Circulation rules in Tiny Cat

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Circulation rules in Tiny Cat

1stroudgreenschool
Jul 9, 2019, 8:45 am

I'm managing a small school library and was wondering if there's a way to restrict circulation in terms of how many books each patron is allowed to have checked out at once?

Our library rule is that a book must be returned before a new one is checked out but not everyone has been following these rules and I'm now chasing kids who have 9 overdue books on their record! If there was a way for the system to restrict the number of loans permitted it would make things much easier.

2lorannen
Jul 9, 2019, 1:31 pm

>1 stroudgreenschool: Unfortunately, there is no way to build in a limit on how many items each patron can check out in TinyCat. Here's a workaround that might help, though.

I'd recommend having your list of patrons open in another window or tab while checking items out, which you can find here: https://www.librarycat.org/admin/patrons. You can choose to view only active patrons (i.e. those who have an item currently checked out or overdue), or view all and sort by the Current > Checked out column. That way you can see if the patron you're about to check something out to already has a book checked out.

3kristilabrie
Jul 9, 2019, 1:36 pm

Great question: unfortunately, no, we don't have a setting to limit the number of items a patron can check out/place a hold on. That said, this has been requested before and I'll make note that another library would like this, for future consideration!

(You can limit the number of renewals (if any), and disable self-checkout entirely (but not patron-by-patron), but that's mostly it for limiting circulation. See your Circulation Settings for everything available: https://www.librarycat.org/admin/settings/circsettings.)

4kristilabrie
Jul 9, 2019, 1:36 pm

And lorannen beat me to it. :)

5stroudgreenschool
Jul 15, 2019, 9:51 am

Thank you both! Yes, please do make a note of this for possible future developments. In the meantime I'll try the workaround suggested.

6ChandrakirtiCentre
Oct 4, 2019, 5:50 pm

I'm putting in a request for this as well - we have a mostly self-serve library and want to automatically limit the number of books a patron can take out by themselves. Thank you!

7kristilabrie
Oct 7, 2019, 9:37 am

>6 ChandrakirtiCentre: Got it, thanks!

8wd40sw
Nov 2, 2019, 12:26 pm

>7 kristilabrie: >4 kristilabrie:

I also would like to see a feature added to set a limit to the number of books someone can check out or place on a hold.

9kristilabrie
Nov 4, 2019, 8:46 am

>8 wd40sw: Heard, thanks!

10familyresourcecentre
Editado: Nov 15, 2019, 2:07 pm

Bump! I would appreciate this feature. We have multiple volunteers that work 16 shifts to man our library, and so one may not realize that a certain patron has already borrowed the max amount of items, and before we know it they have double or triple the amount of items they would normally be allowed.

Either there could be a built-in restriction, or, at the Check Out screen when you select a patron, it can also let you know their activity at a glance:

E.g. "Smith, John. Checked Out: 2 books. Overdue: 0 books."

That would be a quick alert to the user that this patron already has items out.

11christiansonya
Ene 14, 2020, 9:09 am

Jumping in to add to the requests for this feature to limit number of items a patron can check out. My middle school students are wonderful, but it just takes that one kid to realize they could check out EVERY available book in the collection. THANKS.

12kjp692
Ene 30, 2020, 10:18 am

just adding us to the list :) This would be very helpful.

13CC-Homeschoolers
Jul 26, 2020, 9:27 pm

I just want to add that this would be a great feature. Hoping to hear of an update for this feature in the near future.

14Hayden.Canyon
Oct 1, 2020, 1:35 pm

We would also love for this feature to be added. This year the kids won't be allowed in the library and I will manually check out their reserved books and can limit how many they get. However, next year (when Covid hopefully won't be an issue) they will be allowed in the library and it will be a bit more chaotic so this feature would be so helpful (or the suggestion from familyresourcecentre above would work as well).
Thank you!!

15kristilabrie
Oct 2, 2020, 9:26 am

Noted! While I don't think we'll be adding this feature anytime soon, we are hoping to add a brief lending summary next to patrons' names on the Check in/out page (https://www.librarycat.org/admin/checkinout) which will include the # of current checkouts / holds / overdue items on their account. This should help with your limiting checkouts and/or holds once we actually get this implemented. I will make a note to notify you once we have an update on that front. I hope that helps!

In the meantime, please let me know if you have further questions or feedback.

16FBCBenbrookLibrary
Abr 17, 2021, 9:47 pm

>15 kristilabrie: Hello, our online library has just gone live. It would be very beneficial to be able to restrict the number of books checked out to patrons. If this feature has been added, please advise how to do this in TinyCat.

17kristilabrie
Abr 19, 2021, 9:41 am

>16 FBCBenbrookLibrary: Congrats on going live! Restricting # of checkouts per patron has not been implemented, but we'll be sure to announce any such change in the future. My apologies for any inconvenience in the meantime.

Let me know if there's anything else I can help with!

18kristilabrie
Editado: Ago 12, 2022, 8:21 am

Just posting an update on this thread: we have just added lending summaries (# of checkouts / # holds / # overdues) to patron information on the Check in/out page! I'll be making a new post about it in this Group, shortly, so stay tuned.

19MsMixte
Ago 11, 2022, 8:33 pm

>18 kristilabrie: So many librarians will be grateful! I don't even *have* a lending library but I think this is a fabulous update. Thank you!

20TAcademyLibrary
Feb 1, 2023, 11:55 am

I would like to add my name to the list of those requesting a checkout limit :)

21ToongabbieBaptistLib
Jun 10, 2023, 9:40 pm

>15 kristilabrie: Kristilabrie do you have any idea when this lending summary will be implemented? We would love to know if someone has overdue books before we allow them to borrow more books. For some people you know from experience that they will bring things back but other people have developed a bad habit of borrowing when they have overdue items (sometimes overdue for months or years).

22kristilabrie
Jun 12, 2023, 8:16 am

>21 ToongabbieBaptistLib: We actually did implement this feature some time ago, but it's since been removed due to a bug that still needs to get fixed. I'll remind the developers about this! Thanks for your patience in the meantime.

23kristilabrie
Jun 12, 2023, 8:44 am

(Note to self: TC tickets 294 / 541.)

24lcslionslibrary
Oct 4, 2023, 10:21 pm

Hi. I would also like to throw my hat in the ring for the feature to limit the number of books a patron has checked out. This would be immensely helpful for our school library.

Another feature to consider would be the ability to prevent a patron from checking out a book if they have an overdue book. Or, at the very least, a notification pops up that a patron has an overdue book, when checking out a book. Perhaps even an e-mail is generated.