2009/7/11 Nelson Fredsell <nfredsell@bellsouth.net>
Hello all,
Our libraries have different circulation rules regarding a different number of renewals allowed. I believe 3 renewals is standard. However one library allows books to be checked out for 8 weeks, with a single renewal allowed for 4 weeks. This seems to present two problems:
1) Because number of renewals is bound to the Marc record (942 Item type), all libraries must have the same number of renewals, or multiple copies of same holding must be assigned to multiple Marc records. Please tell me there’s a third option!
Well, there is, though it's a bit of a hack. If you turn on the item-level_itypes system preference, you can assign different item types to individual items.
2) Renewals must be for the same time period as the initial checkout period?
Yes.
3) Holdings must be checked out for a particular number of days, apparently, and not according to a calendar system. eg. books checked out on 1 Feb must be returned by/before 1 March.
Koha does have a calendar system, but you have to set it up. The relevant screen is in Tools -> Calendar.
Thanks very much. My main concern is #1 above, as one of the great benefits of a union catalogue I imagined was to assign multiple items to the same record across multiple libraries, but there was good reason for the 8 week/4 week rule. (To complicate matters further, this same library has a second set of circulation rules available upon request: 6 month checkout for intensive study purposes! Also, a school library might allow staff to keep books out for a longer initial period, but not allow the standard number of renewals on that longer period.)
If you turn on the SpecifyDueDate system preference, staff can manually enter in due dates for an item, which would at least allow extended checkout periods. -- Jesse Weaver