Lending

• Loan Period — are set system wide, but can be assigned by the library at the item record level. Options are: 1 hr, 4 hr, 1 day, 3 day, 7 day, 14 day, 21 day, and 28 day. (21 days is the standard for most loans)
  
• Patron and Material Type Loan Limits — Defines loan and request limit blocks based on combinations of patron codes and material types. Some flexibility is designed within these limits as shown below. Please submit a ticket to add or adjust limits.
  • Total # of Materials allowed: Unlimited, 5, 10, 20, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50
  • Total # of Holds (local & MILS) – up to a maximum of 15
  • Total # of ILLs (MaineCat holds) – up to a maximum of 15
  • # of Intra-MILS and MaineCat holds at 1x: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, or 15
  • Max amount owed before circulation is blocked: $0, $5, $10, $15, $20, or $25

Patrons

All patron records should have as complete and accurate information as possible. The following are considered 

• Primary Fields:
  • Full name, with middle initial, if applicable
  • Phone Number, with area code
  • Email address
  • Current mailing address

• Secondary Fields (optional):
  • Birth date
  • License Number
    
• Prohibited:  Collection of Patron’s Social Security Number
  
• All Patron records must expire after one year.  Inactive patron records are required to be purged from the system after five years, with the exception of patrons with billed items on their record.
  
• The check address date should be set to 12/31/2099 to avoid being prompted to check the address in addition to the patron expiration. Only one is needed, but due to system limitations the check address date will prompt unless set to a future date.

Fines

• Fines — For those libraries who charge fines, the option of .05, .10, .20, or $1 fines are available. This is now defined from within the item record using the Fine Code field.
  
• Maximum fine cap — per item is $5.00.
  
• Lost items — generate a fine when returned, which is a max fine of $5.00.

Renewal Periods:

• This can be defined at the item record level. However, the system guideline is 1 renewal. If more than 1 renewal is selected, then this will also apply to any interlibrary loan transactions, so is not recommended in order to maintain consistency and avoid confusion.
  
• Renewals are for the same time period as the Loan Period (i.e. 28 day Loan Period with a Renewal Limit of 1 will allow the due date to extend one time for another 28 days if no holds are present).

Notices

• Email subjects are generic and system-wide
• Text of circulation notices includes:  overdue, bill, hold pickup/cancellation, etc. are generic and system-wide.

Overdues/Billing:

• Grace day — One day of grace is configured into the lending period for overdue materials.
  
• Overdue notices — Two overdue notices are sent to patrons: the first notices is sent on the 5th day overdue and the second notice is sent on the 10th day overdue.
  
• Bill notice — One bill notice is sent to patrons on the 20th day overdue.

Requesting and Interlibrary Loan

• Requests — up to 15 requests at a time can be placed on a patron account depending on the patron blocks requested by the library.
  
• Lending within MILS is determined by the loan period in the item record. However, the standard for books and audiobooks is 21 days with a couple grandfathered libraries that use 14 day or 28 day loan periods. Having a standard loan period for helps provide consistency for patrons when requesting in MILS or from MaineCat. There are some materials (e.g. DVDs, Music CDs, periodicals, etc.) that circulate using other loan periods and is determined by the owning library.
  
• Please refer to the MaineCat policies page for up to date loan periods and information relating to MaineCat transactions between libraries.

Requirements

• MaineCat requesting and contributing is required of all member libraries with the
  exception of non-circulating materials or collections provided under specific restrictions. New items may be hidden from MaineCat for a period up to 3 months, but then must be contributed after that time. MIN staff will update items following the MaineCat Embargo Process guidelines.
  
• Open lending within MILS is also required of all members, with the following exceptions:
  • Items needed locally in support of a specific, time-limited program or activity may be exempted.
  • Items that are part of traveling deposit collections may be exempted.
  • Items that are not owned by the library itself may be exempted.
  • Items such as equipment, museum passes, and other nontraditional library
    material or material that is not suitable for delivery (too big, too fragile, etc) may be exempted with the approval of the User’s Group.
  • Items required by grant or funds to be local-use only may be exempted with the approval of the User’s Group.
  • Items on course reserve may be exempted from request during the period the course is offered.

Limitations

The following functions are not available in the MILS Polaris system:

• Serials
• Acquisitions