Loans, renewals, reservations, waitlist, Do Not Lend gating
The lending lifecycle covers everything from holding a carrier for a caregiver to lending it, extending it, and handling the line of people waiting for it. This page explains how those pieces fit together and what the Do Not Lend gate prevents.
Loans
A loan is created when a carrier is checked out. It records the caregiver, the carrier’s condition at check-out, and a due date that pre-fills from the library’s default loan length. Checking the carrier out moves it from Available to On loan; checking it back in closes the loan and returns the carrier to Available.
A loan can also be recorded as overdue (returned or still out past its due date) or as lost if it’s closed without the carrier coming back. A free-text deposit or fee note can be kept on the loan for any deposit collected. See Check out a carrier and Check in a carrier.
Renewals
A Library Owner or User can renew an open loan to extend its due date. A renewal updates the due date, records the change (old due date, new due date, time, user, and an optional reason), and increments the loan’s renewal count. It doesn’t touch the carrier’s condition. The loan history shows the original due date and every renewal.
Reservations
A reservation holds an Available carrier for a specific caregiver before pickup, moving it to Reserved. A hold ends in one of a few ways: it’s fulfilled (converted into a loan at check-out), cancelled, or it expires after its hold window. When a hold ends without becoming a loan, the carrier returns to Available. If a reservation expires, the person who created it sees a notice on their next sign-in — it doesn’t email them.
Waitlist
The waitlist is the line of caregivers waiting for a specific carrier. It’s kept separately from the carrier’s status — never a sixth status — so any loan-eligible carrier can have a waitlist whatever its status, including while it’s On loan, Out for Repair, or Reserved (and even Available, though you’d normally just lend an available carrier). As a rule of thumb the waitlist is for carriers that are out. The number waiting is shown next to the status, for example “On loan · 2 waiting.” At check-in, if anyone is waiting, you’re prompted to email the next person in line. An education-only carrier can’t have a waitlist, because there’s no loan to wait for.
How reservations and the waitlist work together
Reservations and the waitlist solve two halves of the same problem. The waitlist records who’s next for a carrier that isn’t free yet; a reservation holds a carrier that is free for one named caregiver. They meet at check-in: when a waitlisted carrier comes back, the check-in flow prompts you to notify the first person in line — and because notifying doesn’t hold the carrier, you then reserve it for that caregiver so it’s waiting when they arrive instead of going to whoever asks first.
Do Not Lend gating
The Do Not Lend flag is a caregiver flag that gates check-out. If a caregiver is flagged Do Not Lend:
- A User is blocked from completing the check-out and should contact a Library Owner.
- A Library Owner or Org Admin can override the gate with a required reason. The override and its reason are recorded on the loan and logged.
The Do Not Lend flag always requires a reason when it’s set, and clearing or amending it requires a reason too. See What the Do Not Lend gate does.