Solar Circulation Procedures
I.
Fill Outgoing Requests for your Items
a. Requests for your items: (Weekly)
i. Open Solar
1. go to “Reports”
2. pick “Paged too long”
3. change Minimum days to “3”
4. click “Prepare”
5. if you have any results, right click on them and pick View Details
to see the full details of this item
ii. Go find the items in the list and pull them from the shelves. Indicate that
they are checked out to MaineCat in your local system.
iii. If the item is not available (lost, missing, checked out), cancel the hold in
Solar:
1. Go to “Search / Request” and find the item by title / author / etc.
Look for a tab that says “1 Request” if there is more than one
item.
2. Click on the “Request” tab.
3. Check the box next to the request to cancel.
4. Click the “Cancel Requests” button.
5. If the item is missing, pick “cancel request and change status to
missing” so that it is not immediately re-requested by the same
patron. When/if you find the item, you can pull up the record and
change the status back from “missing” to “available”.
6. If the item is simply checked out or you do not want to send it
through the delivery system (in use for classes, etc.) pick “Cancel
Request”
7. Choose a brief reason why you are cancelling the request so that
the patron sees why. (They will get a notice at their library of the
cancellation).
iv. If the item is available but has no barcode in the item, get one from your
stash and put it in the item. Then get back in Solar:
1. go to “Search / Request” and find item by title/ author/ etc.
2. click on tab that says “Record i_______”
3. click “insert” button
4. pick barcode
5. scan barcode
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6. click “close” and yes to save
v. Once the item has a barcode check it out, again in Solar
1. go to “Library Checkout”
2. Scan item barcode
3. click OK to message saying it is requested by a patron at … and to
put it into transit.
vi. Include a slip of paper saying that it is a MaineCat request as well as the
patron and patron number
b. Your returned items: (As necessary)
i. In Solar
1. go to “My Item Check-In”
2. Scan barcode
ii. Indicate that the item is back in your local system and it’s ready to
reshelve
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II.
Request, Receive, and Return Items from Other lIbraries
a. Requesting books through MaineCat (When someone wants to request
something)
i. In your browser (Firefox, Explorer, Chrome, Safari)
1. Go to mainecat.maine.edu
2. Search for and find the title that you want to request. (Keep
clicking on links until you see the full record)
3. Click “REQUEST THIS ITEM”
4. Choose Gov. Baxter School Lib (Falmouth) from the list, click
“Submit above information”
5. Type
Your Name: Governor
Library Card Number: 7816237
click “SUBMIT”
ii. Watch for the item to arrive in the next week or so.
iii. If you wish to cancel this request, you can do so from your patron record
(so long as it is not already “in transit”. If it is, just receive the item and
process ans usual and send immediately back). In Solar:
1. Bring up your patron record and go to the “requests” tab.
2. Check the box next to the request you want to cancel.
3. Click the “Cancel Requests” button.
b. When items arrive for your patrons: (As necessary)
i. In Solar
1. go to “Patron Checkout”
2. Enter your library’s barcode b7816237 OR enter ngovernor
3. scan the item barcode
4. Note the due date for the patron
ii. Contact the patron, saying that the item is ready to be picked up
iii. Circulate as usual (whatever you do locally)
iv. If the patron no longer wants it, check it out, then check back in
immediately. Make sure to follow the in and out steps to avoid system
errors.
c. Your patrons returning other libraries’ items: (As necessary)
i. In Solar
1. go to “Not my item Check-In”
2. scan the barcode
ii. put on outgoing pile
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III.
MAINTENANCE
a. Your patrons’ overdues: (Weekly, if there is anything out) If you are able to keep
track of which items are out and are overdue without relying on SOLAR, that is
fine. Use whatever system works for you. If you want to rely on SOLAR, then do
the following:
i. In Solar
1. go to “Notices”
2. pick Notice Type: “Overdue Notices”
3. click “Prepare Notices”
4. pick your printer (as above)
5. if no notices, then you’re DONE!
6. if there are notices, take note of the items and patrons (for more
info on either, right click on the line of info and “view” the patron
or item info
7. Contact the patron to let them know
b. Billing for your lost items: (Monthly, if there is anything borrowed)
i. In Solar
1. go to “Reports”
2. pick “Institutional Overdues”
3. change Minimum days to “30”
4. click “Prepare”
5. if you have any results, right click on them and pick View Details
to see the full details of this item
ii. For these items, send a notice/bill to the library that has borrowed the
item (not to the patron—bills are done library-to-library, and then a
library deals with its own patrons)
iii. There are no firm rules, but generally I would recommend giving the
library a month to either return the book or to arrange payment for
replacement. The standard MaineCat replacement fee is $85, regardless
of the value of the item.
c. Catching unfilled requests: (If it’s been more than 2 weeks and an item you
requested hasn’t arrived) Lets you know about items you may have requested
that are languishing at another library, waiting for them to run their notices.
i. In Solar
1. go to “Reports”
2. pick “Requested too long”
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3. change Minimum days to “8”
4. click “Prepare”
5. if you have any results, right click on them and pick “View Details”
to see the full details of this item
6. you can either contact the library with the item to request that
they pull it and give them a reminder OR you can cancel the
request and place it again, prompting another notice. Your call.
IV.
PROBLEMS / QUESTIONS / TIPS
a. If something seems broken or you need to know why something is happening,
submit a ticket to the site http://support.maineinfonet.org
b. To contact another library with a question, see the list of MaineCat contacts at
http://maine.gov/infonet/libcontacts.shtml
c. If a barcode does not scan correctly or you get the message “invalid index”, try
typing a b in the space before you scan the barcode.
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