Serve Codes

How well do you understand your Patron Profile Serve Codes? These are an important control for governing how your patrons are served (or not!) by the Nightly processes in each Medium on their Profile tab. If you're only using one 'default' serve code for everyone, or if you have questions about what they actually mean, this post is for you!

Would you rather listen to the explanation? Follow the Recordings link to find the recording of the KLAS Q&A with Katy webinar, where this was our first question!
Note: You must be logged in to access the Q&A recording.

Each Serve Code has two parts:

1. The first letter indicates when Nightly should check the patron to see if they need service in that medium. This doesn't necessarily mean the patron will recieve an item that often--if they are at their maximum, nothing will be sent, and Nightly won't look again until the period indicated by the serve code has passed.
Common codes include:
N / Nightly - they will be checked every night to see if they need service.
M / Montly - they will be checked only once per month.
W / Weekly - they will be checked only once per week.
O / On Demand - they will NOT be checked. This patron will never be served by Nightly.

2. The second letter indicates how the patron should be served.
A / Autoselect - They can receive books chosen by Request, Author, or Subject.
L / List Only - They can only receive books chosen by Request or Author.

But remember: Reserves, including Series Reserves, are assigned when a title is checked back in, or by a special check that occurs prior to the Nightly Processes. Because they are not assigned by Nightly, the Serve Code does not control when or if Reserves and Series Reserves are sent.

Are any of your codes still a little murky? Not sure what would be the best thing to use for a certain situation? Ask away!

One more to add, that at least we use in North Carolina, is TA or Turnaround. This is a staff assisted patron service. The RA picks books for the patron intentionally based on their wants, needs, request list and preferences. We probably use this code with around 45% of our patrons currently. This is also a serve code that doesn't get served by an automated process, other than for reserves or series.

I'll add, that for using at least TA, the RS Queue is your best friend!! In fact the RS Queue is a tool that's very useful for other types of serve codes beyond TA.

Thanks, Craig! That is a great "exception," and a good solution for hard-to-serve patrons (for libraries that use their RS Queues).

Even though it works a bit differently, it follows the same formula:

The "when" for T (Turnaround) is when the patron has returned an item. One of the Nightly programs looks for check-ins (in that medium) from TA and TL service code patrons. If they have not already gotten an assignment after that check-in, the program creates an RS Reason.

The RS Reason includes the title of the book, and will be divided out in the assigned RS Queue, so a Reader Adviser can hand-pick a replacement for the returned item.

Just like with the On-demand service codes, the "how" (either A-autoselect or L-list only) is only informational, since the patron is actually served by the RA.