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Terms of Use (TOU)

What are Terms of Use (TOU)?

A Terms of Use is a bundle of specific fulfillment policies (such as loan periods, fine structures, and renewal options) that are applied to items, patrons, or services within a library.

  • TOUs are attached to Fulfillment Unit Rules to determine the policies applied when a patron requests a service (e.g., a Loan, Request, or Booking).

  • Any changes made to a policy within a TOU are immediately applied wherever that TOU is in use.

For more information on TOUs, please see Alma Knowledgebase page Configuring Terms of Use.

Configuring Terms of Use

  1. Navigate to the Terms of Use Management page (Configuration Menu > Fulfillment > Physical Fulfillment > Terms of Use and Policies).Screenshot 2025-10-14 132108.png

  2. Select Add Set of Terms of Use to start the configuration wizard.

  3. Step 1: General Information

    • Enter a Name (required) and an optional Description.

    • Select the Type (e.g., Loan, Request, Booking, or Resource Sharing).

    • Select Next.

  4. Step 2: Policies

    • This page lists all the policies that will be included in this TOU (e.g., Loan Policy, Fine Policy, Request Policy).

    • Select a policy from the drop-down list for each policy type.

    • To create a new policy, select Add from the row actions list.

    • To edit an existing policy (which will change it everywhere it's used), select Edit.

    • Select Next.

  5. Step 3: Review

    • Review the details of the new TOU set.

    • Select Save to finalize and add the new Terms of Use to the list.

You can easily see which Fulfillment Unit Rules are using a specific TOU:

  1. On the Terms of Use Management page, select Show Related Fulfillment Rules from the row actions list for a specific TOU.

  2. The resulting page displays all the rules that currently employ that Terms of Use.

Using TOUs in Fulfillment Units 

TOUs are attached to specific Fulfillment Units via Fulfillment Rules. Each Fulfillment Rule uses one TOU, and the rules determine when the specific TOU is applied to a transaction. 

For instructions on how to associate TOUs with specific Fulfillment Rules, please see the WRLC Alma wiki page Fulfillment Unit Rules.

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