Lost/Claimed Returned

Marking an item lost

If a patron reports they have lost an item don’t use the BILL A USER or PAY A BILL wizard. Instead use the MARK ITEM LOST wizard.

This wizard:
• Bills the patron for the replacement cost of the item.
• Gives the item a shadowed current location of LOST.
• And, if the patron is paying for the item at the same time you have the option to
accept payment.

» Missing pieces during checking 
» Viewing lost checkouts 

Marking an item missing 

If you are trying to find an item and can not, use the MARK ITEM MISSING wizard.
• You need to set the behavior properties for the wizard to use your Missing patron. This requires a TECH login.
• The item is given a current, shadowed location of MISSING.

Claimed returned

» Claimed Return Form - actual form
» Claimed Return Form - a "how to"

  • Every library may decide whether or not to use claimed returned.
  • You can manually decrement the counter on the privilege tab in the patron record when the items are returned.

Accepting payment for lost items belonging to another library

  • Patrons pay for lost items at the library where they borrowed the material.
  • Do not mark the bill as paid. You MUST record the payment amount, the date, item barcode, and your library's name in the notes field in the patron’s record.
  • Checks should be forwarded to the owning library. Never send cash through the delivery.

» See a chart for the correct way to make out the check

Accepting payment for assumed lost items
If a patron is automatically billed for an item that was long overdue and now considered, assumed lost (LOST-ASSUMED), when they pay for the item, the inactive charge is removed from their record. The item still has the current location of LOST-ASSUMED and can be checked out to your discard patron. If you want a list of your items that are considered, assumed lost, please fill out our Workflows Request Form

Refunds - The system does not automatically refund a patron for a payment they made for a lost item. If you check in an item and get a message that it had been marked
lost, you can go to the BILLS TAB in the patron record to see if the patron had paid for the lost item. You can then follow your library's procedure to refund the payment to the patron.

Problem transactions 

» Viewing the Previous User

Blocked or barred - All libraries must honor a blocked or barred status on a patron. If one library barrs a patron, all SAILS libraries must honor that.