Tip of the Week - #004b (Different due dates in batch checkouts to off campus borrowers)

If you are checking out a batch of real items to off campus borrowers, and not all items in the batch have the same due date, this is probably because the days closed table is impacting some of the due dates. This is most common in the holiday season. The ANNUAL CALENDAR OF DAYS CLOSED can be viewed by choosing:

Days Closed Table

To view circulation parameters in Millennium Circulation, you must be authorized for function 373 (View Circulation Parameters). To edit the Days Closed table, you must be authorized for function 374 (Edit Days Closed). If your library has enabled the Edit Protection of Circulation Parameters feature, values in the Days Closed table might be protected from editing by library staff at other Locations Served.

The system assumes that every library location is open every day unless you indicate otherwise in the Days Closed table. For each location, you can enter into this table:

  • one or more days of the week on which it is regularly closed, and
  • one or more specific dates during the year on which it will be closed.

You cannot enter a specific year. For example, if you key "01/06" into the table, the system will assume you mean the library will be closed on the next occurrence of January 6. If the current year is 2003, and you key "01/06" on January 5, the system assumes you mean the library is closed the next day. If you key "01/06" on January 7, the system assumes you mean January 6, 2004. If necessary, library staff must wait to input the closed date to ensure the Days Closed table contains the correct date.

To access the Days Closed table, choose Admin | Parameters | Circulation | Days Closed. The Days Closed table appears as:

days closed table

Opening the entry highlighted above brings up the Edit table:

edit table

The Days Closed table can contain a maximum of 1,500 lines.

The system reads the Days Closed table from the bottom to the top. Therefore, generalized entries (those that use wildcards for the Location field) should appear higher up in the table than more specific entries.

The system does not include days that the library is closed when it calculates the number of days that an item can remain on the holdshelf.

The examples in this manual typically show an MM-DD-YY or MM-DD-YYYY date format. However, you should enter dates in the format that your system is set up to accept.

If the Fines/Bills: Charge fines for days closed circulation option is set to "NO," removing a "day closed" date from the Days Closed table may affect overdue fines. Staff should evaluate when to remove dates from the Days Closed table based on local billing and fine cycles.

Location

The Location value that corresponds to the branch location or the Locations Served. The "wildcard" code ????? tells the system to apply the Day Closed value to all locations. You may enter an asterisk to truncate the code (e.g., sci* represents any code that begins with "sci"). However, asterisks can appear only at the end of the code (e.g., *sci is not allowed).

Day Closed

Represents a specific calendar date or a day each week that the location is closed. Enter each Day Closed value as a separate entry for its Location in the following format:

Calendar Date

Enter in the MM/DD or DD/MM format, depending on the date format used by your system. The month and day may be one or two digits each and may be separated by a slash '/' or a hyphen '-'. For example, an entry could appear as 2/12 or 02-12.

Day of the Week

Enter one of the following three-character codes in UPPERCASE or lowercase: sun mon tue wed thu fri sat
For example, an entry could appear as sun or SUN