SCILS Circulation Policy

Approved 4/22/2008

Patron Policy

Sirsi Circulation Module

New User Registration

Properties for new user registration button:

Behavior tab:

Should checks next to at least “Name, phone, and Street under “User Duplicate Searching.” Your school can have more options checked, but should not have less.

Default tab

Choose your library name. In most cases, “Public” should be your default since all schools get their patrons loaded. If you are entering something other than public patrons, contact the SCILS Librarian to see if something needs to be adjusted or corrected in your patron extracts.

New User Registration

General Overview

The majority of patrons are loaded through patron extracts. If your school has to manually add a lot of patrons, the timing of patron loads needs to be examined.

Community patrons should be the majority of manual entries. It is very important to fill out patron records accurately and completely.

Valid Profile Types

Profile types can also be called Patron or User types. They all mean the same thing. It is important to assign the correct profile type because circulation policy is decided based on it.

The only valid profiles to assign to patrons are:

·          Student- Refers to any patron who is an officially enrolled student of the host institution.

·         Employee-Refers to any patron who is employed by their home institution. On the Demographic tab, User Category 1 should be chosen for all employee patrons.  This is where you indicate whether the Employee is a “Staff” or “Faculty.” 

·         Public-Refers to any regular community patron.

·         SC_Borrower-Was set up for the patrons using the SC Borrowers agreement which was created to cover checkouts between college students. The PASCAL Visitor Check-out when instituted should make this patron type obsolete.

·          If you have a high school program on campus, those patrons could be listed as student, public, or charter based on checkout privileges your school grants to them

·         Charter-Set up for High School Students attending college

Not valid for Patron profile

·         Staff-This is a system delivered user. Do not use.

User IDs

• Needs to be unique in the system
• Used to check items out
• Used to make requests through PASCAL
• Can be a barcode that is added to student/employee ID
• Can be a barcode added to a library card
• Can be set up so that it is a Banner ID or a FICE Code plus Datatel number
• Will start off being Banner ID or FICE Code plus Datatel number on all patrons that were loaded through an patron extract

Required fields

Basic information Tab

·         Name-Patron name

o   Should be formatted with Last Name then comma First Name

o   Should be capitalized in mixed case

o   Middle initials should be capitalized and have a period after it

o   Name suffixes should be mix case and have a period after them

For Example:                       Thompson, Jason

                                    Drake, Patrick

                                    Williams, Kelly E.

                                    Preston Jr., Robert

·         Alt ID-Alternative ID is the match point when loading patrons, so it is very important to get this correct.

o   Should NEVER be left blank

o   Should NEVER be social security number

o   Should be Banner ID or a FICE Code plus Datatel number for Students and Employees. If your schools uses a dash or underscore between the FICE code and Datatel number for automated load, then manual patron adds need to stay consistent.

For Example:            C999999

                                    006595999999

                                    000823-6578547

                                    000210_0241544

o   Should be driver’s license or state issued ID with issuing state’s code and DL or ID in front of the number

For Example:                        SCDL025413658

                                    SCID0215476874

                                    NCDL45485465

·         Group ID-Can be used, but currently is not being used. Generally, User Category 1- is used, because statistics can be pulled on it. Group ID does allow for easy searching, so it is available if a school wants to use it. Schools wanting to use it should consult with the SCILS Librarian to make sure it is the best option.

·         Library-Should choose your library. Schools with multiple libraries, ALL patrons should be listed under your main campus library.

·         Allow Routing-Do not worry about unchecking this. This means that magazines can be routed to this user. The person who handles serials will choose who will get magazines, so every user can have allow routing checked.

Check for Duplicate user

This button is to search the system to see if there is another user with same information in any of the fields that you checked in the properties.

or the new user should include the patron’s name (last name, first), phone number and current mailing address.  An alternate identification number (e.g., driver’s license no.) as well as the appropriate library and profile name is also required.  It is the policy of SCILS not to ask a patron for their social security number.

Other required fields for a patron’s record are the user’s current address and phone number. 

Line: Is when street address needs two lines.

Street: Street or PO Box. Should use accepted postal abbreviations.

                        Examples:     123 N. Main St.

                                                8245 Lake Rd.

                                                PO Box 4546

                                                689 Thompson Cir.

City/State: Should be formatted City, State Postal Code.

                        Examples:     Greenville, SC

                                                Springfield, SC

                                                Conway, SC

Zip: either 5 or 9 digit zip code

Phone: Should be formatted with area code and dashes

                        Examples:     864-523-0494

                                                803-578-5487

                                                843-986-0235

A current email address would also be helpful, but is not required.  As a matter of privacy, college employees are not required to give their home address and telephone number.  They may use their campus address, phone number, and email instead. 

Privilege tab

Default expiration date:

All manually entered patrons should expire 1 year from creation date of the patron record.

Pin number:

A password or pin number is automatically generated for the patron upon registration. If your school uses “My Account” make sure you change this to match your school’s policy.

