All materials must be linked to a material group. You can link various loan profiles to the material group, and patron groups are linked to the loan profiles. A loan profile can only be created in relation to a material group, and a patron group must be linked to the loan profile. If no patron group is linked to a loan profile, the loan profile does not apply to any patrons.
Creating material groups
- Click ”Create material group”.
- Fill in the name and, if applicable, an abbreviation and description.
- Fill in "Maximum number of loans per patron” if there should be a limit on how many loans a patron may have at a time for this material group. If the material group is marked as ”Can be booked”, the number of loans cannot be limited. Loans placed on hold and loans with unpaid replacement charges count towards the loan limit. Auto-loans and onward loans are not limited. If the patron's patron group has also set a maximum for the total number of loans, the least restrictive rule between the patron group and the material group applies - read more here: Patron groups.
- Choose whether materials in the material group can be booked:
- Fill in how many calendar days are needed for preparation.
- Choose whether there should be a limit in calendar days on how long a material from the material group can be booked.
- Note! If the material group is marked as ”Can be booked”, it is not possible to allow reservations on linked loan profiles.
- Click ”Save” to gain access to adding loan profiles to the material group.
Add loan profiles
Add loan profiles to the material group by going to the ”Loan profiles” tab and clicking "Create loan profile". The following mandatory fields must be filled in before you can click ”Save”:
- Name
- Patron groups that the loan profile applies to. This is done by clicking
and then selecting one or more patron groups in the tree. Selecting patron groups is not mandatory, but the loan profile is not put into use if one or more patron groups are not selected.
- Loan period in days or Annual return date
- Maximum number of renewals (number of times the material can be renewed)
- Renewal period in days (the period by which the loan period is extended)
- Rules for loans, interlibrary loans and reservations are toggled on/off
- Note that if there is at least one loan profile that allows reservations, it will not be possible to choose that the material group can be booked.
Shortened loan period
If "Loan period in days" is selected, a shortened loan period can also be specified, which takes effect when there are many reservations relative to the number of materials for the record in question. Materials from interlibrary loans and bookable materials are not included in the calculation. Bookable material groups cannot have a shortened loan period.
Under "Admin > General settings > Reservations per material for applying shortened loan period" you can configure whether a shortened loan period can be specified on loan profiles, as well as how many reservations per material there must be before a shortened loan period is used.
Prioritisation
If the material group has multiple loan profiles, the loan profiles can be prioritised by dragging a specific row up/down (drag and drop). A patron who belongs to multiple patron groups may be linked to multiple loan profiles on the same material group. When a patron borrows a material, the loan profile that matches the patron's patron groups and has the highest priority will be activated.
Example of prioritising loan profiles
The following describes an example of creating patron groups, material groups and loan profiles, as well as how patron groups are connected to the loan profiles. The example is based on the patron groups below, which are placed in a hierarchical structure – note the three different hierarchies in the structure below:
- All (top level)
- Libraries
- People
- Children
- Adults
When you set the prioritisation of the patron groups, it is recommended to set the innermost level of the patron group as the highest priority. In the example below, ”Adults” is prioritised as No. 1, ”Libraries” as No. 2 and ”All” as No. 3.
Three prioritised loan profiles in a material group. The system first checks whether the patron is in a patron group within priority 1, then priority 2 and finally priority 3.
The prioritisation matters in the following way:
- When you make a checkout, the system first checks whether the patron is in one of the patron groups that are in priority No. 1. If the patron is in that patron group, the patron group's loan profile takes effect. If the patron is not in that patron group, the system checks whether the patron is in the patron group that is in priority No. 2, etc.
- If a patron is not in a prioritised patron group, the system does not know the loan rules, and the material therefore cannot be loaned out. In the example below, a patron placed in the patron group ”Children” will be affected by priority No. 3 with the patron group ”All”. If this had not been there, only patrons in the patron groups ”Adults” and ”Libraries” would be able to borrow materials.
It is recommended that the loan profiles with the most specific patron groups are prioritised highest, while the more general patron rules are prioritised lowest. If, for example, the loan profile with ”All” were prioritised highest, all patrons in the groups ”Adults” and ”Libraries” would be matched by this rule.
Note that if you do not add the patron group ”All” to a loan profile in the material group, the associated materials cannot be requested via interlibrary loan.