Any time the rules differ for a patron group you will need to create a new patron policy and assign it to the affected patrons. Policies are required for every patron and every item (or item copy). Policies are used to give detailed statistics for patrons and/or items for a specific time frame. Policies are also a selection in almost every patron, item, and circulation report.

Settings

Patron Policy Short Code

This is the patron Policy Short Code you provided when adding the patron policy; for example, if the Policy Name is “3rd Grade”, you might provide “3GR” as the Policy Short Code name. Look for this patron Policy Short Code on reports such as the Super Summary for statistics on items checked out to patrons of this policy.

Alert When Fines Exceed

The total fine amount that a patron (under this policy) can accrue before circulation privileges are denied and an alert window appears during checkout. If the patron's total fines exceed this value, an alert will appear when this patron becomes the Current Patron. If you want an alert for any patron with fines, set this value to “$00.01”. If you want alerts for patrons with larger fines, determine that value here. An operator with the appropriate security level can override the resulting alert window and allow checkout regardless.

Maximum Loaned Items

The maximum number of items that the patron type (under this policy) can check out before circulation privileges are denied. COMPanion recommends not setting this number above 50. However, this number corresponds directly to and is determined by the power of your computer system. An operator with the appropriate security level can override the resulting alert window and allow checkout regardless.

Items Are Due On

If you select a day of the week from this drop-down menu, all loaned items are due back (for patrons under this policy) that same day each week. You can choose between Any day (meaning item due dates are based on the Number of days these items can be loaned option) or Monday through Sunday. If the day of the week you select happens to fall on a Closed day, then Alexandria will try the specified due on date again in a week. If next week's due on date also happens to be Closed, Alexandria will make the item due on the next available Open date. For example, if a library requires that certain items are due back on Fridays—setting this preference to Friday allows due dates would be calculated for the specified circulation period and then advanced to the next open Friday.

Force

If a due on date falls on a Closed day, this checkbox forces the item to be due on the next open day specified in the Items are due on drop-down menu described above. Therefore, if a due on date is Thursday, items will always be due on a Thursday.

Use Calendar

This drop-down menu selects the calendar used when calculating due dates (under this policy). Items are never due on Closed Days and circulation periods may be shortened by the Period Due dates specified on the calendar chosen—if period due dates apply. If you remove a calendar that is being used by a policy, the Standard calendar automatically replaces it. All changes made (closed dates, period due dates, etc.) will be generated by Alexandria using this specific calendar.

Only Count Open Days in Loan Period

Check this box if you want the grace period to only count open days (i.e. only open days are used in determining the grace period before an overdue fine is charged). For example, if a patron returns an item after hours on the last of his grace days, fines will begin to accrue the following day, regardless if this day is Closed (e.g. a holiday or weekend) or not. In other words, this option keeps grace days from being used to cover days when the patron cannot return an item.

Apply Period Due Dates

Set up a Period Due date in the Calendars Preference window (by clicking twice on an empty calendar day). Period Due dates are fixed due dates that require items to be returned to the library, regardless of the loan period or any other circumstances. You may have as many Period Due dates as you require for your library. If you choose to apply period due dates to patrons under this policy, due dates for items are automatically adjusted during checkout. This allows items to circulate for their normal circulation period until the circulation period would extend past any period due date specified in the designated calendar. If period due dates apply, the circulation period is shortened and the due date is set to the period due in the specified calendar.

Statistics Group

Provides an alternate statistic and/or way to track groups of patron policies; for example, when policies are created, the Statistics Group option (e.g. 7th Grade) can be applied and later reported or searched.