Many With the continuation of COVID-19, many libraries are changing how they do checkouts regular circulation to limit contact.  

Check out what some other libraries are doing:

Each library's And since all libraries have varying locations, needs, and capabilities, each new checkout process will look different. Whether that includes scheduling pick-up times, having patrons place holds online, quarantining items after return, or more, is up to your library and local guidelines.

Considerations

 As you create a plan that works for your library, we depending on various needs and capabilities. We encourage you to consider these questions as you come up with your own library's plan:

• How will patrons pick up their books? out books?
  • Holds, reservations, lists, limited browsing, etc. (See our recommendation in the Remote Checkout Procedure section.)

• How will patrons drop off pick up their books? 
  • Scheduled days and times, phone and email notifications, curbside pickup, one class at a time, etc.

• Will patrons be able permitted to renew books on their own?

• How will patrons drop off their books?
  • Scheduled days and times, quarantining items, labelled boxes and carts, etc.

Preferences

Once you have answers to those questionsan idea of what your new process will look like, the next step is to configure various preferences to meet your needsmake any necessary changes to your preferences. Here are some we recommend taking a look at:

Policies

Patron Policies

• Check Out
  • Items Are Due On (make items due on a specific day of the week)
    • Force (if a due on date falls on a Closed day, this checkbox forces the item to be due on the next open day specified in Items Are Due On)
• Other
  • Maximum Hold Requests (make sure this is greater than zero)
  • Days to Keep a Hold Request
  • Day to Keep an In-Stock Hold Request

Item Policies

• Check Out
  • Maximum Renewals for Item
  • Transaction Period
• Overdue
  • Fine Rate
  • Grace Period (to avoid fines while items are being quarantined after drop off)
  • Declare Lost When Overdue
• Other
  • Allow Hold Requests

Security

If needednecessary, does your patron security group have access permission to manage holds, access Patron Status, and perform renewals?

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Circulation

Do you want to allow renewals for items that have pending holds? If so, turn on the Allow Renewals When Holds Are Pending preference on the Circulation Rules tab.

Researcher

Make sure the holds icon is showing up in Researcher for your patrons by going to Preferences > Researcher > Search/Explore > Results List and turning on Show Hold Controls.

Remote Checkout Procedure

After configuring your preferences, you can begin remote checkouts. Below is a general guideline of how this process could look, but you may need to make adjustments depending on your library's needs. 

Informing Patrons

Tell your patrons about the library's new policies and procedures. You'll want to make sure they know

Remote Checkout Step-by-Step Instructions

how to use Researcher to search, place holds (through Search, Explore, Scout, or Browse), check Patron Status, renew items, and more. If your patrons are unfamiliar with Researcher or just need a refresher, have them check out our short and simple patron-facing training videos

.

To send out a mass email with this information, use the Send Email report.

Reports and Notices

As patrons begin placing holds through Researcher, librarians can then run regular hold reports to view currently

available holds and gather the items

*. Schools may want to select by or sort by grade or location to have a make things more manageable and easier to read report.

• On-Shelf Holds

• report: This includes items that are in the library

• on

• shelves. Run this report to get a list of items you need to retrieve. Once bookdropped, they will become in-stock holds.

• In-Stock Holds

• report: These items

• are usually those that have been pulled from the shelves and are waiting in the holds area. If an item is checked in

• and

• has a pending hold,

• you'll be notified in Circulation that it's now an in-stock hold. Put those aside until you're ready to check them out.

• Expired In-Stock Holds report

• : If your library wants to keep

• holds in place

• and wait to check them out,

• run this report to see what

• has expired or been cancelled

• .

Set up a saved In-Stock Hold Notice report in the Email format that's scheduled to go out regularly. This will inform patrons when they have an in-stock hold, meaning it's ready to be picked up soon. You can customize the message with any instructions patrons may need (pickup times, how to set up appointments, etc).

Checkout

Once it's time for delivery or pickup, check out the items to your patrons. Usually this can be done the way you normally check out,

but here are some tips:

• If you are a school

• library with a scanner

• , use the Patron Barcode Labels (3x10) report to create a binder of printed patron barcodes sorted

• by their locations or grade

• . That way

• , you can easily

• go class by class and scan

• a patron barcode into

• Circulation

• before scanning the item

• for check out. 

• Group patrons by location

• in Circulation by opening the Circulation > Location (HW) tab. Select each patron to make them current.

• Since the holds reports show both

• patron and

• item barcodes,

• use those as a reference to make patrons and items current.

Delivery/Pickup

Deliver or have patrons pick up the checked out items. To know which items go to which patrons,

run a Loaned Items Information report

or use the printed hold slips.

