Salutations!

Today’s Topic: Jargon Bells!! & Reminder to send me ideas for Monday 'Minders!

This week's 'Minder is mostly a reminder to send me any ideas/topics/questions that you would like to see covered in a Monday 'Minder.  But, I will include a bit of de-jargonification, and an Excel tip, just for the fun of it....

Fines, Fees, Bills, oh my!  Which is what?

1) Bill = some amount of money that has been attached to the patron's record. There are many different kinds of bills. Bills get paid. 

2) Fee = a type of bill that is added by the library for some service--photocopies, referral, processing, etc. Generally has nothing to do with specific library materials.

3) Fine = amount owed on overdue materials. Becomes a Bill when the item is discharged. Can't be paid off until materials are discharged.

Check or charge?

We use the terms interchangeably.  WorkFlows tends to use "charge." People tend to use "checkout/checkin."   "Checkout" = "charge"  and "checkin"=discharge=bookdrop.   Sometimes we say we "charge" a patron a fee, but technically we are "billing" a patron...see above!

Excel Tip: You knwo about CTRL-C and CTRL-V to copy & paste, right? But did you know about CTRL-ALT-V to paste special things? Like CTRL-ALT-V-V will paste only the values--no formulas, no formatting. CTRL-V-U will paste values and number formats (esp handy when working with currency or comma-deliminated numbers). CTRL-ALT-V-E will transpose your columns into rows and rows into columns. 

Share & Enjoy!
Karla