Millennium Circulation provides a total solution for libraries of all sizes and types. Circulation policies vary widely among libraries and with its flexible circulation parameters, Millennium Circulation enables libraries to configure the system according to their existing local policies. Depending upon material and patron categories, Millennium Circulation quickly determines the due date, renewal rules, overdue fee structure, overdue notice schedule, and billing.

There is often high turnover among circulation staff, which makes it crucial that the circulation system be easy to learn. Circulation staff do not need to learn a new interface, as Millennium Circulation's graphical user interface (GUI) design provides a familiar Web-based screen. A flexible user authorization scheme provides general circulation staff with access to the basic functions, with override authorization reserved for supervisors.

Full support of all circulation functions, including:

• Check out
• On-the-fly check out
• Check in
• Renewals
• Patron blocks
• Holds
• Paging
• Recalls
• Lost and claimed-returned processing
• Fines
• Overdue notices and bills
• Flexible loan parameters

Single-click access to all patron-related functions (check out, check in, fines, renewals) from the Circulation Desk screen

Millennium Circulation is designed to meet the needs of staff at the busy circulation desk. Circulation staff save valuable time by accessing all circulation functions from the Circulation Desk screen. Unlike many other ILS products, Millennium Circulation always has just one active window. This uncluttered approach allows circulation staff to stay focused on the task at hand. Updates to the patron and item database are done in real-time. This up-to-date circulation status in Millennium Circulation facilitates rapid resolution of patron disputes.

Comprehensive statistics

Circulation statistics drive everything from library funding to collection development decision making. Each library chooses its item and patron statistical categories, allowing circulation statistics to provide the information that is needed locally.

Full integration with the OPAC

• Display of current circulation status updated in real-time
• Patron self-service features:
  • Ability to update own patron record
  • Ability to view own checked-out items, holds, fines, bookings, and ILL and INN-Reach items ready for pickup
  • Ability to renew own checked-out items
  • Ability to place and cancel holds and bookings
    

Telephone Renewal
Telephone Notification System
Self Check-out
Offline Circulation
Reserve Book Room
Electronic Course Reserves
Materials Booking
Patron API
Bursar's Office Interface
Homebound Patron Services
Inventory Control
Interlibrary Loan
Mobile Collections
INN-Reach

Telephone Renewal

Innovative's Telephone Renewal enables patrons to conduct renewal transactions from a touch-tone phone outside the library.

• Complete security for both patrons and the library
• Easy renewal of selected items using individual patron ID numbers as passwords
• Authentication of the caller against the library's database
  Scalability for multiple phone lines
• Simple, friendly renewal process
• Full suite of locally recorded voice options

Telephone Notification System

The Telephone Notification System allows libraries to significantly reduce their notice production costs by delivering overdue and hold pick-up notices by phone.

• Immediate and significant savings in time and money (postage and notice paper stock)
• Full integration with patron databases and circulation loan policies
• High quality, non-synthesized local recording of messages, all fully customizable
• Automatic calling including:
• Lockouts to avoid calling at inopportune hours
• Designed to work specifically with answering machines
• Printed notice options always available
• Faster notification, increased circulation
• Automatic queue of notices printed from the system for unsuccessful calls
• Multilingual notification options
• Multiple phone lines and hundreds of hourly calls possible

Self-Checkout

For libraries with high-volume circulation, patron self-checkout speeds up the check-out line and frees staff for other duties. Innovative offers libraries two options that may fill this need:

• For libraries that wish to purchase a Self-Checkout workstation from a third-party vendor, Innovative offers the Interface to Third-Party Self-Checkout System. The interface works with Self-Checkout workstations that use the SIP2 protocol (available from several vendors including 3M and Checkpoint) to transmit the circulation transactions to the Millennium server. The interface supports standard circulation functions, including item check-out using library-defined loan policies, check-in, and renewals. To check out items, patrons simply scan their barcode number and then scan the item's barcode.
• For libraries that haven't purchased a self-checkout workstation from another vendor but still want to empower their patrons to check out their own items, Innovative offers a Millennium Self-Checkout module with which patrons can check out their own items with a simple user interface.

In either product, circulation activities that would require an override if performed in the normal Millennium Circulation are blocked, and a message directs the patron to a librarian. Millennium gathers statistics for either kind of Self-Checkout circulation activity just as for any other circulation location.

Offline Circulation

The automated circulation desk can easily continue to serve library patrons during those unforeseen times when the main system is unavailable due to loss of network connections or power losses in the building. Innovative's Offline Circulation, using the familiar Millennium Circulation graphical user interface and operating on a computer at the circulation desk, can easily capture the transactions and transmit them to the system at a later time when the main system is again available. Alternately, the library may use a battery-powered portable scanner to record circulation transactions.

