How your library runs (settings overview)
Settings → How your library runs reads your configuration back to you as the day-to-day rules your members and volunteers actually experience: the life of a loan, the life of a membership, holds, missing pieces, the roster, and which optional modules are on.
Where the numbers come from
Every value on the page is read live from the same settings the desk, portal and overnight jobs use — it is a view of your configuration, not a separate document, so it can never go stale. Each highlighted value links to the settings pane where it's changed.
A few numbers are fixed platform behaviour rather than settings (the overdue reminder rhythm, the membership-expiry reminder days). The page quotes those from the same code the reminder jobs run, so they're accurate too — they're just not yours to change.
"Worth checking"
The page also cross-checks settings that live on different panes but act together, and flags combinations that quietly do nothing or trip families up — for example an overdue fee rule set to $0, or a hold pickup window shorter than the gap between your open days. A warning is advice, not an error: review it, and if the configuration is what you intend, you can ignore it.
Recent changes
The page ends with the last few settings edits — what changed, from what to what, who saved it and when — so a returning coordinator can catch up at a glance. The Activity log remains the full, filterable record.
Good uses
- Committee papers and AGMs — the Print button produces a clean one-glance statement of current operating rules (screen chrome is dropped and the printout is stamped with your library name and the date).
- Volunteer induction — a new desk volunteer can read what actually happens when a toy is late, without touching a settings pane.
- Handover — the next coordinator sees what their predecessor configured, in plain words.
Remember that membership terms are frozen when a household joins: the page shows what NEW members get, and says so where it matters.