Chapter 21. Borrowing items: who, what, for how long

Table of Contents

Data elements that affect your circulation policies
Copy data
Copy Locations
User Permission Group
Circulation Rules
Circulation Limit Sets
Creating Circulation Policies
Best practices for creating policies
Settings Relevant to Circulation

Circulation policies pull together user, library, and item data to determine how library materials circulate, such as: which patrons, from what libraries can borrow what types of materials, for how long, and with what overdue fines.

Individual elements of the circulation policies are configured using specific interfaces, and should be configured prior to setting up the circulation policies.

Data elements that affect your circulation policies

There are a few data elements which must be considered when setting up your circulation policies.

Copy data

Several fields set via the copy editor are commonly used to affect the circulation of an item.

  • Circulation modifier - Circulation modifiers are fields used to control circulation policies on specific groups of items. They can be added to copies during the cataloging process. New circulation modifiers can be created in the staff client by navigating to Admin > Server Administration > Circulation Modifiers.
  • Circulate? flag - The circulate? flag in the copy editor can be set to False to disallow an item from circulating.
  • Reference? flag - The reference? flag in the copy editor can also be used as a data element in circulation policies.

Copy Locations

  • To get to the Copy Locations Editor, navigate to Admin > Local Administration > Copy Locations Editor.
  • When setting up copy locations for your library you can set an entire copy location to allow or disallow circulation.
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  • Copy locations can also be used as a data element in circulation policies.

User Permission Group

  • The user permission group is also commonly used as a data element in circulation policies.
  • Other user data that can be used for circulation policies include the juvenile flag in the user record.