Koha Tutorial Videos

Monday Minutes: Circulation Rules for Multi-Branch Systems

by Kelly McElligott on Apr 5, 2021

This is part two of a four-part series covering all things Circulation Rules in Koha. This week Jessie and Kelly cover creating a rule for a multi-branch system, cover the related system preferences and talk about Hard Due Dates.

Related System Preferences

CircControl

This system preference asks, which set of circulation rules should Koha follow if this is a multi-branch library system.

The options are:

the library the item is from

The circulation and fines policies will be determined by the item’s library where HomeOrHoldingBranch chooses if the item’s home library is used or holding library is used.

the library the patron is from

The circulation and fines policies will be determined the patron’s home library

the library the staff member is logged in at

The circulation and fines policies will be determined by the library that checked the item out to the patron

HomeorHoldingBranch

This system preference comes into play, if the system preference, CircControl, is set to the "Library the Item is From".

Then Koha needs to know, what library does it follow, either the Home Location of the item or the Holding Location of the item.

Home Location: This is the 952$a and also known as Permanent Location, where the item was created and lives most of the time.

Or should the checkout rule follow the Holding Location.

Holding Location is the location that the item is when the checkout occurs, the Holding Location. This would be the value in the 952$b.

Hard Due Dates

A library can define a hard due date for a specific patron category and item type. The hard due date offers three options:

Exactly on: The due date of any item checked out with this rule will be set to the hard due date.

For example, maybe a school's faculty patron category can check out any items for the entire semester without having to renew the item or have a due date prior to the end of the semester. This 'exactly on' would be a good option.

Before: Koha will calculate the normal loan period. If the calculated due date would be after or on the hard due date, the hard due date will be used instead.
After: Koha will calculate the normal loan period. If the calculated due date would be before the hard due date, the hard due date will be used instead.

For example, the 'before' and 'after' options that Koha allows libraries to determine loan periods but does give a date that the loan period needs to adhere to.