Combining items in the Bill notices
Allow libraries to combine all billed items into one Bill notice instead of separating them into individual emails based on the location of the items.
Idea Value
Like many other academic libraries, we bill our patrons only once a semester, so all bills for all outstanding items are sent on the same day. Currently it means that some patrons could potentially get 4-10 emails from us with 1-2 items per message just because their items happened to be from different locations (which includes not only different campuses but also locations at each campus, like DVDs, Books, Displays, etc.). In our context there is no reason whatsoever for separating them into individual emails. Items can be returned at any campus and the same goes for paying the bills. It would help if there was an option for the libraries to decide if they want to send separate bills based on location or if they want to combine them all in one notice. Patrons will appreciate not getting multiple emails for no obvious reason. Getting a bill is not pleasant, getting 4-10 of them the same morning just adds insult to injury.
Re-opened at the Sierra Working Group's request to consider this idea for the next Sierra enhancement cycle.
-
Alison Pruntel commented
Yes, we would like to have all of our bills in one notice, not just combining the ones that have the same item location.