Preparing for the EXPIRED PATRON PURGE

Transcription

1 Preparing for the EXPIRED PATRON PURGE written by Eve Andrus, November 2004 revised February 2016 by G.A. Poch OBJECTIVE: Each year as students and staff members leave the district, we need to facilitate the removal of their patron (user) records to keep the patron database as small and current as possible. While many records can be deleted with no problems, others require action by library staff before they can be batch-deleted by the Symphony System Administrator. Your responsibility is to review from one to five finished reports that list patrons and resolve any of their outstanding issues. You will be asked to determine whether the status of each patron record is correct and to make adjustments as needed, either maintaining the current status, extending the privilege expiration date for community patrons or reconciling/clearing the patron record. The Symphony System Administrator will run the reports for your library in early spring and notify you when they are available. He will perform the batch purge of expired patron records after your work has been completed. The CCSD Symphony Users Group has recommended that expired patron records for graduated seniors be cleared of all active and inactive checkouts, unpaid bills, and holds. The CCSD Symphony Users Group has also recommended that expired patron records for students or staff members who have not been in the district for two or more years should be cleared. If any of the outstanding issues on patron records relate to materials owned by another library, please call the owning library to resolve them. DATA: The five finished reports listing patrons are named as follows (with XXX representing the three-letter code for your school): List XXX Expired Blocked Users (almost all libraries will receive this report) List XXX Expired Checkout Users (some libraries will receive this report) List XXX Expired Community Users (you will receive if your library has community users) List XXX Users Long Exp. (some libraries will receive this report) List XXX Users No Exp. Date (some libraries will receive this report) Page 1 of 6

2 PROCESS: 1. Log on to WorkFlows with your Reporter User ID and go to Finished Reports. When you open the Wizard, be sure to check Include log down at the bottom of the properties box. (Remember, you do not create this report; it has been created for your library.) 2. Click on your school s first report: List XXX Expired Blocked Users. View the report results with the log. The log provides the statistics. 3. Note how many pages the report involves. This will help you decide whether to print the report in its entirety. 4. When you first pull up the Expired Users finished report for your school, at the bottom of the log you can see: a. How many patron privileges have expired. b. How many unpaid bills/checkouts/holds are attached to expired patron records. Here is an example of a high school log (High schools have a larger than normal number of expired patrons because of graduating seniors.) 58 patron record(s) printed. 0 useracnt record(s) printed. 84 bill record(s) printed. 53 checkout record(s) printed. 0 extension record(s) printed. 0 hold record(s) printed. 5. The expired patron records for which there are no unpaid bills/checkouts/holds will be automatically purged by the Symphony System Administrator in the near future. You need review this list, if there is ANY activity on the record (i.e. checkouts/unpaid bills/holds), the system will NOT PERMIT the removal of the record. In these situations, it is up to the individual library to determine what to do, remembering to do so within the constraints of the rules about material ownership. Here is an example of a student who has unpaid bills and holds. He left the district as a SHHS student who owed books/money to GVHS. It is the responsibility of SHHS to discuss with GVHS how to handle the outstanding bills so that the record can be purged. Page 2 of 6

3 HXXXXXX, AXXXXX X id: alt id: library:smokyhill Profile:STUDENT user access:public environment:public dept: *Bills:1 GVECAT99 copy:1 CATCHER IN THE RYE amount billed:$15.00 reason:lost balance:$15.00 *Checkouts:0 *Holds:1 GVECAT99 GRANDVIEW CATCHER IN THE RYE 7. Copy/paste patrons information from the report with checkouts/unpaid bills/holds to a separate Word file for the purpose of retaining documentation. You can keep this document in an inactive notebook/file as the hard copy of how various problems have been addressed (optional). 8. Close WorkFlows and log back in to it with your Circulation User ID to begin to examine the individual expired patron records. You must decide whether each expired patron with activity on his/her record has left the district for at least two years or has graduated. Use the User Display Wizard to view patron records with issues. a. If you really are undecided (be rigorous), leave the patron record alone and review next year. However, if the patron has been gone for more than two years, it is definitely time to clear the record. b. If you can clear the patron for the purge, proceed as follows: 1. CHECKOUTS: a. View BOTH active and inactive checkouts. Go to display options to view inactive checkouts. b. If a patron is gone and YOUR LIBRARY OWNS the item, CHECK IN the item, and then USE THE MARK ITEM MISSING WIZARD to mark it as MISSING, if you think there may be a chance that the item might be returned someday. (Optional - You may also choose to go to Item Maintenance, Edit Copy Wizard, to make a note with the patron name/date in the Extended info/circ note field of the item record.) c. Or, you may choose to CHECK IN the item (until the current location is either STACKS or UN-CAT) and then CHECK OUT the item to your DISCARD User and assume that you will never recover it. (The item record will be deleted over the summer.) d. If the patron is gone and another library owns the lost material, call the library to resolve the issue. Page 3 of 6

