Circulation Manual

Notices

• OhioLINK and OPAL hold pickup and cancellation notices are sent out automatically every two hours between 6:00am and 10:00 pm. Do not manually print those. If you are prompted with "Notify patron of cancelled hold" you still need to select "yes" for the cancellation notice to be written to the queue of cancellations to go out the next time the auto-notices are run. Internal hold notices can still be customized. 
   
• OPAL Courtesy Notices are also automated. Each day that courtesy notices are generated the system looks for checked out items that qualify (based on the loan rule). 
   
• When configuring notices, set the options group to your institution. This ensures that notices are formatted accordingly (size of page, number of lines, font etc.), which is particularly important when printing anything.

Overdue Notices

Overdue notices should be run on a daily basis and the settings can be saved (see instructions at end). These can also be automated. Contact OPALhelp with any questions.

All Overdue Items

After choosing Notices from the functions drop-down menu, select your saved notice from the list or click on the New icon in the upper right. Ensure that the following options are correct:

• Set Notices Type to Overdue
• Verify the institution in the Locations Served list
• Verify the institution in the Set Options Group list
• Set Overdue Level to All Levels
• Set Over Status to All Overdue Items

Click on Prepare. The system may prompt you to select a printer. Click OK to choose a printer and click Print twice in a row. A window will pop up at the bottom of the interface showing how many notices to print. Click Send Notices to send notices to the printer.

Click OK to send all notices to the printer or to email them directly to patrons. Patrons with email addresses in their patron record will receive all notices via that email account. If any notices cannot be emailed due to missing addresses, a prompt will appear again with the number of notices to be sent to a physical printer.

When the Clear All Notices prompt appears, click Yes if they have printed correctly; otherwise, check the printer and send the notices again. Press the Close icon when finished.

Note: Patrons from other OPAL institutions will only receive a notice for overdue books if they are printed and sent to that school. The following libraries will accept emailed overdue notices. Have notices printed to a local email address and then copy and paste them into a separate email directed to the patron’s home school. This process allows the patron’s school to print their own notices and gets the notice to the patron without the delay of sending them through Priority Dispatch.

• Bluffton: oglesbeea@bluffton.edu
• CCAD: cmannix@ccad.edu
• Defiance: knightc@defiance.edu
• Findlay: carlesp@findlay.edu
• Heidelberg: clagunza@heidelberg.edu
• Malone: libraryservices@malone.edu
• Mercy: Rebecca.gorski@mercycollege.edu
• Mount Saint Mary Seminary: circ@athenaeum.edu
• Ohio Dominican: circulation@ohiodominican.edu
• Otterbein: circ@otterbein.edu
• Tiffin: library@tiffin.edu
• University of Mount Union: circdesk@mountunion.edu
• Wilmington: library@wilmington.edu
• Wittenberg: circadm@wittenberg.edu

Hourly Overdue Notices

After choosing Notices from the functions drop-down menu, select your saved notice from the list or click on the New icon in the upper right. Ensure that the following options are correct:

• Set Notices Type to Hour Overdue
• Verify the institution in the Locations Served list
• Verify the institution in the Set Options Group list
• Set Overdue Level to All Levels
• Set Overdue Status to All Overdue Items

Click on Prepare. The system may prompt you to select a printer. Click OK to choose a printer and click Print twice in a row. A window will pop up at the bottom of the interface showing how many notices to print. Click Send Notices to send notices to the printer.

Click OK to send all notices to the printer. If the items did not print properly, do not clear the items. The process can be repeated to reproduce the items and print them.

Bill and Fine Notices

Select the Notices function in Sierra and select the New icon in the top row of the window. The New Job prompt box will appear. In the Notice Type drop-down list, select All Bills and Fines.

A print window will appear at this point.

• Select the appropriate printer.
• Click Print
• Click Print again.
• The notices will prepare.
• Click Send Notices to print them.
• Click OK to send all notices to the printer.

Sierra will prompt you to clear all the notices. Only choose Yes if you can confirm all notices have printed correctly; otherwise, select No and duplicate the process to print the notices again. Press the Close icon at the top of the window. A window will ask to save the new job. Select No.

Statements of Charges and Checked Out Items

Prior to generating Statements of Charges or Checked Out Items, use the Create Lists function to create a list of the patrons for which you're generating notices; doing so will speed the process of generating the statements.

Select the Notices function in Sierra and select your saved notice job from the list or the New icon in the top row of the window. The New Job prompt box will appear. In the Notice Type drop-down list, select Statement of Charges or Statement of Checked-out Items.

Select All LOCS - LOCS NOT SERVED for the location; selecting a Locations Served location will generate a list of items owned only by that location.  The sort by option allows you to sort by Patron name and item due date to send one message for all checked out items instead of separate notices for each. Click Limit by P TYPE to limit to your patron types (if you haven't already defined them in a review file list), and enter charge or date information if desired. Click on the Prepare icon at the top of the window. 

A print window will appear at this point.

• Select the appropriate printer.
• Click Print
• Click Print again.
• The notices will prepare.
• Click Send Notices to print them. If they are queued for email printing they will go directly to the emails in the patron records - one email for each item unless you have applied the sort by function. 
• Click OK to send all notices to the printer.
• Alternatively you can "Move All to Print Queue" and email them to yourself or print.

Sierra will prompt you to clear all the notices. Only choose Yes if you can confirm all notices have printed correctly; otherwise, select No and duplicate the process to print the notices again. Press the Close icon at the top of the window. A window will ask to save the new job. Select No.

Saving Notice Settings

Settings for notices can be saved and the slot with the saved settings selected to be run daily.

• Set the parameters of the notices to desired settings.
• Click on Save As icon.
• Assign an easily identifiable name that indicates your home location.

• The job slot can be selected and run each day with the saved parameters.