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Once a year members submit information to Alliance staff to reconcile accounts and reimburse each other for lost and damaged materials. Lost items are defined as items checked out to a Summit patron with a due date that falls in the business year. For damaged items: report items since last report, through March 31. To avoid separate payments to every other member, Alliance staff will calculate the net difference and inform the members how much is owed to the other members.
For accounting, record clearing, and problem solving, the business year for lost items is April 1 through March 31 the following year. Timeliness: The Orbis Borrowing Committee, at the 11-19-98 meeting, committed to completing all steps in an expeditious manner, within the timeframe specified, and to finish item record maintenance immediately after conclusion of the annual process.
Note about CRL: this annual project does not include Center for Research Libraries (CRL) materials. CRL is not an Alliance member library. The individual Alliance institutions may be members of CRL and have access to borrow materials from the Center. CRL will bill members directly, and members are responsible for reimbursing CRL.
Preparing the Institutional Overdues (IO) List
In Millennium:
- Change mode to INN-Reach Reports
- Select Institutional Overdues from the Report Type drop-down list
- In the Millennium days text box enter minimum
and maximum number of days that will return a list of overdue items from April 1 [2007] - March 31
[2008]. If you've missed something from last year, you'll
want it included in this report, so we suggest for this year omit the
maximum. For the minimum, count the number of days from March 31 to the
day you prepare the report.
- Choose Prepare
- Toggle from Barcode to Call Number so the Call Number is displaying
- Search your stacks (main and branch
libraries, other shelving, etc.) to locate items; remove from list; prepare report again, repeating preceding steps
- Highlight all the rows in the list (the select all function doesn't work)
- Type Ctrl C to copy (the Edit > Copy function in Millennium won't work for this task)
- Open new Microsoft Excel document
- Click in the cell for A1 so it's highlighted
- Type Ctrl V or select Edit > Paste from the top toolbar in Excel
- Save your Excel document as [your institution]-AAR08.xls. example:
PSU-AAR08.xls
- Send to summit@uoregon.edu as an attachment
Also, don't forget to include in your list: Items accidentally marked as Claims Returned and items Damaged Beyond Repair |
Patron and Item Record Cleanup
Staff at Owning Site (OS) and Borrowing Site (BS) work together to clean up and clear out item records after searching is completed and the Master List is posted.
Borrowing Site:
- Check-in item at Borrowing Site. Add a note to the patron record documenting that the item was not returned, but checked-in from patron to allow it to be withdrawn from the collection.
- Go into "Collect Money" and collect or waive charges for the item.
- Notify the Alliance when you've finished your
patron record work (summit@uoregon.edu)
Owning Site:
- Don't begin item work until all libraries have finished their patron record work.
- Check in at Owning Site.
- Change the item status code and set it to missing. If desired, add a note to item record. For example: Borrowing site 9ore0 paid for lost item in AAR.
- Use local procedures for Withdrawal, replacement, etc.
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Invoicing
Council decided at its October 13-14, 2005 meeting that that Alliance would serve as a bank for its members during the AAR invoicing process: "Using Alliance as a 'bank' members would send a single payment to Alliance for everything they owe; Alliance would process consolidated reimbursements to the individual members. Result: one check in from each, one check out to each, instead of each member writing checks to several or many other members." |
FAQ
Items returned after billing |
Each site has its own policy addressing whether to issue credit to patrons returning materials after billing; i.e. how long after billing is it possible to issue a refund.
Return the item to the owning site, regardless of whether the owning site has already replaced the item; retention decisions are the responsibility of the owning site. |
Items returned after AAR |
- No institution refunds
- No institution credit
- Patron refunds are a local decision
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Patron claims item returned |
Claims Returned should not be used for Summit Borrowing. If it has been used accidentally, include these items with list for AAR. Regardless of whether the patron's library holds the patron responsible and bills the patron, the item hasn't been returned to the owning site, so compensation is due. |
Damaged items |
- Repairable: Don't include on the AAR List. Summit Borrowing Committee agreement: Do not keep records for repairing items damaged through Summit Borrowing because the effort of record keeping and billing outweighs the charges. In a spirit of cooperation, the cost is absorbed at the owning library.
- Non-Repairable: Include on the AAR List. For irreparable damages that leave the item no longer usable, the item will be billed at the standard replacement rate and administrative fee.
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Lost Items |
- Lost by patron or library: Include on the AAR list
- Lost by the courier: Do not include on the AAR list. If a library is certain an item was lost in transit, a claim should be submitted to the courier.
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Returned Too Long items |
Items that are still on the Returned Too Long list (checked out during the AAR accounting year) are to be listed as a liability at the patron's site, that is, lost and compensation due to owning site. |
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