[Koha] Loan periods

[Caroline Cyr La Rose]

Hi Alexander,

Maybe someone else will have a genius idea, but I don't really see a way 
around creating specific item types, or simplifying your rules. (A 
software change is always a good time to review policies imo...) I mean, 
you could always do manual loan periods 
(https://koha-community.org/manual/latest/en/html/circulationpreferences.html#specifyreturndate), 
but it's a hassle to do it for every loan...


I wanted to address this however

> It looks a bit messy in cataloguing but these would also show up in the OPAC (eg. in the advanced search limiters).

This can be hidden in with the OpacAdvancedSearchTypes system preference.

If you use ElasticSearch, the facets in the search results can be hidden 
in Administration > Search engine configuration (Elasticsearch) > 
Bibliographic records, uncheck the itype facet at the bottom of the screen.

In the detailed record, you can hide the item type column by unchecking 
the item_itemtype column in Administration > Table settings > OPAC > 
holdingst.

That way, the item types should not appear in the OPAC (although for 
transparency, patrons might be interested to know how long they can take 
something out).


For cataloguers, I don't really see the difference for them to enter a 
loan period in an item field vs choosing an item type in an item field.


Good luck with all of that!


Caroline


On 2023-10-12 09:28, Wagner, Alexander wrote:
> Hello!
>
> Being pretty new to Koha I still struggle to get a solution for our loan periods.
>
> I understand that Koha specifies loan periods based on `item types` and `patron types` and then calculates the loan period using the circulation matrix. I also believe I have an understanding of this matrix and I also know such concepts from other ILS.
>
> However, in our library we assume that all patrons are created equal.
>
> Now, we (currently) assume that not all books (just to take one item type) are created equal.
>
> IOW in our current system we have books with a loan period of 4 weeks (usual default) while we also have books with a loan period of 3 days (being open 24/7 with self service checkout this is our `not for loan`) and others with 2 years. Currently, any patron (they are all equal) can have items with any of these loan periods. Eg. I got Peskin/Schroeder as as desktop reference for 2 years. Then go to the library during my usual working hours (10pm or so ;) and up pick Bailin/Love from the open shelves to prepare the next lecture and while I am there I spot this interesting "new piece over there" and add it to the lot not noticing that it should stay there for a week or so. (Telling our SIP terminal "you can not take this" will not work well, especially as most of our patrons would not notice the red frownie and no-one would notice the beeps at the entrance in the middle of the night.)
>
> However, till here I can model most of it by creating an item type `book` along with `desktop reference` for the first two items. I do not yet see the new items shelve (a temporary location) where items stay for a week till they move to their permanent location with a regular loan period of 4 weeks. (IOW in our current system the loan period sometimes depends on temporary locations.)
>
> Still, this requires to add a new item type for each loan period.
>
> When it comes to databases we now have a number of different loan periods, as we model them as the subscription period minus some contract dependent time to allow for cancellation (or renewal). E.g. some are subscriptions for campus (real not for loan) with some contract running a year. The next contract runs 3 years with 4 month before it's end for cancellation.
>
> Then we have individually licensed accesses ranging from a monthly or bi-monthly period to years. Those are currently checked out to the patrons who have the access and we use the reminders as notification to our patrons ("should we renew?") and the renewals as a notification to us that the contract should indeed be renewed for another period. How would I model this in Koha? Do I really create a host of item types with funny names like
>
> 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks, 5 weeks, 6 weeks, 7 weeks, 8 weeks, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 4 months, 5 months, 6 months, 7 months, 8 months, 9 months, 10 months, 11 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, 30 months, 36 months, 42 months, 48 months, 54 months, 60 months, 66 months, 72 months, 78 months
>
> It looks a bit messy in cataloguing but these would also show up in the OPAC (eg. in the advanced search limiters).
>
> In our current system I just had a subfield on item level where I could specify a loan period. Do I get it right that this concept does not exist and can not be modeled in Koha? How can I get around this? How do others handle this? Maybe I need a different angle to look at it...
>
Caroline Cyr-La-Rose, M.L.I.S. (she/her)
Librarian | Product Manager

1-833-INLIBRO (465-4276), ext. 221
caroline.cyr-la-rose at inlibro.com
https://www.inLibro.com