice Type always defaults to Overdue. Under Locations will be your library or library branch. Note: Make sure to not change from your library location to All. This would send out notices to all the Marmot libraries.
Use the Notice Type drop-down menu to change from Overdue to Bills.
Note: if a multi-branch library would only like to have one person or library send out the Bills notice, the Location Served can be set to the main location code for those libraries.
Click on the Email Subject (Default) button to change what your patrons will see as an email subject line when receiving a notice. See Sierra Changing the email subject line for notices for more information on how to change the email subject for existing notices.
Once you click on the Email Subject (Default) button, the Email Subject box will appear. Click on the 4. Billing Notice – Library materials line. Click OK.
The Email Subject button will change from Email Subject (Default) to Email Subject (4). Next, we will review the Select Template button. If you do not want to use a template, skip to step 10.
If the Include Telephone Number is available, you would click this box to include the patron’s phone number. If the Include Amount Owed is available, you could check the box to include the total amount, if any, that the patron owes the library.
Click on the Select Template button to add a Print Template. If you do not have a Print Template in your preferred templates, you will see everyone’s print templates. Contact the User Services ILS Administrator to have a print template created for your library. If you see your template, highlight it and click Select. If you want to use a Print template, but your Select Template button is grayed out, contact Marmot.
The Select Template button will be renamed to include the print template name.
Click the Save icon. This will bring up the Select Form Printer box to set up the printer for your Bills notice. The Sierra Printer Setup explains more about the Local and E-mail Printer options.
For this example, we are going to pick the E-mail Printer option. Once the prompts are followed to add an email address, we will get the Save Job As? box. It is best to do a naming convention that includes your library name or your 2 or 3-letter library code, and the name of the notice. If you run your notices manually, you could also include how many times to run the notice in the Job Name (i.e. EVG Bills Notice 1x a day). If you have branches, you should include that information as well. You cannot save the selected parameters until you choose a Job Name. When finished with the Job Name, click OK.
This will put the Job Name at the top. Click the Close icon.
The newly created notice will show up in the Notices for your library or library branch. The Notice Type will show as Bills.
Courtesy Notice (Optional)
Sierra generates courtesy notices for your patrons to inform them that their items are almost due. Multiple items can appear on a single patron's courtesy notice. The system does not generate courtesy notices for hourly loans.
It is recommended that courtesy notices be configured as nightly auto notices or run daily, as the system generates courtesy notices only for the day they are run.
The system will not print notices from prior days. Using auto notices to send courtesy notices ensures that patrons receive courtesy notices even on days when your library is closed.
When you run courtesy notices, the system also updates the item ODUE DATE field in the item record. This update prevents a second notice from being sent if courtesy notices are run again. Running courtesy notices does not increase the overdue level specified in the # OVERDUE field of the item record.
Creating a Courtesy Notice
Go to Notices from the Sierra Function menu.
Click on the New icon.
The New Job box will appear. The Notice Type always defaults to Overdue. Under Locations will be your library or library branch. Note: Make sure to not change from your library location to All. This would send out notices to all the Marmot libraries.
Use the Notice Type drop-down menu to change from Overdue to Courtesy.
Note: if a multi-branch library would only like to have one person or library send out the Courtesy notice, the Location Served can be set to the main location code for those libraries.
Click on the Email Subject (Default) button to change what your patrons will see as an email subject line when receiving a notice. See Sierra Changing the email subject line for notices for more information on how to change the email subject for existing notices.
Once you click on the Email Subject (Default) button, the Email Subject box will appear. Click on the 1. Courtesy Notice – your Library materials are due soon line. Click OK.
The Email Subject button will change from Email Subject (Default) to Email Subject (1). Next, we will review the Select Template button. If you do not want to use a template, skip to step 10.
Click on the Select Template button to add a Print Template. If you do not have a Print Template in your preferred templates, you will see everyone’s print templates. Contact the User Services ILS Administrator to have a print template created for your library. If you see your template, highlight it and click Select. If you want to use a Print template, but your Select Template button is grayed out, contact Marmot.
The Select Template button will be renamed to include the print template name.
Click the Save icon. This will bring up the Select Form Printer box to set up the printer for your Courtesy notice. The Sierra Printer Setup explains more about the Local and E-mail Printer options.
For this example, we are going to pick the E-mail Printer option. Once the prompts are followed to add an email address, we will get the Save Job As? box. It is best to do a naming convention that includes your library name or your 2 or 3-letter library code, and the name of the notice. If you run your notices manually, you could also include how many times to run the notice in the Job Name (i.e. EVG Courtesy Notice 1x a day). If you have branches, you should include that information as well. You cannot save the selected parameters until you choose a Job Name. When finished with the Job Name, click OK.
This will put the Job Name at the top. Click the Close icon.
The newly created notice will show up in the Notices for your library or library branch. The Notice Type will show as Courtesy.
Hold Cancellation Only Notice (Run Daily)
The system generates a hold cancellation notice when a hold is canceled, or when unclaimed holds are removed from the hold shelf.
Sierra sends hold notices to patrons when you prepare and send hold cancellation notices.
