Understanding the Shelving Status Period

The following sections explain how Polaris calculates the shelving status period and then applies and removes the shelving status after an item is checked in:

• Shelving Status Period and Library Open Hours

• How Polaris Changes the Shelving

Shelving Status Period and Library Open Hours

The shelving status period is calculated based on the hours the library is open. For example, if the shelving status period is set to 48 hours, the shelving status remains in effect for 48 open hours after the item is checked in (not 48 continuous hours). Set the shelving period based solely on the average time it takes to shelve items; program calculations will take into account the library’s schedule.

The program takes into account days closed (hours of operation) and dates closed. For proper calculation, be sure hours of operation are set up for your branch. See Register a branch.

The shelving status period is recalculated when items are checked in close to the library's closing time:

• If the period is less than 24 hours, and the item is checked in less than three hours before closing time, the shelving status expiration time is recalculated.

  Example:
  The shelving status period is six hours. The item is checked in one hour before the library closes. The shelving status period begins at opening time on the next open day and lasts for six hours.

• If the period is less than 24 hours, and the item is checked in three hours or more before closing time, the shelving status expiration time is not recalculated.

  Example:
  The shelving status period is six hours. The item is checked in five hours before the library closes. The shelving status period is applied using the five hours today and one hour tomorrow.

How Polaris Changes the Shelving Status

This section describes how and when Polaris changes the "Shelving" status to the "In" status. There are two components that control this process:

• an SQL Job

• a stored procedure

This process does the following:

1. The Item Shelving Status SQL Job runs at a predefined interval and starts the Circ_MaintainItemShelvingStatus stored procedure. By default, this interval is every nine minutes from 7:30 A.M to 9:00 P.M, daily.

2. The Circ_MaintainItemShelvingStatus stored procedure checks when it last reviewed item statuses. If the correct time interval has elapsed, the procedure continues to the next step. Otherwise, it stops without reviewing item statuses.

   To determine the correct time interval, the procedure:

   1. Uses the settings configured on the Shelving Status Options dialog box.

   2. Finds the shortest shelving period configured for any branch or material type.

   3. Reviews items at an interval that is half as long.

      For example, if the shortest shelving period is eight hours, the Circ_MaintainItemShelvingStatus stored procedure reviews items every four hours.

3. The procedure searches for items with a status of "Shelving" and processes them as follows:

   1. Determines the material type of the item and finds the corresponding value for that material type in the Shelving Status Options dialog box.

   2. Determines if the end of the shelving duration has been reached using the value from the step above and the library's open hours (see Shelving Status Period and Library Open Hours above).

   3. If the end of the shelving duration has been reached, the procedure updates the item's status to "In".

For more information about the Item Shelving Status SQL job, see Polaris SQL Jobs Reference.