Library Services Assistant Guide

Alumni

Key facts:

• Alumni are ex-students who have successfully graduated
• Membership is £15.00 per annum 
• Membership expires after one year, at which point they can renew for another £15.00
• Entitled to 4 standard loans 
• Not permitted to make reservations
• Will not be able to access eResources off campus - they must use a walk-in password when on-site

We welcome previous students to apply to have an account with us if they have successfully completed their course. We, therefore, do not accept previous students under the Alumni scheme who withdrew from their course or failed. These individuals may however be considered as external members of the public (see below).  

Library staff can verify the applicant by using the previous student number provided on the application form to search SITS for the student.  

Once approved, these users are entitled to a borrowing account and up to 4 standard loans.  

External Members of the Public 

Key facts:

• Membership is £30.00 per annum
• Membership expires after one year, at which point they can renew for another £30.00
• Entitled to 4 standard loans 
• Not permitted to make reservations
• Will not be able to access eResources off campus - they must use a walk-in password when on-site
  • This also means that to access IT resources on site they must use a walk-in password each time

Members of the public undergoing personal study and qualifications who require access to academic resources are able to apply to become members of our library and have a library account.  

As the library’s study space is at a premium for its own staff and students, we do not tend to allow applications simply for study space and IT access alone, and in this instance, we would usually refer the individual to the public library. For this reason, these applicants are asked to explain their rationale for joining in a formal document which they must attach to their application. This will then be reviewed by a manager or supervisor and approved or declined.  

Once approved, these users must pay £30.00 for their year of membership.  

These users are entitled to a borrowing account and up to 4 standard loans.  

Former Staff Members

Key facts:

• Membership is £15.00 per annum, or free if staff served 5+ years
• Membership expires after one year, at which point they can renew for another £15.00
• Entitled to 4 standard loans 
• Not permitted to make reservations
• Will not be able to access eResources off campus - they must use a walk-in password when on-site

We welcome former/retired staff members to apply to have an account with us. Those who provided less than 5 years of service must pay an annual membership fee of £15.00. If they were a staff member for 5 years or more, they are entitled to free membership with us however this will still need to be renewed every year.  

Library staff can verify that the applicant was a previous staff member and their years of service by using the previous staff number provided on the application form to search SITS. 

Once approved, these users are entitled to a borrowing account and up to 4 standard loans.  

Corporate Groups and Organisations 

Key Facts:

• Membership is £20 per annum per person
• Membership expires after one year, at which point they can renew for another £25.00
• Entitled to 4 standard loans each 
• Not permitted to make reservations
• Will not be able to access eResources off campus - they must use a walk-in password when on-site

In some instances, members of organisations and groups wish to be part of a shared membership scheme where it is more cost-efficient than all members of the group joining individually. This membership still works much like external public membership and each individual member may borrow up to 4 standard loans.  

Once approved, either the group members or their employer/organiser are responsible for covering the cost of £25.00 for their year of membership plus a one-off £50.00 admin fee when they first register. Each individual member will also have to fill in a separate application form on the LibGuides website.  

Partner Staff

Key facts:

• Membership is £20.00 per annum (or free if teaching on a UoS course)
• Membership expires after one year, at which point they can renew for another £20.00
• Entitled to 4 standard loans each 
• Not permitted to make reservations
• Will not be able to access eResources off campus - they must use a walk-in password when on-site

We welcome staff members teaching further education courses in one of our partner colleges to apply to have an account with us. The 4 partner colleges are Suffolk New College, West Suffolk College, East Coast College Lowestoft and East Coast College Great Yarmouth. Their membership costs £20.00 per annum. 

Once approved these users are entitled to a borrowing account and up to 4 standard loans.  

It is important to note that some of the University’s own higher education courses are taught by staff who are based in one of the partner colleges. These staff members should have a P number and will usually already have a university staff card that allows them access to the Library Building. They are not required to pay for any memberships and should be entitled to borrow up to 6 items.   

