Holidays

Defining the days when your library is closed so that due dates and fines are calculated correctly

The Holidays screen lets you record the dates when your library is closed — public holidays, school holidays, mid-term breaks, and any other closure periods. When Papyrus calculates a loan's return date or an overdue fine, it excludes these dates so that members are never given a due date that falls on a closure day, and are not fined for days the library was not open.

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How Holidays Affect Circulation

Holidays work together with the open days defined under Parameters → System Dates. Both are used in the same calculation — when a due date is computed, Papyrus skips over any day that is either a closed weekday (from System Dates) or a holiday (from this screen).

Example

A book is issued on Friday 26 September with a 7-day loan period. Normally the due date would be Saturday 4 October. But Saturday is a closed day (System Dates) and the school has a mid-term break from 29 September to 3 October (Holidays). Papyrus skips those dates and sets the due date as Monday 6 October — the next open, non-holiday day.

Similarly, overdue fines only accrue on days that are both open (per System Dates) and not holidays. A member who keeps a book during a mid-term break is not fined for those days.

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It is good practice to enter all known closure dates at the start of each academic year, so the system can calculate accurate due dates throughout the year without any manual adjustment. You can add, edit, or delete holidays at any time.

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The Holidays Form

The Holidays screen has a simple entry form at the top and a list of existing holidays below. You can add a single day or an entire date range — for example, a two-week term holiday — in one operation by setting a start and end date.

Holiday Starting Date

2026 April 18

Holiday Ending Date

2026 April 18

Description

Mid Term

Add

Delete

Delete Expired Holidays

Field / Button	Description
Holiday Starting Date	The first day of the closure period. For a single public holiday, set this to the same date as the Ending Date. Dates must be entered in the format yyyy MMMM dd — for example 2026 April 18. A calendar picker is available by clicking the calendar icon next to the field.
Holiday Ending Date	The last day of the closure period. For a multi-day break, set this to the final day of the closure. Papyrus will create a separate holiday entry for every day in the range from Starting Date to Ending Date inclusive.
Description	A short label for the holiday or closure period, up to 30 characters. This appears in the holidays list and in reports. Examples: Mid Term, Easter, Public Holiday, School Closure.
Add button	Creates a holiday entry for each day in the specified date range with the given description. If the range is a single day, one entry is created. If it spans multiple days, an entry is created for each day.
Delete button	Removes all holiday entries that fall within the specified date range. This is the quickest way to remove an entire break period — enter the same start and end dates used when the holidays were added, then click Delete.
Delete Expired Holidays	Removes all holiday entries with dates in the past — i.e. any holiday date earlier than today. Use this periodically to keep the holidays list clean and relevant. Past holidays have no effect on current calculations, but removing them makes the list easier to manage.

Date format

All dates must be entered as yyyy MMMM dd — for example 2026 December 25 or 2026 April 18. A calendar picker is available alongside each date field — click the calendar icon to select a date visually rather than typing it.

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Adding Holidays

You can add a single day or a multi-day range in one operation. Papyrus creates one entry per day for every date in the range.

Adding a single public holiday

Enter the holiday date in both Holiday Starting Date and Holiday Ending Date — both fields should contain the same date.

Enter a brief Description, such as Heritage Day or Public Holiday.

Click Add. The date will appear in the holidays list below.

Adding a multi-day break or holiday period

Enter the first day of the closure in Holiday Starting Date.

Enter the last day of the closure in Holiday Ending Date.

Enter a Description for the period, such as Mid Term or December Holidays.

Click Add. Papyrus creates one entry for each date in the range. All entries share the same description.

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There is no need to exclude weekends when entering a holiday range — even if the range includes Saturday and Sunday, those days are already excluded from due date calculations by the System Dates open-days settings. Including them in the holiday range causes no harm.

Example — adding a mid-term break

Holiday Starting Date: 2026 September 04

Holiday Ending Date: 2026 September 21

Description: Mid Term

Clicking Add creates 18 individual entries — one for each day from 4 to 21 September — all labelled "Mid Term".

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Editing a Holiday

Individual holiday entries can be edited directly in the holidays list. Each row has an Edit link on the left side.

Find the holiday entry you wish to change in the holidays list.

Click the Edit link on that row. The row will switch to edit mode, allowing you to change the date or description.

Make your changes and click Update to save, or Cancel to discard.

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If you need to change an entire holiday range — for example, to correct the dates of a school break — it is usually faster to delete the existing range using the Delete button and re-add it with the correct dates, rather than editing each day individually.

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Deleting Holidays

There are three ways to remove holiday entries:

Method	When to use it
Delete link (per row)	To remove a single specific holiday entry from the list. Click Delete on the row you wish to remove. The entry is removed immediately.
Delete button (date range)	To remove all holiday entries within a date range in one operation. Enter the start and end dates of the range you want to clear and click Delete. All entries between those dates (inclusive) are removed. This is the quickest way to remove an entire break period.
Delete Expired Holidays	To remove all past holidays in one click — any entry with a date before today's date. Use this periodically to keep the list manageable. It has no effect on future dates.

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Deletions are immediate and cannot be undone. Double-check the date range before clicking Delete to ensure you are removing the correct entries. If you accidentally delete holidays that are still needed, you will need to re-add them.

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The Holidays List

All current holiday entries are displayed in a table below the entry form. The list can be sorted by clicking the Date or Description column headings. Each row shows the holiday date, its description, and Edit and Delete controls.

	Date	Description
Edit Delete	2025-Sep-04	Mid Term
Edit Delete	2025-Sep-05	Mid Term
Edit Delete	2025-Sep-06	Mid Term
Edit Delete	2025-Sep-07	Mid Term
… additional rows …

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Click the Date column heading to sort the list chronologically — this makes it easy to review upcoming holidays and spot any gaps or duplicates in your calendar.

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Planning Your Holiday Calendar

The following table lists the types of closure dates that are typically entered in a school or college library. Adding these at the start of each year ensures due dates and fines are accurate throughout.

Closure type	Example description	Notes
Public holidays	Public Holiday, Heritage Day	Single days — set both start and end to the same date
School term breaks	April Holidays, June Holidays	Multi-day ranges — enter the first and last day of the break
Mid-term breaks	Mid Term	Typically one to two weeks during a school term
Year-end closure	December Holidays	The longest break — typically five to seven weeks
Ad hoc closures	Staff Development, School Closure	Unplanned or irregular closure days — add as needed

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Annual refresh. At the start of each new year, click Delete Expired Holidays to clear out all past dates, then add the new year's closure calendar in one session. This keeps the holidays list current and prevents the list from growing unwieldy over time.

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Holidays only affect due date calculation and overdue fine accrual. They do not prevent staff from using any other part of the system — cataloguing, member management, and reports are all available regardless of what holidays are defined.