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Pre-Overdue Email Notices in Horizon
November 18, 2008 08:58 AM | ILSDonovan Lambright, Automation Librarian
About a week and a half ago, I posted some information about the upcoming Horizon upgrade. I'd like to follow up with some more details about Pre-Overdue Email Notices. As described in my previous post, Pre-Overdue Email Notices:
- are email only. Patrons receiving paper notices will not get them.
- are optional by Online Library. If you don't want to use them, you don't have to.
- go out a few days before the due date with the exact timing determined by each library. The timing can be set by BTYPE.
- can be enabled at the time of the upgrade or at a later date. They can also be disabled if the library changes its mind.
A few more details have come to light as we digest the release notes for the upgrade:
- Each patron record will have a check box that determines if he/she will get Pre-Overdue Email Notices. If your Online Library chooses to have this functionality enabled, all patrons with your library as their Location will have this checked by a script run against the database.
- We're still unclear about what happens after the upgrade. Will you have to manually check this box every time you create a new patron record or will it be checked by default? We don't know yet. If it is not checked by default, we will modify your patron record view to check it automatically for you. That's Plan B. Plan A is that Horizon will take care of it for us. Either way, however, you're covered.
- Because this functionality is enabled in each patron record, an Online Library could choose to have only some patrons get Pre-Overdue Email Notices. SELCO does not recommend such an approach without a REALLY good reason. The opportunities for confusion are just too great. A better approach would be to not put email addresses in the record of any patron who you don't want getting Pre-Overdues.
That's it. It's pretty simple, really. Once you decide to enable this functionality, it just works. Like other email notices, you don't have to do anything on a day-to-day basis to send them out.
Based on this information, SELCO would like email from each Online Library to let us know if you want Pre-Overdue Email Notices enabled. If you're not sure or need to talk to your Board or Principal, don't worry. We can turn them on (or off) for you at a later date. Please send your email to preoverdues@selco.info by 12-04-2008. If you have any questions, please contact the SELCO Help Desk.
