Overview 

This feature requires server version 10.8 or higher.

The Book Groups feature introduces a number of new pieces of functionality, while leveraging existing features from Bookings to facilitate reserving and loaning Book Club Kits. The Book Groups functionality allows:

• library staff to create Book Groups and manage members, both registered borrowers and guests
• borrowers and guests to search for the OPAC for Book Groups they may wish to join
• Book Club borrowers to search for and make bookings for Book Club Kits
• reservations and notices for Book Club Kits
• loaning Book Club Kits, either as a kit to a Book Group account, or individually to registered borrowers

What is a Book Group in Spydus?

A Book Group in Spydus is a collection of members. Members of a Book Group are not required to be borrowers registered at the library, though some additional functionality is available if borrowers are registered in Spydus. 

A Book Group may be based around anything the group decides e.g. an author, a genre, a social group etc. If the group chooses, it may opt to be searchable at the OPAC, allowing potential new members to find the group.

When a Book Group is created, a special type of borrower account that is linked to the Book Group is also created. Members with the account details may browse the OPAC for Book Group Kits, and request a booking for the kits on behalf of the group.

For more information on creating and managing a Book Group, please see Creating & Editing Book Groups.

How do members join a Book Group?

Members may discover Book Groups at the OPAC using the Book Group search:

• if the Book Group search is enabled by the library, and
• if the group is not suppressed from OPAC

However, at the time of writing, members must be added to a group by library staff. Information may be provided in the Book Group Description on how to best contact library staff to request group membership.

Staff may also create Book Group containers and promote these at the OPAC (a sample container with query can be found in Container Parameters in the WPAC View, under the SAMPLEPARAMS Format).

How do members find and loan Book Group Kits?

Book Group Kits are discoverable at the OPAC only by users logged in with a Book Group Transaction Account.

Book Group Kits are a type of Box Set that belongs to a Collection with:

• the Book group kit parameter set to Yes, and
• the matching Book Group Kit search filter applied in the Filters tab of the Collection parameters

If the library wishes to offer groups the ability to book their own kits, library staff must enable the Book Group Kits search via the HTML Configurator to allow users logged in with the Book Group Transaction Account to search for kits from the borrower dashboard (or user menu).

Once a kit has been found, the Place booking or Date/time booking options can be used to request the kit for the group.

Once a booking request has been placed, library staff can then review the booking from a widget, and either Check Out or Cancel the booking request. When the booking is checked out, a reservation (or reservations) will be created. At this point the process differs, depending on whether the group is linked or unlinked.

Linked group

In a linked group, the group members now have individual reservations for their copy from the kit. Library staff now run the individual items from the kit through Returns to allocate the items to members' reservations, which will send the items in transit to the borrower's preferred pickup location (or home location).

Once the item arrives at the pickup location and is passed through returns, a notice will be generated for the borrower. Each borrower will issue their allocated copy on their own card.

Unlinked group

In an unlinked group, a reservation for the entire kit is created and allocated when the booking is checked out. This reservation is placed against the Book Club Transaction Account, and the kit will be sent in transit to the transaction account's home location.

The administrator (or administrators) of the group will receive a reservation notice once the kit arrives at the pickup location. An administrator will then attend the branch and issue the kit to Book Club Transaction Account. The administrator(s) will then distribute the copies to members of the group.

Returning a Book Group Kit

As with issuing the kit, the process of returning a Book Group Kit is different depending on whether the group is linked or unlinked.

Linked group

In a linked group, each borrower is responsible for returning the copy loaned to them. Once returned, the items will go in transit to the kit's home location. Once all loans have been returned, the booking will be checked in and completed.

In a linked group, any overdue notices will be issued to the individual borrower who loaned the overdue item.

Unlinked group

In an unlinked group, administrators are responsible for collecting the copies from the group members and returning the whole kit to the library. With the return completing the loan, the booking will also be checked in and completed upon return of the kit.

In an unlinked group, overdue notices for the kit (not the individual items) will will be issued to the group administrator(s).