According to the Patron Placed Holds (PPH) Best Practices document, the Hold Cancellation Notices should be run every day. Hold cancellation notices/letters will be generated and can be sent to patrons. Libraries may choose to address each notice before alerting the patron.
Run the Manage Holds report at least two times a week. This report lists all the items on the hold shelf. This report is used to troubleshoot holds that have not changed status. It is recommended that the “holds placed before” on the report should be no longer than 7 days unless the item is currently checked out or there are multiple holds on the item, therefore the wait will be longer. In transit, items should not remain in transit status for more than 7 days.
The Sierra Clear Expired Holds and Holdshelf function is important to run on a regular basis to keep the virtual hold shelf and actual hold shelf in sync.
Creating a Hold Cancellation Only Notice
Go to Notices from the Sierra Function menu.
Click on the New icon.
The New Job box will appear. The Notice Type always defaults to Overdue. Under Locations will be your library or library branch. Note: Make sure to not change from your library location to All. This would send out notices to all the Marmot libraries.
Use the Notice Type drop-down menu to change from Overdue to Hold Cancellation Only.
Note: if a multi-branch library would only like to have one person or library send out the Hold Cancellation Only notice, the Location Served can be set to the main location code for those libraries.
Click on the Email Subject (Default) button to change what your patrons will see as an email subject line when receiving a notice. See Sierra Changing the email subject line for notices for more information on how to change the email subject for existing notices.
Once you click on the Email Subject (Default) button, the Email Subject box will appear. Click on the 6. Hold Cancellation Notice – your library request line. Click OK.
The Email Subject button will change from Email Subject (Default) to Email Subject (6). Next, we will review the Select Template button. If you do not want to use a template, skip to step 10.
Click on the Select Template button to add a Print Template. If you do not have a Print Template in your preferred templates, you will see everyone’s print templates. Contact the User Services ILS Administrator to have a print template created for your library. If you see your template, highlight it and click Select. If you want to use a Print template, but your Select Template button is grayed out, contact Marmot.
The Select Template button will be renamed to include the print template name.
Click the Save icon. This will bring up the Select Form Printer box to set up the printer for your Hold Cancellation Only notice. The Sierra Printer Setup explains more about the Local and E-mail Printer options.
For this example, we are going to pick the E-mail Printer option. Once the prompts are followed to add an email address, we will get the Save Job As? box. It is best to do a naming convention that includes your library name or your 2 or 3-letter library code, and the name of the notice. If you run your notices manually, you could also include how many times to run the notice in the Job Name (i.e. EVG Hold Cancellation Notice 1x a day). If you have branches, you should include that information as well. You cannot save the selected parameters until you choose a Job Name. When finished with the Job Name, click OK.
This will put the Job Name at the top. Click the Close icon.
The newly created notice will show up in the Notices for your library or library branch. The Notice Type will show as Hold Cancellation Only.
Hold Pickup Only Notice
When you check in an item that satisfies a hold, the system prompts you to generate a hold pickup notice. Anytime an item with a hold is checked in, there will be a pop-up box asking you to click on one of three choices: Fulfill hold, Check in, do not fulfill hold, or Cancel hold.
Fulfill hold – This will change the item status to “on hold shelf”
Check in, do not fulfill hold – This will move the hold to another library
Cancel hold – This will cancel the patron’s hold. This should not be clicked unless you know the patron wants their hold canceled.
When you click the Fulfill hold button, the system adds this hold to your Sierra notices.
Sierra sends hold notices to patrons when you prepare and send the hold pickup notice.
An individual hold notice can contain information about multiple items relating to a single patron.
Creating a Hold Pickup Only Notice
Go to Notices from the Sierra Function menu.
Click on the New icon.
The New Job box will appear. The Notice Type always defaults to Overdue. Under Locations will be your library or library branch. Note: Make sure to not change from your library location to All. This would send out notices to all the Marmot libraries.
Use the Notice Type drop-down menu to change from Overdue to Hold Pickup Only.
Note: if a multi-branch library would only like to have one person or library send out the Hold Pickup Only notice, the Location Served can be set to the main location code for those libraries.
Click on the Email Subject (Default) button to change what your patrons will see as an email subject line when receiving a notice. See Sierra Changing the email subject line for notices for more information on how to change the email subject for existing notices.
Once you click on the Email Subject (Default) button, the Email Subject box will appear. Click on the 5. Hold Notification - pick up your request(s) at the library line. Click OK.
The Email Subject button will change from Email Subject (Default) to Email Subject (5). Next, we will review the Sort By button. If you do not want to use a sort, skip to step 12.
Next, you may want to sort the Hold Pickup Only notice by Holds. Click on the Sort By button. This will sort the holds by title for your patrons. This is optional.
This will bring up the Sort Notices box. To sort the order in which the notices are generated, click Sort By.
The system displays the Sort Notices table, which consists of three columns:
Line: The order in which the entry is applied. In other words, the system sorts the notices by the entry in Line 1 and then sub sorts them by the entry in Line 2.
Type: The record type that contains the field by which the system sorts the notices. You can choose fields from three record types: Bibliographic, Item, or Patron.