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Patrons General Utilities
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Tools > Utilities > Patrons > General
Use(s)
- If a group of specific patrons need to meet with the librarian, select Alert Note and type "Needs to meet with librarian" on the Options tab before running this utility. Alert Notes pop up in Circulation whenever those patrons' barcodes are scanned.
- If a group of specific patrons are in special reading programs, considered at-risk, or belong to other groups that need to be recorded, select Category Note and type the desired note on the Options tab.
Selections
| Options
Add Note: Type the note you would like to add. 500 character limit. Note Type: Choose the type of note to add. Replace Existing Notes: When checked, this option removes all existing notes of the chosen type and completely replaces them with what's in the Add Note field. |
Advance Patron Grade
Moves specified patrons to the next grade (i.e. level)
"Grade" is a localization term that can be altered in Localization Preferences.
You can customize your grades (i.e. levels) in the Grade Table in Patron Preferences.
If you name your policies after grades, then you'll need to update those policies after running this utility. This has to be changed on a policy-by-policy basis using the Change Patron Policy utility.
Use(s)
Run this utility if you need to be specific about what types of patrons need to be moved to the next grade level. If you would like to advance all patron grades at the same time, use the Advance All Grades utility on the Grade Table tab of Patron Preferences.
Read the Advance Patrons section of our Beginning-of-Year Procedures for more information.
Selections
Change Patron Grade
Changes the grade (i.e. level) of selected patrons to the specified grade
"Grade" is a localization term that can be altered in Localization Preferences.
Use(s)
Run this utility if patrons were accidentally imported or added with the wrong grade and the correct grade needs to be added.
Selections
| Options
Change Grade to: Specify the new grade you would like selected patrons to be in. |
Change Patron 2nd Location
Changes or adds a specified 2nd location for selected patrons
"2nd Location" is a localization term that can be altered in Localization Preferences.
You can also use Authority Control to edit, combine, or remove individual 2nd locations.
Selections
| Options
Change 2nd Location to: Specify the new 2nd location you would like selected patrons to have. If this field is left blank, the utility will remove the current 2nd location. |
Change Patron Location
Textbook Tracker
Changes the location of selected patrons to the specified location
"Location" is a localization term that can be altered in Localization Preferences.
You can also use Authority Control to edit, combine, or remove individual locations.
Use(s)
- Run this utility to set patron homerooms based on grade. In the Patrons in Grade selection, enter the grade(s) you want to assign a specific homeroom.
- Use this utility to merge patron homerooms at the end of the school year. This may make it easier to assign new homerooms at the beginning of the year.
Selections
| Options
Change Location to: Specify the new location you would like selected patrons to have. |
Change Patron Policy
Changes the policy of selected patrons to the specified policy
Newly changed patron policies will not affect the loan periods or fines for currently checked out items. To adjust these based on the newly changed policies, run the Recompute Due Dates utility after this utility.
Use(s)
If you base policies off of grades, run this utility at the end or beginning of a school year to update patron policies after advancing patron grades. Use the Patrons in Grade selection to specify the grade(s) to which you want to assign a particular policy.
Check out our Beginning-of-Year Procedures and End-of-Year Procedures for more tips on preparing your library for summer or the new school year.
Selections
| Options
Change Policy to: Specify the new policy you would like selected patrons to have. |
Change Patron Security Group
Changes the security group of selected patrons to the specified security group
Security Level controls which security groups a user can modify. For example, patrons assigned a security group with Security Level 2 can only modify groups with a Security Level of 3 or lower (3, 4, 5). However, this rule does not apply to District Administrators (Level 0).
Use(s)
Run this utility if you assign security group by grade. In the Patrons in Grade selection, enter the grade(s) you want to assign a specific homeroom.
Selections
| Options
New Security Group: Specify the new security group you would like selected patrons to be in. |
Change Patron Status
Changes the status of selected patrons to the specified status
How does each status affect patron permissions?
- Active: These patrons can use the library (check in and out) according to the rules of the assigned patron policies.
- Card Lost or Suspended: These statuses cause a warning message to appear when the patron barcode is entered in Circulation and require operator intervention in order to continue.
- Transferred, Inactive, or Other: These options are used mainly for generating reports for patrons with a statuses other than Active; for example, those who have transferred or are inactive. These statuses cause an alert message to appear in Circulation when the patron barcode is entered.
Use(s)
- Run this utility if you need to give a group of patrons who previously had an Inactive or Suspended status an Active status again.
