Marking Items as Lost

To mark an item lost, you must be assigned the following permissions:

  • To view the Checked-Out Items tab, you must be assigned permission 94 (View patron record in check-out).
  • If your library set the Authorization required to view checked out items for patron circulation option to "YES", you must also be assigned permission 167 (View items checked out to patron) to see all the items checked out to a patron. If this circulation option is set to "YES" and you are not assigned permission 167, you are able to view only overdue items.
  • To select the Mark Lost Items button, you must be assigned permission 53 (Lost books).

See Permissions Used by Sierra for more information.

Marking an item lost 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.

Do not mark an item lost after it has already been billed for replacement to a patron. Marking a billed item lost can generate duplicate charges for the patron. Use Batch Checkin to remove the item from the patron's record without affecting the patron's bill.

Lost ILL and INN-Reach Items

ILL items cannot be marked lost. INN-Reach items can be marked lost only if your INN-Reach System has enabled the Marking INN-Reach Items Lost feature.

To mark one or more items as lost by a patron:

  1. If the patron's record is not already displaying, retrieve it.
  2. Select the Checked-Out Items tab.
  3. In the table of items checked out to the patron, select the items to mark as lost.
  4. Click Mark Lost Items. The selected items display in the Mark Lost Items dialog.
  5. Click Add Bills to mark these items as lost. The system:
    • Removes the item(s) from the list of items checked out to the patron.
    • Changes the item's STATUS to 'n' (BILLED).
    • Calculates a replacement bill and adds the bill (with charge type Lost) to the patron's record.
    • Generates a bill notice to send to the patron.
    • Inserts a NOTE field into the item record(s), indicating that the item has been lost.
    • Adds information about the lost item to the patron record, if the system is configured to retain lost item history.
    • Prompts you to cancel any holds or bookings that exist on the item(s). For example, if there are holds on an item, the following prompt displays:

    Remove hold(s) on item #1

    In response to this prompt:

  • To cancel the hold(s) or booking(s) on the item, click Yes.
  • To retain the hold(s) or booking(s) on the item, click No.

After you have marked the item(s) as lost, you can: