Hours Open Table

To view circulation parameters, you must be assigned permission 373 (View Circulation Parameters). To edit the Hours Open table, you must be assigned permission 375 (Edit Hours Open). If your library has enabled the Edit Protection of Circulation Parameters feature, values in the Hours Open table might be protected from editing by library staff at other Locations Served. See Permissions Used by Sierra for more information.

The Hours Open table specifies the hours during which your library, or a specific library branch or location, is open and circulating items. The Hours Open table applies only when circulating items under hourly loan rules (that is, loan rules with a Code value of 'H', 'I', 'J', or 'K'). Unless you specify a date and location in the Hours Open table, the system assumes that the location is open 24 hours per day.

The system uses the Hours Open table in the following ways:

If an hourly item would be due at a time when the library is closed, the system makes it due at closing time, or one hour after opening time the next day, depending on the Code element of the loan rule. For more information, see How Sierra Calculates the Due Date for a Checkout.
If the Fines/Bills: Charge fines for hours library closed circulation option is set to "NO," the system prevents fines for overdue items from accruing during times when the library is closed.

You can access the Hours Open table via the following menu path:

Admin | Parameters | Circulation | Hours Open

For information on modifying this table, see Maintaining System Parameter Tables and Maintaining Circulation Parameters.

For more information, see Functionality Information, Data Elements, and Example Entries.

Functionality Information

When viewing and modifying the Hours Open table, note the following:

Maximum Number of Entries: The Hours Open table can contain a maximum of 3,000 entries.
Table Read Bottom to Top: The system reads the Hours Open table from bottom to top. General entries (such as those that contain wildcards) should appear higher in the table than more specific entries.
Enter Library Hours Only for Hourly Loan Locations: The system consults the Hours Open table only when circulating and calculating fines for hourly items. Therefore, you need only add entries to the Hours Open table for locations with hourly circulation. For example, if your library's Reserve Room circulates items for a two-hour loan period, and those items have a location of "iures," you can add entries to the Hours Open table for the "iures" location but omit other locations and branches.
Manipulating the Hours Open Table: If your library has non-standard circulation policies regarding hourly loans, you might need to manipulate the Hours Open table (and possibly also the Days Closed table) to obtain the results you want. For example, if your library's Reserve Room is open until midnight on Friday but wants items checked out between 6:00 P.M. and midnight to remain checked out until 10:00 A.M. on Saturday, enter 1800 (that is, 6:00 P.M.) instead of 2400 (midnight) in the Closed element for Friday and 0900 (9:00 A.M.) in the Open element for the Saturday entry. The Hours Open table does not control when you can check material out and in; the table only determines the due dates of items and the fine schedule. For more information, see the example entries below.

Data Elements

Entries in the Hours Open table contain the following data elements:

Element	Description
Location	The library branch or location to which the entry pertains. Possible values are a location from the Branches table, a wildcard code ????? (exactly five question marks) to represent all locations, or a partial location code followed by an asterisk (for example, sci* to represent any location code that starts with "sci").
Day	The day of the week or year that the location is open. Possible values are a calendar date, a day of the week, or a wildcard code to signify every day. Calendar dates must be in MM/DD or DD/MM format, depending on the date format used by your system. The month and day may be one or two digits each and may be separated by a slash '/' or a hyphen '-'. For example, an entry could appear as 2/12 or 02-12. Days of the week must be one of the following three-character codes in UPPERCASE or lowercase: mon tue wed thu fri sat sun The wildcard code must be entered as ??? (exactly three question marks).
Open	The time the location opens, expressed in 24-hour "military" time (e.g., 0800 = 8:00 A.M.). Enter '0' for locations that are open 24 hours per day.
Closed	The time the location closes, expressed in 24-hour "military" time (e.g., 2000 = 8:00 P.M.). Enter "2400" for locations that are open 24 hours per day. If the location closes after midnight (e.g., 1:00 A.M.), indicate this as the time plus 2400. The maximum time you can specify is 2800 (i.e., 4:00 A.M. the following day).
Editable By	The authorization level required to edit the field. This element displays only if your library has enabled edit protection of circulation parameters.

Example Entries

The following examples illustrate how the system uses the Hours Open table to calculate hourly loans:

Example 1: Four-hour Loan, Overnight Checkout

The Hours Open table contains the following entries:

Location	Day	Open	Closed
?????	???	800	2200
?????	sat	1300	1700
?????	sun	1300	1700
music	sat	1000	1700

A patron checks out a manuscript from the Music Library (location = "music") at 7:00 P.M. Friday; the manuscript is on four-hour reserve with overnight privileges. The Music Library closes at 10:00 P.M. Friday and reopens at 10:00 A.M. Saturday (see lines 1 and 4 of the sample table above). Because the patron is allowed to borrow the manuscript for four hours and the time from check out to closing is only three hours, the loan becomes an overnight loan and is due at 11:00 A.M. Saturday (one hour after opening the next day).

Example 2: Multiple Days

The Days Closed and Hours Open table contains the following entries:

Days Closed Table
Location	Day Closed
music	sun
musov	sat
musov	sun

Hours Open Table
Location	Day	Open	Closed
music	???	0800	2100
musov	???	0800	2100
musov	fri	0800	1700

The Music Library is actually open Monday through Saturday from 8:00 A.M. to 9:00 P.M. However, items with the location "musov" that are checked out after 5:00 P.M. Friday or anytime on Saturday are due the following Monday. A patron checks out a manuscript from the Music Library at 7:00 P.M. Friday; the manuscript is on four-hour reserve with overnight privileges. The manuscript is due on Monday at 9:00 A.M.