Returns

When it's time for patrons to return their items, follow the procedure your library has decided on. You could have the items sit in the return box for a few days before handling them to check

in

. Or, you could check

in the items and then set them aside for a period before

returning them

to the holds area

General strategy: 

Before anything, we need to make sure that customers know that this is a guideline. They will need to be the ones that make a plan for how they will handle this process. I think it’s important to stress this since every library will be a little different. This will be helpful for both school and public libraries, so we should keep that in mind. Things to think about:

• How will patrons get their books? Do they come pick them up after getting an email or phone call (public libraries or schools that are doing remote learning), does the librarian take the books to one class at a time?
• Do they want days that are specific for checking out and delivery
• Specific days for collection and bookdrop
• How will they go about renewals

After creating a plan, they need to get Alexandria ready. Preferences they should check out:

• Policies
• Patron Policies to modify the amount of hold requests, days to keep a hold request, and days to keep an in-stock hold request
• Item Policies
• Check maximum renewals, transaction period, fine rate, and grace period (to avoid fines while items are waiting in bookdrop)
• Do they want items to be declared lost after overdue for x amount of days 
• Determine if hold requests are allowed
• Security
• Does the Patron security group have access to manage holds, check patron status, and manage renewals?
• Circulation 

Circulation rules - Do they want to allow renewals for items that have pending holds?

The general steps for remote checkout:

1. Teach Patrons how to use the Researcher to search, place holds, check Patron Status, etc. with the Patron facing training videos. 
2. Patron places a hold through Researcher (Search, Explore, Scout, or Browse)
3. Librarian runs hold reports to view current available holds and gather the items

*Schools may want to select by or sort by grade or location to have a more manageable and easier to read report

1. On-Shelf Holds - This would be for items that are in the library, on the shelves
2. In-Stock Holds - These items should have been recently bookdropped, when an item is checked in, and it has a pending hold, there will be a notice on the Circ screen letting them know. These items would be easiest to have set aside until the librarian is ready to run the In-Stock Holds report to check them out. 
1. If a library wants to keep the holds in place, and wait to check them out, then they can also run the Expired In-Stock Holds report to see what on their shelf has expired or cancelled
3. Not a specific report but when bookdropping items (if its checked out or it has an on-shelf hold) that have a hold request they can print off the hold slip to place in the book to know who that item should go to
1. Check the books out to Patrons - Overall this should be the way they normally check out but here are some tips:
1. In a school setting (if they have a scanner) it might be easiest to have a binder of printed patron barcodes sorted into their locations or grade(terminology can differ between sites). That way they can easily have the class page open and scan the patron barcode into the Circulation, then scan the item book for check out. 
2. Group patrons by location on the circulation screen by having the location tab open. Then select the patrons to make them current.
3. The reports show both Patron and Item barcode, they can use that to type patron barcodes to make them current
1. Once items are checked out it would be smart to run a Loaned Items report to know who gets what
2. Bookdrop items - This is going to be something they should have planned. They could have the items sit in the return box for a few days before handling them to check-in or check them in and then set them aside before putting them in the holds area / back on the shelf

or shelves.

Textbook Checkout Procedure

For textbooks, we recommend checking out the textbooks to your students and then running a Loaned Textbooks Information report sorted by homeroom so teachers can properly distribute the textbooks and know who gets what. You can also print a checkout receipt for each textbook or patron by using the D Circulation Command after checkout, which will indicate who gets that textbook or stack of textbooks.

Hands-Free Self-Service

You can also set up Self-Service to offer hands-free checkouts. Here are some things you'll need to do:

• Use the /selfservicein and /selfserviceout URLs to avoid pressing the mode button.

• Turn on the Disable Receipt/Email Receipt for Check Out setting in the Station Settings.

• Set up a scanner that can scan while in a stand, such as our Hands-Free Laser Scanner.

• Set up a screen for the librarian that mirrors the screen the patron is viewing.

To check out an item, patrons will simply scan their card and items by hovering them under the scanner. The librarian will then click I'm Done for each patron from their own screen so that no one else has to touch it.

eBooks

Of course, we recommend utilizing eBooks in your library and school as much as possible. Learn more about eBooks and how to catalog them. Also check out some eBook services that integrate with Alexandria:

• Capstone Interactive Library. Features over 2,000 eBook titles with unlimited user access.
• Capstone PebbleGo. Databases feature expertly-leveled text specifically designed for beginning researchers.
• MackinVIA. Your one-stop portal for educational eBooks and online databases.
• OverDrive. Offers digital media solutions for distribution of premium content over global networks.
• Perma-eHub. Manages all of your eBook licenses from a central location as if they existed in a single library.

Encourage the use of eBooks! 

• http://support.companioncorp.com/display/ALEX/eBooks
• http://support.companioncorp.com/display/ALEX/Cataloging+eBooks
• List our partners of ebook integrations.

TextbookTracker - Check out textbooks to patrons then give the loaned items report to their homeroom teacher to know which student gets what textbooks. The only issue I can see with this is that depending on how many textbooks one student has will probably get confusing to know what goes where. 

*The more I thought about using the patron barcode report the more I don't know if it would work. Mainly because not every student from the same homeroom will be getting the same books, and we don't have a way to separate them out by subject.