Planning ahead is crucial for a completely stress-free end of the school year and a smoother transition into the next one. Here are the steps we suggest you follow. Some of these steps can be performed during the beginning or end of year procedures. Choose the steps that work best for your library!
An archive should be made prior to running any of the data-changing utilities described below. This way, you have a restore point if something unexpected happens. We also recommend creating a back up if you are Self-Hosted. |
In most school libraries, circulation stops at the end of the school year and items that are still loaned out need to be returned. Properly configuring your Calendars preferences and assigning Period Due dates can help automate this process by prompting patrons to return loaned items before the end of the year.
Keep in mind that Alexandria does not adjust due dates after an item has been checked out; therefore, it's important to set period due dates as soon as possible so that any overlapping circulation periods are shortened to allow items to be returned on time.
Although you can set up calendars for up to three years ahead, we do recommend checking your Calendars preferences at the beginning and end of each school year. In fact, since you're already adjusting your Calendars preferences, you may want to prepare the calendar for the next school year or summer circulation, if applicable.
Some libraries use hard due dates on certain policies to allow items to be checked out all year. However, if your library is using hard due dates to control extended check out periods, those dates must be changed before circulation can resume next year. If you don't use hard due dates, you may skip this step.
Hard Due Dates only apply to items if they have one specified in their item policy. Remember that hard due dates override all other due dates, including period due dates (above). For example, if you set a period due date of June 1st, but your Equipment item policy has a May 2nd hard due date, then items under the Equipment policy will be due on May 2nd.
Next, use Inventory Management to perform an end-of-year inventory so that you know exactly what you have, where it is, and what is missing—putting you in a better position to analyze and organize your collection.
Performing inventory can be a lengthy process. Once you start, Alexandria will regularly save everything you've inventoried up to now until you are finished; we call this an inventory “session”. You can stop or pause your session at any time and when you are ready to resume, Alexandria will begin where you left off.
If you're part of a Centralized Catalog, each collection is typically stored at different locations and requires you to perform independent inventories. A single-site configuration can perform inventory in one large—or several smaller—inventory sessions.
For more information on performing end-of-year inventory, please review our Inventory Management documentation here.
Before closing your library, you will need to run a Loaned Items Information report to find out what materials are still checked out.
If you perform the report with the suggested (or default) settings, it will show all items that are currently loaned out, even those not yet overdue.
From here, you can determine which items should be marked as lost or discarded and what fees and fines should be charged.
When items are still checked out after they should have been returned, you can run a utility to mark all the items from your Loaned Items Information report (above) as Lost.
If an item is returned after this utility has been performed, its Status will return to Available upon bookdrop; any patron charges will be removed and/or their accounts credited.
Additionally, during Inventory, before you Complete Session, there is a utility that lets you Declare Missing Items as Lost. This will change the Status of all items not inventoried from Available to Lost.
If you choose not to perform this utility during inventory, you can perform it later; here's how:
Next, you may want to permanently remove Lost and/or Discarded items at the end of the school year.
Before you do that, however, you should run reports to verify which items should be removed.
In order to remove lost and discarded items:
Be aware that once you've removed lost and/or discarded copies, those records are permanently and completely removed from your collection.
Skip this step if you import and update patron data via SIF; do not rearrange the Grade Table or Advance All Grades |
Now it’s time to advance your patron's grades to prepare for next year's students.
If you need to be more exact, you can use the Advance Patron Level utility to select patrons by barcode, security group, policy, or more:
Skip this step if you retain your graduated patron records; however, be sure to set up a Graduated policy and assign it to all freshly graduated patrons. |
Next, you may want to remove those graduated patrons from your system.
You may skip this step if you use a comprehensive or all-encompassing policy for your patrons (i.e. Standard Patron). |
If you retain your graduated patron records and have a Graduated policy, assign this policy to all freshly graduated patrons before going any further. |
Some libraries prefer assigning a corresponding policy for each grade; for example, a policy that allows tenth graders to check items out for longer periods than second graders. Since you've just advanced each patron's Grade level, it's likely you'll have to update their individual Policy setting to match as well.
A patron should not have their Policy setting updated until after their Grade has been advanced for next year. Therefore, ideally, these policy changes should either be made at the end of the current school year or the beginning of the next one.
Cloud-Hosted users may skip this step; backups are only necessary if you're Self-Hosted. |
If you're Self-Hosted, the final step before closing your library is to make a permanent backup of your Alexandria Data folder. Unlike an archive, this backup is considered a “last-resort” in case everything else fails. Therefore, stowing this backup on your Data Station or saving it to a USB Flash Drive kept next to your computer isn't sufficient.
Here are our recommendations:
The end of the year is a good time to review and/or revise your backup strategy. Also, examine the hard drives or portable storage devices on which your backups are stored; they may require maintenance or replacement. Although we hope you'll never need to use it, creating a backup of your valuable data is a simple task that proves invaluable in the worst of scenarios.
This concludes our steps for a successful end-of-year closure library closure.
In order to keep things running smoothly, remember to: