Circulation Rules and Calendar

Planning Your Circulation Rules

In Surpass Cloud you can set circulation rules for the loan period, fines, and any grace period before fines begin to accrue. These rules can be based on location, categories or resource collections, and patron types or groups. The first circulation rule that you create will be your "master rule" that applies to all locations, resources, and patrons. You'll want this rule to reflect how the majority of circulation transactions will be conducted. Then you'll create additional rules to reflect any exceptions to the master rule.

When it comes to planning your circulation rules, there are a number of questions that need to be answered:

• What will the normal circulation period be?
  Identify the length of time that a normal patron is allowed to check out a normal item.
  
  

• What will the normal fine per day amount on overdue items be?
  Identify the per-day fine (if any) assessed on normally checked out items that are overdue.
  
  

• Will we allow any grace period before fines begin to accrue?
  Some libraries prefer to allow a grace period before overdue fines begin to accrue. You can also choose whether or not overdue fines are assessed retroactively after the grace period has passed.
  
  

• What resources in our collection need special restrictions or allowances?
  You can create rules for groups of resources in your collection, either by category or for a specific resource collection.
  
  

• What patrons of our library need special restrictions or allowances?
  You can create rules for sets of patrons, either by patron type or for a specific patron group.
  
  

• Do these special restrictions or allowances apply distinctly at any branch locations of our library?
  For multi-location libraries, you can create rules that apply only to a particular location.

Once these questions are answered to your satisfaction, you're ready to actually define your circulation rules. This is done on the Settings : Circulation : Rules page. You'll first define a master rule that will apply to all normal circumstances – the first three questions listed above will help you determine what your master rule will be. Then, you'll create additional rules that represent any exceptions to the master rule. The last three questions above will help you determine what additional circulation rules you need.

Planning Your Calendar

In addition to planning your circulation rules, you'll also need to plan your calendar. This essentially means to define days that your library is closed so that neither resources will be due nor fines will be assessed on those days. There are three questions which relate to your calendar that need to be answered:

• On which days of the week will our library be closed?
  For most libraries, this means over the weekends – Saturday and Sunday. For some public and most religious libraries, though, this will need adjustment.
  
  

• On which holidays will our library be closed?
  This is actually a task that needs to be planned from the start, but which is also ongoing. You'll need to set individual holidays on the calendar in Surpass now, and also in the future.
  
  

• Will our library have a final due date each year when all library resources will be due?
  This is most appropriate for school libraries. Most school libraries will set this date to fall slightly in advance of the end of the school year. Final due dates can also be set for individual patron types.
  
  

• Will our calendar be different at any branch locations of our library?
  For multi-location libraries, you'll be able to either make all calendar settings globally or set exceptions by location.

When you are ready to set up your calendar, you can do so on the Settings : Circulation : Calendar page. Final due dates are set on the Settings : Circulation : Final Due Dates page.