Automatic Renewal

Automatic renewal is available in Sierra 4.0 and later.

With automatic renewal, the process of sending and clearing courtesy notices automatically renews any eligible items on the notice.

All eligible items on courtesy notices are automatically renewed unless:

Automatic renewal is disabled in Loan Rules. (Automatic is disabled by default.)
Patron self-renewal is blocked (for example, for outstanding holds and patron blocks).
The checkout is an hourly checkout. (Hourly checkouts cannot be automatically renewed because they cannot receive courtesy notices.)

Two renewal periods can be set: one for the initial renewal period and the other for the second and subsequent renewal. You also can specify the maximum number of renewals allowed. Renewal policies are set based on the location, item type, and patron type, allowing each participating library to have full control over renewal policies to their own patrons and to patrons from all libraries.

When an item is automatically renewed, the system prints the new due date on the patron's courtesy notice. (The new due date is calculated from the previous due date, not from the date of renewal.)

The Max Number of Renewals element limits total renewals, including automatic renewals.

Staff and patrons can still renew manually according to normal rules.

Local INN-Reach, NCIP, and ILL checkouts also support automatic renewal.

Setting up Automatic Renewal

If the Courtesy Notices feature is disabled, enable it and set it up by following the instructions in Courtesy Notices.

Pay particular attention to these loan rule elements:

Number Of Days Before Odue -- Controls when a courtesy notice is sent, and therefore when automatic renewal occurs.
Time Remaining B4 Renew -- Specifies the maximum number of days/hours that must remain in the loan period for an item to be eligible for renewal. This value must be at least one day greater than the value of Number Of Days Before Odue for items to renew automatically. For example, if Number Of Days Before Odue is set to "2", Time Remaining B4 Renew needs to be set to "3" or greater.
Courtesy Notice Text Number -- Sets the text appearing on the notice.

You may want to modify the courtesy notice text to indicate that some items may have been renewed automatically, for example, adding "RENEWED" to the notice.

Customize the Courtesy Notices print template by adding the element Item_Auto_Renewal_Status to the template. See Creating Customized Print Templates for more information.

Open the Loan Rules table by following the path Admin | Parameters | Circulation | Loan Rules, then enable automatic renewal by setting Max Number Of Auto Renewals to 1 or greater. (Setting the number to 1 means that the first renewal can be automatic.)

(Optional) In saved jobs for Courtesy Notices, sort by patron, then by due date.

See also:: Creating Customized Print Templates

(Optional) Contact Innovative Support to configure a statistical group for automatic notices

Statistical group behavior depends on how courtesy notices are sent:

If staff send courtesy notices manually in the Sierra Desktop Application, automatic renewals are logged under the staff login’s statistical group.
If courtesy notices are sent via automatic notices (Auto Notices), automatic renewals are logged under statistical group 0 by default.