RE: Email notification for overdue items, holds and bills

[Eric Rhee <erhee at chulavista dot lib dot ca dot us>]

Soapbox time: We have used the e-mail feature since it became available and
people love it.  Exactly what is the security issue the person was concerned
about?  Do your notices include more personal information than the name and
address, like an i.d. number of some variety or PIN etc? If so, remove them.
If not, in my opinion it is no less secure than sending an envelope in the
mail, probably even more private.  I calculate for us that a printed notice
on a sheet of plain white 8.5x11 paper mailed in a plain window envelope
with a 35 cent pre-sorted stamp costs us 42 cents for materials, not
including staff time to fold and stuff the envelope [includes a factor for
toner in the laser printer] and it takes two, sometime 3 days to arrive.
That's 3 days fines/fees are  accumulating for overdue items, or 2-3 days
their hold is sitting unavailable to the rest of the community. With
everyone expecting tax-funded institutions to operate as efficiently as
possible, e-mail notification is one of the best bargains, most efficient,
speediest way to notify people that items are overdue or their holds are
available.  For those people who are stenuously opposed, just remove their
e-mail address from their patron record and their notices will revert to the
print queue. Eric Rhee

-----Original Message-----
From: Kathy Ossi [mailto:KOssi at williamson-tn dot org]
Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2004 1:45 PM
To: innopac at innopacusers dot org
Subject: Email notification for overdue items, holds and bills


Williamson County Public Library recently purchased email notification
module to send circulation notices via email. We have tested the module
in house with library staff and started asking patrons if they would
like to receive email notices.

I have already received a complaint from a patron saying these types of
notices should never be sent by unsecured email.

What are other library's doing to secure email circulation notices?  

Thank you.
Kathy

**********************************
Kathy J. Ossi
Systems Support Coordinator
Williamson County Public Library
615-595-1241
fax 615-595-1203

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