How does auto-renewal work?
Answer
Locations in our libraries that allow items to be renewed also provide auto-renewals. Unless there is something that would prevent renewal, loans will be renewed automatically.
So, how does it work?
Three days before the due date, Alma runs the Send Courtesy Notices and Handle Loan Renewals Job. If the item is okay to be renewed, it is renewed automatically. If it isn't, the user receives a courtesy notice (current subject line: "Your Library Materials are Due Soon"). The courtesy notice will note the reason that items were not renewed.
This means that if the user has received a courtesy notice, it is because the loan was not be automatically renewed and cannot at this time be manually renewed.
What conditions would prevent a loan from being renewed automatically? Here are the main ones:
- Another user has requested the item. In other words, the item is in recall. Items in recall status cannot be renewed. Instead, the item needs to be returned so that it can be loaned to another user.
- The user has a block on their account. Blocks are placed when loans go overdue by a certain period, and are removed when the user returns their overdue items. Users should resolve these issues by returning items or paying a replacement fee. (Blocks may be overridden by circulation staff for particular situations.)
- The renewal would take place after the user's account expiration date. Accounts of students, adjunct faculty and temporary staff expire at the end of the term. In appropriate circumstances, staff can implement a workaround to extend the due date.
- The item has hit its maximum renewal date. This might happen if an item was checked out in a previous semester.
As of November 2024, users now receive an email notification when their loans are autorenewed. The letter shows each item and its new due date.
When an item fails to be auto-renewed, Alma will continue to try to auto-renew it every night for 10 days. If a condition that had been preventing auto-renewal resolves itself within this 10-day window--for instance, if a student returns an overdue book--the auto-renewal will resume successfully. Note that we disable this particular setting during intersession, to prevent loans that were due at the end of the semester from being renewed when continuing students get new expiration dates.
Most reserve locations do not allow renewals. The longer-term reserve locations, which allow requests, do allow renewals. Note that these things, renewals and requests, go together. We wouldn't allow renewals on items that couldn't be requested, because if we did, a situation could emerge in which the same person repeatedly renews an item nobody else can request, effectively making it unavailable to anyone else. This is why we generally also don't allow people to immediately check out non-requestable items that they have just returned.
The best way to resolve issues that are not clear is for the user to contact their library's circulation desk.