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OCLC Support

Circulation

Find an overview of the circulation features available in OLIB Service Pack 13.

User Expiry Date on Issue Screen

An attribute for the user’s expiry date is now available for use on the Issues/Returns/Renewals layout:

The system administrator needs to add the new attribute – iss_expdate (Expiry Date) – to the Issues/Returns/Renewals layout.

Loan Terms at Location Level

A new sheet is available on the Loan Terms record to allow you to configure an overdue and / or recall sequence at library location level:

Similarly, you can now also set a maximum number of automatic renewals possible for transactions relating to a specific location.

To add or change a location level setting, select the location from the drop down menu:

Add the Overdue and / or Recall sequence to apply to that location. Add the Max. Automatic Renewal values.

Click on the fast forward button icon:

This will populate the location-level setting for that location with the new values.

If there are location specific settings relating to the transaction, the settings will be checked in the following sequence:

For overdue or recall sequence:

  • The location that carried out the issue transaction
  • The location at which the user is registered
  • The location owning the copy record

For the auto-renewal limit:

  • The lowest found value for any of the locations involved will be used.

Note: the lowest value here may be higher than that configured for the global loan term.

Delete Cancelled, Discontinued and Fulfilled Reservations

It is now possible to delete or archive, cancelled, discontinued and fulfilled reservations after a specified period.

To configure a time period, go to OLIB Defaults and navigate to the Daystart Sheet.

Enter the number of days you wish to keep cancelled discontinued and fulfilled reservations in the Days to Keep Reservations field

Note: Prior to SP13, the Satisfied On date was not set for reservations at the time of collection. This could mean that for a reservation fulfilled recently, the latest date on the reservation record would be the date that the reservation was placed. Therefore, you may want to consider carefully when to set this following the upgrade.

Collect From column in Reservation Hitlists

When retrieving a list of reservations from the reservations domain, the reserving user's location is now in the column - Collect From - in the hitlist.

The Collection location or, if no collection location is specified, the reserving User’s location displays in the hitlists for Active and All reservation searches.

The Set Reservation search hitlists are not changed.

Overridable Circulation Messages by Transaction Type

If an exception is found for a user or an item, a circulation message will be displayed, prompting a response. These Circulation messages can be searched for from the Circulation Reference Data Menu.

Prior to Service Pack 13, for each message, you can apply different settings for different user categories. For example, you may wish to set up the Copy not at this Location message so that only Library Managers can issue, renew or return an item that does not belong to the PC location.

In Service Pack 13, the User Cat.-Level Settings has been extended to allow for changes in behaviour based on the transaction type, such as Issue, Return, Collect, etc:

In the above example, Library Managers can override any transaction for items that do not belong to the location that is performing the action. All other user categories can only perform a Collect transaction with an override.

Bulk Action to Waive Fines from the Calendar for a Location

A ‘Waive Fines’ action is now available on the Calendar record to allow you to waive fines as a bulk action for users at a specified location for a particular calendar period.

Search for a calendar record from the User Management Reference Data menu. Select Waive Fines.

This will waive fines for all users registered at the calendar’s location that have fines generated for the period shown in the calendar. You will be asked to enter a reason for waiving the fines in the normal manner.

Individual, possibly daily, portions of the fine as configured in the fine steps will be waived (and not necessarily the fine as a whole). The waived fine is displayed in the Fine History.

Note: This feature is for location specific calendars only:

Auto Renewal Circulation Transaction Alert

It is now possible to configure a Circulation Transaction Alert to be sent following an automatic renewal.

Create a close copy of an example Circulation Transaction Alert. The option for Automatic Renewal is now included in the Circulation Transaction dropdown in the Notice details:

You might want to consider amending the text in the Notice Text field so that it is relevant for automatic renewals.

Loan Days

Typically, when issuing an item, the return date is calculated using the Loan Days specified on the Loan Terms layout.

If the Loan Terms Loan Days is not set, the return date is now calculated using the Loan Days specified on the User Categories layout.

If neither the Loan Terms Loan Days nor the User Categories Loan Days is set, the return date is set to today's date.