Student Union Staff

Key facts:

• Membership is free.
• Membership requires an expiry date.
• Entitled to 4 standard loans each 
• Not permitted to make reservations
• Will not be able to access eResources off campus - they must use a walk-in password when on-site

We have had SU staff enquire if they would be able to have borrowing rights. We can set them up with an account as Partner Staff, which will allow them to borrow up to four items. We will require their full name, P-number (you can get this from scanning their card, and their length of contract (so that we can give their account an expiry date), in order to create the account. LSAs will process this, should they ask outside of weekdays 9-5 please ask them to email the Library Helpdesk with the needed information from their SU staff account.

Request and Save Approval

Once you are confident all attachments and the application are acceptable, you will need to forward the application to the relevant manager or supervisor for approval.  

1. Add an internal note to the application form requesting approval to confirm that the application has been correctly processed and all required information received / saved.
   Copy and paste the following: "Membership requires management/supervisory approval. All documents saved and info added to spreadsheet." And add any other notes as necessary.
   Send this to Anna, or Graham in Anna's absence. 

2. Once approved, save a copy of the approval note and any other correspondence in the applicant’s folder.

3. Enter the approval date under the “Approved” column on the External Borrowers Checklist

Set up Account on WMS

1. From the Active External Borrowers folder in the LSA office, select a user number for the applicant (B number for SCONUL users; X number for all other users). Record this number with the applicant’s name on the External Borrowers Spreadsheet.  
2. In WMS, go to Admin > User Management (this dropdown is usually expanded by default) 
3. Click the 'New User' button. 
4. Enter the applicant's first and last names under the "Personal information" heading.
5. Expiration dates will be automatically applied for all but SCONUL users; SCONUL user expiry dates will be specified on their SCONUL application email - membership should not exceed this date. 
6. Under the "Library Record" heading, enter the applicant's address (check the primary box), postcode, contact number (check the primary box), and email address (check the primary box) as provided on the applicant’s original registration form.
7. Under the "Circulation" heading, enter the applicant's assigned user number (B number for SCONUL users ; X number for all other users) and patron type. 
8. Under the "Interlibrary Loan" heading, click the "Blocked" check box. 
9. Under "Delivery Notification", ensure an email address is provided. 
10. Save the record.

A library account has now been created for the new member. Now put the current date under the Details added to WMS column on the External Borrowers Checklist.

Requesting Payment

Membership fees will be applied to the patron account automatically upon registration. Charges will be applied as follows: 

• Alumni - £15.00 
• Public - £30.00 
• Former Staff - £15.00 
• Partner Staff - £20.00 
• Organisations - £20.00 per person

The system will also automatically contact patrons within an hour of account setup to prompt payment. You do not need to contact them manually. They will receive the following email: 

Thank you for your interest in joining the University of Suffolk Library.

Your annual membership fee is detailed below.

[Bill information]

To make payment, visit: https://onlineshop.ucs.ac.uk/product-catalogue/campus/library/external-borrowers-library-membership-payment

Enter the amount owing and click “add to basket”. Enter your library account number in the “student number” field.  If this is your first time using the online shop, you will be prompted to create an account to finalise payment.

If you are unable to pay online, contact us at learningservices@uos.ac.uk.

Kind regards,

Library and Learning Services

Patrons may contact the library for guidance on making payment via the online shop, or to request that they pay via an alternative method. We can accept cash or cheques at the library helpdesk - this payment method will need to be formally arranged so that we can facilitate access to the building. 

Receiving Payment

Where payment is received via the online shop (example below), the below steps can be followed: 

• Navigate to patron account in WMS and click the 'Bills' tab
• Check the tick box to the left of the membership fee and click the 'Pay/Waive/Refund' button 
• Ensure 'Pay' is selected from the drop-down box
• Enter the amount tendered via the online shop
• Select 'Online Payment' from the payment method drop-down
• In the notes field note the payment reference number, date of receipt, and you initials 
• Click 'Resolve' and 'Email' to send the patron receipt of payment. 
• Assign the ticket to the LSA dealing with memberships at the time.
• The LSA assigned with membership updates the membership spreadsheet.
• The LSA assigned with membership makes a copy of the email and uploads it to the external member's file 

Payment received via alternative methods can follow the same process, adjusting the payment method drop-down and notes field accordingly. 

