If a patron’s record has an alert there will be a yellow box around the patron’s name. A red Stop sign is displayed when the record is retrieved.
There are three types of alerts in Evergreen: staff-generated, system-generated, and standing penalties.
Staff-generated alerts are created and removed manually by staff.
To insert/remove an alert message, retrieve the patron record.
Type/delete required message in the Alert Message field. Then save the record.
System-generated alerts are automatically inserted on some conditions, such as the patron account is expired, patron has a ready-for-pickup hold, etc. Once the cause is resolved, e.g. patron’s account has been renewed or patron has checked out the on-hold item, these messages will disappear automatically.
Standing penalties are inserted when a patron’s circulation condition meets certain criteria set up by your library, e.g. the maximum fine threshold, the maximum number of items allowed to be checked out, the maximum number of overdue items allowed. Standing penalties block some of the patron’s circulation activities. For example, if a patron has a standing penalty of exceeding maximum number of overdue items, the patron cannot check out more items before returning/renewing the overdue items. If a patron has an exceeding maximum fines penalty, he/she cannot check out or renew any item before he/she clears the fines or lowers the amount to below the maximum fines threshold. Standing penalties automatically disappear once the cause is resolved.
Standing penalties can be overridden on an item by item basis. Alternatively, you can remove the standing penalties temporarily to carry out the circulation actions that need to be overridden. If the conditions persist, once you refresh or re-access the patron record the penalties will be reapplied immediately.
To remove standing penalties, go to Messages. Highlight the penalties. Click Actions for these penalties → Remove from patron.
Besides the Alert screen, Alerts can be viewed by going to the drop-down menu Other → Display Alert and Messages.
Click below to watch the tutorial.