IDS Logic

The availability services tend to focus more on books and book chapters. Specifically you’ll hear the following names and references for this functionality: 

• Lending Availability Service (LAS)
• Lending Book Chapter Availability Service
• Borrowing Availability Service (BAS)
• Borrowing Book Chapter Availability Service 

These functions work by first querying your catalog (ex: Alma, WorldShare Management Services, FOLIO, Voyager, Siera, etc.) directly using an international standard called z39.50 and getting information.

In most cases, the following information can be retrieved:

• Availability of Item
• Collection/Location Information
• Call Number
• Barcode
• Most MARC fields in the Bibliographic record

With that information, some things IDS Logic can do are:

• Automatically respond no with a corresponding cancellation reason to Lending requests for items that are checked out or in non-lendable locations
• Automatically route Borrowing requests for owned items to queues of your choice in Borrowing or Doc Del
• Insert Location, Call Number, and Barcode information into the transaction request
• If multiple copies are owned, give preference of availability to certain collections such as the main library book collection as opposed to more remote or smaller collections.

More information about LAS

More information about BAS

Includes and Excludes - Collections / Locations

The ‘availability’ of an item is partly determined by whether a collection is specifically included or excluded. If you add or change collection names/codes and you want those collections to be treated as unavailable and non-lendable, then you should send the change to logic@idsproject.libanswers.com so your code can get updated. This also applies if you change ILS’s or change practices and want existing collections to become available or no longer be available. 

Statuses

The lending and borrowing availability services query your catalog. The query returns available, unavailable, no results, or unknown and puts those labels in one of the info 1-5 fields (determined in your logic settings). Here’s a little more information about those statuses.

• AVAILABLE = There is an item and it looks like it’s available. 
• UNAVAILABLE = The item is checked out or is in a status deemed unavailable for circulating (note: some ILS's show everything or some collections as unavailable and in these instances the logic settings may be configured to use an “unavailable include” to indicate that those collections should display as 'available'). 
• UNKNOWN = If there is no item record or no availability information but there is a record.
• NO_RESULTS = If there is no record for this title. 

Multi-volume behavior

For TNs identified as multivolume, logic won’t set due dates and may not grab the first barcode for the itemIDs. This is because Logic can't really tell which specific volume(enum/chron) is getting requested. This is why you can send these to a different queue.

Note: Libraries will sometimes use ItemInfo3 for barcode information because it can have the most characters. Sometimes this does allow multiple barcodes and sometimes it doesn't.  

What this Service Does:  

Looks at all lending loan requests in your main lending queues (e.g. Awaiting Lending Request Processing):

• Extracts ISBN and OCLC# from request and queries the library's Z39.50 server to return availability information.
• After information is returned from Z39.50 server, availability rules are applied to determine whether this loan is available for lending via ILL. Availability rules are as follows, and run in order:
• • Bypass--Items that you want staff to review to make a decision.
  • Unknown Include--Items whose availability is generally incorrect or unavailable, but the library is willing to lend.
  • Unknown Exclude--Items whose availability is generally returned as incorrect or unavailable, but the library is not willing to lend.
  • Available Exclude--Items whose availability is generally correctly labelled available, but the library is not willing to lend.
  • Unavailable Include--Items whose availability is generally incorrectly labelled unavailable, but the library is willing to lend.

• After availability rules are applied, and availability from your catalog/Z39.50 is returned:
• • Unavailable requests are canceled in OCLC and ILLiad, using the appropriate cancellation reason and cancellation code in both systems.
  • If available to lend, Imports call number and location information into the transaction in ILLiad.  Due date, renewal information, and other relevant information is also inserted.
  • Multivolume requests are identified and routed to specified queue (could be a special “Multivolume” queue or “Awaiting Staff Review.”
  • Item Barcode is inserted into “ItemNumber” field, if the item barcode can be found.
  • Routes to specified queue, which could be “Awaiting Stacks Searching” or another custom queue.

Why would you want to use this?

• Automates availability checking and cancelling of book requests.
• Allows libraries to deflect book loan requests from collections that they will not lend from (i.e. Rare Books collections).
• Quicker cancellations results in better service to requesting libraries.

What is needed to use this?

• Be an active user of IDS Logic
• Work with IDS Project staff to implement Lending Availability Service, including providing Z39.50 information, lists of collection information relevant to availability rules, and provide what queues are desired for routing, and what ILLiad fields are desired for inserting availability information.

What this Rule Does:

Looks at Borrowing Requests with an ISBN or OCLC# in Awaiting Request Processing and:

• Checks your library's catalog to determine if you own the material. If you own the material:
• • Determines if the item is checked out.
  • Applies multiple rules to check if item is in specific collections, such as course reserves, that would prompt a borrowing staff to cancel or review the request.
  • Multiple availability settings are possible, just as with Lending Availability Service, and the configuration will be facilitated with the IDS staff who sets up your site.
  • If item is deemed "not available" at your library, request is sent to Awaiting Direct Request Sending to be sent out as an OCLC request via Direct Request.
  • If item is "available" at your library, call # and location are filled in, and the transaction is routed to the designated queue in borrowing or document delivery. Default is Awaiting DD Stacks Searching in Document Delivery.

Why would you want to use this Rule?

• Allows libraries to take full advantage of Direct Request for loans and not review the requests that owned by your library, but not available. Many libraries, concerned with borrowing via ILL items they own, select "Route to Review" "If Held by Your Institution" in their direct request profile in resource sharing settings.
• Allows libraries to put more Resource Sharing options for lendable items in their discovery tools such as the OPAC, with the ability to further automate processing after the request is made.

What is needed to use this Rule?

• Be an active user of IDS Logic
• If a shared server, the code for what NVTGC you would like the rule to run on.
• Complete configuration for your borrowing availability rules with IDS Staff member.