In some school’s cases the pin of CHANGEME is used in the records that are loaded.  If your school is one of these, know that if a user changes the pin that next time a patron extract is sent to SCILS, their pin will be changed back to “CHANGEME.” The SCILS Librarian recommends that something other than “CHANGEME” is loaded if you are going to promote the “My Account” service and that you do not let patrons change the pin, so it remains the same.

Status:

Users may have a status of “OK” or “Barred.”  The system will disable or suspend any patron from checking out any items with a “barred” status.  Library staff may modify a user’s status at their discretion.

If you make any changes on the “Privilege” tab the system will require that you enter a valid override code.

Demographics tab

Only information that can be filled in “Category 1” and “Birth Date” on the Demographics time

Categories

Additional categories are available under the demographics tab to further define patron types.  For example, this is where one would designate a user with a valid patron type of  “employee” as faculty, adjunct or staff.  Likewise, one could also designate a “public” patron as being charter (high school), early college, upward bound, etc.

Suspend/Unsuspend users

SCILS has not used these functions. This punishes a patron by not allowing check out for the suspension time. Nothing is stopping any member from using it if they felt is appropriate way to deal with patron misbehavior.

Remove User

SCILS uses this function only in clean-up projects.The system patron purge will remove patrons when they meet the criteria that each school has set up, so it is not worth the staff time unless involved in a clean-up project.

Properties for remove user button:

Behaviors tab:

Leave all the properties on the system defaults.

Helpers tab:

User Search-Should be set up with your school and the appropriate search which is usually “Name.”

Start with search helper-Should be checked if majority of searches for patron records, you do not have the patron’s user ID.

Batch report patron functions

Extracts/Loading

Frequency

All current employee and student records need to be sent a minimum 2 times each semester.

The recommended times for sending the patron extract:

If your school has pre-registration:

·         After pre-registration

·         After the drop-add period

 If there is no pre-registration:

·         The last day of registration

·         After the drop-add period

Each school needs to let the SCILS Systems Librarian know when to expect their school’s patron extract. Then if the extract is not received, the school will be contacted to check on missing patron extract.

File Names

Patron extract file names should:

·         In all capitals

·         Start with schools initials

·         Include patron type: ALL, STU, STF, FAC, EMP(for combined F/S files), CHART

·         Include the word “EXTRACT”

·         Stay the same format each load

For Example:            CCTC_STU_EXTRACT.txt

                                                            NETC_STF_EXTRACT.txt

                                                            GTC_ALL_EXTRACT.TXT

                                                            PTC_EMP_EXTRACT.txt

Expiration Dates for Patron Download:

Sample Records – Patron Extract:

Employee

FORM=LDUSER
.USER_ID. |a0039940000000
.USER_ALT_ID. |a00399400000
.USER_ROUTING_FLAG. |aY
.USER_TITLE. |a
.USER_NAME. |aDaubenspeck, Mary I
.USER_LIBRARY. |aSTCLIBRARY
.USER_PROFILE. |aEMPLOYEE
.USER_LOCATION. |aCHECKEDOUT
.USER_ACCESS. |aPUBLIC
.USER_ENVIRONMENT. |aPUBLIC
.USER_CATEGORY1. |aFACULTY
.USER_PRIV_EXPIRES. |a20080201
.USER_PIN. |aSCCLIBRARY
.USER_ADDR1_BEGIN.
.EMAIL. |adaubenspeckm@sccsc.edu
.STREET. |a123 Madeup St
.CITY/STATE. |aSpartanburg, SC
.ZIP. |a29303
.HOMEPHONE. |a864-555-1120
.USER_ADDR1_END.

Student

*** DOCUMENT BOUNDARY ***
FORM=LDUSER
.USER_ID. |aT00000000
.USER_ALT_ID. |aT00000000
.USER_TITLE. |aMr.
.USER_NAME. |aThompson, Mark D
.USER_LIBRARY. |aTRI-COUNTY
.USER_PROFILE. |aSTUDENT
.USER_LOCATION. |aCHECKEDOUT
.USER_ACCESS. |aPUBLIC
.USER_ENVIRONMENT. |aPUBLIC
.USER_PRIV_EXPIRES. |a20080915
.USER_MAILINGADDR. |a1
.USER_ADDR1_BEGIN.
.EMAIL. |aThompspnm@tctc.edu
.STREET. |a512 Madeup Avenue
.CITY/STATE. |aAnderson, SC
.ZIP. |a29621
.HOMEPHONE. |a864-556-5032
.USER_ADDR1_END.

Patron System Purge

Patrons are purged system-wide annually, in mid-September.  In general, only students and employees are included in the patron purge. 

Criteria for patrons to be purged from system:

• Patron has to have been expired prior to 9/16 of the previous year.

• Patron cannot have any items checked out or any fines.

• Fines will be purged first based on the chart below for each school.

SCILS Fine Forgiveness policy (<= mean less than or equal to)

Schools can request patron purges throughout the year to do further clean up.

Purge of public patrons is recommended for public patrons whose cards have been expired for over 2 years.

If a school changes IDs or Alt IDs, patron purge is required to eliminate duplicates.

Circulation Policy | Patron Policy