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    Overdue fines assessed after items declared lost; LATE-RET-FINE-WHEN-LOST

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    • Article Type: General
    • Product: Aleph
    • Product Version: 20

    Description:
    A borrower from another consortium school borrowed two items during the 2010-2011 academic year. The items were not returned and notices were sent at that time. The items were never returned and currently show as "lost" in the borrower's account.

    When the borrower came to us recently to complain, she said that she had viewed her account on two occasions and seen different dollar amounts in the amount owed. When we looked at her account, it in fact showed lost item and billing fees assessed in January 2011, but it also shows overdue fines assessed *yesterday*.

    I don't understand what is happening here. If there should be overdue fines associated with these items, shouldn't those have shown up last year? Why were they added to her account just this week?

    borrower: BT5890 / 40009991151
    items: 39325000831350 and 39325000547501

    Resolution:
    This involves the abc50 tab100 LATE-RET-FINE-WHEN-LOST parameter.

    Below you can see the possible settings for this parameter from the tab100 header. Note that the default is "N". Since you haven't had any LATE-RET-FINE-WHEN-LOST entry in the tab100 file, it has been defaulting to "N", which "creates overdue fines at this point for the entire overdue period, including the period of time in which the item was declared lost."

    I believe that you want "Y", which means: "When an item is declared lost, charge any overdue fines that have been accrued up to this point of time.... Do not create any new overdue fines at this point."

    Adding LATE-RET-FINE-WHEN-LOST=Y to the abc50 tab100 and restarting the pc_server corrected the problem.

    From tab100 header:

    !# LATE-RET-FINE-WHEN-LOST
    !# Values:Y N Default: N
    !# Type: Text; Max Length: 01
    !# tab100 of library: Yes; tab100_<server_type>: No.
    !
    ! (When an item is declared Lost, lost-item charges are assessed according to the
    ! tab34 definitions. If the item is later returned, the lost-item charges are
    ! refunded according to the LOST-LOAN-CREDIT-METHOD and REFUND-RATE tab100
    ! variables policy.)
    !
    ! This LATE-RET-FINE-WHEN-LOST variable is used to set up the library's policy
    ! with regard to lost items *overdue* charges.
    !
    ! Y = When an item is declared lost, charge any overdue fines that have accrued
    ! up to that point. Do *not* create any new overdue fines after this point.
    !
    ! N = When an item is declared lost, do not charge any overdue fines that
    ! have accrued up to that point. If the item is later returned, create overdue
    ! fines for the entire overdue period, including the period of time in which the item
    ! was declared lost.

    (Note: this header wording is revised to improve its clarity. I will request that it replace the existing wording.)

    • Article last edited: 10/8/2013