Chapter 32. Long Overdue Items


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Items Marked Long Overdue

Once an item has been overdue for a configurable amount of time, Evergreen will mark the item long overdue in the borrowing patron’s account. This will be done automatically through a Notification/Action Trigger. When the item is marked long overdue, several actions will take place:

The item will go into the status of “Long Overdue”
The accrual of overdue fines will be stopped

Optionally the patron can be billed for the item price, a long overdue processing fee, and any overdue fines can be voided from the account. Patrons can also be sent a notification that the item was marked long overdue. And long-overdue items can be included on the "Items Checked Out" or "Other/Special Circulations" tabs of the "Items Out" view of a patron’s record. These are all controlled by library settings.

Checking in a Long Overdue item

If an item that has been marked long overdue is checked in, an alert will appear on the screen informing the staff member that the item was long overdue. Once checked in, the item will go into the status of “In process”. Optionally, the item price and long overdue processing fee can be voided and overdue fines can be reinstated on the patron’s account. If the item is checked in at a library other than its home library, a library setting controls whether the item can immediately fill a hold or circulate, or if it needs to be sent to its home library for processing.

Notification/Action Triggers

Evergreen has two sample Notification/Action Triggers that are related to marking items long overdue. The sample triggers are configured for 6 months. These triggers can be configured for any amount of time according to library policy and will need to be activated for use.

Sample Triggers
- 6 Month Auto Mark Long-Overdue—will mark an item long overdue after the configured period of time
- 6 Month Long Overdue Notice—will send patron notification that an item has been marked long overdue on their account

Library Settings

The following Library Settings enable you to set preferences related to long overdue items:

Circulation: Long-Overdue Check-In Interval Uses Last Activity Date —Use the long-overdue last-activity date instead of the due_date to determine whether the item has been checked out too long to perform long-overdue check-in processing. If set, the system will first check the last payment time, followed by the last billing time, followed by the due date. See also the "Long-Overdue Max Return Interval" setting.
Circulation: Long-Overdue Items Usable on Checkin —Long-overdue items are usable on checkin instead of going "home" first
Circulation: Long-Overdue Max Return Interval —Long-overdue check-in processing (voiding fees, re-instating overdues, etc.) will not take place for items that have been overdue for (or have last activity older than) this amount of time
Circulation: Restore Overdues on Long-Overdue Item Return
Circulation: Void Long-Overdue item Billing When Returned
Circulation: Void Processing Fee on Long-Overdue Item Return
Finances: Leave transaction open when long overdue balance equals zero —Leave transaction open when long-overdue balance equals zero. This leaves the lost copy on the patron record when it is paid
Finances: Long-Overdue Materials Processing Fee
Finances: Void Overdue Fines When Items are Marked Long-Overdue
GUI: Items Out Long-Overdue display setting

Tip

Learn more about these settings in the chapter about the Library Settings Editor.

Permissions to use this Feature

The following permissions are related to this feature:

COPY_STATUS_LONG_OVERDUE.override
- Allows the user to check-in long-overdue items thus removing the long-overdue status on the item

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