Reserve Book Room

Reserve Book Room allows the library to have complete control over access and usage of reserve materials. Ideal for use in a college or university environment, the module allows the library to place items on reserve for course reading, including books from the library's collection, photocopies of articles on book chapters, and professors' copies. While on reserve, the items circulate for a library-specified number of hours, rather than the normal loan period, ensuring that the materials will be available to all members of the course. A convenient status code allows the library to identify these items which should be removed from the reserve book room at the end of the term. Reserve Book Room makes for trouble-free course reserves and reserves management.

Electronic Course Reserves

Millennium's Electronic Course Reserves supports the library's creation of a digital reserve collection utilizing scanned page images, so that library patrons can access the collection via a Web browser.

Features include:

• Full integration with the library's online catalog, patron database, and circulation system
• Preview, display, print, and save functions
• Automatic patron verification against the library database with optional automatic charges
• Seamless access to electronic course reserve items both within the library or off-site, with the same ease of use and functionality
• Comprehensive management information with page-specific tracking of usage by item, patron, and publisher
• Printing or viewing charges automatically added to patron accounts
• Real copyright control allowing access to copyrighted materials without copyright infringement

Materials Booking

Millennium's Materials Booking enables library staff and patrons to reserve any sort of library material: books, computers, conference rooms, films, DVD players, VCRs, course reserve items, and community resources such as tennis courts. Patrons can search for items of interest, check availability, and then schedule them for future use.

• Full integration with OPAC and Circulation modules—no need for staff to maintain separate databases of materials and patrons
• Self-service booking via WebPAC Pro and staff-initiated bookings
• Graphical presentation of calendars to show available dates and times
• Streamlined workflow to allow multiple items to be easily booked at once as part of an event
• Automatic generation of pickup and delivery slips for booked items
• Full statistical reporting capabilities

Patron API

Millennium's Patron API allows the library to offer complete patron information to an external system for such uses as an access gate or "one card" system to provide data for patron verification by another database. The API is straightforward and may be tested using a standard Web browser, streamlining external application development. The Patron API provides structured HTML output of all patron-record data for external processing.

Features include:

• All data elements in the patron record
• Simple HTML forms-based interface
• Protection of patron information by IP access control

Bursar's Office Interface

The Bursar's Office interfaces allow libraries to rely upon the bursar's office to collect money owed by patrons to the library. Financial charges against the patron may be output to the bursar's office, and payments may be applied to the patron's circulation record by importing data from the bursar's office.

Homebound Patron Services

Homebound Patron Services allows the library to collect statistics on items checked in by homebound patrons or by any other library-specified patron group.

Homebound Patron Services offers:

• A reading history file that automatically records items checked out to homebound patrons
• Library control of the patron types for which check-in information is recorded
• Millennium-generated rating sheet that prints upon check-out for homebound readers to evaluate items
• A rating system for recording reader response based on the rating sheet to each title at check-in
• Ability to create reports using the information in the reading history file (the reading history is downloaded to a review file)
• Ability to limit reports by patron, check-out date, and reader response
• Ability to sort reports by call number, author, title, subject, or material type
• Library control of report display and printing using the Create Lists function

Inventory Control

Millennium's Inventory Control provides two methods of checking the shelves. First is the capability to print out the shelf list for any location, showing the circulation status for each item. Library staff can then check the shelf against the printed shelf list. The second is to use a portable scanner used to read the shelves and produce a report that compares this information to the shelf list and circulation files. The report includes items shelved out of order, items missing from the shelves but not checked out, items checked out but on the shelves, etc. Inventory Control can also insert the inventory date into each item record.

Interlibrary Loan

Millennium's Interlibrary Loan electronically links libraries to holdings all over the world and makes them quickly and easily accessible. Staff and patrons alike can locate materials with a single click or keystroke; the versatility and integration of the system make frictionless searches, requests, deliveries, checkouts, and returns.

Mobile Collections

Mobile Collections is a new mode in the Millennium Circulation client that allows libraries to manage the progression of hundreds of item groups through routes of their choice. This product dramatically boosts the volume and efficiency of resource sharing and saves considerable staff time.

INN-Reach

INN-Reach creates a virtual community, allowing individual libraries to share a Union Catalog, and infinitely expands what libraries can offer patrons. Bringing multiple library systems together, INN-Reach combines a Union Catalog with sophisticated interlibrary loan and circulation functions. Patrons can search the Union Catalog from the local library's OPAC and make requests for materials from other libraries. Because the requests are made in real time, ILL costs and turnaround time are reduced, and patrons can be assured that delivery of these items happens quickly.

Learn more about INN-Reach.

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