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For the MVP, the Recall Overdue Fine will be charged if the "recall flag" (defined by
CIRC-440
Closed
) is turned on. This flag is set if one or more recalls already exists when a patron checks out the item or if a recall is created after the patron has checked out the item. Currently the "recall flag" is never reset.
The purpose of this feature is to reset the "recall flag" if the recall on the checked out item has been cancelled (or moved to another item?) and there are no other requests for the item. This will keep the patron who has the item checked out from being charged the Recall Overdue Fine, which is higher than the Overdue Fine. The patron doesn't know the recall was cancelled, but we do and prefer not to overcharge. Please note that if the recall expires, the "recall flag" should remain set. This feature only covers recalls that were cancelled.
Although the main purpose of this feature is to not charge the higher fine rate, resetting the flag upon cancellation will also allow a new recall to truncate the loan again (after all, the original purpose of the flag was to prevent subsequent recalls from truncating the loan). Given this, we almost certainly want recall cancellation to also extend the due date to what it would have been had it not been recalled (otherwise you could end up with a loan that was truncated twice).
This opens up additional questions:
- If we do extend the Due Date, should we send the patron a notice, or will this just be more confusing?
- If we are going to trigger this flag setting/unsetting when recalls are moved from one item to another and this results in notices to patrons, staff who use the move requests feature will need to be careful to avoid confusion. Note: currently, moving a recall request to a checked out item that wasn't previously recalled does currently truncate the loan and notify the borrower. Moving the last recall off a loaned item does not "give back" the loan time or send a patron notice
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