Courtesy Notices

To prepare courtesy notices, you must be assigned permission 398 (Courtesy Notices). See Permissions Used by Sierra for more information.

To have the Courtesy Notice feature enabled, contact Innovative.

If the Courtesy Notice feature is enabled at your library, Sierra generates courtesy notices for your patrons to inform them that their items are almost due. In Sierra 5.5 and later, you can send an additional courtesy notice.

The system sends courtesy notices to patrons when you prepare and send courtesy notices. If your library has enabled the Automatic Renewal feature, Sierra renews eligible items automatically when you send and clear courtesy notices. Multiple items can appear on a single patron's courtesy notice. The system does not generate courtesy notices for hourly loans.

For more information, see the following:

Setup and Functionality Information
Customizing Courtesy Notices
Sending an Additional Courtesy Notice
Default Courtesy Notice
Example Default Courtesy Notice

Setup and Functionality Information

Configuring Courtesy Notices

To generate courtesy notices, set the following loan rule elements:

Courtesy Notice Text Number: The entry from the Text of Circulation Notices table that prints on the courtesy notice.
Number of Days Before Odue: The number of days before an item's due date to send a courtesy notice. For example, if this element is set to '3', the sysem can generate a courtesy notice for the item only when there are three days left before the item is overdue. If this element is set to '0', the system does not generate a courtesy notice.

Auto Notices Recommended for Sending Courtesy Notices

Innovative strongly recommends that you configure the system to send courtesy notices as nightly auto notices for the following reasons:

The system generates courtesy notices only for the day they are run, that is, it does not print notices from prior days. Using auto notices to send courtesy notices ensures that patrons receive courtesy notices even on days when your library is closed.
If staff try to check in an item while sending a courtesy notice for that same item, the system cannot properly update the item and the checked-in item is left with populated ODUE DATE and # OVERDUE fields. When the item is next checked out, if that patron lets the item become overdue, the first notice received will be the next level of notice after the first level. Because one overdue notice has been skipped, the item will be billed early. Using auto notices ensures that courtesy notices are sent before library staff begin checking in items.

Courtesy Notices and SMS Alerts

If your library has acquired the SMS Alerts product, your patrons can opt to receive SMS messages alerting them that an item is almost due. The system sends courtesy SMS alerts in addition to regular courtesy notices.

How the System Prevents Duplicate Courtesy Notices

When you run courtesy notices, the system also updates the item ODUE DATE field in the item record. This update prevents a second notice from being sent if courtesy notices are run again. Running courtesy notices does not increase the overdue level specified in the # OVERDUE field of the item record.

Customizing Courtesy Notices

Your library can customize courtesy notices as follows:

Default List—The default courtesy notice is described below. If you choose to use the default notice, you can customize the return address and the courtesy notice text. To configure the notice form used for all default notices, see Formatting Options for Default Notices.
Print Templates—If your library has enabled the Print Templates feature, you can use the third-party Jaspersoft Studio application to create or modify print templates for courtesy notices.

Sending Additional Courtesy Notices

This feature is available in Sierra 5.5 and later.

To send additional courtesy notices, you must be assigned permission 402 (Additional Courtesy Notices). See Permissions Used by Sierra for more information.

You can send an additional courtesy notice to patrons the day before an item is due. Sierra sends additional courtesy notices using the same delivery method as the original courtesy notice (for example, via email), but does not attempt to renew items using the Automatic Renewal feature.

To enable additional courtesy notices, do the following:

Configure the Additional Courtesy Notice and Additional Courtesy Notice Text elements in your library's loan rules.
If your library uses Print Templates, enable a template for the Additional Courtesy Notice output type.
(Optional) Customize additional courtesy notices using the same methods as courtesy notices. See Customizing Courtesy Notices.
Create a notice job using the Additional Courtesy notice type. See Creating Circulation Notices for more information.

Sierra sends an additional courtesy when the following conditions are met:

A standard courtesy was generated.
The Number Of Days Before Odue loan rule element is set to a value greater than "1". This prevents the system from sending both courtesy notices on the same day.
The Additional Courtesy Notice loan rule element is set to "1", and the Additional Courtesy Notice Text loan rule element contains a valid value.
The item is still checked out to the patron.

Sierra does not update the ODUE DATE field in the item record like it does with the standard courtesy notice. Even if auto notices is configured to run multiple times per day, Sierra only sends the additional courtesy notice once.

Default Courtesy Notice

The default courtesy notice is composed of the following elements:

Return Address: The address of the (first) item location or, if this is not available, the first address in the Branch Addresses table; up to four lines. Your library can choose to have pre-printed forms, instead of printing this data.
Date Generated: The date on which the courtesy notice is generated.
Notice Text: Text from the Text of Circulation Notices table, as specified in the Courtesy Notice Text Number element of the loan rule.
AUTHOR: The title's author. The system obtains this data from the AUTHOR variable-length field in the bibliographic record.
TITLE: The item's title. The system obtains this data from the TITLE variable-length field in the bibliographic record.
CALL NO: The CALL # variable-length field in the local bibliographic record or, if absent from the bibliographic record, from the item record.
BARCODE: The BARCODE variable-length field in the item record.
Location: The location to which the item belongs. The system obtains this data from the LOCATION fixed-length field in the item record.
DATE CHECKED OUT: The date on which the item was checked out. The system obtains this data from the OUT DATE field in the item record.
DUE: The date on which the checked-out item is due. The system obtains this data from the DUE DATE fixed-length field in the item record.
Patron Name: The patron's name. The system obtains this data from the PATRN NAME variable-length field in the patron record.
Patron Address: The patron's address. The system obtains this data from the ADDRESS or ADDRESS2 variable-length field in the patron record.
Text of Circulation Notices Number: The number of the Notice Text in the Text of Circulation Notices table.
Print Sequence Number: Indicates sequential position of notice in print job. Each print job begins with sequence number 1.

Example Default Courtesy Notice

The following is an example of a courtesy notice:

Oakland Public Library
125 14th Street
Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 238-3134                          02-16-10

This is an automatically generated reminder. Please do not respond via
email. To view your current account status go to
http://catalog.oaklandlibrary.org/patroninfo

AUTHOR:  Kurlansky, Mark.
TITLE:   A continent of islands : searching for the Caribbean destiny
CALL NO: 972.9 KURLANSKY
BARCODE: 32141015280120
Main Library Storage - Ask at Desk DUE: 02-19-10
DATE CHECKED OUT: 01-29-10 02:34PM

JANE SMITH
100 Main St.
APT 101
EMERYVILLE, CA 94608

4:594

See also:: Using Circulation Notices; Text of Circulation Notices Table; SMS Alerts