Can you renew library books the day they are due?

Tears in Rain · 31-10-2012 11:43PM #1

So I'm trying to renew library books online but I keep getting an error "Your record is in use by system. Please try again later".

This is the sort of error I assume magically goes away after a while but it's quarter to midnight and they're due tomorrow, so I'm not going to get a chance to try again until the day they're due.

So, can I renew books online the day they're due, or am I forced to prematurely cart a stack of tomes back to the library prematurely?

Alternatively: Does anyone know a sequence of steps to make this message go away?

Justice! · 01-11-2012 12:00AM

As far as I am aware, if a book you have taken out has been requested or held by someone else, it means you cannot renew them unfortunately. So yes I think you can renew them the day they are due but it sounds as if someone may have requested them since there is an error in trying to renew online. Sorry this just based on my own experiences

Larianne · 01-11-2012 12:05AM

That error message has come up for me before. Seems to occur late at night?? maybe the system is rebooting ??

You can renew the books on the day they are due in. I had to mail the librarian before as it wouldn't let me renew the book and I was on placement down the country so couldn't get in to renew it in person. Waived the fine, kindly enough.

languagenerd · 01-11-2012 02:41AM

You can indeed renew them the day they're due - and after that too! (I've renewed overdue books quite a few times recently - twas a bad idea to take out several books all with different due dates, total confusion :P). I think they charge you 50c for renewing an overdue book, as well as whatever fine you've already built up.

I got that same error message a while ago too, though I thought it was because I'd already renewed the book in question too many times. It was late at night, however, so maybe Larianne's right (^^^) about it being a late-night glitch. Try again in the morning!

Unshelved · 01-11-2012 09:53AM

You can renew Library books on the day that they are due but to avoid fines, renewal must be done by 10pm - because that's the time that the Library closes. After that, the system reboots to update records.

The error message is caused by programmes that run overnight to update Library Users' Records.

You can still renew book loans if the book is less than a week overdue, but you will be liable for fines for the overdue days before the loan was renewed (50c per day).

If someone has reserved/placed a hold on a LEN book then you will be unable to renew the loan and you should bring the book back to the Library as soon as possible.

Books will not be renewed over the phone - Larianne must have got someone on a good day!

Tears in Rain · 01-11-2012 10:24AM

Cool, thanks for all the info guys, was able to renew them this morning anyway which saved me all that effort of bringing them in

Larianne · 02-11-2012 05:11PM

Unshelved wrote: »

Books will not be renewed over the phone - Larianne must have got someone on a good day!

I never said anything about renewing over the phone. I sent an email with the error message and explaining being out of Dublin and they renewed the book and waived the fine.

But I do know of people ringing up to ask for a book to be renewed. Depends on the library

Can you renew library books the day they are due?

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