Introduction

Many libraries have been advised to set newly returned items aside for sanitation before returning them to regular circulation.

Koha can be used to support this process by temporarily marking returned items with a “Quarantined” shelving location, replacing the usual shelving location they have. This “Quarantined” shelving location will appear on the OPAC, informing patrons of why an item is not currently in circulation. A cron job can be enabled to automatically restore the original shelving location after a set amount of time has passed. 

For Public Libraries, the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) has recommended a three day quarantine period. This is the recommendation we are following in this document.

Below are general instructions for enabling this function on the Koha site. If you have any questions about configuring this process on your own site, please contact Interleaf Technology directly.

The instructions vary depending on the release of Koha you are using.

If you are unsure of your Koha release, please check this FAQ 

Updating the shelving location on items on systems up to 18.11 

Step 1 - Enable the misc/crojobs/cart_to_shelf.pl cron

Contact Interleaf Technology to check if the misc/cronjobs/cart_to_shelf.pl cron is running on your site and if it is what parameters it is using. This cron needs to be set so that after the quarantined shelving location is applied, the original shelving location will automatically be restored to after a specified period of time. 

Please create a support ticket for this step.

Step 2 - Change the description of the CART shelving location.

Go to Koha administration > Basic parameters > Authorized values and select LOC from the dropdown menu. This will bring you to a table with the shelving locations available on your site.

At the top of the table there will be a grey line with a search bar to the right hand side. Use this search bar to find the CART shelving location. 

Click Edit on the row with the CART location and this will bring you into a page where you can edit details of that specific location. 

Change the content of the Description field to Quarantined or whatever is appropriate for your site.

Hit Save. 

Step 3 - Set the ReturnToShelvingCart system preference 

Go to Koha administration > Global System Preferences and search for ReturnToShelvingCart.

This will bring you to a system preference of the same name. ReturnToShelvingCart controls if the shelving location of items will be altered at check in. 

If this is set to Move, all checked in items will have the location of CART applied to them. As the description of the CART shelving location has been changed to reflect the quarantined status, items that are checked back in will appear with the quarantine location. 

Step 4 - Set the InProcessingToShelvingCart system preference 

Go to Koha administration > Global System Preferences and search for InProcessingToShelvingCart.

This will bring you to a system preference of the same name which should be set to Don’t Move. This will allow the original shelving location of the item to be restored after the period of time set in the misc/cronjobs/cart_to_shelf.pl cron. If this is set to Move then the quarantined shelving location will be removed, but the original shelving location will not be restored.

Once these system preferences have been configured when an item is checked in it will have the quarantine shelving location applied. After the amount of time set in the cron, the quarantine location will be updated to the original shelving location the item had. If the item did not have a shelving location, this will be returned to blank.

Updating the shelving location on checked in items for 19.05 and later systems

Step 1 - Enable the misc/crojobs/cart_to_shelf.pl cron

Contact Interleaf Technology to check if the misc/cronjobs/cart_to_shelf.pl cron is running on your site and if it is what parameters it is using. This cron needs to be set so after an item location is changed it will automatically be restored to its original shelving location after a specified period of time. 

Please create a support ticket for this step.

Go to Koha administration > Basic parameters > Authorized values and select LOC from the dropdown menu. This will bring you to a table with the shelving locations available on your site.

At the top of the table there will be a grey line with a search bar to the right hand side. Use this search bar to find the CART shelving location. 

Click Edit on the row with the CART location and this will bring you into a page where you can edit details of that specific location. 

Change the content of the Description field to Quarantined or whatever is appropriate for your site.

Hit Save. 

Step 3 - Set the UpdateItemLocationOnCheckin system preference

Go to Koha administration > Global System preferences and search for UpdateItemLocationOnCheckin.

This will bring you to a system preference of the same name. 

Click the Click to edit link in the system preference and a free text box will drop out. 

In this box you will need to specify the current shelving location and the shelving location it should be changed to at checkin. Note that the system preference uses the authorised value of the location as opposed to the description. 

In general, the format of this information should be:

Current item location: Updated item location. 

However, in this situation every item location will need to be changed at checkin so the format will be:

 _ALL_: CART

Hit Save all Circulation preferences.

Once this has been saved, when an item is checked in it will have the quarantine shelving location applied. After the amount of time set in the cron, the quarantine location will be updated to the original shelving location the item had. If the item did not have a shelving location, this will be returned to blank.