A visitor asks whether a particular novel is available right now: the library's spreadsheet cannot say, because it confuses the title with the three physical copies that actually exist. An expired membership goes unnoticed, or a loan is extended while another reader is already waiting for that same book. This application keeps the catalogue, loans, returns and holds of a town or district library up to date, directly in Omnifloo.
Who the application is for
For town or inter-municipal libraries in France, whether they employ a dedicated member of staff at the counter or rely on someone who also covers other duties a few hours a week. The application suits a small collection just as well as a larger catalogue, wherever copies, borrower categories and holds need to be tracked.
What the application does
- Keeps the bibliographic record (title, author, publisher, ISBN, format, intended audience) separate from each physical copy (shelf mark, location, condition), with availability recalculated at every change.
- Sorts borrowers into categories, each with its own quota of simultaneous loans, membership duration and number of allowed renewals.
- Refuses a loan in three specific cases when it is created: an expired membership, a category quota already reached, or a copy reserved for reference use only — with a message explaining why.
- Applies a loan period that depends on the copy's format (book, graphic novel, periodical, DVD, CD, game, e-reader), set once for the whole library.
- Blocks the renewal of an item when another reader has placed a hold on the same title, and shows how many readers are already waiting.
- Keeps a hold queue per title rather than per copy: the first copy returned goes to the first reader on the waiting list.
Day to day
- Catalogue a title, then add its copies, each with its own shelf mark and location.
- Register a borrower under a category: their membership expiry date is calculated from the registration date and that category's duration.
- Record a loan by choosing the borrower and the copy: the three checks on membership, quota and copy status happen before the loan is confirmed.
- On return, the copy becomes available again, unless a hold is waiting for it: it then moves straight to reserved rather than available.
- Check a title's hold queue to see who is waiting, and in what order, before deciding on a renewal.
What the application does not do
- It does not import records from an external bibliographic database: every record is entered by hand.
- It does not provide a public-facing portal for browsing the catalogue.
- It does not read barcodes or tracking tags: each copy's shelf mark is entered by hand.
- It does not track periodicals issue by issue, nor the transfer of items between libraries in an inter-municipal network.
Getting started
Prepare the list of borrower categories with their quotas and membership durations, and check the loan periods for each format before opening to the public: starting values exist for the most common formats, but your own library rules should confirm or adjust them.
Going further
To find out whether this application suits your business and how to activate it, compare the plans or write to us.