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Alma Fulfillment

Policies and procedures for using Alma for Fulfillment activities.

Loan Periods

Loan periods for Knox items checked out to Knox patrons:

Item Patron Type Loan Period
General Circulating items Students 35 days
Honors students 90 days
Faculty, staff 180 days
Community patrons 14 days
Current Interest collection Faculty, staff, all students, community patrons 14 days
DVDs Faculty, staff, all students 3 days
Music CDs Faculty, staff, all students, community patrons 7 days
Other non-print material All borrowers usually matches loan period general circulating items
Reserves All students Either 2, 3, 4, or 24 hours
Reserves Faculty 24 hours

Notices for Knox Items

The notice schedule for items borrowed by Knox students, faculty, staff, and, local borrowers from the Knox libraries is as follows. This applies to items with a loan period measured in days.

  • a courtesy notice is sent 3 days before the item's due date
  • 1st overdue notice sent 3 days after item's due date
  • 2nd overdue notice sent 7 days after item's due date
  • 3rd overdue notice sent 14 days after item's due date
  • 4th overdue notice sent 21 days after item's due date
  • 5th overdue notice sent 28 days after item's due date
  • After 35 days overdue patron is notified that the item has become "lost" and the lost replacement fee is applied

For items with a loan period measured in hours (reserves, mostly) a courtesy notice is sent out 30 minutes before the items is due. An overdue notice is sent out one hour after the item's due date.

I-Share Loans, Blocks and Notices

I-Share loans are 28 days for all borrowers for regular circulating materials. 

Patrons may be blocked from requesting materials at individual I-Share libraries if they have incurred any one of a number of blocks based on failure to pay fines or return materials on time. In Alma, blocks will be applied at the item's library, to the I-Share patron's record. Ways patrons may be blocked from borrowing at individual libraries:

  • If a patron has more than 5 overdues at any one I-Share library, they are blocked from further activity at that I-Share library until their overdues are dealt with.
  • As soon as a patron has a single item overdue at an individual institution that is overdue more than 21 days, the patron is blocked from further requests/loans from that library until the overdue is dealt with.
  • Users can have no overdue recalls before they're blocked at the library where their items is recalled-overdue.
  • Each I-Share patron is blocked at each I-Share library if they owe more than $10 at that library.
  • Maximum amount owed before a patron is blocked from requesting from a library is $10 per patron per institution.

For I-Share items CARLI has set up the notice schedule like this:

  • 1st overdue notice generated at 7 days overdue
  • 2nd notice generated at 21 days overdue and the patron's account at the item's owning library is suspended (blocked)
  • At 35 days overdue a notice is generated saying the item has been converted to "lost" and that the patron is billed for item replacement/item processing; patron account remains blocked