Koha Calendar Features

Koha Calendar Options

Calendars play a part in our everyday workflow. From events to who is covering the desk and more. This article covers everything from the staff interface to the OPAC. The calendar plays a centerpiece of the Koha Administration. Everything from circulation, overdue, notices, fines, and more. Below we will talk about everything that ties into the calendar in Koha. As a bonus, we will talk about how patrons can tie in their calendars.

System Preferences

There are several Calendar System Preferences that can determine how your circulation and fine rules use the Koha Calendar.
  1. OverdueNoticeCalendar: asks if you want to use the calendar or ignore the calendar when working out the period for overdue notices.
  2. CalendarFirstDayOfWeek: allows staff to pick the first day of the week in the calendar.
  3. finesCalendar: Use the calendar or don't use the calendar when calculating the period for fines.
  4. SuspensionsCalendar: use the calendar or ignore the calendar when calculating the period for suspension expiration.
  5. ExcludeHolidaysFromMaxPickUpDelay: use the calendar or ignore the calendar when calculating the period for a hold's max pickup delay.
  6. useDaysMode: this preference controls how scheduled library closures affect the due date of the item. You have 4 options when selecting this preference.
    1. Use the calendar to skip days the library is closed
    2. Use the calendar to push the due date to the next open day
    3. Ignore the calendar
    4. Use the calendar to push the due date to the next open matching weekday for weekly loan periods, or the next open day otherwise.
The calendar is defined on a branch-by-branch basis.

Adding a Calendar to Staff Client

It is possible to add a calendar to the staff interface using the news feature. In this example, we will use google calendar.
  1. First, you need to get the HTML code from your calendar
  2. Open Google Calendar
  3. In the top right, click Settings Settings and then Settings
  4. On the left side of the screen, click the name of the calendar you want to embed
  5. In the "Integrate calendar" section, copy the iframe code displayed
  6. Under the embed code, click Customize
  7. Choose your options, then copy the HTML code displayed
Koha Staff Client:
  1. Get there: Tools > Additional tools > News
  2. To add your calendar to the staff interface click ‘New entry’
  3. Select Librarian Interface
  4. Create a title
  5. Add the iframe to the news. Be sure to select the code option in the editor.
  6. Click Submit
Paste the iframe code into the code box in the news editor.

Calendar Option for Patrons

Patrons have access to the ical feature on the OPAC! Patrons can download the item’s due dates to their calendars through the OPAC. Once the patron is logged into their account, they can go to their account summary and click the link “Download as iCal/ics file”. This will download a file to their computer. The patron can then open the download and it will open the event into their calendar.


How Do I End a Weekly Closure on the Calendar?

Libraries that are always closed on a day of the week, like Sundays, will typically have a weekly repeating holiday on their calendar. Depending on system settings, this exists to ensure that items don't come due on a day patrons can't bring an item into the library to return it, or that patrons don't lose a day to pick up holds, or even potentially that a library won't charge an overdue fine for days not open.

If a library has traditionally been closed on Sundays but will be opening up, this can be updated from the staff interface. Here's an example calendar, with Sunday closures
and the usual winter closures.


The recurring weekly holiday, Sunday closures, appear in the bright yellow. Clicking on one of the days brings up some options for deletion/modification.



A natural first instinct would be to simply add an end date to the closure and save it.

This does not work, part of a known bug in Koha.

The only way to end that recurring closure is to select 'Delete the repeated holidays on a range.' This deletes the entire sequence of closures, so it should only be done within the week before new weekend hours go into effect. So if a library will start having Sunday hours in 2024, the sequence can be deleted in the week of December 29, 2023, after the closure on December 28 to ensure any circulation functions tied to the calendar are not affected.

Will Koha Update Due Dates or Waiting Hold Expiration Dates Retroactively if a Holiday is Added to a Calendar?

A variety of system preferences and circulation rules interact with Koha's calendar of closures, frequently set to bump out due dates and hold expiration dates to an open day. However, this works best when the holidays or closures are on the calendar before checkouts or holds would be marked waiting because Koha will not retroactively re-calculate these dates. To this end, many libraries prepare for a new year well in advance by adding known closures to the calendar.

In the event that a holiday is forgotten or a sudden closure pops up and materials were already checked out or holds trapped with a date that the library is closed, librarians will need to do some management of dates. For due dates, the Batch extend due dates tool in the Tools module can extend due dates. Koha doesn't currently have the functionality to batch extend hold pickup dates, so that still needs to be a ticket with a support provider, though, until an enhancement makes that possible, particularly if a library is automatically canceling expired holds.

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