Home → Administration Manual for Libraries → Library Hours and Closed Dates Editor → Fines and Grace Days
Last Updated 02/18/2025
Grace days are the number of days selected by each library system for which Evergreen should hold fines in abeyance to allow patrons a little extra time to get the item back to the library. Fines are accrued beginning the day after the item is due, as usual, but not immediately billed to the patron. If the patron returns the item within the grace period, the fines owed are not billed to the patron. However, if the patron returns the item even one day after the grace period, the full amount of the fines owed from the due date until the checkin date are billed to the patron. There is a library setting that determines whether fines are charged for dates the library is closed — Charge fines on overdue circulations when closed. Grace days apply whether or not a fine would normally be billed.
Evergreen counts each billing cycle as the 24-hour period from midnight to 11:59:59 pm for each calendar day when calculating fines. Overdue fines will begin accumulating after a full day has elapsed. This means that if you check in or renew an item the day after it is due (but before that 24-hour period has completed), the patron will not be charged an overdue fine for that single day, even if your circulation policy does not allow for any grace days.
To illustrate, say a patron has an item that is due on 02/18/2025. It is technically actually due by 11:59:59 pm on 02/18/2025. At 12:00 am on 02/19/2025, the item will be marked as overdue in the patron's account. However, the overdue fine will not be assessed until 11:59:59 pm on 02/19/2025. If the patrons returns or renews the item at, say, 10:46 am on 02/19/2025, the patron will not be charged an overdue fine.
If the patron does not return or renew the item before 11:59:59 pm on 02/19/2025, the fine generator (which runs all day around the clock) will apply the fine at that time.
It must be noted that this only applies to the first 24-hour period after an item is due. This initial 24-hour period is functionally similar to a grace day in that if a patron returns an item less than one day after that first 24-hour period, the full amount of the fines owed from the due date until the checkin date are billed to the patron.
As an example, say an overdue fine for a single day is $.25. A patron has an item that is due by 11:59:59 pm on 02/18/2025. The patron does not return the item until 9:31 am on 02/20/2025. The patron would then be charged $.50, rather than $.25, even though it has not been a full 48 hours since the time the item was due.
Practically speaking, this basically means that Evergreen has its own built in "grace day," so when looking at the number of grace days in a circulation policy, it would be more accurate to add 1 to the number of days listed.
In Evergreen, the default is that library closed dates are counted as grace days, since the patron could theoretically return the item in the bookdrop on the day the library is closed.
Many libraries only want their open dates to count as grace days. To accomplish this, they can choose to select TRUE for the library setting Auto-Extend Grace Periods: When enabled grace periods will auto-extend. By default, this will be only when the grace period is a full day or more and ends on a closed date, though other options can alter this.
Two other options allow the grace days to be extended to differing degrees.
Example: A library permits 1 grace day for the patron to return or renew an item (Evergreen default). A patron's item is due on Friday. The library is open on Saturday, closed on Sunday and Monday, open on Tuesday. The patron returns the item on the following Thursday.
Since the library is open on Saturday, that counts as the patron's grace day. If the patron does not return or renew the item by the time the library closes on Saturday, the patron will be billed for Saturday's overdue fine on Sunday morning and subsequent days as follows.
If fines are not charged for closed dates (as determined by library setting: Charge fines on overdue circulations when closed), the late fee accrued for Saturday will be billed Sunday morning, but no fines billed for Sunday or Monday. Then, the patron account will be billed on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (in the early morning hours) for each day's overdue fines.
If fines are charged for closed dates (as determined by library setting: Charge fines on overdue circulations when closed), the patron will be billed for Saturday and Sunday in the early hours of Sunday and for each day thereafter, through Thursday's return date.
Since the library is open on Saturday, that counts as the patron's grace day. However, since the library is closed on Sunday and Monday, these trailing closed dates (immediately following the grace day) mean that the patron's grace period is extended through all the closed dates and patron would not be billed Sunday morning for Saturday's overdue fine.
If the patron returned the item in the bookdrop before the library opens on Tuesday morning, and staff backdate the checkin, the patron would not be charged a fine for Saturday at all. Since our example patron does not return the item until Thursday, the patron is billed fines for the grace days on Tuesday morning, and the only difference is for which days fines are applied.
If fines are not charged for closed dates (as determined by library setting: Charge fines on overdue circulations when closed), the patron is billed fines for Saturday and Tuesday on Tuesday morning, then again on Wednesday and Thursday.
If fines are charged for closed dates (as determined by library setting: Charge fines on overdue circulations when closed), the patron will be billed for Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday on Tuesday morning, then again on Wednesday and Thursday.