SWITCHING FROM

FINES

TO PENALTY POINTS

CH

AR

L OTT

E S

CH

OO

L O

F L

AW

– I

UG

20

15

OVERDUE “PENALTY POINTS” VS. FINES

When a patron is

blocked, this means they

can no longer:

Check out

items

Renew

items

Place holds

OVERDUE “PENALTY POINTS” VS. FINESOH NO… I’M BLOCKED!

When a patron is

blocked, this means they

can no longer:

Check out

items

Renew

items

Place holds

OH NO… I’M BLOCKED!CALCULATE ME

Joe Law checks out 1 study aid and 1 DVD and is 6 days late returning both items. First overdue item (study aid):

6 days overdue x 3 points per day = 18 points Second overdue item (DVD):

6 days overdue x 3 points per day = 18 points Total points:

18 points + 18 points = 36 points Divided by highest number of overdue points

36 points / 30 highest # of overdue points = 1.20 Multiplied by block period

1.20 x 4 block days = 4.80

Joe is now blocked from checking out library materials for 4 days and the remaining six points are added to the OD PENALTY field in the patron record.

6𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑠𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑑𝑢𝑒×3𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑎𝑦=18𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑠Joe Law checks

out

( 2(6×3)30 )×4

6𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑠𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑑𝑢𝑒×3𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑎𝑦=18𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑠

¿36𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑠30(𝑚𝑎𝑥𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑠)

¿ 4.8𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑠

PAST THE EXPIRATION DATE

Check out items

Renew items

Place holds

After overdue points are calculated, a patron is blocked until the specified date listed in their patron record. After that date has passed (if the patron hasn’t accumulated more points), the next time their patron record is open in Sierra, their points are cleared and they will again be able to:

Check out items Renew items Place holds

Blocked until…

Positive way to promote and encourage professional responsibility

Goodwill to the Library and Finance departments – (no $$$ due)

Frees up staff in both Library and Finance

Other schools in consortia can see if it could work for them

WHY THE SWITCH?

Helps promote and encourage professional responsibility for students in a positive way.

More goodwill to the Library and Finance departments because money is no longer part of the penalty for overdue materials.

Large reduction on staff time and labor for both Library and Finance in administering fines policy.

Other schools in consortia may benefit from what is learned through this project and may adopt penalty points as a best practice.

PROJECT

CHARTER

PROJECT

CHARTER

THE RIGHT MESSAGE

Removed the word “Penalty” from the name to maintain positivity

Leadership decisions: Number of points attributed to each item type/location Higher demand items will accrue more points Number of points required to “Block” Number of days patron is “Blocked”

Leadership decisions:

Number of points attributed to each item type/locationHigher demand items will accrue more points

Number of points required to “Block”

Number of days patron is “Blocked”

GET READY!

Copy all tables in to Excel and map out changes needed for points

Put deletions in one color and additions in another

General clean-up for loan rules specific to Charlotte Law

Copy all tables in to Excel and map out changes needed for points

Put deletions in one color and additions in another

General clean-up for loan rules specific to Charlotte Law

Remove fine amounts

Add in overdue penalty points

Leave amounts in loan rules for replacement costs & administrative/processing fees

Remove fine amounts

Add in overdue penalty points

Leave amounts in loan rules for replacement costs

& administrative/processing

fees

Loan Rule

s

CHANGES…

Change the amount of money accrued to ‘block’ patron to the amount of points accrued & change the length of time patron is blocked from checking out library materials

Change the amount of money accrued to ‘block’ patron to the amount of

points accrued

Change the length of time patron is blocked from checking out library

materials

Patron

Block Table

CHANGES…

Change the words ‘fines’ and rates accrued

Remove the word “fines”

Change the rate accrued

Patron Notice

s

CHANGES…

START DATE

All changes need to be made on a single date

Review changes before this date, verifying all are correct

Choose a slow day, such as a Friday or a Monday

All changes need to be made on a single date

Choose a slow day, such as a

Friday or a Monday Review changes

before this date, verifying all are

correct

PROMOTE IT! Blog posting

Digital signage throughout school

Bookmarks placed in all books checked out at Circulation Desk

Blog posting

Digital signage throughout school

Bookmarks placed in all books checked out at Circulation Desk

Creation of 2 Charts

Public chart promoted through LibGuide, blog, OrgSync and reviewed at Orientation

Staff chart provides more detail on accrual, accumulation and more

EXPLAIN IT!2

Chart

s

Public chart Promoted through LibGuide, blog,

OrgSync and reviewed at Orientation

Staff chart

Provides more detail on accrual, accumulation and more

GOT 99 PROBLEMS…

What will slow

you down?

Clean up Loan Rules

Innovative

SupportYou may need to do clean-up with loan rules, prior to making

the switch. This was much more labor intensive for Charlotte Law than making the actual switch to penalty points.

Innovative will give you different answers to your questions, depending on who you speak to

First, we were told Millennium is the same as Sierra, and you can edit blocked date and point number in the patron record.

Then we were told you couldn’t edit these in Sierra. At IUG we were told other libraries called and Innovative made changes for them. Innovative told us they couldn’t do that but could unlock the fields for us, as long as

they were no longer responsible for any issues that came up.

You can back-date check-ins to assist in point discrepancies due to inclement weather and books not being checked back in properly.