Create a way for staff to add messages to other library's items outside of scope restrictions
The problem that's prompting this suggestion:
I work at Gondor Library. An item arrives from Rohan Library (outside of scope) to fulfill a hold for my Gondor patron. But staff notices it has damage that has NOT been noted in the record (or on the physical object).
Gondor staff have two choices.
a) the damage is extensive enough that we decide to not fulfill the hold and send it back to the owning library, Rohan.
b) we use our judgement to decide whether the Rohan book's damage is minor enough to fulfill the hold.
For example, only light stains on a few pages... or a children's book with 1 single page torn in half. These are minor enough that the previous patron probably won't be held responsible, and we would like to move the item along to fulfill the Gondor patron's hold.
However, it would be helpful to add a message to the out-of-scope Rohan item record indicating that the damage was there before we checked it out to the Gondor patron.
G Wise
shared this idea
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Michelle Buglio
commented
More in depth cataloging fields should not be able to be altered, but it would be a great help to be able to make a note that could be seen by anyone as to the condition of the item at the time it crossed another library's desk.
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Deena Zuckerman
commented
This would be so helpful!
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Nicole Turzillo
commented
This would be useful in situations where items get damaged in transit. However, it should only be limited to adding a note field.
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Jeremy Goldstein
commented
I can see this being hugely helpful. We have restrictions in place to keep libraries from generally editing items belonging to someone else, you don't want to let someone change the location to steal a popular book after all. But this is a great use case for why there should be a way to make a particular exception to that.
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Silvia Roma
commented
This would be helpful. Right now we resort to leaving a message on the patron account that is taking the book but this is imperfect since the message often gets left on the patron account long after the item is checked back in. It would be much better for a message to be associated with the item itself.