Claimed to Lost Procedure                     

The TRAC Operational Guidelines state:

“Items assigned the status of “claim returned/claim never had” can be considered “lost”
after six months. Restitution will be made to the owning library; the owning library will
invoice the transacting library for the replacement of the material. The transacting
library can decide whether or not to recoup the cost from its patron/wandering patron
and may declare it lost in the patron claims workform.”

*The Owning library should check its shelves and ask the Transacting library to do the same before proceeding to convert the Claimed item to Lost.*

There is no function in Polaris to change a Claim status to a Lost status (either through the Item record or Patron record), so the Owning library may consider the item lost and invoice for it. The Transacting library is obligated to pay the invoice, in the same way that it is for any other lost item and may choose whether or not to recoup the cost from its patron or wandering patron.

Run a Claimed Report

PowerBI

Navigate to the Member Libraries Dashboard > Collection Maintenance Report. Select your library and click on the Claimed Items page.

SRSS Canned Reports

Access Utilities > Reports and Notices > Cataloging > Item > Claimed Items choose your library and hit submit. Please check each item record on your report to confirm the transacting library to invoice as some patrons may be wandering.

Simply Reports

In Simply Reports, click on the Items tab and select Item List Reports. Select the following categories for output:

• Item Assigned Branch Name (this is the owning library)
• Item Barcode
• Item Call Number
• Item Checkout Branch Name (this is the transacting library)
• Item Circ Status
• Item Claimed Date
• Item Price
• MARC Title
• Patron Barcode for Claimed Item
• Patron Full Name for Claimed Item.

Select the categories for sort:

• Item Claimed Date.

General Filters:

• Select your library.

• Select Record Status: Final
• Select Circ Status: Claim Returned and Claim Never Had (to select two options, hold the CTRL key while selecting the options).

Run the report and create an item record set from the results. Remember the record set name so that you can search for the record set in Polaris or Leap.

From PowerBI you can export the list of items and import the list into LEAP. If you use the SRSS reports, export the list as an excel file and import it into LEAP or you will need to manually create a record, searching for each item individually.

Owning Library

In the claimed report, look for the Item Claimed Date. Calculating from this date, the Owning library generally waits six months before changing the status to lost and invoicing for the Claimed item. Items claimed more than 6 months prior should be added to a lost item record set. If you decide NOT to invoice, delete the item record so that it does not keep showing up in the Claimed report each time you generate it.

NOTE: Deleting the item record will also delete the Claimed information from the patron record (although the number of claims made by the patron will be retained on their account).

Send an Invoice to the Transacting Library for Claimed Items

If the Owning library wishes to be reimbursed for the Claimed item—at the latest, it should invoice the Transacting library within a year of the item becoming Claimed. If the Owning library waits longer to invoice than a year from the date the item became Claimed, the Transacting library is not obligated to pay the invoice.

Once payment has been received, place a “paid” note in the item record’s Temp Location field and re-save the record. Add the item to a lost item record set to be deleted by HQ. The library receiving the patron’s payment will also go into the patron’s record and mark the charge paid.

After four (4) months if the owning library has any concerns about an unpaid invoice from a library, they can contact their Regional Headquarters.

Transacting Library

Transacting Library: When you receive an invoice for a Claimed item that is now considered Lost, your library must pay the Owning library’s invoice. If you want the Claim information to be retained, place a note in your patron’s record restating the Claim information (which you will find in their Status view), because this information will disappear from the patron record’s Status view once the Owning library receives your payment and deletes its item record.