Patron Imports Best Practices

If you import patrons yearly or use FTP saved imports, follow these steps to make sure your patron database is properly kept up-to-date.

If you use GG4L, Clever, or SIF to manage patrons, you don't have to follow all of these steps. At the beginning of the year, existing patrons will have their status changed to Active while those who have transferred or otherwise left will retain a Transferred status. Once your patron database is updated at the beginning of the year, follow the instructions on removing patrons and updating policies.

Advance patron grade levels and remove patrons who have graduated or transferred to prepare your system to import new students for the next year. Some libraries do it at the end of the year, and others do it at the beginning of the year. Either way is fine, just don't skip it.

There are two ways to advance your patron grade levels for the next year. Advance All Grades in Patron Preferences is the easiest option, but the Advance Patron Grade utility allows you to advance a more select group of patrons. Patrons who advance past the final grade in the grade table are assigned the value for Last Grade, which is usually "Graduated".

Advance All Grades

Advance all of your patrons to the next grade level at the same time.

1. Go to Tools > Preferences > Patrons.
2. Open the Grade Table tab.
3. Double-check the grade table and the Last Grade field for accuracy.
4. Check the Advance Grade After date, and change it if necessary. This is usually the graduation date or the last day of school.
5. Click Advance All Grades.
   
   

Advance Patron Grade utility

Need to be more precise about which patrons to advance? Select patrons by one or more options, including status, security group, policy, homeroom, grade, last name, and barcode.

1. Go to Tools > Utilities.
2. Select Patrons > General category on the left.
3. Choose the Advance Patron Grade utility on the right.
4. In the Selections tab, enter the criteria needed to select the patrons you intend to update.
5. Click Run.

Do your patron policies match your patron grade levels? If not, you need to update each patron record so their policy matches their new grade. Run the Change Patron Policy utility for each grade.

1. Go to Tools > Utilities.
2. Select the Patrons > General category on the left.
3. Choose the Change Patron Policy utility on the right.
4. In the Selections tab, enter the criteria needed to select the patrons you intend to update. 
   
   1. Patrons with a Status of: Limit the operation to one particular status, like Active, or choose Any to include them all.
   2. Patrons in Grade: Enter the user-defined value for the grade that needs to change (e.g. 8th), as defined in Grade Table preferences.
5. In the Options tab, choose the policy that will be assigned to the selected patrons.
6. Run the utility.
7. Repeat steps 4-6 for each grade, as needed.
   
   

Patrons will transfer in and out of your school. You'll want to add new patrons to Alexandria and update existing patron information. You can do this all through imports.

Patron information can come from any source that provides a text file in a tab-delimited file format; most word-processing and spreadsheet applications support files in tab-delimited format. In most cases, patron data is readily available in a machine-readable format from your school’s front or district office. Other schools automatically import updated patron information from a Student Information System (SIS). Since all libraries import patron information a little differently, check with your school or district office to find out how patron data is maintained.

Before you import new student records, using the Change Patron Location utility can help you later determine which patrons are no longer enrolled at your school and should be removed from the database. 

Change Patron Location utility

If your tab-delimited import file includes patron homerooms, change the homeroom for all of your currently-enrolled students to the same value. This example will replace the homeroom for all of your currently enrolled students to “Gone”.

1. Go to Tools > Utilities.
2. Select the Patrons > General category.
3. Choose the Change Patron Location utility on the right.
4. In the Selections tab, choose the options needed to select a group of student patron records. For example, you may want to select a student-only policy and/or security group — you don't want to accidentally update operators and/or staff records.
   
   1. Patrons with a Status of: Active
   2. Patrons in Security Group: Patron
   3. Patrons with a Policy of: (Student)
   4. Patrons from: Homeroom
      
      1. Leave the From and Through fields blank if you want to update them all.
5. In the Options tab, type “Gone” in the Change Location to field.
6. Run the utility.

The Homeroom field for all of the patrons matching your selections will be changed to "Gone". Next, import your new student records from your SIS. 

Import Patrons

Quick Patron Import

A new import at this point will update the homeroom for all patrons who are returning for the school year. Those who are not returning will retain the homeroom "Gone".

1. Go to Tools > Import.
2. Select the Patrons category on the left.
3. In the Imports pane, click Choose File. Locate the import file on your computer.
4. In the Settings tab, make the following selections:
   
   • Skip First Record: Check if the first record in your import file is an unrecognized header.
   • Patron Updates: Allow Import to Modify Existing Records
5. Run the import.

The homeroom for all returning patrons will be updated. The next step is to remove the other patrons, the ones with the homeroom "Gone". 

Remove Patrons

Patron Information report

Before you remove any patrons, first make sure that you won't accidentally remove anyone who isn't supposed to be removed.

1. Go to Tools > Reports.
2. Select the Patrons > Information category.
3. Choose the Patron Information report on the right.
4. On the Selections tab, choose the criteria for the patrons you want to remove.
   1. Patrons from Homeroom: Gone (if you followed the steps on the Import Records tab)
   2. Patrons from Homeroom: Transferred (if you use GG4L, Clever, or SIF)
5. Click Run.
6. Download the report PDF from  Operations Management.
7. Check for any patrons who shouldn't be removed (staff, teachers, etc). If you find any, you'll need to modify their homeroom either manually or by using the Change Patron Location utility (with the Patrons with Barcodes selection).
8. After making any necessary modifications, run this report again and get an updated list.
9. Once your list is acceptable, move on to removing patrons.
   
   

Remove patrons

Now that your student records have been updated, run the Remove Patrons utility to remove those patrons who aren't returning.

1. Go to Tools > Utilities.
2. Select the Patrons > General category on the left.
3. Choose the Remove Patrons utility on the right.
4. In the Selections tab, choose the criteria for the patrons whose records should be removed. Make sure Patrons from Homeroom is set to "Gone".
   1. Patrons from Homeroom: Gone (if you followed the steps on the Import Records tab)
   2. Patrons from Homeroom: Transferred (if you use GG4L, Clever, or SIF)
5. In the Options tab, choose if you want to remove patrons matching your criteria who still have items checked out or outstanding financial items. (Optional)
6. Run the utility.

And that's it! You may need to run this utility a few times, depending on your selection criteria.

Run the Remove Patrons utility to remove graduated students from the database. You may need to run it multiple times with different selections, depending on your needs.

1. Go to Tools > Utilities.
2. Select the Patrons > General category.
3. Choose the Remove Patrons utility on the right.
4. On the Selections tab, enter the criteria needed to select the individual patrons or groups of patrons you intend to remove. Make sure the correct status is selected (like Active or Transferred, or choose Any to include them all). Then depending on your method for tracking graduated patrons, you can use two different selections:
   1. If you keep track of graduation dates in patron records , enter the appropriate date range or relative date in the Graduation Date field.
       
   2. If you use Last Grade in the Grade Table Preferences , enter the user-defined value for Last Grade in the Patrons in Grade field (most commonly "Graduated").
      
5. On the Options tab, choose if you want patrons to be removed even if they have items checked out or outstanding charges.
6. Click Run.