Using Sierra SMS

If your library has acquired Sierra SMS, your patrons can opt to receive the following circulation notices as mobile phone text messages:

• Hold pickup notices
• Hold cancellation notices
• Overdue notices

Sierra SMS can send second and third notices as reminders. Your library can customize the message text on each of these notices. Additionally, Sierra SMS can deliver notices in English, Spanish, and French.

Sierra SMS uses an external, cloud-based system to send messages from an authorized and verified phone number. The system provides daily performance metrics.

For more information on this product, see the following:

• How Sierra SMS Works
• How Patrons Opt In for SMS Notices

How Sierra SMS Works

During implementation, your library selects which notice types to send using Sierra SMS. For each notice type, you can further limit which notices Sierra SMS sends by the following criteria:

• Locations Served -- Your library can decide which Locations Served entries in your organization use Sierra SMS and which use your existing notices functionality. For example, the Main branch can send overdue notices using Sierra SMS, while the South and West branches use other methods such as email and print. By default, the system sends notices for all locations when you enable Sierra SMS for a notice type.
• Delivery Method -- During notice production, Sierra sorts notices into different queues (see How the System Uses Delivery Preferences to Send Notices for more information on this process). Your library can choose to send the print queue, the email queue, or both to Sierra SMS).

Once enabled, Sierra uses your existing notice jobs to send notice data to the Sierra SMS queue as follows:

1. Sierra queues the notices based on your library's saved notice parameters.
2. On the library-specified days, Sierra processes the notices and sends them to the Sierra SMS queue if:
   • The notice meets the implementation criteria your library selected (that is, matches a Locations Served value and a delivery method configured for Sierra SMS).
   • The notice is for a patron who has opted-in to receive them using Sierra SMS).

Sierra delivers the remaining notices according to your library's settings.

3. Sierra SMS sends the messages to the patrons.

How Patrons Opt In for SMS Notices

Patrons opt in using an external webpage configured for your library. Patrons must enter the following information on the opt-in page:

• First name
• Last name
• The phone number at which they want to receive the text messages
• Patron barcode
• Patron PIN code

Sierra SMS uses this information to validate the patron against your library's database. If the validation process is successful, Sierra SMS sends the patron a welcome message. Patrons can opt out of receiving notices by text message at any time by responding "STOP" to a message.

When a patron opts in to receive notices from Sierra SMS, the system:

• Does not change the value to the NOTICES PREF field in the patron record. Instead, Sierra routes the eligible notices to the Sierra SMS queue based on your library's implementation. The remaining notices are delivered according to the patron's preference. See How the System Uses Delivery Preferences to Send Notices for more information.
• Stores the telephone number entered by the patron in an external database. This phone number can be different than the one stored in the patron record in the Sierra database.