Loan Rule Determiner Table

Sierra uses the Loan Rule Determiner table, also known as the Rule Selection table, to calculate which loan rule to apply to a circulation transaction.

You can access the Loan Rule Determiner table via the following menu path:

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

For more information, see Functionality Information and Data Elements.

Functionality Information

When viewing and modifying the Loan Rule Determiner table, note the following:

Maximum Number of Entries

The Loan Rule Determiner table can contain a maximum of 1,500 entries, or at libraries that have acquired Consortium Management Extensions, a maximum of 5,000 entries.

Table Read Bottom to Top

The system reads the Loan Rule Determiner table from bottom to top. General entries (such as those that contain wildcards) should appear higher in the table than more specific entries.

First Entry Should Point to Non-circulating Loan Rule

The very first entry in the table should be set up to apply to all locations, P TYPEs, I TYPEs, and age ranges (that is, Location is "?????", Patron Type is "999" (Sierra 3.4 and earlier) or "9999" (Sierra 4.0 and later), Item Type is "999" (Sierra 3.4 and earlier) or "9999" (Sierra 4.0 and later), and Age Range is blank) and should refer to a non-circulating loan rule. Thus, if no entries in the table apply to the particular combination of location, P TYPE, I TYPE, and age range, the system will advise the operator that the item is non-circulating. If the item should have been allowed to circulate in the given situation, then another entry in the Loan Rule Determiner table is necessary.

Age Range and BIRTH DATE Field

The system applies the Age Range element only if the BIRTH DATE fixed-length field is enabled in patron records. If this field is not enabled on your system, contact Innovative.

Data Export

The Export function can be used to save loan rule determiner data as a CSV file. For more information, see Maintaining System Parameter Tables.

Data Elements

Entries in the Loan Rule Determiner table contain the following data elements:

Element	Description
Location	The location to which the entry pertains. Depending on the setting of the Loan Rule Determined by Login Location feature, this location can refer to either the LOCATION fixed-length field in the item record or the checkout location. Possible values are a location from the Branches table, a wildcard code ????? 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").
Patron Type	Patron types, from the P TYPE fixed-length field in the patron record, to which the entry applies. Possible values are a single value from the Patron Type table, a wildcard code to represent all patron types (999 in Sierra 3.4 and earlier or 9999 in Sierra 4.0 and later), or a comma-separated list or range of patron types (e.g. 2,4-6,80).
Item Type	The item types (from the I TYPE fixed-length field in the item record) to which the entry applies. Possible values are a single value from the Item Types table, a wildcard code to represent all item types (999 in Sierra 3.4 and earlier or 9999 in Sierra 4.0 and later), or a comma-separated list or range of item types (e.g. 6-9,14,17,24-31).
Age Range	The age of the patron. The system compares this value to the value of the patron's BIRTH DATE fixed-length field. The system applies the loan rule if the patron's birth date falls within the specified age range, if the BIRTH DATE field is blank, or if the BIRTH DATE field is not enabled. If the patron's birth date falls outside the specified age range, the system does not apply the loan rule. Possible values are a specific age (e.g. 15), an age range (e.g. 0-5 or -5 to represent ages five and younger), a specific age and greater (e.g. 18+ or 18- to represent ages 18 and up), or <blank>. If the Age Range element is blank, the entry applies to all ages.
Rule Number	Number of the loan rule that the system should apply when a patron with the specified P TYPE  and age range checks out an item with the specified I TYPE  that belongs to the specified location. Loan Rule numbers are defined in the Loan Rules table.
Active	Determines whether an entry is active or inactive. The system ignores inactive entries (i.e., the system continues reading the table until it finds the first applicable active entry). To avoid confusion and unexpected results, Innovative recommends that you not make an entry inactive while items whose loan rules were selected by using that entry are still circulating.
Editable By	The authorization level required to edit the field. This element displays only if your library has enabled edit protection of circulation parameters.