Re: Overdue notices

["Matthew Ciszek" <mciszek@xxxxxxxxxx>]

We send e-mail notices to any patrons who have an email address in their record. The rest we print on standard letter-size paper (8.5x11) on a networked laser printer. We then manually fold and stuff envelopes, but the volume of paper notices has been decreasing as more patrons add an email address to their patron record.

We *always* send paper billing statements on the same paper, and we fold and stuff these manually as well. We seem to have a few more bills than notices to print, but the process is not very time consuming.

We are a small university with two separate libraries (one sending overdues/bills using the procedures above) and one that does not send out notices or bills, but contacts students in other ways (the Law School Library that has "other ways" of locating students).

I have worked with and in other libraries that use crash mailers, and to be totally honest, I have never seen any one use them successfully without some sort of problem. They can be expensive, hard to print (especially 3 part mailers that need a dot-matrix printer), and illegible. I like the "clean" look of the letter-size notices/bills and think that they look a little more professional. Just my two cents on the matter.

We don't use a folding machine due to the low volume of printed notices/bills that we send out (less than 75 a month on average). if you were not opting for email notices and were to print notices and bills for a large public library system, I think I would invest in a folding machine. 

Hope this helps.

Matt Ciszek



---------------------------------------------------
Matthew P. Ciszek
Systems Librarian
Golden Gate University
Law and University Libraries
536 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
mciszek@xxxxxxxxxx

>>> PEricsson@xxxxxxxxxx 12/16/03 08:09AM >>>
We are a new circulation site.

We'd be interested to hear any advice about dealing with the real practical logistics of overdue notices. On our prior system we had crash mailers. The impact printer was slow, noisy, and prone to mechanical failures. With III we are going to give a try at using 8 1/2" x 11" regular paper in a laser system printer, and then stuff window envelopes. Our setup during circ training of the standard form was pretty straightforward. And we understand that this is the typical scenario on III.

Are libraries happy with folding&stuffing approach?

Do you use a folding machine and if so, what manufacturer and model do you recommend to use, or not use?

Do you use crash mailers, and if so, what are the challenges and resolutions to notices that run longer than the single page of the crash mailer?

Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks, and happy holidays,

Paul

    ___________________________________________

    Paul Ericsson
    Adult Services Supervisor / Automation Coordinator
    Concord Public Library    http://www.onconcord.com
    45 Green St.     Concord, NH 03301     603 230-3697
    pericsson@xxxxxxxxxx
    ___________________________________________
        



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