5.7 - Libraries Victoria (LV) Card
Introduction:
The “LV Card” policies enable patrons of any Libraries Victoria Shared Services public library to use their existing library card at any other participating LV sharing library. Patrons can borrow physical items, place and request holds for pickup and pay outstanding bills at any SHARE Library. Libraries are not required to issue new library cards to patrons for borrowing but can do so if the member chooses.
5.7.1 - Conditions of Use
As members of LV sharing libraries have the option to borrow at other LV sharing libraries, we encourage libraries to add something like the following to their Membership Conditions:
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As a member of xxxx Library Service, you can use your library card to borrow at any Libraries Victoria sharing library service. By using your membership at other sharing library services, you consent to those services accessing your details for administrative purposes. Additionally, any activity conducted will be subject to the conditions of use of the respective library service.
5.7.2 - Privacy
All memberships in the LV Shared database belong to the Library Service that created them. Due to privacy restrictions, other libraries CANNOT:
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Access them – unless for borrowing, paying bills etc or with the express direction of the member e.g. checking their account.
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Edit them – except when explicitly requested by the member to:
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Retain all cards, so duplicates are all marked DUP OK (see 5.7.5)
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Retain only one card for borrowing, so other duplicates will be marked DUP OK or ONLINE (see 5.7.5)
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Delete them: unless
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You have the express permission of the member, after it has been made clear that they are welcome to continue to use their duplicate membership if they wish
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There are no outstanding issues, e.g. outstanding items or bills
If still agreed, staff will mark any such membership as REMOVE DUP.(See 5.7.5)
5.7.3 - LV Card Protocols
Libraries participating in the LV Card system are part of the Library Group SHARE.
The Library Policies of these Libraries are configured to assign the following permissions to the SHARE Network:
Bill Maintenance
Pay Maintenance
User Display
User Maintenance
Patrons will borrow items according to the circulation rules and policies of the library that they borrow from. Loan periods, overdue fees and any limits on Item types will continue to be determined by the lending library.
5.7.4 - Online Memberships
Library patrons who only wish to gain access to the online resources and services offered by a library other than their own may register for an “online” membership at the other library. This online membership user is assigned the shared User Profile ONLINE and is marked as DUP OK.
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An ONLINE User Profile cannot borrow physical items or place holds and is purely for using electronic resources and services such as internet bookings.
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A patron does not require both a standard library membership and an Online membership for the same Library Service.
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A patron may have multiple Online memberships, each at a different Library Service.
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A patron may have only an online membership if they are only using one library online and not using a library in person.
5.7.5 - Duplicate Memberships
Patrons with more than one library card (either duplicates inadvertently issued by the one library service, or memberships at multiple public libraries), that have not been assigned DUP OK will be identified by a List Duplicate Users report and flagged with a special DUPLICATE status. NOTE: Generally duplicate memberships will not be permitted within one library service.
The Duplicate status will advise patrons to contact their library too determine what they want to do with their duplicate memberships. The options are:
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Marked as DUP OK to retain multiple library cards
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Non-borrowing memberships to be changed to the ONLINE profile
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Un-needed memberships to be marked as REMOVE DUP – they will be automatically removed from the system (NOTE: This can only be done with the explicit permission of the member)
The List Duplicate Users report selects users according to standard user selection options (such as Library, User Profile, Date of Birth, etc.). Selected users are compared, and those with the same First Name, Last Name and Date of Birth are considered possible Duplicates and are assigned the Blocked status of DUPLICATE.
The following User policies will be excluded from the List Duplicate User report:
Any TAFE and school-specific User Profiles
Any Libraries not participating in the Shared Patron Database (e.g. Non-Sharing LV Libraries, GOTAFE and standalone school libraries)
By excluding COLLECTION and BARRED users, those with Lost items or who have outstanding bills, will still need to resolve those with their current library before they are considered for deduplication. Once those statuses have been removed, they will be considered by the report and acted on accordingly.
The report selects all users matching the given criteria, and sorts them by user name and date of birth, looping through the resulting list to identify possible duplicates (matching first name, last name and birth date without regard to case).
