How patrons can add notes to items checked out on their accounts

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 > Global 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 your 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. 



At that point, staff can choose to mark the note as Seen. This will remove the notification from the bottom of the homepage.

To view a checkout note after marking it as Seen go to Circulation > Circulation > Checkout notes.

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. Make any changes to the existing note 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


















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