Managing Borrowing Renewals
This page provides an overview of the workflow for borrowing renewals in Alma. For more information on resource sharing including locating items for resource sharing, working with resource sharing partners, managing borrowing and lending requests and contributing to the resource sharing directory, see Resource Sharing.
Borrowing renewals may be requested through various channels. The renew action may be done manually or automatically. It may be triggered by a patron request or a staff request on behalf of a patron.
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A renewal request is created. The patron may request the renewal directly in Primo or it may be created by an operator in Alma by selecting Request Renew for the borrowing request. Depending on the configuration, a patron request may be transmitted directly to the lender or it may require mediated renewal by borrowing library staff. A mediated renewal will display the status of Mediated Patron Renewal while it is waiting for operator review. Once requests are sent to the lending institution, the request status is set to Renew Requested.
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The renewal request is transmitted automatically either via an ISO message or an email to the lending institution. The email letter is Ful Renew Email Letter.
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Depending upon configuration, Alma determines whether to automatically renew the request. For details on configuring, see Configuring Workflow Profiles. During automatic renewal, Alma checks if there are any open requests for the title. If there is a request on the specific item, the renewal request is always rejected. If there is a request at the title level, the renewal is determined by the value in the Not Renewable - Item has Request(s) parameter in Block Preferences (see Configuring Block Preferences). If the parameter is set to Handle Automatically, the renewal will be automatically accepted. If the parameter is set to another value the renewal will be automatically rejected.
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If a manual response is required, the operator selects the Renew button. The status is changed to Renewed by Partner. For more information, see Managing Resource Sharing Borrowing Requests.
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If the request is renewed, a message is sent to the patron and a renewal fee may be charged. The letter is the Ful Borrowing Info letter. To configure the letter, see Configuring Alma Letters. A resource sharing renew fee is set as part of a fulfillment policy; see Adding Fulfillment Policies. If the request is rejected by the lender manually through an email, the operator sets the request status to Renew Request Not Accepted. If the renewal or rejection is automatic, all statuses are changed as the system receives the response from the lender. If the lender approved the renewal request but the renewal failed on the borrower side, an active note and a history message (visible in the Audit tab) are added to the request.
For more information, see More Information About Resource Sharing Renewals and the Resource Sharing Renewals Demo video (25:53 min)