Email Notification FAQs:
Question: How many people have signed up to receive email notices?
Answer:
649 Total: 1-BARNEVELD, 19-BOONVILLE, 26-BRIDGEPORT, 6-CAMDEN, 14-CANASTOTA, 47-CAZENOVIA,
17-CHITTENANG, 8-CLAYVILLE, 70-CLINTON, 6-DERUYTER, 3-DOLGEVILLE, 9-EARLVILLE, 2-FRANKFORT,
39-HAMILTON, 21-HERKIMER, 9-HOLLANDPT, 8-ILION, 1-JORDANVLE, 18-LITTLEFLS, 3-MIDDLEVLE,
2-MOHAWK, 8-MORRISVLE, 1-MUNNSVILLE, 78-NEWHARTFRD, 2-NEWPORT, 6-NWOODSTOCK,
2-NYMILLS, 20-OLDFORGE, 24-ONEIDA, 3-ORISKANY, 1-ORISKFALLS, 2-POLAND, 8-REMSEN, 54-ROME,
2-SALSBRYCTR, 8-SHERRILL, 36-UTICA, 1-VERNON, 9-WATERVILLE, 16-WESTWINFLD, 36-WHITESBORO,
3-WOODGATE
Question: Why are there people signed up from non-automated libraries?
Answer:
Patrons who use non-automated libraries will not receive email notification however often patrons use
multiple libraries so even though their home library is non-automated they may sometimes use an
automated library and will receive email notification. It’s also possible that the home library in the patron
record has not been updated.
Question: When do the email notices get sent to the patron?
Answer:
Even though items become available for pickup throughout the day, the notifications will be sent at night
between 10PM and 11PM for all of the holds that became available that day and all of the items coming
due in three days. At this time we are unable to run the notifications during the day due to response time
issues and other functions that need to use the report scheduler. If you wish to notify your patron
immediately when an item becomes available you should continue to call them.
Question: Can we send other notifications like overdue notices or letting a patron know when their card is going to
expire?
Answer:
Once we have the hold and pre-due notices running smoothly and more people signed up we can discuss
adding other notifications.
Question: If a patron has an email listed in their record and indicates to staff that their email address has changed,
should we change the email address in Workflows, or should we have the patron send an email to
librarynotice@midyork.org to inform Mid-York of the change?
Answer:
The change can be made either way. If staff at the desk wish to update the record immediately they can do
so in Workflows or they can give them the sign-up handout and have them send a message to Mid-York.
Question: What should I do with the ‘Returned mail’ messages?
Answer:
You should contact the patron to let them know if they have something on hold and verify the email
address information in the patron record. If you can’t reach the patron then remove the email address
from the record so that telephone notification can resume. If the patron says that the address you have is
valid then they need to check with their ISP to see why the email didn’t reach them. Their server could
have been down or it uses filtering and they could ask to allow mail from the midyork.org domain.
Contact Linda Manfredo with questions or comments 3/16/2010
Question: How will I know which patrons have been notified via email about an item available for pickup?
Answer:
For libraries using receipt printers, the email address field has been added to the hold slip so if it prints
then staff will know the patron will receive an email that night. If the email field is not on the hold slip then
the patron needs to be called. The phone number field is still on all hold slips so if you want to notify a
patron immediately when an item becomes available you can still call them.
Hold slip for patron with Email
User name: MANFREDO, LINDA
Phone number: 315-525-2270
Email: Lmanfredo@live.com
User ID: 1000100191856
Title: Nobody’s Fool [videorecording]
Current time: 03/16/2010, 11:58
Hold slip for patron without Email
User name: MANFREDO, MELISSA
Phone number: 315-525-7617
User ID: 1001100337218
Title: Bambi [videorecording]
Current time: 03/16/2010, 11:58
Question: What if I don’t have a receipt printer?
Answer:
For libraries that do not have receipt printers, they can choose to continue to call people or they can
manually add the word **EMAIL to the phone field in the patron’s record which displays on the screen
when an item goes on hold (see below). If you wish to modify the patron records with this code word then
notify Linda so she can produce a report that will list all your patrons with email addresses and she will
send it to you either weekly or monthly.
Contact Linda Manfredo with questions or comments 3/16/2010