Managing Patron Notifications

You can customize the text of both English and multilingual notices in the Web Admin Tool (Language Editor). You can add or customize language strings at the system, library, and branch levels. Branch settings override library settings; settings made at the library level override system-level settings.

You need the Polaris permission WebAdmin access: Allow to use the Web Admin Tool. In Polaris Administration (web-based), this permission is available under Permission Groups.

For detailed information about using the Web Admin Tool (Language Editor), see the Polaris Web Administration Tool (Language Editor) guide for your version of Polaris on https://documentation.iii.com/product-documentation/polaris.php.

Note:
Contact Innovative to inquire about LX Starter.

The Library Experience (LX) Starter package provides a web-based interface for your library to design and email automated circulation notices. LX Starter includes professionally designed email templates, which you can customize using a visual email editor. For example, you can add custom branding, free stock photos, and cover images for items in your collection.

LX Starter integrates seamlessly with Polaris. Your library selects which notice types to send using LX Starter. After you enable LX starter, Polaris uses your existing notice jobs to transfer notices to LX Starter. The notices are sent based on the schedule your library defines.

LX Starter works with the following types of notices:

• Overdue notices
• Request pick-up notices
• Bill notices
• Fine notices
• Almost overdue/Auto-renew reminder notices

For more information, see the LX Starter Administration help.

You can set up notification in Polaris Administration to export print, SMS, and phone notices to a third-party service. You can export notices at the system or library level.

Important:
Contact your Polaris Site Manager if you need assistance updating your export configuration.

For details on what information appears in the exported notice file, see Export File Details.

Your library may have a contract to use i-tiva for telephone notification. You can export overdue, fine, request pick-up, and request cancellation notices to i-tiva. Then, i-tiva generates the telephone notices and sends an update back to Polaris via SIP (Standard Interchange Protocol), which updates the patrons’ notification history. If a telephone notice fails, Polaris prints the notice. Polaris supports i-tiva’s Format B and Format C. Format B is the default setting. If your library uses Format C and you upgrade Polaris, you must specify Format C with a command line parameter in the Notice Processing Job. Contact your Polaris Site Manager for assistance.

Exporting Text Messages to an SMS Service

You can export text messages to an SMS service for patrons with Unspecified in their carrier information. Unspecified is an option in the carrier list in Leap and PowerPAC. Carrier information is required for email-to-text messages, but not for exported SMS text messages. When a patron selects the Export TXT Message option, Unspecified is the default carrier when the patron has selected a text message phone number but has not selected a carrier.

Polaris can export text messages to a notice file report and send it to an SMS service for processing. The service then sends back a success notice after each text message goes out. The incoming success notice updates notification information in the patron record.

To export text messages to an SMS service

1. Go to Polaris System Administration (web-based) > Settings and Tables, and select the Notification Module.

2. Find the Notification options: Export setting and select Configure....

   The Notifcation options: Export dialog appears.

3. Complete the TXT Message section. Provide the FTP Server URI, Logon name, and Password for where the notice file report will be exported.

4. Select Save and Close.

Hold Notice Processing for Email and Text Message Notices

An SQL job, Hold Notice Processing, processes email and text message (SMS) first and second hold notices separately from print notices and phone notices. Designed to run multiple times per day, the job runs every four hours from 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM by default.

With this SQL job, you can schedule the notices to go out near the time the items will be ready for pickup. When you set the times for this job, Polaris does not send email and text message notices in the early morning when the print notification job runs. Patrons can receive their notices sooner because you can schedule the notification to be more closely timed with your library’s workflow for filling the requests. If your library has self-pickup for requested materials and you stock the shelves at certain times during the day, you can set the SQL job to send the notices around the time the items will be ready.

The notification library produces and sends the notice, so their return address appears on the notice. However, if notices are generated for all libraries or branches from a central location, you can specify a central processing branch return address instead.) For overdue, bill, and fine notices, you can designate the patron’s branch, the item’s branch, or the lending branch as the notification library. This setting determines how patrons and items are identified for notification, based on the settings of the designated notification library.

For example, the notification library setting affects which patrons should receive overdue notices in these ways:

• Notification library is patron’s library — If the patron’s record includes one or more overdue items, and if the patron’s registered branch is the notification library, a notice is generated from the patron’s library for all the overdue items, regardless of the items’ assigned branches or where the items were checked out.
• Notification library is item’s library — If the patron’s record includes one or more overdue items, and if each item's assigned branch is the notification library, a notice is generated from each item’s assigned branch. A patron can receive more than one overdue notice from different branches, and each notice can list different items.
• Notification library is lending library — If the patron’s record includes one or more overdue items , and if each item's lending branch is the notification library, a notice is generated from the lending branch for those items. A patron can receive more than one overdue notice from different branches if the overdue items were checked out at different branches.

Patron Receives More Than One Overdue Bill

It is possible for branches to set the notification library for bills so that a patron can receive two bills for the same item. You can avoid this situation by coordinating the bill notification library settings among branches, even if you allow a patron to receive more than one overdue notice from different branches.

