FAQs
A collection of common questions (and answers) posed by prospective Public Libraries about what FOLIO can do, what limitations exists, and what the state of “must have” features are.
This FAQ is open to any community members to contribute to.
Leave a question if you have one or address a question in need of an answer!
Questions can have more than one answer, so feel free to contribute!
We ask that, when providing an answer, you tag yourself and/or your institution in your response.
Table of Contents
Cataloging and Acquistions
Q. How do you print spine labels in FOLIO?
A. There are a few options for label printing - Implementers' Guide To Label Printing is a great resource for getting started!
Q. What is the acquisition workflow look like in FOLIO?
A.
Catalogs (discovery layer)
Q. What catalog options exist for FOLIO?
A. VuFind (Demo link), Project Blacklight and Ebsco Discovery Service.
Q. Does FOLIO have a public-facing IOS/Android app?
A. SOLUS is a 3rd party application that support integrating with FOLIO and has the following features:
Hold/due/overdue notices
Catalog browsing
Hold/requests management.
Account review
Including renewals
Meeting room bookings
Self-checkout on the app - including RFID support.
Circulation
Q. Can you print a receipt for a patron when they’re done checking out and can it be customized?
A.
Q. Does FOLIO have floating collection functionality?
A.
Collections Management
Q. How does Shelf Reading work in FOLIO?
A.
Q. How would one do a branch “inventory audit” of their materials in FOLIO?
A.
Financials
Q. Does FOLIO have a method for accepting payments for lost and overdue items?
A. Yes, staff can accept cash or checks payments in FOLIO and card-present solutions can be enabled leveraging SIP.
FOLIO - the Organization
Q. Where does the funding come from? How is FOLIO any different from a vendor-customer relationship if vendors are determining what gets developed?
Funding for development comes mainly from migrating institutions that have certain needs met before they can go live. They fund this and the development work is awarded to the vendor who wins their RFP.
Organic funding from institutions (post migration) or direct development contributions isn’t as common but does happen in the community.
The CDDF is being proposed which will increase sustainability of the project and is slowly being reviewed and rolled out.
Hosting Options
Q. Can FOLIO be self-hosted?
A. Yes, but the majority of institutions are hosted by a FOLIO partner.
Notices
Q. Does FOLIO have a built-in notice generation system?
A. Yes, you can create templated notices for email or printing based on numerous criteria:
Awaiting pickup
Cancel request
Check in
Check out
Hold request
Hold shelf expiration
Item aged to lost
Item recalled
Item renewed
Loan due date change
Loan due date/time
Lost item fee(s), charged
Lost item returned - fee(s) adjusted
Overdue fine, renewed
Overdue fine, returned
Request expiration
Request creation
(and more)
More information about notice templates and triggers can be found here.
3rd Party Services
Q. Does FOLIO support phone notices?
A. Folio enables the flexibility to use other services. Some institutions have implemented methods to send notices using Illion’s TeleCirc.
Q. Does FOLIO support SMS or other email sending notifications?
A. Some institutions have implemented SMS and email notices through a 3rd-party service provider such as Patron Point.
Q. Does FOLIO have a public-facing IOS/Android app for notifications?
A. See the FAQs | Catalogs (discovery layer) for supported services.
Privacy
Q.
Reporting
Q. Does FOLIO ship with out-of-the-box reporting tools?
A. Yes! The Reporting and Lists App can generate CSVs for export and additional tabulation.
Folio can also be equipped with an analytical database called MetaDB which offers tabular nearly real-time data, enabling other third-party reporting tools to connect to it. It also enables sharing useful queries between other libraries written in common SQL language. @Joseph A Molloy
There is also a more comprehensive FAQ for reporting available here: Frequently Asked Questions about Reporting - Reporting SIG
Q. What third-party tools exist for reporting?
A. Redash and Metabase are two popular (and open-source) solutions, but PowerBI and Tableau can also be used to create tabular and graphical reports.
Q. Is there a list of all reporting tools available with FOLIO?
A. FOLIO Reporting Options - Information and User Guides for FOLIO Apps is a great resource for exploring options and many “ready to run” queries for statistical analysis are ready for use. Different institutions have different needs and use cases, and - with a little query or API knowledge, FOLIO offers various options instead of a “one size fits all”. @Joseph A Molloy
Requests
Q. Does FOLIO support Title (bib) Level Holds?
A. Yes!
Q. Can a patron pause their holds for a period, say, when they’re on vacation or when they’re at the top of the queue but not ready for their book yet?
A. No - but this feature request has been drafted and could be developed soon.
[UXPROD-3567] Suspend/Freeze/Pause a Patron Request - FOLIO Jira
SIP2
Q. Does FOLIO have SIP2 and what features/functions does it support?
A. FOLIO does have a SIP2 module and is constantly being developed and extended.
Information about what features are supported can be found here:
https://github.com/folio-org/edge-sip2?tab=readme-ov-file#implemented-messages
Automated Material Handling
Q. What vendors are supported for Automated Material Handling such as self-checks or returns?
A. MeeScan, M3, Envisionware, and MK Solutions are all supported using SIP2.
User Management
Q. Does FOLIO allow parents to monitor what their kids do? (Family groups?)