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Tip for February 4, 2019

You may have seen a date appear at the top of the Circulation window to the right of the command line. It may be today’s date. It may not be. It could be a date in the past or a date in the future. So… what it is?

Circulation


That is the Override Date. You can enter an Override Date by typing a period (.) and the date, for example to set the date to March 24, 2019, type .3/22/19 or .032219. Voila!

Override dates are mostly useful for setting due dates; in fact, Command Help lists the (.) command as Set Due Date. Here are a few things you can do with it:

  • Type .date patron-barcode (e.g. .032219 1001) to make all of that patron’s items due on that date.
  • Type .date item-barcode (e.g. .032219 130923) to make that item due on that date.

It’s so much faster than pulling up the patron, going to Renewals, and selecting Set Due Date.


When you enter the override date with a barcode, it will only set the override date for that transaction, not for all of Circulation. So to perform Circulation actions for multiple items at a set due date, use .date to set the override date, then perform the checkouts or renewals.

For example, patrons come to you to check out books a week before Spring break. Okay, that’s great, but if they take the books now, they would need them for longer than the normal checkout period so they don't fall due during break. Instead, you could check them out with a special due date of after break. Alternatively, if you don't want them to keep the books over break, you could check them out with a special due date that falls before break.


You can clear override dates by simply typing period (.) <enter> in the command line.

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