Managing policies

This is the how-to companion to the Policies concept, which explains the three-layer model: library defaults, an optional patron override (a faculty override for faculty, a grade-level override for students), and an optional per-item cap. Read that first if the resolution order is new to you; this page covers the clicks, and Circulation policy settings lists every setting with its shipped value and range.

Everything lives on one page: Library level navigation path: Configure then Policies. The card: Defaults card sits at the top, and the overrides follow below it on the same page: card: Faculty Overrides, card: Grade-Level Overrides, and card: Item Policies.

Editing policies is a library-manager action. All other staff can open the screen: Policies page but cannot make changes.

Library defaults

The base layer that applies to everyone. In the staff app it’s the card: Defaults section at the top of Library level navigation path: Configure then Policies; button: Edit opens the dialog: Edit Library Defaults dialog, which holds five numbers — setting: Loan period, setting: Pickup window, setting: Loan limit, setting: Hold limit, and setting: Renewal limit — plus the loan-and-hold rules further down.

Every default is required; there’s no blank “unlimited” option here. Circulation policy settings gives each one’s meaning, shipped default, and minimum, and covers the loan and hold rules in the same dialog — the due-date ceiling, the weekend-and-holiday roll, and the two deny toggles.

The one choice worth making deliberately here is the loan period unit, set with the dropdown next to setting: Loan period: school days counts only days the library is open, so a due date never lands on a closed day; calendar days adds the period directly. See School days vs. calendar days.

Faculty, grade-level, and item policies layer on top of these; the Policies concept covers how the layers resolve.

Faculty overrides

One set of optional limits applied to every faculty patron, there’s no per-faculty-member policy and nothing to assign. In the card: Faculty Overrides card of Library level navigation path: Configure then Policies.

Select button: Edit to open the dialog: Edit Faculty Overrides dialog.
For each limit you want faculty to have their own value for, select the value beside it, type the number, and click away. Limits you leave alone inherit the library default.
Select button: Save.

The card groups the five fields under Limits and Periods, lined up under the same groups in card: Defaults. Each row shows its effective value and whether it’s status: customized or falling back to the status: default, so you can see at a glance where faculty differ. To drop a field back to the library default, select its value in the dialog and then button: Reset. The fields are the same five as a grade-level override, but there’s no name and no grade picker, the override applies to all faculty.

Grade-level overrides

An optional override for a band of grades, students only. In the card: Grade-Level Overrides card of Library level navigation path: Configure then Policies.

Select button: New grade-level override.
Enter a field: Name.
Assign grades with the field: Grades chips. Pick at least one; an override with no grades applies to nobody.
For each limit you want to differ from the library default, select its value and type the number.
Select button: Create override.

A grade belongs to one grade-level override at a time. If you pick a grade that’s already assigned to another override, selecting it here reassigns it to this one. If that takes the other override’s last grade, the other override is deleted when you save, and the dialog warns you before you do. To change an override, open its row’s row action: ⋯ menu and choose menu item: Edit override…; the dialog pre-populates its currently-assigned grades as selected chips, so you can add a grade or deselect one and select button: Save override. At least one grade has to stay selected; to retire an override, delete it.

Delete a grade-level override with menu item: Delete override on the same menu.

Item policies

An optional cap carried by an item, it can shorten the loan or pickup window, change the renewal cap, and opt out of the patron’s loan limit. In the card: Item Policies card of Library level navigation path: Configure then Policies.

Select button: New item policy.
Enter a field: Policy name.
Each cap starts unlimited. To set one, select its value and type a number, for example a shorter setting: Loan period for high-demand material.
Optionally check setting: Ignore loan limit, which lets items on this policy bypass the patron’s loan limit (useful for class sets and equipment a teacher checks out in bulk).
Select button: Next.
Optionally pick items in field: Items, then select button: Create policy.

menu item: Edit policy… on the row’s row action: ⋯ menu lets you change every cap, turn setting: Ignore loan limit on or off, and rename the policy; button: Save policy commits it. Selecting a cap’s value and then button: Reset returns that cap to unlimited. menu item: Delete policy is on the same menu.

Assigning an item policy to items

An item policy does nothing until it’s attached to items. Four ways:

From an item. On the item page, select button: Change on the card: Circulation Policy card, or choose menu item: Change item policy… from the button: Actions menu. Either opens dialog: Set Item Policy; setting field: Item policy back to Library defaults removes the policy.
From the items list, in bulk. Select items on navigation path: Catalog then Items and choose button: Set policy in the selection band. To change every item a filter matches, select all matching first. Choosing Library defaults in field: Item policy removes the policy from the selected items.
From an item row. A single item’s row action row action: Change item policy… sets or removes its policy the same way.
From the policy, in bulk. A policy’s row row action: ⋯ ▸ menu item: Add items… opens dialog: Add Items, which searches the catalog and assigns the items you choose. Each result shows the policy the item currently carries; because an item holds only one policy at a time, adding it here moves it from any prior policy.

The dialog: New Item Policy dialog also has a second step for adding items at creation time, and a policy’s row row action: ⋯ ▸ menu item: View items with this policy jumps to the filtered catalog (the same destination as clicking the policy name).

Jumping from a policy to what it affects

The policy pages double as navigation:

An item policy name links to the items list filtered to the items carrying that policy, so you can see exactly what it governs.
An assigned grade on a grade-level override links to the Patrons list filtered to that grade.