Using Voyager Circjob 40 to Clear Fines of $4.99 or Less

On April 1, 2010, CARLI started running circjob 40 in all I-Share library databases to clear out UB fines of $4.99 or less per item. The circjob will run on the first day of the month, with a report available in your library’s ftp directory the day after. The report filename = 499_fines_xxx_yyyymm.txt [where xxx is your library’s 3-letter code].

The first run of the circjob will clean up many of the accumulated patron fines. The subsequent runs each month thereafter will result in much smaller reports.

Background

Waiving Fines [Policy re-affirmed by the [then] ILCSO Board of Directors 3/2002]
“I-SHARE library staff will waive any fine owed, with the exception of fines/fees for lost items, by another institution’s patron up to the amount of $4.99 per item. This policy is intended to prevent borrowers from being blocked due to small billing amounts and to prevent libraries from sending bills for small charges.”

The waiving of fines is currently a manual task that usually happens when libraries run reports in their databases to find them, or when patrons ask about fines that appear on their accounts. The fines are waived, via the Voyager Circulation client, on a record-by-record basis.

This work is cumbersome, and not consistently performed in all libraries’ databases. Thus, there are hundreds of small fines that persist in patrons’ records in almost all of the I-Share databases.

Specifications

Circjob 40 identifies the UB patrons whose fines may be deleted and then removes them from the individual patron records. The report created after the job runs in your database also identifies patrons whose fines will need to be cleared by library staff.

Criteria

If a UB patron has fines of $4.99 or less per item, those fines are forgivable.
If a UB patron has some fines of $4.99 or less per item and other fines of $5.00 or more, a report should be created for the library that is owed so that staff can forgive the small fines.
After the circjob runs in the database, the report contains information about:
- Fines Deleted – count of UB fines deleted/item barcode/fine amount
- Patrons with a mix of large and small fines – those $4.99 and under will need to be manually cleared by library staff

Here’s a sample report:

col: UB Patrons with All Fines under $5.00. These will be forgiven.
ROU Student, Joe                       123456789 19-MAY-08 32711001158199       $1.00
ROU Student, Joe                       123456789 18-SEP-08 32711001158199       $2.70
UIC Professor, Sue                    987654321 13-AUG-02 32711000160871       $0.90 UIU Lecturer, Bill                   11223344552 05-JAN-05 32711000005955       $1.10


col: UB Patrons with a Mix of Fines.  Fines under $5.00 should be forgiven by staff.


DOM Patron, Joan                       555555555  28-AUG-07 32711000694137       $3.99

DOM Patron, Joan 555555555 28-AUG-07 32711000694137 $10.00

NLU Undergrad, Dave                               23-OCT-02 32711000137684       $5.00

NLU Undergrad, Dave 23-OCT-02 32711000137684 $25.00 NLU Undergrad, Dave 23-OCT-02 32711000025508 $3.98

NLU Undergrad, Dave                                23-OCT-02 32711000025508       $5.00

The only reason a UB patron would have no barcode is if the barcode used to be an SSN. The Institution/Last Name/First Name should be enough to identify the stub record in the Circ client.