Calculating Due Dates

When a patron checks out an item, the due date is calculated based on the patron code and item loan period relationship established by the governing library for the transaction (by default the item’s assigned branch), plus the closed dates and hours of operation of the lending library. The patron code is stored in the patron record, while the loan period code is stored in the item record. The Loan Periods policy table associates the patron code and loan period code to determine the loan period for an item assigned to a particular branch.

All daily and weekly loans are due at 11:59 P.M. on the due date. For information on items with a loan period set in hours or minutes, see Hourly Loans.

Note:
For daily and weekly loans, overdue fine calculation does not begin until the end of the day. For hourly loans, fines are calculated according to the exact time due. See Calculating Overdue Fines.

Undefined and Standard Loan Periods

If a relationship between the patron code and loan period code cannot be found in the Loan Periods policy table, Polaris uses the setting in the Patron Services parameter Undefined loan period, which is set at the system level. The default value is 14 days. This value is also used to automatically add an entry to the table if a new branch or patron code is added.

Note:
If a loan period cannot be found in any table or parameter, a message at check-out indicates that the loan period cannot be calculated. In this case, circulation staff can allow the system to use the undefined loan period setting, or they can set the item’s loan period manually, by opening the Special Loan dialog box from the Check Out workform.

For offline circulation, the system always uses the workstation branch’s setting for the Patron Services parameter Standard loan period to calculate the due date. This is because there is no access to the database during offline circulation. However, the Loaning Branch recorded in the transaction and in the item record is the logged-on user’s branch. This allows libraries to gather statistics for different bookmobile stops based on user log-on, while maintaining a consistent loan period for the bookmobile (the workstation branch).

Closed Dates and Days

The lending library’s closed dates and closed days are used in the due date calculation. If the due date is defined as closed in the Dates Closed policy table (for example, January 1), the due date moves to the next open date. Identifying Dates Closed If the Patron Services parameter Hours of Operation designates the day of the week as a closed day for the branch (for example, Sunday), the due date moves to the next open day.

Hourly Loans

For hourly loan due dates and times, Polaris checks these additional Patron Services parameters for the lending library: Hours of operation (for hours and closed days) and Overnight loan period. If the item is due after the lending library closes, one of the following events occurs:

• If the Overnight loan period parameter is set to permit automatic overnight loans, the due date is set to the next day the library is open. The due time is set to the library’s opening time, plus any additional time specified by the library.
• If the Overnight loan period parameter is set to not permit automatic overnight loans, one of the following events occurs:
• If the loan period is less than 24 hours, the transaction is blocked. If you override the block, the due date is set to the next day the library is open, and the due time is set to the library’s opening time, plus any additional time specified by the library. If you do not override the block, the item is due at the lending library’s closing time on the current day.

Example:
An item is checked out on Thursday at 4:00 P.M. for a six-hour loan period. The lending library closes at 8:00 P.M. and opens on Friday at 10:00 A.M. If automatic overnight loans are permitted plus two additional hours, the item is due on Friday at 12:00 noon. If automatic overnight loans are not permitted, the transaction is blocked. If you override the block, the item is due on Friday at 12:00 noon. If you do not override the block, the item is due when the library closes on Thursday at 8:00 P.M.

• If the loan period is 24 hours or more, the transaction is not blocked because the overnight loan setting is irrelevant.

You can set the Overnight loan period parameter at the system, library, or branch level.

Setting Up Non-Circulating Items

You can designate certain items as non-circulating in two ways:

• To make a specific item non-circulating for all patrons, select the Non-circulating check box on the Item Record workform - Circulation view. An advantage of this method is that patrons can see that an item is non-circulating in their PAC search results. You can set a special PAC description for these items. See View circulation status names and edit descriptions.
• To make some items non-circulating for certain patron codes only, create a non-circulating loan period code. See Add a loan period code. Then assign the loan period code to the appropriate patron codes, and specify a Units value of 0 for each restricted patron code. See Add a loan period.

When a patron attempts to check out a non-circulating item, a block appears. If the circulation staff member overrides the block, and the item itself is non-circulating, Polaris assigns a loan period according to the loan period code in the item record. If the circulation staff member overrides the block, and the item is non-circulating for specified patron codes, Polaris assigns a loan period of one time unit as defined in the Loan Periods table.