Monday, June 18, 2018
As many WISCAT libraries are aware, the staff at Resources for Libraries & Lifelong Learning (GZRB) have the option to try out-of-state lenders if a request isn’t able to be filled by another WISCAT participant. Out-of-state lenders are not on the delivery route, and as such, borrowers need to pay return shipping if receiving items from out of state.
Several WISCAT updates ago we shared that Auto-Graphics, the vendor of the WISCAT platform, was working on a way to allow libraries to indicate their preference for receiving items from out-of-state in their participant record, without having to write a borrower’s note on every request if your library doesn’t borrow from libraries outside of Wisconsin.
On June 22nd this feature will go live. If you DO want to borrow items from out of state, you don’t need to take any action -- this feature will be in effect automatically starting June 22nd. If you do NOT want to borrow items from out of state, please take the following action prior to 1pm on June 22:
- Log into your WISCAT staff account and click on Maintain Participant Record under the ILL Admin heading.
- From there, locate the option titled “Customer field 6 on Request Form checked as default.” Select NO to indicate that you do not want your requests to go out of state.
- Please continue to indicate “no OS” in your borrower’s notes until this change goes live.
Note that this option on the participant record results in a “Try out of state?” option to be default selected or not on every request form. Staff will still have the option to change the selection on individual requests if desired by unchecking or checking the box on the loan form, but patrons will not see this option, and their requests will indicate the default selection chosen in the participant record.
Your selection in the participant record (above) is reflected in your library’s loan form (below):
If you change your mind about the selection you made prior to the feature going live on June 22nd, you can always change your default again in your participant record.
This change will save borrowers time when submitting requests, as those who don’t borrow from out-of-state lenders will no longer have to type their preference in the borrower’s notes of every request they submit. Removing the “no OS” from the borrower’s notes field will save lenders time as well, since the push pin will be eliminated from these types of requests, eliminating the need for lenders to check these borrower’s notes to review notes that only apply to GZRB staff.
This change does not affect access to MINITEX resources – since they are searchable in WISCAT and on the delivery route, we lump them in as part of WISCAT when discussing WISCAT lenders vs. out-of-state lenders.
This change was initially suggested by a WISCAT library during a user group meeting. If you have other ideas for how to streamline the WISCAT workflow, please let us know. Please Contact Us if you have any questions!
Written by Gail Murray, Resources for Libraries & Lifelong Learning