[Koha] Thank you - Circulation Rules Help needed - 1) Hard Time Proposal - 2) Query on Overnight/Weekend Loans

[Matthew Charlesworth, S.J.]

Dear all,

I used to use an earlier version of Koha in 2007/8 but then moved out of
library work (though I worked with Chrispin Sitali in Zambia who sometimes
posts here (wave)), and have always remained a fan of Koha - but recently
after moving to Nairobi, I had the opportunity to install a Koha
installation using the more updated version (what a lot of work has gone on
behind the scenes in the interim! Well done). In the last month or two we
transitioned approx. 90,000 records from InMagic and, beginning this
academic year (August), have started using Koha as our main OPAC and staff
client. So far, we are getting very positive results - thank you for
creating such a wonderful product.

I have two questions though and I don't know if I'm just not seeing it or
if I must submit a bug or feature request? I thought I'd ask here before I
do - perhaps someone could let me know how best to proceed.

I am using Koha 3.12.03.000 on Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS (for some reason I can't
get apt-get update|upgrade to see the new 3.12.04 version - but perhaps
it's because I'm in Kenya and it'll take a while to filter to whatever
repositories are mirrored here). We have circulation rules that allow for
students to keep books for 2 weeks and staff for a month. The email they
receive correctly acknowledges check-out and check-ins with a date/time
stamp, but always puts the time to 23:59. I do not want to have the
Circulation Librarian manually enter the date and time (by sliding those
indicators) depending on the patron; I would prefer for the system to
automatically calculate, as it does, whether the check-out is for 2 or 4
weeks. But if our library closes at 17h30 I don't want the  due-time to be
at 23h59. Is there a way - or could there be a way created - to set a
closing time for the library, so that hourly loans (for our Reserve
Section) can still be calculated, but if it falls past closing-time, e.g.
17h30 (for instance 23h59 or 22h00) it is reduced to 17h30 (so the students
don't tell our library staff that they came at midnight but no-one was
around)? I hope you understand what I'm trying to say. Another way of
wording it might be to think about it in terms of the current 'Hard Date'
in the Circulation and Fine Rules section in Administration in the Staff
client. There is an option in the rules for a 'Hard Date' - but I would
like to propose a 'Hard Time', i.e. whatever day is arrived at by the rules
- the latest possible time would be the 'Hard Time'. This would work for us
as we have two branches, one whose books must be returned by 17h30 of that
day, and another whose books must be returned by 11h00. If there was a
hard-time preference in the circulation rule it would be possible to
specify it on a branch-by-branch basis.

My second question is not so much a feature request (or if it's already
there, a plea to have it pointed out to me) as it is to ask for some
guidance from someone who has more experience in setting the circulation
rules. Our library has a reserve section. Currently we allow books to be
borrowed for a short-term period - a few hours during the day, the book not
to be removed from the library (but we want the book checked-out and
checked-in from the Reserve section so we can track usage and which
students are actually accessing the material); But the reserved books may
leave the library if it is borrowed between 17h00-17h30 - then it may be
kept overnight, to be returned by 08h30. Currently I'm setting the rules up
so that books from the Reserve section (an itemtype) have a 16 hour loan
period so that if it's loaned at 17h00 the system calculates that it must
be due back by 08h00 (though they receive an email saying it's due back 16
hours later - which ideally I'd like it to be 3 or 4 hours). But I need it
so that if it's loaned on Friday it will be due on Monday 08h00. If I set
holiday dates in the Calendar of the Library - it will ignore weekends -
but that means for our 'normal loans (as explained in the previous problem)
the 14 or 28 day rules (which used to include weekends) becomes more of an
18 or 32 day rule - but if that's the only way to get the Reserve Section
check-outs working, then I will request our Librarian to change the rules
to exclude weekends from all circulation check-in calculations... (I have
individual rules for each branch, itemptype, and patron category - with the
only 'All' rule being for the Reserve section.) Another idea I had was that
fines would not accrue for Reserved books until 3 days - (i.e. Sat
08h30-Sun-08h30-Mon-08h30) - but that means a book could be taken out on
Monday and the patron only show up in our morning emailed fine report on
Wed, which given that we only have 1 copy of every book, would badly
inconvenience our students. I think the 'Hard Time' feature could be
extended to have an option that if it falls on 'end of week' then it is due
'beginning of following week' might solve it - but I don't know if that
would be of interest to the wider community - or perhaps there is a way of
solving this already which I haven't seen.... I'm happy to be lectured to
:) as I learn more and more about Koha :)


I hope that makes some sense and once again want to thank you.

With my best wishes,

Matthew