Refer to an external party (ILL, Refer and Redirect)

This page provides the ability to correspond with a third party organisation in regard to a question, or to record a third party request that has been handled outside of RefTracker.

The types of third party transactions handled are:
– to refer  a question to an external organisation for assistance in providing an answer. You can read more about the Referred to third party workflow by clicking here .
– to redirect a question to the external organisation and either leave the question open, or close it. You can read more about the Redirect to third party workflow by  clicking here .
– to request an ILL or Document delivery by email or record that an ILL/Document delivery has been requested outside of RefTracker, and then to update the status of that ILL/Docent delivery through to completion. Note that this process handles both ILL and document delivery but is called only ILL simply to provide a short name. You can read more about the ILL workflows by clicking here.  

Note that an external organisation can also mean staff within your own organisation that are not included in the RefTracker staff table. You would choose to deal with internal staff in this way if you do not want them to be responsible for the completion of responses, but do want them to be consulted as “an expert” in some circumstances.

Also note that this screen simply does the third party communication. If you need to advise the client that a third party action is happening, or request their permission to undertake the third party action, you should use the Answer screen’s Query to client or Inform client workflows to perform the client advise/permission request.

This screen operates in two modes
– When the Send email to third party box is ticked – this page creates an email to be sent to the third party containing details of the work required from the third party. The automatically generated email is shown to the staff member, and is able to be edited for removal of private information or addition of further information, before sending.
– When the Send email to third party box is unticked – simply as a record of a third party transaction carried on outside of RefTracker.

Using this screen

Question summary:
For reference purposes, a summary of the current question is provided above the tabs of this screen so it can be seen no matter what tab you are using. The summary provides a Request group symbol to quickly identify the type of question, the first parameter 3.5 lines (hard returns) of the question text with a [more] link to see more of the text if there is more, an Item summary if the question relates to an item (in italics), the Request form used to enter the question, the current status of the question, and, if the question is allocated to a staff, member, the name of that staff member.

Below that the screen presents the Third party functionality tab, as well as Details and History tabs providing quick access to the same information these tabs provide in the Summary and Answer screen.

3rd party details:

Send email to third party: Tick this box if you want to create an email to the third party describing what you want them to do.
Leave this box unticked if you simply want to record that a request has been made of a third party in relation to this question.

Organisation or Alternate email address(es): These prompts will only appear if you ticked the Send email to third party box.
Choose a third party from the Organisation drop down list, or enter a valid email address for another organisation or individual (or more than one, each separated by a semicolon). You can, in fact, select both an Organisation and enter Alternative email address(es).
This will determine to whom the email generated by this workflow will be sent. The organisations presented in the Organisation drop down list have been set up by your RefTracker system administrator using the Organisation code table. If you have a suggestion as to other organisations that should be included in this list, please contact your system administrator.

Select workflow type: There are four workflow types available in this screen. You must choose one of them. When you make a choice the screen will redisplay with the correct parameters for that workflow. If, for any reason, you need to change the workflow type once this has occurred simply click on Third party in the Question actions bar to have the whole screen redisplay.
– Referred to third party  – use this when you are requesting assistance with a question or part of a question, from a third party. The email generated will include all known details about the question, and will provide the opportunity to edit these details.
–   Redirect to third party – use this when you require that the question be answered directly by the third party. The email generated will include all known details about the question, and all known client contact information, and will provide the opportunity to edit these details.
– ILL – New – use this when you are requesting an Inter Library Loan or Document delivery in relation to this question. It provides specific fields for all the data required for a successful ILL or Document delivery (your system administrator can amend the fields showing in this area) so fill out as much detail as you can, especially if you are generating an email to request the item, as the data you enter will be included in the generated email. The email layout is controlled by a template that is amendable by your system administrator, and can be edited before sending.
If you know the expected arrival date of the ILL/Document, enter it in the field provided and RefTracker will show that date as the Target response date, helping you to monitor that it arrives on time. If you have already supplied this document, or will supply it directly from an online database, or you are sending an email to your ILL/Document delivery department so they can take over responsibility, you can close the question as you use this workflow by choosing the “Close question” How complete option. Note that using this close question option ensures that an Answer email is NOT sent to the client as you close out the question. If you want to communicate with the client in relation to an ILL/Document delivery workflow, use the client contact workflows in the Answer screen to do that.
–  ILL – Update  – use this to monitor the progress of your ILL or Document delivery. It provides dates for arrival, and return and the ability to close the question when the ILL/Document delivery is complete. You can use this workflow as many times as is required to complete the ILL/Document delivery.

Workflow Note/Instructions: This is the text that will be sent to the third party as Special instructions when you have ticked the Send email to third party box, or saved to the database as a record of your manual action when you have unticked the Send email to third party box.
This is a QuickText enabled field.
This field has a maximum length of 2,000,000 characters.

Option to send email to client: Importantly, this screen can also be used to send an email to the client to update them on what you are arranging in relation to their request. 
To send an email to the client, click the Option to send email to client tick box and the client contact details and a box for inserting your message to them will appear.  This box will provide all of the Inform client QuickText that can be used for this message to the client.

Your message will go out using the Inform client email template.  There is a [Preview] link where you can view this email to the client, before it goes out.