You can avoid the potential confusion of duplicate bills if all branches use the same setting for the bill notification library.

However, even if the settings allow the patron to receive two bills for the same item, the patron’s account is charged only once. In this case, the Organization column on the Account view of the patron record workform indicates System for the bill, rather than Library A or Library B.

Patron Misses an Overdue Billing Notice

Bills are triggered when the specified number of overdue notices have been sent. If the notification library for overdues is different from the notification library for bills, it is possible that a patron will not receive a bill at all. To prevent this situation, libraries should coordinate their settings.

If your library purchased language licenses for Polaris PAC, you can send print and email notices in English and the licensed languages. Your library can also purchase a separate license for multilingual phone notification. Once you set up languages in Polaris, a patron receives notices in the licensed language if the Language field in the patron record workform is set to that language.

If your library purchases a multilingual license, Polaris makes the multilingual option available at the system, library, and branch levels. Because branches can determine a notification library for each notice type, a notice can be generated for any patron from nearly any branch (see Set Up the Notification Library).

If the patron designates a preference for notices in Spanish, for example, the patron might receive some notices in Spanish and others in English depending on how the notification library option is set. For example, if the Notification Library option is set to Lending branch, some branches might enable Spanish notices and others might not. If the notification library enabled Spanish notices, the notice is sent in Spanish. For system-wide consistent results, you must coordinate branch settings.

Polaris provides default English and multilingual text (if licensed) and supports that text in the standard formats.

Notes:
Language options do not apply to exported notices. Text messaging does not support Unicode, so text message notices in languages with diacritics are not rendered accurately.

You can specify the delivery method for most notices as print, email, text message to mobile phone, phone (if you use outbound telephony software), or patron preference (print, email, phone, text message). Patron preference is set up during patron registration, when the patron selects a preferred delivery method for notices. The setting is available in the Notifications section on the patron record workform.

Note:
If the Notification option is set to None in a patron’s record, that patron will receive no notices at all.

You can optionally send text messages to patrons’ mobile phones in addition to print, email, or voice phone notification, this is called an additional text message. A patron will receive the additional text message only if the Additional TXT Notice option is selected in the patron record, the TXT box is selected for Phone 1, Phone 2, or Phone 3, and a carrier is specified for that phone number. If a patron registers or updates account information online through Polaris PowerPAC and supplies a phone number for text messages and a carrier, Additional TXT Notice is automatically selected.

If you select a delivery method other than patron preference for a particular type of notice, the method you specify overrides the patron preference.

Example:
A library decides to send overdue notices according to patron preference, but to send bills only as print notices. A patron who has specified a preferred delivery method of email receives overdue notices by email, but receives a bill as a printed notice.

There are certain exceptions. If the delivery method is email or phone, but Polaris detects an email failure or a phone failure, Polaris generates a printed notice. (For more information about email failures, see Email Failure Detection). Also, if the delivery method is patron preference, and the patron’s preference is changed, Polaris does not duplicate notices. If Polaris delivers a notice by one method and then the patron preference is changed to a different delivery method, Polaris does not deliver the same notice again by the new method.

A staff member can view a patron’s notification history from the Notices view of the patron record workform.

The system retains entries in the notification history for periods you specify with two Polaris Administration Notification parameters, available at the system, library, or branch level:

• Notice history: hold notices time threshold — Controls how long Polaris keeps pick-up and canceled hold notices in the notice history. The default setting is 90 days; the maximum value is 9,999 days.
• Notice history: item and account notices time threshold — Controls how long overdue, fine, bill, and reminder notices are kept in the notice history. The default setting is 90 days; the maximum value is 9,999 days.

The system keeps an entry in the notification history if it fulfills all of the following requirements:

• Falls within the specified period of time

• The related item is checked out, claimed or lost by the current patron

• Current charges are not resolved

Polaris keeps the entry under these circumstances even if the related item is purged or deleted from the database; in this case, the title is prefixed by [DELETED].

Note:
Additional text message notices, which are sent in addition to another method, do not appear in the patron’s notification history.
For example, if the system sends both a printed notice and an additional text message notice for an item, only the printed notice appears in the notification history.

This report summarizes the total number of print, email, and phone notices produced by fiscal year and notification language. The Notification Summary report also provides:

• Comparative statistics for the two previous fiscal years

• A summary total of all notices produced by language

• Success and failure statistics for email and telephone notices

You can filter this report by branch and set the fiscal year by ending month. (Because telephone notices run at the server level, they are not included if you choose to filter the report by a branch.)

This report provides detailed statistics on the number of notices produced by notification method and notice type, each with a separate count by language. You can filter this report by branch, and set the fiscal year by ending month. (Because telephone notices run at the server level, they are not included if you choose to filter the report by a branch.)

Note:
In the Notification Detail Report, combined notice statistics are reported as individual notice types.
For example, a combined notice that includes an overdue notice and a hold request pick-up notice is reported twice—once as an overdue notice and once as a hold request pick-up notice.