Koha Question of the Week: What are the Options for Calculating the Beginning of a Renewal Period?

by Hebah Amin-Headley on Jul 14, 2023

Each Friday, we will bring you a new Koha Question of the Week. We will select real questions that we receive and share the answers with you!

Question: What are the Options for Calculating the Beginning of a Renewal Period?

Answer:

Pop quiz time: a patron comes up to the desk asking to renew a book. You renew it; the duration of that checkout is clearly set in your circulation rules, but when does that renewal period begin? The answer to that lives in the system preference RenewalPeriodBase.

The two options for that preference are "When renewing checkouts, base the new due date on the old due date of the checkout" or "...base the new due date on the current date."

This preference doesn't have an obvious "right" answer, depending on library policy. If libraries want to make sure patrons have the longest possible duration of initial checkout + allowed renewals, selecting the old due date of the checkout will accomplish that but may have unexpected due dates if an item is accidentally renewed twice in rapid succession since each renewal will stack on the new due date. Basing the renewal period on current date more closely mirrors checkout due date calculation, but may "lose" a patron a few days if they choose to renew something a few days before the due date.

Additional Resources

Monday Minutes: Circulation Rules