Autorenewals in Evergreen

Introduction

Circulation policies in Evergreen can now be configured to automatically renew items checked out on patron accounts. Circulations will be renewed automatically and patrons will not need to log in to their OPAC accounts or ask library staff to renew materials.

Autorenewals are set in the Circulation Duration Rules, which allows this feature to be applied to selected circulation policies. Effectively, this makes autorenewals configurable by patron group, organizational unit or library, and circulation modifier.

Configure Autorenewals

Autorenewals are configured in Administration → Server Administration → Circulation Duration Rules.

Enter the number of automatic renewals allowed in the new field called max_auto_renewals. The field called max_renewals will still set the maximum number of manual renewals, whether staff or patron initiated. Typically, the max_renewals value will be greater than max_auto_renewals, so that even if no more autorenewals are allowed, a patron may still renew via the OPAC.

Autorenewals in Circulation Duration Rules

The Circulation Duration Rule can then be applied to specific circulation policies (Administration → Local Administration → Circulation Policies) to implement autorenewals in Evergreen.

Autorenewal Notices and Action Triggers

Two new action triggers have been added to Evergreen for use with autorenewals. They can be found and configured in Administration → Local Administration → Notifications/Action Triggers.

  • Autorenew

    • Uses the checkout.due hook to automatically renew circulations before they are due.

    • Autorenewals will not occur if the item has holds, exceeds the maximum number of autorenewals allowed, or if the patron has been blocked from renewing items.

  • AutorenewNotify

    • Email notification to inform patrons when their materials are automatically renewed or, if they are not automatically renewed due to meeting one of the criteria listed above.

    • This notice can also be configured as an SMS notification.

    • This notice does not change or interact with the Courtesy Notice (Pre-due Notice) that is also available in Evergreen. Libraries should evaluate whether they want to use both Courtesy Notices and Autorenewal notices.

Sample of successful autorenewal notification:

Notification of Successful Autorenewal

Sample of blocked autorewal notification:

Notification of Blocked Autorenewal

Autorenewals in Patron Accounts

A new column called AutoRenewalsRemaining indicates how many autorenewals are available for a transaction.

Autorenewals Remaining in Patron Items Out