Optional Telephone Renewal Functionality

If your library uses the Telephone Renewal System, Innovative can do the following to configure your system for optional functionality:

Assigning a Statistics Group to Telephone Renewals

You can choose to assign a unique statistics group to renewals processed by the Telephone Renewal System. Using a statistics group for telephone renewals allows your library to gather statistics (for example, using Web Management Reports) on how many patrons are using the Telephone Renewal System to renew their items. (Note that you do not need to assign a statistics group to track call activity statistics within the telephone renewal application.)

If you choose not to assign a statistics group for telephone renewals, the system uses one of the following methods to specify a statistics group:

To enable this feature, contact Innovative and specify the statistics group you want to use.

Specifying a Patron Barcode Prefix

The Telephone Renewal System can be configured to automatically prepend a prefix to the barcodes patrons enter when starting a telephone renewal session. If all of your library's barcodes begin with the same string of numbers (for example, 20383), you might choose to enable this feature as a convenience to patrons, similar to the function of the Patron self-identification barcode overlay OPAC option. Or, if your library's barcodes begin with letters instead of numbers (for example, all barcodes begin with PCZ), you must enable a prefix; otherwise, patrons cannot enter these letters using the telephone keypad. (Note that if your library's patron barcodes contain letters in other positions, or if not all patron barcodes begin with the same set of letters, patrons cannot enter their barcodes using the Telephone Renewal System.

To enable a patron barcode prefix, contact Innovative and specify the letters or numbers the system should automatically prepend to patron barcodes. If you use a prefix, you must re-record your library's Patron Barcode message to tell patrons which characters they should omit when entering their barcode.

Specifying an Item Barcode Substitution Character

When patrons renew items individually, they do so by entering part or all of the item's barcode. If the barcode contains letters instead of numbers in those positions, the patron cannot enter the item barcode using the telephone keypad. However, if all item barcodes predictably contain the same letter (for example, if barcodes follow a pattern such as <#########>A or C<#######>), you can specify this letter as a substitution character. Patrons can then key "*" instead of this letter when entering item barcodes to renew.

To enable an item barcode substitution character, contact Innovative and specify the character you want to use. If you use a substitution character, you must re-record your library's Enter Item Barcode message to tell patrons to use the "*" key in place of this letter in an item barcode.

See also:
Administering Telephone Renewal Messages