Users identified as possible duplicates are printed in the report’s result, with duplicates appearing together. In update mode, each duplicated user has its delinquency status changed to DUPLICATE. Edits to user records are written to transaction (history) logs.
5.7.5.1 Identified
Duplicates
Patrons flagged as Duplicate will still be able to place holds and renew loans online, however their Status in My Account will advise them “You may have duplicate cards. Please contact your library.”
Duplicate records will produce a pop up warning with the same message when entering the library card of the user in Workflows: “You may have duplicate cards. Please contact your library.”
Library Process
When a patron does present with the DUPLICATE status, staff should follow the procedure below:
- Search for the user name in Modify User and display all duplicate records.
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Determine the actions needed for the memberships:
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For any membership being kept as is: (may be multiple)
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Open that record in Modify User and click on the Privilege tab.
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Change the Status of DUPLICATE to REINSTATE
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If more than one membership being kept – mark all as DUP OK
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Enter the staff Override and SAVE.
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For any memberships being changed to Online: (may be multiple)
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Open the records in Modify User.
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Change their Status from DUPLICATE to REINSTATE as above.
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Change the Profile to ONLINE. This will allow the user to continue using online services at the original Library.
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Then SAVE.
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For any memberships no longer required: (may be multiple)
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Open the membership in Modify user
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Change the User Profile to Remove Dup
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Then SAVE.
5.7.5.2 Option – Duplicate Users
with Outstanding Bills
If a Duplicate REMOVE-DUP or ONLINE record WITHIN one library service has outstanding holds or bills and the user is unable to pay them at that time, manually recreate the bills on remaining membership.
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If the bill is for a LOST item, use the LONGLOST Bill Reason and enter details of the item barcode, title and dates in the Bill Note.
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For all other types of Bills use the same Bill Reason as the original Bill.
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The original bills on the duplicate account to be removed should then be CANCELLED.
Bills CAN NOT BE transferred to a membership at another library service. Bills can be paid at any LV library, but if there is any dispute the member must resolve it by contacting the library service to which it belongs. See 5.7.6.1. Waiving of Bills and Bill Disputes
5.7.5.3 Holds for Duplicate Members
Where a hold is trapped for a DUP OK, Remove DUP or Online member:
If the member retains multiple memberships, any holds placed will need to be collected on the library membership on which it was placed.
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A Remove DUP or Online membership cannot borrow items. Instead staff can issue the item to the member’s borrowing LV Card. The Available Hold Block Override will display.
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Enter the Override password and issue the item.
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Then, open the Remove Item Holds wizard. The item just issued will display as the active record for easy access and display.
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Display that item’s holds and select/remove the hold for the Duplicate user record.
5.7.5.4 Deletion of REMOVE-DUP User Record
Libraries Victoria Support runs a monthly Remove Users report, selecting records with the User Profile REMOVE-DUP, to delete those users. Any users with active holds, checkouts or bills will remain on the system until all such activity is cleared from their record.
5.7.6 - Paying Bills
Library patrons will be able to pay any bill owed to a SHARE Library at any other SHARE Library. If a patron presents their membership card to staff and it has bills owed to another library, staff should accept payment and pay the bill as normal.
5.7.6.1 Waiving of Bills and Bill Disputes
Library staff should not, under any circumstances, CANCEL, FORGIVE or WAIVE a bill owed to a Library service other than their own without the consent of the billing library.
If there is a dispute about a bill which is owed to another library, the patron should be advised to discuss the matter with the billing library. If necessary, provide the patron with contact details of the billing library.
5.7.6.2 Reimbursing Libraries for Bills Paid
A report summarising any bills paid at participating that belonged to other libraries will be included in the Libraries Victoria monthly report distributed to all libraries. At the end of the financial year the balance of monies owed will be adjusted in each member library's Membership Fees.
5.7.7- Notice Reports
To ensure all users receive notices for holds and overdue items, a consistent approach must be taken by all participating public libraries when configuring notice report selections.
Hold notices will be sent by the library where the Hold is available for pickup.
Overdue, Assumed Lost and Bill notices will be sent by the library where the items were borrowed and where the bill is owed.
See Section 8 Reports for details of the notice report settings.
References: