Minerva Billing: Lost in Transit

An item that as been in transit for more than 45 days is considered lost. The library that placed the item in transit (last scanned) is responsible for payment of replacement cost to the owning library. However, the owning library is responsible for billing the library that set their item into transit.

List of items

Getting a long in transit list requires some tricky listing and is different every month. So long as you run this list after the middle of each month, you can use the in transit message to find items that were put into transit NOT in this month or last month.

Example in transit message:

m Thu Apr 14 2012 08:40AM: IN TRANSIT from roccirc to cmlan

Create a list of items with the following conditions:

long_in_transit_list

  • item location starts with [your library code]
  • AND item status equal to t [in transit]
  • AND item message all fields don’t have [space this month’s abbreviation space]
    the text must match perfectly, so the spaces make sure you’re getting the month and the first letter of the month abbreviation must be capitalized
  • AND item message all fields don’t have [space last month abbreviation space]

Months are as follows: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

Check local shelves

Check your shelves to make sure that the item has not found its way home. If found, check in and you’re done.

Create Invoice

If the item is not found, create an invoice for it from the lost in transit bill template. Be aware that many libraries require a W9 [link: http://apps2.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf] from your library or town in order to cut you a check. If you want to send invoices by email, scan a signed copy of your W9 to send along with the invoice.

Pay Invoice

Since it has already been 45 days when an invoice is sent, payment is due upon receipt of a long in transit invoice. However, I would recommend checking your shelves just in case, and see if the book has been mishelved. Ask owning library if they would take the book back instead of payment.