Modify Due Dates Wizard

All, some have reported that there is a little problem when trying to modify patron due dates. In some cases when going to modify a due date the library staff either get an error message or they do not see the items they are trying to modify even though the items appear when displaying a patron’s checkouts. This is not an error in the system. What is happening has to do with the library policies and the Modify Due Date wizard. Currently public libraries cannot modify Del Tech patron records and Del Tech libraries cannot modify Public patron records. We’ve had this policy in place since going live. We are now seeing that this policy is also being consulted for other wizards, such as the Modify Due Date wizard. When modifying a due date the system consults the library policy for the item being modified and works off of that policy. For example a public patron at a public library has an item from a Del Tech library that is due on the 25^th but asks instead if it can be changed to be due on the 1^st, the system looks at the library policy for the item but sees that user records cannot be changed in a public library. The system then does not allow the item to be modified; in fact the item usually won’t even appear in the window to select for modifying. This can be a problem if there are numerous items and not all of them are Del Tech items. Some will appear and others will not leading some staff to miss modifying them. We haven’t seen this before because I think there was a switch when we moved to 3.1 that now makes the wizard behave this way. I say, “think,” because the people at SirsDynix won’t confirm that there has been a change, other than some initial confusion when this issue was first brought to our attention and then their attention. So, to summarize, all I’m saying is be aware if you are in a public library and a patron has items from Del Tech (any barcode beginning with 37710, 38720, or 37711) checked out to them, even if checked out at your library, you will not be able to modify their due dates. Those patrons will have to contact a Del Tech library to do that. This is just a limitation in Unicorn this new version of Unicorn that we will have to get used to. Please email sirsi.support if you have any questions.