Data Requirements for Circulation Calendars (Circulation Policy Set)
General notes
1. Assumes system has a calendaring function that allows it to know today’s date and time.
2. Assumes use of AM/PM, NOT military time.
3. Assumes use of whatever OLE system parameter controls date and time format (if such
exists). Examples below use “mm/dd/yyyy” and “hh/mm”—typical in U.S. libraries.
4. Each Circulation Desk may have its own calendar or share a calendar with other
Circulation Desks. Identifying the appropriate calendar needs to be added to Rice Main
Menu>Deliver>Circulation Desk.
5. Time is ALWAYS local time.
6. Assumes that most Circulation Desks will establish a calendar without an End Date so
that calendar will be used indefinitely. As such,open/close times and/or Exception Days
and/or Exception Periods s may be changed (or new ones added) at any time
7. Assumes that it is the responsibility of staff to update a calendar as needed, e.g., an
established Exception Period (e.g., “Spring Break”) or certain Exception Days (e.g.,
Labor Day) will have different begin/end dates each year
8. There is nothing to prevent a library from creating a sequence of calendars to cover a
standard period of time (e.g., four calendars for four academic quarters per year).
However, the library will then to need to manually change the calendar for any affected
Circulation Desk.
9. Business logic for calculating due dates, fines, etc. utilizes a Circulation Calendar. That
code needs to be reviewed to make sure it now references a calendar.
Data
Calendar #
Calendar
Description
Begin/end dates
Each day of
week
Open time
AM/PM
Close time
AM/PM
Exception day
description
Exception day
date
Open time
AM/PM
Close time
Notes
System-assigned unique ID
Free text
mm/dd/yyyy-mm/dd/yyyy System should validate that End Date is same or
later than Begin Date; End Date can be blank/null meaning that it is in effect
indefinitely. Characters: numbers/slash only.
Monday-Sunday
hh/mm for each day. Blank/null means closed the entire day.
Select one (n/a if open time is blank/null)
hh/mm for each day. Value can be a time of the following day, e.g., 1:00
AM). Blank/null means closed the entire day.
Select one (n/a if close time is blank/null)
Repeatable; e.g., “July 4th”, “Labor Day”, etc.
Enter mm/dd/yyyy. [To account for unexpected closures, an Exception day
date can be a past date.]
hh/mm Blank/null means closed the entire day.
Select one (n/a if open time is blank/null)
hh/mm n/a if open time is blank/null
AM/PM
Exception period
descriptions
Exception Period
begin/end dates
Each day of
week
Open time
AM/PM
Close time
AM/PM
Create date
Update date
Operator ID
Select one (n/a if close time is blank/null)
Repeatable; e.g., “Spring Break”, “Summer Interim”, etc.
mm/dd/yyyy-mm/dd/yyyy System should validate that End Date is same or
later than Begin Date. Exception Period MUST have an End Date.
Numbers/slash only. [To account for unexpected closures, Exception Period
begin/end dates can be past dates.]
Monday-Sunday
hh/mm for each day. Blank/null means closed the entire day.
Select one (n/a if open time is blank/null)
hh/mm for each day. Value can be a time of the following day, e.g., 1:00
AM). Blank/null means closed the entire day.
Select one (n/a if close time is blank/null)
Save only the last update date
Save only the last operator who created/updated