Hi, On Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 2:40 PM, Steve Wills<swills@beyond-print.com> wrote:
no. I think the grace period helps to determine when the fine is applied but not the amount of the fine. The fine_amount should be based on the duration between the due date and today. (due_date - today) the grace_end_date is grace_days after due_date. (due_date + grace_days) if today is less than or equal to grace_end_date, no fine. if today is after grace_end_date, fine_amount is charged as defined above. On a human note: I think that unless you are a meanie, it is human nature to try and give the patron a break, but strictly speaking, the grace period has nothing to do with the amount of the fine. At our library, there is no grace period but fines are never collected! Bringing the book back is always "good enough". LOL!
And thereby hangs the entire business model of several library book collections services. :) The interpretation of the grace period as affecting the effective due date but not the overdue fine makes sense to me, but since it it would mean a change in library fines, I wanted to double-check that there weren't a lot of libraries depending on the current behavior. Regards, Galen -- Galen Charlton gmcharlt@gmail.com