Assign an Item Policy to a Copy

Settings

Item Policy Short Code

This is the item Policy Short Code you provided when adding the patron policy; for example, if the Policy Name is “Fiction”, you might provide “FIC” as the Policy Short Code name. Look for this item Policy Short Code on reports such as the Super Summary for statistics on items of this policy.

Loan Fee

If your library charges your patrons a fee for checking out an item type (i.e. renting), this is the field where you specify the fee amount for items using this policy. This fee is charged automatically when the item is checked out. The fee is recorded as “Loan Fee for {item title}”. Default is $0.00. For example, a public library may “rent” a DVD or Blu-ray player; their policy might have a set loan fee amount of $10.00 so that anyone checking out a DVD player is charged $10.00 automatically.

Default Replacement / Purchase Cost

Set the default (average) replacement and purchase cost for items using this policy. This is the amount charged to a patron when an item is lost, never returned, or irrecoverably damaged and the item doesn't have an individual Purchase Cost and/or Replacement Cost specified in the Copy Information preferences (where these amounts can be modified at any time). Your Fines limited by item cost policy preference (see Overdue preferences) determines whether Overdue fines are allowed to exceed the Default Replacement / Purchase Cost value. This policy saves time by automatically supplying a default Purchase and Replacement Cost when adding an item (either manually or by import) to your collection; these values are automatically entered so that certain collection reports will provide some worth for your items. Default is $20.00.

Maximum Renewals for Item

Set the number of times that the same item, under this policy, can be renewed. If you don't allow items to be renewed, set the number to 0. If a patron tries to renew an item that has already been renewed the maximum number of times, a warning message will appear on the Circulation window indicating that the patron has exceeded the policy limit for renewals. An operator with the appropriate security level can override the resulting alert window and allow checkout regardless.

Hard Due Date

Using this policy, you can set a fixed due date on which all items (i.e. everything) are required back to your school or library, regardless of the number of days an item can be loaned. Generally, this date is set for equipment checked out to classrooms, test preparation materials (e.g. ACT, SAT, AP), textbooks, the end of a school year or semester, or quarter changes. If the date entered here is after today's date, it is used as your due date. Otherwise, Alexandria computes a due date according to other policy settings. When you enter any type of specially-formatted information such as dates you can enter values in a wide range of formats. For example, you can enter the date December 1, 2010 as: “Dec 1, 2010” or “12/1/10” or “12.1.10” or “12 1 10”. If using the current year, you can just enter “12/1”. If the current month is December, you can just enter “1”.

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

Transaction Period

This field (and corresponding drop-down menus) allows you to specify the number of minutes, hours, days, or weeks (under this policy) that items can be loaned; i.e. the number of calendar days used to calculate a due date. For example, if you would like a loan period of two weeks, enter either 14 Days or 2 Weeks. A setting of 0 means that items can never be checked out or taken from the library; essentially a No Loan Period. Also, you have the option of easily setting the loan period as Same Day Check Out, meaning that items are due back the same day that they were checked out. Items, however, will never be due on a Closed date. If the library is closed and there is not a Period Due date specified in the near future, the due date will be advanced to the next open date.

Settings

Fine Rate (Days)

Set the fine rate that is charged to the patron for every day that the item is overdue (under this policy). The fine rate is computed daily. If you don't charge fines, enter $0.00.

Grace Period (Days)

Specify the number of days this item type can be borrowed past its loan period before fines begin to accrue. For example, if you set the grace period for two days, patrons are not charged fines until the third calendar day an item is overdue. At this point, they are charged fines for three overdue days. Unless Only Count Open Days is checked, it doesn't matter if the library is open or closed on those days, the grace period is only computed on calendar days. For easy check-in, set the grace period one day longer than your commonly closed periods. For example, if you are commonly closed on Saturday and Sunday, set the grace period for three days. Therefore, if the book is due on Friday, and it's turned in through the bookdrop on Saturday, when you check it in on Monday, no fines will be charged.

By default, days on which the library is closed do not count against the Grace Period. Use this preference to reverse that policy.

Fines Accrue During Grace Period

By default, we do not charge fines for overdue items during the Grace Period. Use this preference to reverse that policy.

Declare Lost When Overdue (Days)