There was an extensive discussion on this topic last year on the main
INNOPAC list, starting on 19 June 1998 with the subject lines: Busy
records, Freeing busy records, Free record in use, why restrict free
record? etc. Go to
http://www.innopacusers.org/listserv/archives/1998/msg00285.html
and follow the date index. (The thread index may not pick up all the
relevant messages.)
One thing I try to persuade our desk staff to do is always to leave the
patron record by hitting <Space> or <Return> after any action. Not sure
if leaving a patron record displayed on a terminal adds to this problem
but leaving it on the screen is never a good idea. I also suspect that
some patron records are left in use after a patron views his/her own
record, but we have not been able to find out how or why this happens.
On Wed, 6 Oct 1999, Lesha Fossey wrote:
> At the moment only a coupl of my staff are authorised to "free" these records.
> They try to get into the patron record a couple of times, and if it's still "in
> use" they free it. We have asked the students concerned if they've just been
> viewing their own record on the catalogue, or whether they've just
> borrowed/returned something from the other end of the desk, but the answer is
> usually "no". Has anyone any suggestions as to WHY records might be stuck in
> this way? Has anyone consistently written all the details of each and every
> incidence as suggested in the manual? If so, did you report it to III and
> what was done? And is it REALLY that bad to have a larger number of people able
> to free such records? Have there been any undesirable effects elsewhere?
Mieko
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Mieko Yamaguchi [log in to unmask]
Technical Services Manager/System Coordinator +44 (0)1248 382970
Main Library, University of Wales Bangor, UK +44 (0)1248 382979 (Fax)
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