What is the purpose of Sum (col. 6) in tab18.eng ?

Question

In regard to expanding a lost fee schedule to include handling fees in addition to replacement costs.

Article 000043054 (see Smart link below) has a nice detailed description of lost item charges, and clearly states that amounts are *not* specified in tab18 but rather in tab34.

Is the Sum (col. 6) in tab18.eng an obsolete column, then, or does it control something else that we should be aware of?

Answer

Short Answer: Lost item charges should be defined in tab34 as tab34 allows you to specify for each item-borrower combination what charges will be assessed for each tab18 type (0040, 0041, and 0042).

Long Answer: According to the tab18.eng header: If no amounts are defined in tab34, the default amount is taken from col. 5 of tab18.eng for the 0040 [Handling - tab34, col. 7], 0041 [Replacement - tab34, col. 8], and 0042 [Notice - tab34, col. 6] transaction types.

According to the tab34 header: If the library does not define default charges in this table, the system will not have a default charge.

So it seems that there is a bit of a contradiction: tab18.eng implies that defaults for 0040, 41, and 42 can be defined there; yet tab34 implies that defaults for these values should only be defined there.

Additional Information

Article 000043054   How are Lost item charges calculated? **MASTER RECORD**

 

Category: Circulation

• Article last edited: 10/8/2013