Lending Workflow (loans): The basic lending workflow for loan requests is as follows. These steps should be taken every day your library's interlibrary department is open. Please see below for more details.
Lending Workflow (articles): The basic lending workflow for article requests is as follows. These steps should be taken every day your library's interlibrary department is open. Please see below for more details.
Note: Only the university centers and a handful of comprehensives are receiving article lending requests, so this workflow may not apply to your library.
Borrowing Request Statuses: The following are the most commonly seen borrowing request statuses:
Lending Request Expiration: Lending requests are configured to expire after 4 days. Requests do not expire the minute they become 4 days old. They are expired by the Expired Resource Sharing Requests job, which runs every night at 2:00am, so you will have requests for 4 days plus the amount of time until the Expired Resource Sharing Requests job is scheduled to run again.
Turning Off Lending: If your library is unable to process lending requests in a timely manner because of a closure or staffing issues, please temporarily turn off your lending. Instructions on how to do that.
Lending Loan Periods: All lending loan periods are determines by the SUNY Libraries Consortium Network Zone Loan Periods Policy. Alma is configured to automatically assign lending due dates based on the SLC policy, so please refrain from manually creating lending due dates in Alma (doing this may prevent the borrower from circulating the item). Also, Alma is configured to prevent users from requesting renewals that do not conform to SLC policy, so all the renewal requests you do receive are allowed by SLC policy and should therefore be granted.
Training Video
Please see the link below for a video recording of a live demonstration of the workflows outlined in this FAQ.
https://public.3.basecamp.com/p/8osmJeJgSNAkn186G4pNt1nr
User Roles Needed to Process Lending Requests
Your Alma account will need the following user roles to process lending requests.
If you are unable to perform any of the actions described below, please contact the staff responsible for assigning user roles at your institution.
There are two different places where you can print pull slips for lending requests, the Pick From Shelf list and your Lending Requests list. If you print from the Pick From Shelf list, the Ful Resource Request Slip letter prints. If you print from the Lending Requests list, the Ful Incoming Slip Letter prints. Both printing methods are detailed below. You are free to use which ever one you prefer.
Printing Pull Slips from the Pick From Shelf List
1. Go to Fulfillment | Resource Requests | Pick From Shelf.
2. The Pick From Shelf list will contain all items that need to be retrieved from your stacks, not just items that have been requested for resource sharing lending. If you would like to print just your resource sharing lending requests, click the "Shipped Physically" Request/Process Type facet. Otherwise, skip ahead to step 3.
3. Check the Select All box (or check the box next to each request you would like to print) and then click the Print Slip link. This will generate a Ful Resource Request Slip Letter for each request.
Printing Pull Slips from the Lending Requests List
1. Go to Fulfillment | Resource Sharing | Lending Requests.
2. The Lending Requests list contains all active lending resource sharing requests. To limit that list to just requests that still need to be filled, click the "Being Processed" Status facet.
3. Check the Select All box (or check the box next to each request you would like to print) and then click the Print Slip button. This will generate a Ful Incoming Slip Letter for each request.
As of January 2021, it is possible to fill physical resource sharing requests digitally. If you receive a physical lending request you would like to fill digitally, you can use the same workflow used to fill digital lending requests. For more information, please see Delivering Scanned/Downloaded Items.
Shipping Single Volume Requests
1. Go to Fulfillment | Resource Sharing | Shipping Items.
2. Make sure the Automatically print slip setting is set to Yes. Scan the barcode of the item you're shipping into the Scan item barcode field and then click the OK button. This will produce a Resource Sharing Shipping Slip Letter. Insert that letter into the requested item and ship the item to the borrowing library via the Empire Library Delivery courier.
Shipping Multi-Volume Requests
1. Complete step 1 as shown in the section above.
2. Make sure the Automatically Print Slip setting is Yes, check the Multiple items box, scan in the barcode of the first volume into the Scan item barcode field, and then click the OK button. A new window will open.
