Claims Returned and Lost Statuses

• Article Type: General
• Product: Aleph
• Product Version: 17.01

Description:
I've noticed that the "claim return" button in the Circ client (patron and item tabs) is grayed out for Lost items (loan status = lost), thus making it impossible to mark a lost item as claimed return. I assume this is the intended behavior, since it is not possible to have two loan statuses for the same item (lost and claimed return), and that lost is being treated as a "final" loan status. Is this the correct interpretation? Or is this behavior something we can change?

We're not sure if we actually want to change this behavior, but wanted to know if it was an option. Also, if possible, what ls the "Aleph-logic" for this behavior?

Resolution:
Your interpretation is correct. And,no, this is not something you can change.

The reasoning behind this is that a Lost item is one which the patron acknowledges is lost. If the patron claims that the item has been returned, then, in ALEPH-terms, it is not Lost.

Normally, there is a sequence of searches by the library for claims-returned items. If the item has not been located after x months, then it would be changed to status Lost and the patron would be billed.

But it seems to me that the system *should* have some mechanism to allow you to change a Lost loan to a Claims-returned loan. Since it doesn't, you would need to cancel the Lost cash transaction and use SQL to change the z36_status from "L" to "C".