Circulation Desks
Overview
Circulation desks are the basic work locations where operators circulate items to patrons, check
in items, hold items to give to patrons, and help patrons by creating requests.
Each location is linked to one or more circulation desks who loan its items.
Each location is shelved by a single circulation desk. This is the location’s “Home Circulation
Desk.”
Each user can have one or more circulation desks where they can work. If they have more than
one circulation desk, they will be able to change from one circulation desk to another to indicate
where they are.
Circulation desks are separated out from the loan, return and other specs because they form part
of the infrastructure for the loans.
Circulation desks and permissions
Each permission related to circulation will be parameterized by circulation desk. For instance,
the “Loan Item” permission will have an attribute containing the circulation desks that the
permission applies to.
When administrators create circulation desks, they will also have to create the appropriate
permissions for the circulation desks, and link them to roles. Administrators will likely have to
create roles as well.
Circulation desks and operators
The operator must be at a circulation desk to perform any circulation action. If the operator is not
at a circulation desk, OLE will ask the operator to change work location before performing any
circulation action.
As noted above, OLE will use the permissions system to manage the circulation desks that an
operator can use.
In addition, each operator will have a default circulation desk. The default circulation desk will
be managed as part of the operator preferences.
Whenever an operator logs in to OLE they will be at their default location.
When an operator changes location during a session the change will persist for the rest of the
session. The next time the operator logs in OLE will put them in their default location.
Circulation Desks
Circulation desks in the user interface
All actions that take place at a circulation desk will display the circulation desk in their UI in a
consistent location next to the operator name. Other actions that are not related to direct
circulation activities will not show the name of the circulation desk.
If the operator clicks the name of the circulation desk, OLE will allow the operator to choose a
different circulation desk from all the circulation desks that the operator has permission to use at
all. As noted above, changing the circulation desk will only persist until the end of the session.
Circulation Desks, home circulation desks, and loan relationships
There are a variety of functional relationships between items, patrons, locations and circulation
desks.
The functional rules OLE should enforce are:
Loans
1. Circulation desks normally loan items that are shelved in a subset of the locations in the
system.
2. When a circulation desk loans an item that is shelved in one of its own locations, OLE
will not generate a warning or message.
3. If a circ desk tries to loan an item shelved in a different location, OLE should block the
loan, notify the operator, and allow the operator to override the loan.
4. In some cases, such as when an item is coming from the hold shelf, libraries may want
OLE to loan a foreign item without an override.
Check-ins
1. Circulation desks normally check in items that are shelved for a subset of the shelving
locations in the system.
2. When a circulation desk checks in an item for reshelving that is shelved in one of its own
locations, OLE will assume the item is being shelved by the check-in circulation desk and
not generate a warning or message.
3. If a circulation desk checks in an item that should be shelved by another circulation desk,
OLE will interrupt the check-in process, display a routing message, and optionally print a
routing slip. The routing slip will print if the check-in rules determine that OLE should
print it. Normally circulation desks print routing slips but some choose not to.
The loan and check-in relationships between circulation desks and shelving locations can be
different--for instance it will be possible to loan an item from a circulation desk, but not shelve it
Circulation Desks
there. As a general rule it’s possible to loan an item at multiple circulation desks, but only shelve
it at a single one.
Managing circulation desk and location relationships
The circulation desk and shelving location relationships will be managed using KRMS rules. As
part of the loan and check-in process, OLE tests for various conditions, presents messages, and
allows overrides.
For loans, the KRMS rule that determines whether an item is available for loan will also
determine whether it can be loaned at the current circulation desk.
For check-ins, the KRMS rule that determines what to do with the item will also determine
whether it is at its shelving circulation desk.
In most cases, both rules will compare the item’s location with the active circulation desk to
determine what to do. The check-in rules will also have to determine the shelving circulation
desk for items that don’t belong to the active circulation desk. Those requirements imply that the
relationships between locations and circulation desks will be encoded in the rules.
Views and maintenance document UI, permissions and roles.
Circulation desks will be created using an ordinary OLE maintenance document. Circulation
desks will have a code and a description and an active/inactive setting.
The description will be used in the user interface for display.
The maintenance documents will not route, and will have basic maintenance document
permissions.
OLE will establish circulation desk viewer and administrator roles. The viewer will be able to
search and view, but not create maintenance documents for circulation desks. The administrator
will be able to create and submit maintenance documents.
Future work
1. Calendar support. As written, the spec assumes that calendars of service hours for each
library and circulation desk are expressed in the loan rules. The concept is that the service
hours are important for calculating loan periods, and the loan periods are calculated in the
loan rules, so the calendar periods should be part of the rules. Legacy systems assign
working hours to each circulation desk or policy group and use them when calculating
loan periods. Editing the working hours automatically changes circulation policies. This
makes the service hours very explicit.