Defining Material Type Group Limits

You can create groups of material types and place check-out limits on the group as a whole for specific patron codes. The group limit may be different from the individual limit on each material type that is part of the group. For example, a patron code may have individual limits of DVD = 5 and Blu-Ray discs = 2. A patron with that code may check out up to five DVDs and 2 Blu-Ray discs. (These individual limits are set in the Material Type Loan Limits policy table. See List and modify loan and request limit entries.) However, if both material types are assigned to a “Media” group with a group limit of 5, and the patron’s code is specified for the Media group, the patron will be blocked if he already has 4 DVDs and 1 Blu-Ray disc or a similar combination.

If the individual material type limits and group limit conflict, the patron is blocked according to the group limit. For example, a “Media” material type group consisting of Video Cassette and DVD may be set to 0 for a patron code “Child,” while the individual Video and DVD limits are set to 5 each. In this case, the patron code Child would be blocked at 0—that is, not allowed to check out Videos or DVDs. If the patron code Child is removed from the group, the patron code Child may have up to 5 each of both Videos and DVDs (total of 10 items) because the system then uses the individual material type limits.

Limits on material type groups affect check-out from the staff client, including bulk check-out for Outreach Services or Borrow by Mail, Polaris ExpressCheck, and check-out from third-party workstations via SIP or NCIP, where block messages appear at check-out. The group limit is also checked when offline circulation transactions are uploaded, and an appropriate message is written to the offline upload report. The message includes the group name.

At normal check-out in the staff client, if the patron would exceed the group limit for the patron code, a block message appears. The staff member must have the Circulation permission Override item limit blocks: Allow to override the block and continue the transaction.

You can set up material type groups at the system, library, and branch levels. As with other loan limit blocks, the system uses the setting for the governing library for patron blocks, which may be the transacting branch or the patron’s registered branch (set in the system-level Patron Services parameter Consortium circulation).