How patrons can add notes to items checked out on their accounts
It is possible to allow patrons to add notes via the OPAC to items they have checked out which can then be viewed on the staff interface.
Enable the function to add notes on the OPAC
Go to Koha administration > System preferences and search for AllowCheckoutNotes. This will bring you directly to the system preference of the same name.
Set the system preference to Allow patron to submit notes about checked out items and click Save all Circulation preferences.
Adding a note to a checked out item on the OPAC
Sign into the OPAC and go to your account. In the Summary area there will be a Checked out tab showing any checkouts on your account.
The far right column on the Checked out table will be called Report a problem. Click the Add note button in this column.
This will cause a pop-up box to appear, where details of the note to be added to the checkout can be inserted.
Add a note to the free text box in the pop-up that has appeared and click Submit note.
Once the note has been submitted a confirmation message will appear above the checkout.
How the note will appear on the staff side
After the note has been submitted staff are notified by a blue link appearing along the bottom of the staff homepage which will include the line Checkout notes pending and the number of notes that need to be addressed.
Clicking this link will take you to a new page with a table of existing checkout notes on your site. The item the note is on, the note itself, the date it was submitted and who is was submitted by will be displayed.
Alternatively, navigate to Circulation > Checkout Notes to see all Checkout notes on the site.
Staff can choose to mark checkout notes as Seen from the Checkout notes table.
This will remove the notification from the bottom of the homepage. After a note has been marked as Seen it is possible to reverse the setting and mark it as Not Seen. This will cause the notification on the homepage to re-appear.
The note appearing at checkin
The other feature of a note from the OPAC is, whether or not it has been marked as Seen it will appear to staff at checkin, as demonstrated in the images below.
This image shows the barcode being scanned into the Check in tab on the staff side.
The item is successfully checked in and the patron note displays at the top of the page in a blue box.
Editing a note after it has been submitted
It is possible to edit the note from the OPAC after it has been submitted.
Log into the OPAC and go to view the checked out items on your account. The note field will appear with the existing note in it. Click Edit note. This will create a popup box where any changes to the existing note can be made and hit Submit changes.
Once the change is saved a message confirming it has been submitted to the staff side will appear.
The image below shows the note on the staff side after it has been edited.
Version | Date | Details | Author |
1.0 | 12/12/19 | Doc. created | Holly Cooper |
1.1 | 13/12/19 | Adding images | Holly Cooper |
1.2 | 16/12/19 | Adding details to descriptions | Holly Cooper |
1.3 | 20/12/19 | Minor edits | Holly Cooper |
1.4 | 05/04/22 | Updating information for 21.11 release | Holly Cooper |
1.5 | 20/02/26 | Updating for newer version of Koha | Holly Cooper |
1.6 | |||
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