How to allow patrons to request delivery to departments/offices outside library

• Article Type: General
• Product: Aleph
• Product Version: 18.01

Description:
[From the ALEPH-NA listserv:]

Does anyone use Aleph to allow patrons to request delivery to departments or offices outside of the library? If so, would you mind sharing information about your set up? We are developing a pilot and are curious to learn how others may have implemented a similar service.

Resolution:
[From David Atkins, datkins@utk.edu:]

We've been providing campus delivery via Aleph Request for about a year.

We use the "Home Library" field w/in Global Patron Details to set campus delivery locations, whether they be campus offices or branch libraries. Once a "Home Library" is set, that will be the default delivery location for each Request. If you don’t want to use your default, (e.g. you want to change from office delivery to library pickup for a specific order) you can select any of our other delivery locations on an order by order basis. Every order form includes the complete list of delivery locations, including libraries. Selecting a different delivery location doesn’t change your default (only staff can do that).

As we used ILLiad for campus delivery services, we maintained data for patron IDs and their preferred delivery locations. As part of our implementation, we extracted this data from ILLiad, created Aleph "home libraries" for our ILLiad delivery locations, and then "connected" current Library Express patrons to these pre-selected delivery locations.

If we could not determine your past preference, we opted for a default library pick locale, our main library.

As part of the request form, we created a web site patrons use to request new delivery locations. Once verified, we add the new or updated locale to our list of Aleph "Home Libraries" and make the permanent change to the patron’s records.

As we do not offer campus delivery to undergraduates (Library Pick up only), undergraduates see only the library pick up locations. Faculty, Staff, & Grad Students see the campus delivery options.

As a final touch, we configured our item return receipts to print in ‘red’ for campus delivery holds, helping us route returned items to our Library Express department.

It's worked out great. We now field a vast majority of our campus delivery requests out of Aleph, not in ILLiad. While patron email communication and order history & tracking lack ILLiad’s sophistication, the new service is worth these trade offs.

Screen shots are available.

• Article last edited: 10/8/2013