3. In the new window that opens, scan the barcode of the second volume into the Scan item barcode field and then click the OK button. Do the same for all remaining volumes, and then click the Done button. This will produce a single Resource Sharing Shipping Slip Letter. Insert that letter into one of the requested volumes, rubber band the volumes together, and ship the volumes to the borrowing library via the Empire Library Delivery courier. You can also copy the Resource Sharing Shipping Slip Letter and insert a copy into each requested volume.
1. Go to Fulfillment | Resource Sharing | Lending Requests.
2. Use the Status facet to limit to requests with the Locate Failed status.
3. Click the ellipsis and then click the Locate Resource link. The request will open on the right side of the screen.
4. Once the request opens, a list of possible matches will appear. Once you find a record for the requested item, click the radio button next to the result number and then click the Select button. Once you do this, the request's status will change to Being Processed, and the request will appear on your Pick From Shelf list. You can process the request as you normally would from this point forward.
5. If you're not seeing any search results when you first click the Locate link or if you don't see the requested item in the search results, click the search link at the top of the request window. You can then change the search operators from AND to OR and then click the Search button. Changing the search operators should yield additional search results. Once you've found a record for the appropriate, select that item as shown in step 4. If you cannot find the requested item, move on to step 6 to reject the request.
6. If you are unable to find a record for the requested item, click the Cancel button and then Reject the request.
Note: If you need to send a message to the borrowing library before you have updated a lending request to shipped, please be sure to use the Conditional function. If you need to send a message to the borrowing library after you update a request to shipped, you can use the General Message function.
1. Locate the request you wish to conditional in your Resource Sharing Lending Requests Task List, click the ellipsis next to the request, and then click the Conditional link. The Conditional window will open.
2. Select a conditional reason from the Reason dropdown, enter a date by which you would like a response in the Date for reply field, enter an explanation for the conditional into the Note field, and then click the Send button. The status of the lending request will then change to Conditional.
3. If the borrowing library says yes to the conditional, the status of the lending request will change to Being Processed and an active note containing their response will be added to the request. If the borrowing library says no, the request's status will change to Rejected the borrower request, and it will disappear from your list of active lending requests.
1. Go to Fulfillment | Resource Requests | Pick From Shelf.
2. Locate the request you wish to reject in your Resource Sharing Lending Requests Task List list, click the ellipsis next to the request, and then select Reject from the dropdown that appears. A new window will open.
3. In the new window that opens, select the reason you cannot fill the request from the Reject reason dropdown and then click the Ok button.
Alma is configured to automatically approve all renewal requests received from borrowing libraries, so lending libraries do not need to manually process lending renewal requests. If the borrowing library asks you to renew a lending request, please ask them to submit a renewal request on their end so it can automatically be granted on your end.
Note: If you need to send a message to the borrowing library after you have updated a lending request to shipped, you can use the General Message function. If you need to send a message to the borrowing library before you update a request to shipped, please use the Conditional function.
1. Locate the request needing a general message in your Resource Sharing Lending Requests Task List, click the ellipsis next to the request, and then click the General Message link. The General Message window will open.
2. Enter the message you wish to send to the borrowing library into the Message field and then click the Save button. The message will appear as an active General Message on the borrower's request.
3. When the borrowing library responds, an active General Message will be added to your lending request. You can check for lending requests with active General Messages by either using the Tasks widget on the main Alma page or the facets in your Lending Requests list. To view a General Message, click the Request with active general message link. The request will open on the right side of the screen, and you'll be automatically taken to the messages section of the request. Once you have read the message, click the Dismiss link, and then click the Accept button that appears. The message will remain in the request record, but it will no longer be active. If their message requires a response, you can send a new General Message by repeating steps 1 and 2.
Note: If you return a lending request that was never received by the borrowing library, you will complete the request on both ends, and the borrowing library's user will not receive the item they requested. The Scan In function will produce a warning if you are returning an item that was never received by the borrowing library, but the Return Items function will complete the request without any warning. For this reason, you should always use the Scan In function to process lending returns.
1. Go to Fulfillment | Checkout/Checkin | Scan In Items.
2. Enter the barcode of the item that was returned by the borrower into the Scan Item Barcode field and then click the OK button. This will complete the request.