Time used: If your library uses the time used field, enter the time used in this step of the answering process (as minutes e.g. 90 = 90 minutes, or hours and minutes in the form of hh:mm e.g. 1:30 = 90 minutes, or hours and a decimal fraction of an hour in the format hh.n e.g. 1.5 = 90 minutes). Your System administrator may have set this field to mandatory to ensure that a value is entered – a highlight bar will indicate this. If a default value have been presented in this field, be sure to review it and enter a more accurate value if appropriate. Only Supervisors and Administrators can enter negative amounts.

A timer function  works with the “Time used” field as an optional aid to measuring the time used in answering a question. Click on the clock image and it starts the timer with the time in minutes (rounded up or down) showing in the Time used box as it accumulates. Click the clock image again to stop the timer. You can adjust the time showing in the “Time used” field at any time, even when the timer is running in order to ensure that the total logged time will be correct. You can even restart the timer if you need to do more work in the screen. If you click on Save/Send in order to save the contents of the Answer screen, when the timer is still running, the timer will be stopped and the time then showing in the Time used field will be used as the actual time used.

If there are any costs associated with the third party action you are performing, you can enter them using the Actions>Record costs screen, after you have finished working in this screen.

How complete: Select the entry from this drop down list that most accurately reflects the current status of this question.  This field is highlighted by a coloured bar to its left as a reminder that is needs to be reviewed even though a value will already be appearing in this field.
Only if you are using the Redirect to third party or ILL – Update workflows, “Close question” will appear in this list to allow the question to be closed at the same time as saving the information you have entered using this screen.
If “Close question” is chosen, in the Redirect to third party workflow, your library’s selection of closing fields (Category, Expertise, and Time used) will also appear. Closing the question from this screen is optional – you may prefer to close the question separately, only after you have seen a copy of the response sent by the third party as a result of your request.
If “Close question” is chosen, in the ILL – Update workflow, Time used will appear if it is used by your library. You can use the “Close question” How complete option at any time e.g. after return of an ILL, or after arrival of a Document that does not have to be returned. Closing the question from this screen is optional but has the advantage of not producing a “response” email to the client as its inappropriate in the case of ILL.

Categorisation (or the name chosen for it by your library): This field will only appear if your library uses it and you have selected the Redirect to third party workflow, as this workflow allows you to close the question. If you are closing the question, and your library has determined that it is important to them that subject categorisation or authority terms are associated with questions as they are closed you should select at least one appropriate term from this drop down list. To select more than one term hold down Ctrl as you click on your selected entries. If selection of Category is mandatory in your system a tick mark to the left of this field will indicate that selection of at least one term from this list is mandatory.

Expertise (or the name chosen for it by your library): This field will only appear if your library uses it and you have selected the Redirect to third party workflow, as this workflow allows you to close the question. If you are closing the question, and your library has determined that it is important to them that expertise statistics are important to your library, you should select the most appropriate term from this drop down list.

Bib details:
This section only displays when using the ILL workflows. It is prepopulated with any bibliographic information that has been recorded for this question. Usually this information will have come from the Request form used to accept this question, but even so, there may be additional fields that should be filled out. You should check each field in this section to ensure that it reflects the item that you need to request from this third party.

ILL details:
This section only displays when using the ILL workflows. It is provided so that you can set the additional information required specifically for Inter Library Loans and Document delivery requests. Please provide as much additional information as is relevant to the ILL that you are requesting.

The fields in this section are labelled according to the usual labels for in ILL request form, and will appear in the email that is automatically generated for sending to the ILL/Document delivery supplier, if you choose to create one.

When this screen is used in ILL – Update mode date fields that allow the progress of the ILL/Document delivery to be monitored are provided:
ILL date requested – the date on which the ILL/Document was requested as entered during the ILL – New process. The date sets the status of the question to ILL requested.
ILL expected receipt date – entering a date here will amend the target date for the question so that its expected receipt date shows, and can be monitored, in Open questions.
ILL actual receipt date – entering a date here will amend the status of the question to become “ILL received” unless an ILL return date has been entered.
ILL expected return date – entering a date here will amend the target date for the question so that its expected return date shows, and can be monitored, in Open questions.
ILL actual return date – entering a date here will amend the status of the question to become “ILL returned”.

An ILL can be closed, or a new ILL started, at any time, no matter how many of the above dates have been entered.

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Save: After completing all of the appropriate fields on this page, click on Save.
If the Send email to third party box is unticked the workflow note that you have entered will be recorded in the History, and you will be presented with the Main menu.
If you ticked Send email to third party box, the workflow note, and any other information you have confirmed in this screen, will be used to create an email to the third party, and you will then be presented with the automatically generated email for review. See Review email, below for instructions re reviewing the email.

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Review email:

Organisation: This provides confirmation of the organisation to whom this email will be sent, if you chose to send it to an organisation. If this information is incorrect, use the back button to go back and choose a new organisation or individual email address.

Email address: This provides confirmation of the individual email address to whom this email will be sent, if you chose to send it to an individual. If this information is incorrect, use the back button to go back and choose a individual email address or organisation.

Email: This is the text of the email that RefTracker has automatically created for the workflow that you specified and the data that you provided. Please review it, before clicking on Send, to ensure that it reflects your needs and does not contain any private information that should not be sent to the third party.

Edit the text in this box to meet your need. Add extra text, and delete text as appropriate. New lines (use of the Enter key) will be reproduced in the email when it is sent to the third party.

Send: When you are happy with the layout of the email, click on Send. The email will be sent to the third party, the question will be closed if you have ticked the Close question box for the the Redirect to third party workflow, and you will be returned to the Main menu.