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Simpson Library Technical Services

Serves as a reference for all Staff.

Statuses

The availability status is calculated by Alma per location, but Primo displays the availability based on all locations. For example, if the same serial holding exists in two locations, which have the Check holding and Available statuses respectively, Primo will display the Available status since the holding is available at one of the locations. The final availability statuses are determined as follows:

  1. If there are items, but none of them is available, the availability status is defined as UNAVAILABLE.

  2. If this is a serial holding (i.e. information appears in the chronI / enumA) and not all of them are available, the availability status is defined as CHECK_HOLDINGS.

  3. If there is at least one available item, the availability status is defined as AVAILABLE.

  4. Otherwise, the availability status is defined as CHECK_HOLDINGS.

Traditionally, Primo controls the status in the brief display and Alma controls the status in the Get It section which is why they are distinct (i.e., why it says “Check holdings” in the brief display and “Available” or “May be available” in the Get It).  The brief display availability labels are managed in the Calculated Availability Text Labels table and the Get It availability labels are managed in the Getit Tile Labels. 

For the Calculated Availability Text Labels table, there will likely be multiple lines which need to be changed for each status.  For example, for "Not Available" there are two:

Not available text

This is true for other statuses, such as "Checked out...," "Online Access," etc.  The reason for this is that there are different delivery codes assigned by Primo depending on if the item is from Alma or Primo Central, if the item is completely unavailable (i.e., all copies checked out) or partially unavailable (i.e., checked out by your institution but available at another institution), etc.  This table covers all possibilities."

Lost vs Missing Process Types

"Lost" items are defined as items that have been loaned to a patron, have been declared lost by the patron, or the item is acutely overdue and presumed lost as a result. 
  • Items should only be marked as "Lost" when they are on loan and are considered lost based on the above parameters
  • Items cannot be changed to a process type of "Lost" from the item record and should be changed to "Lost" in Fulfillment from the patron record.
  • Access Services runs a report to discover which items have not been returned over 90 days.  After waiving the fines on the student's record, the items will have a process type of "Lost and Paid" instead of "Lost."
"Missing" items are defined as items that cannot be located in the library's collection and they are not on loan.
  • Items that cannot be located should be set to Missing Status
  • Items set to missing will appear on the Missing List and will also display as unavailable
  • To set items to "Missing" see Missing Status