4 2. UNPAID BILLS: a. If the patron is gone and the unpaid bill belongs to you, FORGIVE the bill (and the overdue fine). Then mark the item as MISSING or charge it to your DISCARD User. b. If the unpaid bill belongs to another library, call the library to resolve the issue. 3. HOLDS: a. If the patron is gone and the material belongs to you, remove the hold (using the Remove User (or Item) Hold Wizard). If the hold belongs to another library, call the library to resolve the issue. NOTE 1: Remember that, if you click the item barcode under the Display User checkouts, the information can jump from patron record to Mark Item Missing wizard, easing your work through the process. Just remember to ALWAYS verify that you are working on the same item. (We do get interrupted sometimes.) NOTE 2: Items that are marked MISSING or charged to the DISCARD User must first have all checkouts, unpaid bills, and holds removed. Like patron records, these items cannot be purged at a later date, if there are any conditions on the item records. It is always best to CHECK IN these items, multiple times, if necessary, until the current location is either STACKS or UN-CAT, before using the wizard to mark them MISSING or charging them to the library s DISCARD User. 9. Review the patron record again before leaving it. In many instances, you will have multiple removals on one patron record (i.e., checkout/unpaid bill or bill/hold). a. Verify that all steps were completed. You should see a totally clear record. Checkouts: NONE (both Active and Inactive) Unpaid Bills: NONE Holds: NONE b. If there is a problem, review the process and view the patron record again, including inactive checkouts. Once all three fields display NONE, the batch purge process will be able to remove the record from the Page 4 of 6

5 system. (Remember, you CANNOT REMOVE the patron record, but you CAN make the appropriate changes so that the record will be removed later through the batch process.) 10. List XXX Expired Checkout Users Your library will receive this report if a user still has an item checked out to your library but does not have any unpaid bills. This can happen if the student loses an item pays for it but the item does not get discarded. You can view the inactive checked out item by selecting the Display User wizard enter the student ID/Name and click on the Checkouts tab - make sure to select All for type of checkout (found at the bottom of the screen). To remove the inactive checkout for this user check the item in and then check it out to your Discard User. 11. List XXX Expired Community Users If your library receives this report, review the list and determine which community members are still active, for these you may wish to extended their privileges for another year. For those community members needing an extended due date open the Modify User wizard and click the Privilege tab and change the expires date to the following year (in this case 8/31/2016 do not change the date for staff or students). If you do not extend the date for any community member listed on the list they will be deleted as part of the purge. Remember you can always create a new community user record later when needed. 12. List XXX Users Long Exp. / List XXX Users No Exp. Date Finished Reports a. Some libraries may receive one or both of these reports, if they have patron records with long expiration dates or no expiration date. The patrons listed in these finished reports may either be unofficial duplicate staff or student patrons, community patrons, or pseudo patrons created by your library. b. Any staff or student record which appears on either of these two lists is most likely an unofficial duplicate record. Refer to the Patron_Records document posted in the Basics section of the Circulation Manual on FirstClass for further instructions. Page 5 of 6

6 c. All of this school year s active student and staff patron records should have a privilege expiration date of August 31, During the summer, returning staff and students will automatically have the expiration date on their patron records extended to the following year. For active community patron records, the expiration date should be kept the same as that of enrolled students, so that the system will prompt you to extend the year in September if the community patron returns in the fall. d. There should be no patron record that is allowed to remain with an expiration date of NEVER or have privileges extended further into the future than 8/31/2016. It is your responsibility to modify such records and affix an appropriate date that allows for the annual review of patron records. Refer to the Patron_Modify document posted in the Basics section of the Circulation Manual for further instructions. 11. After completing your review of all of the finished patron reports that your library received and having made all necessary changes, please notify the Symphony System Administrator by that you have completed your work and are ready to have your expired patron records purged. DO s and DON TS: DON T extend privileges for continuing community patrons beyond 8/31/2016. DON T touch other libraries patron records or materials call the library staff. DON T assume anything if you have questions, call someone. DO watch for community patrons who are still with you and need extended privileges. DO take care of only your own library s materials. DO talk to staff at other libraries about patrons/unpaid bills/holds that relate to that library. DO ask questions and give feedback. These procedures are a work in progress. ***************************************************************** HAVE YOU DONE YOUR PART for the EXPIRED PATRONS PROCESS? Thanks for your help in keeping our database accurate and efficient! Page 6 of 6