How do I change my loan periods?
Answer
A loan period is configured by creating an advanced policies, adding those advanced policies to a TOU, and then using a fulfillment unit loan rule to apply that TOU. Editing advanced item policies, TOUs, and fulfillment unit loan rules will only effect future loans. If you need to update your loan period for item already on loan, you can run the Bulk Change Due Dates job. You will need the Fulfillment Administrator role to do any of this work.
Note: All advanced item policy, TOU, and fulfillment unit loan rule configuration should be done at the Institution level. This FAQ details only settings related to loan periods and renewals. If you need to configure other loan policies, please see the Ex Libris documentation on Fulfillment Units.
Note: You will need to create advanced policies for both Due Date and Maximum Renewal Period (if you want to allow renewals). An Is Renewable advanced policy that allows renewals should already be configured for you.
1. Go to Configuration | Fulfillment | Physical Fulfillment | Advanced Policy Configuration
2. Click the Add Fulfillment Policy link.
3. Select Due Date from the Choose Policy Type list and then click the Next button.
4. Give the advanced policy a name in the Policy Name field, and enter a description into the Policy Description field. If you want your loan period to be based on an event in your library calendar, keep the Value Type set to Fixed and then select the calendar event from the Value dropdown. If you want your loan period to be a set number of days, change the Value Type to Variable, enter the number of days for your loan period into the Value field, and select Days from the Unit of Measurement dropdown. Once you are finished configuring your loan period, click the Save button.
5. Click the Add Fulfillment Policy button again, select Maximum Renewal Period from the Choose Policy Type list, and then click the Next button.
6. Give the advanced policy a name in the Policy Name field, and enter a description into the Policy Description field. Change the Value Type to Other, enter the number of days for your renewal period in the Value field, select Days from the Unit of Measurement dropdown, and then click the Save button.
1. Go to Configuration | Fulfillment | Physical Fulfillment | Terms of Use and Policies
2. Click the Add Terms of Use link.
3. Select Loan from the Choose Terms of Use Type list and then click the Next button.
4. Select Loanable from the Is Loanable dropdown, select the Due Date policy you just created from the Due Date dropdown, select Renewable from the Is Renewable dropdown, select the Maximum Renewal Period policy you just created from the Maximum Renewal Period dropdown, and then click Next.
5. Review the TOU settings and then click the Save button.
Creating Fulfillment Unit Loan Rules
1. Go to Configuration | Fulfillment | Physical Fulfillment | Fulfillment Units
2. Click the ellipsis next to your first open stacks Fulfillment Unit and then click the Edit link.
3. Click the Fulfillment Unit Rules tab, make sure Loan is selected from the Rule Type dropdown, and then click the Add Rule tab.
4. Give the Loan rule a name in the Policy Name field, and enter a description into the Policy Description field.
5. If you need to limit how this Loan rule is applied, click the Add Parameter link, select what you want to limit by (Location, Material Type, User Group, etc.), select an operator (equals, contains, in list, etc.) from the Operator dropdown, select specific values from the Values dropdown, and then click the Add Parameter button.
6. Select the TOU you created from the Terms of Use dropdown and then click the save button.
7. The Loan rule you created will be added to the bottom of the Loan fulfillment unit rules list, Fulfillment unit rules are applied in the order from top to bottom, so you will need to use the Move Up arrow next to the rule to move it above any conflicting Loan rules. Once the Loan rule you created has been moved to the necessary position in the Loan rules list, click the save button.
Running the Bulk Due Date Change Job
Note: Before running this job, be sure to go to Configuration | Fulfillment | General | Other Settings and check the overdue_at_change_due_date setting. If that setting is true, fines will be applied for loans that are overdue at the time the job is run. If that setting is false, fines will not be applied for loans that are overdue at the time the job is run.
1. From the main Alma page, go to Fulfillment | Advanced Tools | Bulk Change Due Dates
2. Use the Library, Location, Material Type, and User Group drop downs to limit the due dates that will be changed. If you leave a field empty, no limit will be applied for that field.
3. Define the rage of due dates you'd like to change by entering values into the From Due Date and To Do Date fields. If necessary, add due times to the At(HH:MM) fields. If those fields are left blank, the From Due Date time will be set to 00:00 and the To Due Date time will be set to 23:59.
4. Define the new due date by entering a value into the New Due Date field. If the At(HH:MM) field is left blank, the due d=time will be set to that day's closing time.
5. Click the Change Bulk Due Date button.
Note: In the example above, all books on loan to Faculty/Staff from the Cayan Library's Circulating Collection with due dates from 3/16/20 to 4/30/20 will have their due dates changed to 6/1/2020.