[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Question regarding circulation policies

[Deana Cunningham]

Hello again,

We have a mishmash of circulation policies due primarily to my ignorance when we suddenly went live without a circ policy in sight! I ended up creating them "on the fly" as they were needed, and now I have a problem with items not charging the correct fines. The only place I've noticed it so far is with staff accounts, and we are all aware that Evergreen is charging staff fines when it shouldn't be, so we correct them as we go. What I am more concerned about is the patrons, who haven't got a clue whether we are over- or undercharging them.

Anyway, my question is in regards to the hierarchy of policies. If there is a policy set at the "Users" level, does that policy supersede the "Patron" level policy? Common sense tells me that the lower level ("Patron", in this example) should supersede "Users", but I am just not sure.

I am also in a bit of a conundrum about how to change circ policies with items currently circulating. We are getting a test server set up so I can try some things, but I'm not ever sure how I would tell what the ramifications are unless I set up fake checkouts on the test server for every type of item/patron combination, then change the circ policies and see what impact that has on current checkouts. Other areas of Evergreen seem to hold with the information available at the time of the transaction (i.e. if a book is checked out today with a circ policy that says it charges .15/day late fees, then tomorrow the policy is changed to .10/day late fees, the item will still be charged .15/day as that was the rule in place when it was checked out). Am I right about this?

Thanks!

Deana

Deana Cunningham
Branch Manager, South Branch Library
1550 S. Campus Dr.
Creedmoor, NC 27522
Phone: (919) 528-1752
Fax: (919) 528-1376
deana.cunningham at granvillecounty.org
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