Preparing Notices

To use the Notices function, you must be assigned permission to generate at least one type of circulation notice. To generate notices for all locations, you must be assigned permission 363 (Send notices for All locations). To create, edit, or prepare auto notice jobs, you must be assigned permission 366 (Auto Notices). For more information, see Permissions Used by Sierra.

The current setting of the Fines/Bills: Minimum charge for fines notice to print circulation option specifies the minimum charge required to print a fine notice. The system does not print fine notices for amounts lower than this value.

To manually prepare circulation notices using the selected parameters:

Create the notices job. After you select the parameters for a notices job, you can prepare notices for the job.
Prepare the notices. Depending on your library's notices setting, choose one of the following:
- If your library uses the Manual setting, click Prepare Notices.
- If your library uses the Save Parameters or Auto Notices setting, click File | Prepare or Prepare.
If you have not already selected a printer, choose one. The system does the following:
1. Prepares notices using the selected parameters. To cancel this process, click Cancel.
2. Disables the notice parameters options in the top pane, with the exception of the Sort By button. To view the sort order chosen for the selected parameters, if any, click Sort By.
3. Displays the table of prepared notices in the bottom pane. The table includes some or all of the following tabs in the prepared notices pane:

To print out a tab's contents (where possible), click File | Print Table or Print.

To continue, send the notices to patrons via email, telephone notification, or the printer. To change a parameter or prepare new notices using a different set of parameters, click File | Close or Close to return to the notices job parameters screen.

Tabs in the Prepared Notices Pane

After you prepare notices, the system displays the relevant tabs in the prepared notices pane, and displays information about the prepared notices in the Notices tab. The system displays information in the additional tabs only after you send the notices.

Information Displayed After Notices Are Prepared: Notices
Information Displayed After Notices Are Sent: Items Not Sent or Titles Not Sent; Emails; Summary

Notices

The Notices tab contains the following:

Send Notices button
Notice Method button
Move All to Print Queue button
Do Not Clear check box
Table of prepared notices
Right-click menu

Send Notices Button

The Send Notices button lets you send the prepared notices to patrons via email, telephone notification, or the printer (depending on your library's setup).

Notice Method Button

The Notice Method drop-down list displays the delivery method assigned by the system to the notices displayed in the table, as well as the number of notices to be sent by that delivery method. For example, the drop-down list might display 38 to E-mail. The table displays only the notices that can be sent using the delivery method currently selected.

By default, the Notice Method list displays the list of notices to be sent via the Print delivery method. If your library has acquired Sending Circulation Notices via Email and/or telephone notification (using i-tiva or Teleforms), the Notice Method list also displays the number of notices to be sent via Email and/or Telephone Notification.

To view the list of notices that can be sent to patrons using a different delivery method, select a different delivery method from the Notice Method drop-down list .

Manually Preparing Auto Notices

If you manually prepare an auto notice, Sierra ignores all of its auto notice settings.

Move All to Print Queue Button

The Move All to Print Queue button lets you move all notices within a queue to the Print queue. Any notices you manually move to the Print queue are sent to the printer for the current session only; in other words, the next time this notices job is prepared, the system will place email notices in the Email queue and telephone notification notices in the Teleforms queue.

To move the notices listed in the Email or Teleforms queue to the Print queue:

Select the queue that contains the notices you want to print (e.g., 38 to E-mail or 2 to Teleforms).
Click Move All to Print Queue. The system prompts you to confirm.
To print the selected notices, click Yes. To cancel the move and continue to send the selected notices using the current delivery method (email or telephone notification), click No.

Do Not Clear check box

If you do not want to permanently clear the notices that were successfully sent, select the Do Not Clear check box.

If you do not permanently clear the notices:

Sierra removes the notices that were successfully sent (that is, the notices that are not listed in the Items Not Sent tabs). The system displays these unsent notices the next time you generate notices for this notice type.
If you sent overdue notices, the system updates the OVERDUE and ODUE DATE fields in the related item records to show which overdue notices were sent.
If you sent overdue notices and the system sent the highest overdue level notice (or a notice containing all overdue levels) for an item, the system generates a replacement bill for the item.

Cleared Notices Are Permanently Cleared

After you send notices, you can regenerate statements of charges, statements of checked out items, and title paging lists. All other sent notices are permanently cleared.

Table of Prepared Notices

The table of prepared notices displays the following information:

Notice #: The notice number. When the system combines multiple notices for one patron into one notice, the system displays the first notice entry with all the available information, and displays subsequent entries for that patron's notice without information in the Notice # or Patron Name columns. The following entry for a different patron displays the next consecutive notice number in the sequence. For more information about printing multiple notices for one patron, see Sorting Notices by Location.
Patron Name: The name of the patron for whom the notice was prepared.
Title: The title of the item for which the notice was prepared. If the notice was prepared for a manual fine, the system displays "Manual Charge" instead of a title.
Call # or Barcode: The call number or barcode of the item for which the notice was prepared. (You can switch between the two fields by right-clicking the toggle icon.)
Item Status: The item's current status.
Invoice #: The invoice number. This column only displays when certain notice types (e.g., manual fines) are prepared.

Right-click Menu

The right-click menu in the Notices tab displays the following options:

View Item: Displays the item record associated with the entry.
View Patron: Displays the patron record associated with the entry.
Print Table: Prints the table of generated notices.
Move to Print Queue: Prompts: Move all notices for patron <name> to print queue? To move all notices for the patron associated with the selected entry to the print queue, click Yes. The system moves the selected patron's notices to the print queue for the current session only.

Items Not Sent or Titles Not Sent

The Items Not Sent or Titles Not Sent tab lists all of the items or titles for which the system is unable to generate notices. For example:

PATRON: 1001169
ITEM: 1538073
REASON: Invalid notice text specified in the item record

Reasons that the system is unable to generate a notice include:

Invalid notice text specified in the item record
Circtext is zero (")
Notices not created for patrons with manual block set to <invalid setting> (for example, a blank space)

Emails

If your library has acquired Sending Circulation Notices via Email, the Emails tab lists notices that were sent via electronic mail. For example:

PATRON: Tate, Catherine
Inv #15626
TITLE: Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster. CALL NO: DIC

Summary

The Summary tab lists additional information about the prepared notices. For example, if you prepare overdue notices, the Summary tab lists the following types of information:

			NOTICES TO E-MAIL
			Level 1 : 2 item(s)

			NOTICES TO Teleforms
			Level 1 : 3 item(s)

			NOTICES TO PRINT
			Level 1 : 10 item(s)
			Level 2 : 4 item(s)

If you prepare bills and fines, the Summary tab lists the following types of information:

			Invoice numbers 5377 - 7000

			Thu Dec 04 2003 17:57:15

			52 MANUAL      totaling          $26.00
			45 OVERDUE     totaling         $694.35
			3 REPLACEMENT totaling          $43.68
			38 OVERDUEX    totaling         $594.70
			2 LOST        totaling          $33.00
			4 OVERDUE     totaling          $42.65
			-----------------------------------------------
			144                            $1,434.38

Continuing the Process of Creating Notices

To continue to create notices that you want to send immediately, send the prepared notices to the patron.

See also:: Using Notices: Notes on Functionality; Using Circulation Notices; Notice Delivery Preferences; Possible Messages (Using Circulation Notices); Viewing the Saved Notices Table; Selecting Notice Parameters; Printing Title Information