Changing TOUs - Is it retroactive?

Question

If a TOU (Terms of Use) is changed - will existing loans operate under the new parameters or do the changes only apply to future loans?

Answer

The TOUs are calculated "on-the-fly".

This approach began in the February 2014 Release. The Release Notes say -

"The purpose of this enhancement is to calculate the terms of use (TOU) each time an activity is performed on a loaned item (such as renewal). Previously, each activity on a loaned item referred to a TOU contract that was created and stored at the time of the item’s original loan. With this enhancement, any change in a policy, terms of use, fulfillment rule, patron information, or item information will have an immediate effect on a loan's or request's terms of use."

Additional Information

One library explained this in Alma-L:

When we were training to go live we were told that the TOU is checked by Alma each time something happens with a loan.
So existing loans will operate under the old parameters until the item is renewed, recalled or returned. Any new loans will use the new TOU.


(3 December 2014)

Category: Fulfillment infrastructure - Alma

Subject: Loans - Alma

• Article last edited: 12/6/2014