For further guidance on requesting and receiving payment, please see below:

Request ID Card

NB - do not request an ID card for fee-paying members until payment has been received.

IT have requested that we use a new process for requesting ID cards - 30 October 2023

Use this Minerva link. You can see IT's requirements for the ID photo there, although you can use discretion if a photo is borderline. They specify 35mmx45mm, but a 3:4 ratio is fine.

Click the 'Request this Service' button and complete the information in a similar form to the old LibAnswers macro:

Hi there,

Could we have a library access card made up with the following information?

• Name - Jeremy Doe
• ID Number - B00000
• Type - SCONUL Band B
• Expiry - 30/12/2024

Many thanks,

(Your name)

 Attach the correct photo. Then ensure that you leave an internal note on the Application ticket and also on the External Borrowers Spreadsheet.

Notify Application Accepted

Please note that SCONUL Band R users will only be able to use their library account to save items and searches. To this end, only do this step if explicitly requested by the user. 

Once you have set up the account and requested an ID card, you should notify the applicant that they have been accepted. 

1. Create a LibAnswers ticket addressed to the applicant. In the Question box type "UoS Library - [Membership Type] Application Approved"
2. Respond to the ticket using either the "Membership - Membership Approved (Non SCONUL R)" or the "Membership - Membership Approved (SCONUL R)" macro. 
3. Tailor the draft as per the specific needs of the user and their entitlements. For example, do not send information about logging into a library account to a reference-only user.  
4. Ensure that the name, user type and expiry date are also correct on the email.

Set WMS Account Password

Immediately after sending the approval email, you should send the user a password reset link. You can do this by: 

1. Navigating to the Admin screen in WMS
2. Searching for the patron under the "User Management" tab 
3. Opening the record and scrolling down to the "Identity Management" heading. 
4. Here, you should find a set/reset hyperlink, next to "Password". Click this.   

The user will have now been sent a 24-hour password set-up link. This can be done on multiple occasions as required (i.e., the user has missed the 24-hour time frame). 

Notify ID Card Ready to Collect

Every week, we will receive an email from IT services to say when a batch of external borrower cards have been created and are ready to collect from the Waterfront Reception.  

1. We will need to contact all external users when their ID card is ready to collect. Simply create a LibAnswers ticket addressed to the user. In the Question box type "UoS Library ID Card - [Membership Type]", and use the 'Membership - Access Card Ready' macro. 
2. Once you have sent the notification email, type the date sent under the “User notified car ready for collection” column on the External Member spreadsheet.

The Waterfront Reception will typically post up a collection slip when cards are collected. Use this to update the 'Card Collected' column on the External borrower spreadsheet, then dispose of the slip in the confidential waste.

If the card has not been collected after one month, we will send a chaser email using the corresponding macro in LibAnswers ('Membership - Access Card Reminder'). Update where you have done this on the External Borrowers Checklist. 

One more reminder email can be sent a month later if the card is still here, using the same macro, but editing where necessary. If the cards remain uncollected after two chaser emails, they must remain at WF Reception until their expiry date.

If patron asks if we can post their card to them:

Mail: Unfortunately we are unable to send ID cards in the mail, however you may choose to have a nominated person collect your card on your behalf. In this instance we would need to know their name ahead of time and they would need to bring a photo ID with them to collect your card. It would also be preferable to know when they would be intending to collect the card.

If they are just collecting the card it may benefit them to know that we have a 30 minute pick-up/drop-off area outside of our car park on Long Street, between the Waterfront Building and the Library Building