Training Video
Please see the link below for a video recording of a live demonstration of the workflows outlined in this FAQ.
https://public.3.basecamp.com/p/Dc3PFqJym6CzscJaf2uM5svk
Digital Lending Workflows
Alma resource sharing groups article and book chapter lending requests together as digital lending requests. The digital lending workflow is comprised of two parts:
Your Alma account will need the following user roles to process digital lending requests.
Digital lending requests will end up in either the Borrowing Request Created or Locate Failed status. If a digital lending request ends up in the Locate Failed status, you can resolve the locate failure using the same workflow you'd use for a physical lending request in the Locate Failed status.
Once you begin processing a digital lending request, that request will be automatically assigned to you unless you have turned the ending auto-assign feature turned off. To turn the lending auto-assign feature off, go to Configuration | Fulfillment | General | Other Settings and change the rs_disable_lending_auto_assign setting to "true".
Processing Digital Lending Requests
1. To view your digital lending requests, go to Fulfillment | Lending Requests and then apply the "Created Lending Request" Status facet.
2. Click the ellipsis next to the request. The rest of the workflow will depend on whether the request is for an electronic resource of a print resource. If the request is for an electronic resource, you will see the Download Electronic Resource link in the droprown. If the request is for a print resource, you will see the Create Digitization Request link. See below for instructions on processing digital requests for e-resources and processing digital requests for print resources.
Processing Digital Lending Requests for E-Resources
1. Click the Download Electronic Resource link. A window will then appear on the right listing all of the electronic resources that contain the requested item. Click on the name of an electronic resource. If you are seeing links for electronic collections, click the link for the collection you prefer to use. Once you click on an electronic resource link, you should be taken directly to the requested article or to the journal containing the requested article (this will depend on whether the vendor allows directly linking to articles from within Alma).
If clicking an electronic collection link does not bring you to the requested article or journal, please try the other electronic resource links (if there are any). If none of the electronic resource links bring you to the requested article or journal, please try searching for the requested article in Primo. If that doesn't work, please reject the request using the same workflow for rejecting physical lending requests.
2. Once you have found the requested article, download the file and save it to your desktop or some other easily accessible directory. We recommend using the request's external identifier as the file name. Once the file has been saved, please close the electronic resources window and move on to the delivery portion of the digital lending workflow.
Processing Digital Lending Requests for Print Resources
1. Click the Create Digitization Request link. The create Digitization Request window will open.
2. Check the box next to the book or journal volume containing the requested item, select a digitization department from the Managing Department dropdown, and then click the Create Request button. A ship digitally request will be placed on the item you selected, and that item will be added to your Pick From Shelf list. Please move on to the printing pull slips and scanning requested items section of the workflow.
Printing Pull Slips and Scanning Requested Chapters/Articles
1. Once you have placed a ship digitally request on an item, that item will appear on your Pick From Shelf list with a request type of "Ship Digitally". You can print your pull slips using the same workflow you'd use to print pull slips for physical lending requests. The chapter/article info should appear on the pull slip.
2. Once you've pulled the requested item, scan it in. If item will be removed from your Pick From Shelf list, and it will be placed in transit to your digitization department. Scan the requested pages and save the file to your desktop or some other easily accessible directory. We recommend using the request's external identifier as the file name.
3. Move on to the delivery portion of the workflow.
4. Once the scanned file has been delivered to the borrowing library, scan the requested item in again (at this point it is still in transit to your digitization department). The item will either be reshelved or put in transit to its permanent location.
Note: If you are unable to find the requested item or if you can't fill the request for any other reason, please reject the lending request using the same workflow you'd use to reject a physical lending request.
Delivering Scanned/Downloaded Items
1. Once the requested item has been scanned or downloaded, click the ellipsis next to the request and then click the Ship Item Digitally link. The Document Delivery window will open on the right.
2. Upload the scanned file the Alma by either clicking the Browse link or dragging the scanned file into the Drop Files Here box. Once the file is finished uploading, click the Ship button.
