Lost and found

A status: lost copy is one that’s missing but might come back, a book a student can’t find, a copy that didn’t come back from a classroom. Marking it lost takes it out of circulation while keeping the record, and it’s fully reversible when the copy turns up. That makes “lost” different from weeding (a deliberate removal) and from deletion (permanent).

Marking a copy lost is always a library-manager action. Marking a copy found is open to any staff member, because every way of doing it confirms the copy’s barcode first, you can only recover the copy you actually have in hand. That barcode confirmation is the gate, whether you scan a lost copy in the course of another task or use the standalone button: Mark found controls on the copy page or a patron’s history (where Lyra asks you to scan or type the barcode to confirm).

Marking a copy lost

There are several places to mark a copy lost:

From the copy. Open the copy and choose menu item: Mark lost from the button: Actions menu.
From the item. On the item’s tab: Copies tab, a copy’s row action row action: Mark lost does the same.
From the items list. On Library level navigation path: Catalog then Items on the tab: By copy tab, a copy’s row action row action: Mark lost does the same, or select several copies and choose button: Mark lost in the selection bar. Copies already lost are skipped.
From the patron. On a patron’s tab: Loans tab (see Patron records), an active loan’s row action row action: Mark lost does the same for that checked-out copy.

Every path confirms first, naming the copy’s barcode, or how many copies when you mark several. From the patron the confirmation says the copy stays on the item’s history and can be marked found later; everywhere else it says the copy stops circulating and stays on the item until it is found or weeded. Confirm and the copy header switches to the status: Lost state, with the date it was marked in the strip beneath.

Two more things happen:

An open loan is closed. If the copy was checked out, marking it lost ends that loan and files it in the patron’s history. The patron isn’t left holding an open loan on a copy nobody expects back, and the loan stays linked to the lost report, which is why the copy turns up on their tab: History tab with a row action: Mark found action.
An assigned hold on that copy is released. A copy set aside on the hold shelf stops being set aside. The hold itself isn’t canceled — it goes back to waiting for another copy.

A lost copy stops circulating. If the item has other copies, those still circulate normally.

Marking a copy found

When a lost copy reappears, any staff member can mark it found from its record to return it to circulation. Each path asks you to confirm by barcode (scan or type it) so you’re recovering the copy you actually have in hand:

From the copy page, use the button: Mark found button in the copy header. Alternatively, the button: Actions menu carries menu item: Mark found….
From the patron’s tab: History tab, a lost copy’s row action row action: Mark found does the same, with the same barcode confirmation.
From the items list, on the tab: By copy tab, a lost copy’s row action row action: Mark found… asks for the same confirmation. Library managers also have row action: Mark found… on a lost copy’s row on the item’s tab: Copies tab.

More passively, if you scan a lost copy during circulation, it’s recovered on the spot, no separate barcode prompt, because the scan already confirmed it.

When a lost copy turns up during circulation

You don’t have to remember a copy is lost. If you scan a lost copy in the middle of another task (checking it in, checking it out, pulling it for a hold, or re-shelving) Lyra recognizes it and offers to recover it inline. The message saying the copy is lost carries a button: Mark found beside it, and it appears where you were working: under the field: scan bar on the scanning screens, and under the row you used when you started from a row’s menu item: ⋯ menu. Confirm it and the copy is recovered, and the original action (the check-in, checkout, hold assignment, or re-shelve) completes in the same step. Nothing times out, so you can look at the copy in your hand first.

The scan is the barcode confirmation here, so there’s no separate prompt, you’ve got the copy in hand as part of the task. It’s the same gate as the standalone Mark found controls, which is why recovering a copy is open to any staff member either way.

Lost vs. weeded vs. deleted

Lost: missing, might return; reversible with button: Mark found. (This page.)
Weeded: deliberately off the shelf, record kept, restorable.
Deleted: gone permanently, history and all.