Wes Osborn

This article covers the options available to members for handling lost items that are returned to the library.

• You can review your library’s current lost item recovery settings using this report: Lost Item Recovery Settings
• If an item is returned AFTER the time period specified in your lost item recovery settings, then there are no changes made to the patron’s account. However, you will be able to see on the CKI screen that an item has gone from Lost to another item status and may choose to review the account at that time.
  • If you’d like automated actions to always be applied, you can request that CLC extend the time period for automatic processing to 99 years.
• Some libraries elect to only have automatic processing under certain circumstances or not at all. For example, if a lost item is discovered during CKO, the manual Resolve lost item dialog box may appear.
  
  • If the dialog box appears, the library staff member needs to select what action to take with the various charges before proceeding.
  • Also members may see a similar dialog box, when manually declaring an item lost. The Declare lost item pop-up box is ALWAYS shown and is unrelated to the Lost item recovery settings.
  • If there is a partial payment for a lost item, and that item is later checked in, the system will follow the Lost and Paid recovery rules.
• Lost items are automatically deleted from the system according to this CLC policy: Lost and Missing Item Deletion Policy
• Because of the CLC Shared patron model, all members have their setting regarding when incremental Overdue fines are applied set to Charge Overdue when returned. This means when an item is initially lost, only the replacement and processing fee charges are applied to the patron account.
  • This setting also causes Lost and Paid items to remain on the patron’s Claims view. The items will show as Lost/Accruing. This is because if the item is returned, incremental Overdue fines would then be applied to the patrons account. Having the item as Lost/Accruing allows Polaris to keep track of the items that it needs to apply this processing too. When the item record is deleted, either manually or through CLC’s automated process, it will be removed from the Claims view
• If a lost item that has been deleted from the system and is later checked-in, you’ll get an item not found message
  
  • Lost items that have been deleted, will NOT have any automatic lost item recovery changes applied.
  • In some cases you may be able to find details about the deleted item using this report: Deleted Item Transaction History
• Polaris uses the Governing Library’s polices to determine which Lost item recovery settings are used
  • In CLC’s setup, the Governing Library is the lending branch.
  • The Lending Library is the last checkout location. If an item is manually renewed at a different location than the original CKO location, then the location where the items are renewed is considered the lending location.
• If an item record has no price, the default price for the item’s material type will be used.
  • The default price is ALWAYS based on the settings for the item’s owning library