Polaris as the INN-Reach Borrowing Library

A Polaris library acts as an INN-Reach borrowing library when a local patron goes to the INN-Reach Central Catalog's web interface and places a hold request on an item that was contributed by another participating library. INN-Reach first verifies that the patron is authorized to place holds in the Central Catalog. If the patron is authorized to place requests in the INN-Reach Central Catalog, INN-Reach sends a Create Patron Hold message to the library, which automatically creates an Interlibrary (ILL) hold request in Polaris.

When the book or other physical material arrives at the Polaris library, the ILL item is received in Polaris, which automatically creates the virtual bib and item records necessary for circulating the item in Polaris. The patron's account displays the ILL request in the staff client, Leap, PowerPAC, and Mobile PAC. In addition, the patron is notified that the item is held and ready for pickup.

When the patron returns the item to their local library, it may need to be transferred to a specific branch that handles the courier shipments, depending on the INN-Reach parameter set in Polaris Administration. If another branch handles shipping and receiving, the item is sent in-transit to that library. Otherwise, the item is checked in and automatically updated to Returned, or checked in and then Returned in separate processes. A Polaris Administration parameter setting determines whether the check in and return processes are combined or separate. See Set INN-Reach Request Parameters in Polaris Administration.

When the ILL request is set to Returned in Polaris, an Item in Transit API message is sent to the library that owns the item. Then, the item arrives back at the owning library where it is checked in. A Final Item Checkin API message is then sent to the Polaris library that automatically deletes the ILL hold request, the virtual item, and the virtual bib.