Loan Preferences

Use this panel to maintain loan related preferences.

Loan Defaults

Default Loan Period (in days) - When you check out a book, the loan tracker sets the default return date. This is specified as the number of days, the default is 7 days.

Loan Dialog Focus

Choose which field initially gets the keyboard focus when the loan dialog is displayed.

Name field - Choose this option when selecting the borrower by name. The name field will get the focus and you can type the first few characters of the name or select from the drop down list.

ID field - Choose this option when selecting the borrower by ID. The ID field will get the focus and you can scan a library card barcode or enter the ID.

Loan Statistics

Readerware can optionally track the number of times an item has been loaned out and the last loan date.

This information can help you decide which items are popular and which can be removed from your library.

If you do not need to track loan statistics, you can turn this option off.

Database Searches

Normally Readerware displays loan information only when you use a Loan search. Loan searches return loans, other searches return items. For example suppose you have 5 copies of a book with 3 copies on loan. If you search for books on loan, Readerware will return this book 3 times with the appropriate loan information for each copy. A normal search will just return the item once so it is not possible to report accurate loan information.

There are times though when it is useful to have basic loan information when running a normal search. You can request that Readerware always include loan information by checking the Always return loan information checkbox. Readerware will now include information from the first loan in all searches.

If you have entered each copy of an item separately in the database, this will enable you to determine at a glance which titles are available and which are out. If you have entered multiple copies into the database once and set the copies count, then you will need to drill down into any item that is out on loan to determine whether or not copies are still available. Select the Edit->Check In/Out menu item.

Top of Page