Barcode

Next Barcode

New patrons are assigned this, the next available barcode number, unless you assign them a number manually. You should set this field when you first configure Alexandria so that new patrons are assigned barcodes that coincide with your numbering strategy.

Policy

Default Policy

Select the default patron policy to use for new patrons. If a user-created patron policy is selected and later removed from your Policies, this preference will revert back to Standard Patron. Review the Policies section for more information about implementing policies for patrons and items.

Security

Default Security Group

Select the security group you want applied to new patrons by default; ordinarily, this should always be set to Patron or Patron Limited. Review the section Preferences Configuration Security for more information about assigning (and removing) access levels for patrons and operators.

History 

Keep history for all patrons. When checked, a complete transaction history will be kept for all the patrons who are added to your library system.

Library Accounts

Disable account expiration dates. Ignores the calendar date when patron accounts expire, and disables the Account Expiration field in Patrons Management and the Days Patron's Account is Active field in Policies.

You can apply generic Male, Female, or Unspecified images to patrons if they don't have an individual profile picture attached to their record on the Personal tab of Patrons Management; pictures are assigned based on the gender value selected for each patron.

You can affix nearly any image supported by your browser (commonly accepted formats are JPEG, GIF, PNG, or BMP) into one of the three gender-based patron picture fields. If you don't have individual patron portraits assigned on the Personal tab of Patrons Management, these pictures will be used instead. Optimal image size for patron pictures is 155 pixels wide by 200 high. 

Individually enter each grade level relevant to your union in the order they should be sorted and incremented. This is a simple list; the first entry in the Grade Table will be your first grade level, the second will be the next grade level, etc. The Grade and Description entries in the table are fully customizable, allowing you to use whatever terminology you desire. Grades must be advanced manually at the end of each school year by using the Advance All Grades button or the Advance Patron Level utility. Using one of these utilities, you can advance your patrons to the next grade level until they reach the Last Grade level (e.g. Graduated); patrons will never advance past the Last Grade level.

Last Grade

This user-defined field defines your patron's highest (and final) level of advancement. This level will be assigned to patrons who go beyond the levels defined in the Grade Table. Patrons will not be advanced out of this level when grades are advanced. Default is Graduated and the field must contain a value—it cannot be left blank.

Advance After

This value is used to compute the projected graduation date when importing StudentPersonal objects using SIF. Never rearrange the grade table if you are importing with SIF. Changing the Advance Grade After (usually graduation date) does not advance a Grade; changing a Grade does not change the graduation date.

Last Date of Grade Advancement

This non-editable field shows when the latest Advance All Grades operation was performed; the date is updated after the utility has completed.

Add

Add a new grade.

Advance all grades now

Each time this is clicked, you essentially add one grade level to each of your patrons until they reach the Last Grade level (described above). To elucidate, each patron in your database that has been applied a level that you defined in your Grade Table will have their level transitioned to the next grade in the table. For example, a patron with the grade level of 6 will advance to 7. COMPanion recommends that you perform an Archive before using the Advance All Grades button. Patrons whose grade/level is either not found or not defined in the Grade Table will not have their grade level advanced.