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7.4. Lost Items
Last Updated 02/07/2025
Working with Lost Items
Once an item has been overdue for the (configurable) amount of time established by your library system, Evergreen will mark the item Lost in the borrowing patron’s account. This will be done automatically through a Notification/Action Trigger. The Lost item is still "checked out" to the patron and that circulation transaction remains open until the item is returned or the bill for the item is paid.
When the item is marked Lost, several actions will take place:
- The item will go into the status of “Lost”
- The accrual of overdue fines will be stopped
Optionally the patron can be billed for the item price, a lost processing fee, and any overdue fines can be voided from the account. Lost items can be included either in the "Items Checked Out" or "Other/Special Circulations" sections of the "Items Out" view of a patron’s record. These options are all controlled by library settings. Patrons can also be sent an email or print notification that the item was marked lost and billed to their library account.
Mark Items Manually
- To mark items Lost manually, retrieve patron record and click Items Out.
- Check the box to the left of the item to select it.
- Select Mark Lost (by Patron) from the Actions menu.
- The lost item now displays as lost in the Other/Special Circulations section of the patron record.
- The lost item also adds to the count of Lost items in the patron summary on the left (or top) of the screen.
Lost Item Billing
Marking an item Lost will automatically bill the patron the replacement cost of the item as recorded in the price field in the item record or based on the default item price and possibly a processing fee as determined by the library settings of the item's owning/circulating library. If the lost item has overdue charges, the overdue charges may be voided or retained based on the library settings of the item's owning/circulating library.
A lost-then-returned item will disappear from the Items Out screen only when all bills linked to this particular circulation have been resolved. Bills may include replacement charges, processing fees, and manual charges added to the existing bills.
The replacement fee and processing fee for lost-then-returned items may be voided if set by the library settings of the item's owning/circulating library. Overdue fines may be reinstated on lost-then-returned items if set by the library settings of the item's owning/circulating library.
Refunds for Lost Items
If an item is returned after a lost bill has been paid and the library’s policy is to void the replacement fee for lost-then-returned items, there will be a negative balance in the bill. A refund needs to be made to close the bill and the circulation record. Once the outstanding amount has been refunded, the bill and circulation record will be closed and the item will disappear from the Items Out screen.
Void lost max interval
This is the cutoff point at which Evergreen will no longer automatically void lost billing and is determined by the library setting of the item's owning/circulating library. The void lost max interval starts running as of the due date, not the marked lost date.
If you need to resolve a bill with a negative amount, first be sure that the item has either been checked in or is no longer eligible to be returned (lost and past the void lost max interval). Then, staff can either manually adjust the bill or use the adjust to zero feature available in the Actions dropdown menu. Do not use the adjust to zero to remove positive amounts. Before using Adjust to Zero, ensure all other matters related to billing for the item have been resolved, otherwise you could end up creating a bigger problem, rather than a solution.