- Run this utility at the end of the school year to give all patrons an Inactive status, which will prevent them from placing holds, making reservations, and more over the summer. Then at the beginning of the school year, use this utility to restore everyone's Active status.
Selections
| Options
Change Status to: Specify the new status you would like selected patrons to have. |
Forgive Charges
Textbook Tracker
Forgives selected charges, fees, or fines created during the specified transaction date range
What's included in each charge category?
- All Charges, Fees, and Fines: Everything
- Lost Fees Only: Charge record with a transaction note or description of “Lost”
- Overdue Fines Only: Charge record with a transaction note or description of “Overdue Fine” or a currently accumulating fine
- Other Charges/Fees: Everything except items in 2 and 3
Use(s)
- Run this utility to remove accidental charges, fees, and/or fines. This may occur when there are snow days or school breaks.
- If you declare all overdue items at the end of the school year as lost but only want to charge the lost item fee (not overdue fines), run this utility with the Overdue Fines Only option selected.
Selections
| Options
Choose which charge category to forgive. Transaction Date Starting: Specify a starting date in MM/DD/YYYY format. If left blank, all selected past charges will be forgiven. And Ending: Specify an ending date in MM/DD/YYYY format. |
This utility is only available to those with a Centralized Catalog.
Move Patrons to Site
Moves selected patrons from their current site to the specified site
Use(s)
Run this utility if you accidentally imported patron records to the wrong site and need to move them.
Selections
| Options
New Site: Specify the new site you would like selected patrons to be in. |
Reassign Union Site Patrons
Changes the assigned site of selected patrons from the Union Site to the specified site
Use(s)
Patrons are assigned to the Union Site when imports are run with an invalid or non-existent site code. If you made a mistake while importing patron records and they are now assigned to the Union Site, run this utility to assign them to the correct site.
Selections
| Options
New Site: Specify the new site you would like selected patrons to be in. |
Remove Patron History
Removes everything but Lexile history from selected patrons' histories
The Patron History report shows recent payments (including credits), renewals, lost items, refunds, Lexile history, and returned items for individual patrons. After running this utility, everything but Lexile history is removed:
Before running the Remove Patron History utility | After running the Remove Patron History utility |
There are two places to automatically download the Patron History report for an individual patron:
- Circulation > Actions menu
in the Current Patron pane > History
- Patrons Management > Actions menu
Use(s)
Run this utility when you need to clear up space in your database, start with a clean slate on statistics, or remove information because of privacy concerns.
Selections
Use(s)
Run this utility to remove old and temporary notes past librarians may have left.
Selections
| Options
Note Type: Choose the type of note to remove. All notes of the chosen type will be removed. |
Remove Patron Pictures
Removes the pictures of selected patrons
Use(s)
If you need to remove patron pictures because they need to be replaced or removed because of privacy concerns, run this utility.
Selections
Remove Patrons
Textbook Tracker
Removes selected patron records from your database
Use(s)
- Run this utility at the end of the school year if you re-import your patrons each year and need a clean slate.
- There are two ways to use this utility to remove graduated patrons at the end of the school year:
- If you keep track of graduation dates in patron records, enter the appropriate date range or relative date in the Graduation Date selection.
- If you use Last Grade in the Grade Table Preferences, enter the user-defined value for Last Grade (most commonly "Graduated") in the Patrons in Grade selection.
- If you manage patrons with SIF or Clever, patrons who have an active record in Alexandria but are no longer included in the synced data will be marked as Transferred (this may include graduated and transferred students). Those patron records will need to be removed manually. Run this utility to remove patrons with a status of Transferred.
Check out our Beginning-of-Year Procedures and End-of-Year Procedures for tips and instructions on preparing your library for summer and the new school year.
Selections
| Options
Remove even with Checked Out or Outstanding Financial Items, including Credits: When unchecked, all selected patrons without checked out items or charges will be removed. Some things, like reviews, are transferred to the Unknown Patron rather than deleted. When checked, all selected patrons will be removed no matter what. Checked out items will be declared lost, and holds, reservations, charges, and credits are all removed. |
Renew Patron Cards
Renews the library cards of all selected patrons
This utility will only work when Preferences > Patrons > Patron Rules > Disable Card Expiration Dates is unchecked.
The number of days a patron's card is active after renewal is determined by patron policies.
Selections
Reset Passwords
Resets selected patrons' passwords to their last name (all lowercase letters)
For security purposes, we strongly recommend that each user change their password after initially accessing their account when passwords have been reset.
Use(s)
Run this utility at the beginning of the school year to let patrons who have forgotten their passwords over the summer log into their accounts.
Selections
