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Patron Preferences


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Patron Rules

Use the Patron Rules tab to forcibly set the default state of the Keep Patron History option for your patrons and also to enable/disable patron card expiration dates.


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Settings
  • 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. When this preference is enabled, you are prohibited from adjusting the Keep Patron History options in both Policies and Patrons management.
  • Disable Card Expiration Dates. When checked, the program will ignore the calendar date in which patron's cards expire and hides the Card Exp Date field in the Patrons management window.


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Video

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Patron Defaults

Use these preferences to configure some of the default settings applied to new patrons when they are added to your system; for example, set the patron's Default Policy and Next Barcode.

Settings

Barcode Settings

  • 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 Groups

  • 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.

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Patron Pictures

You can apply generic Male, Female, or Unknown images to patrons if they don't have an individual profile picture attached to their record in the Personal Info tab of the Patrons management window; 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 in the Personal Info tab of the Patrons management window, these pictures will be used instead. Optimal image size for patron pictures is 186 pixels wide by 240 pixels high.


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Apply New Default Patron Pictures

Follow these steps to apply new gender-based patron picture defaults:

  1. Select (highlight) the default patron picture you would like to change (e.g. Male, Female, or Unknown).
    1. New default patron images should measure no larger than 186 x 240 pixels.
    2. New default patron images can be JPEG, GIF, PNG, or BMP (or any other image format that your browser supports).
  2. Drag-and-drop your new default patron image onto the Default Picture field.
  3. Click Save to apply your changes or Revert to discard them.

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Default Patron Images


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Grade Table

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.

Settings
  • 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 Grade 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.
  • Advance All Grades. 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.


Grades in the Grade Table need to exactly match the Grade entry in the Patron Management record for the Advance All Grades utility to work. Often, the grades defined in the patron record are mistakenly padded with “0”s which causes the Advance Grade Utility to fail.

Another example of an error-causing incongruence would be a patron with “5th” in the Grade field of their patron record when “5” is the standard defined in the Grade Table preferences.

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Step by Step
  1. Click Add; this will call forth the Add New Grade level roll-down, allowing you to add a new level to the grade table.
  2. First, indicate the Sort order for the grade. For example, if the earliest grade level you support is kindergarten, then “1” should be your Kindergarten Sort value. If, at a future date, you incorporate a new Preschool level and that becomes your new “1”, then your Kindergarten Sort value will be automatically bumped to “2”. The value you provide changes where the grade appears in the Grade Table; the Sort order also affects how grades are advanced.
  3. Next, provide a simple Grade name; this will appear in the Grade field of the Patrons management window, Patron Details, and Patron Reports among other places.
  4. Finally, provide an extended grade Description; this is commonly a more explanatory version of the Grade name. For example, your Description for grade “7” could be “7th Grade”.
  5. When you are finished, click OK to continue.
  6. Finally, click Save to keep your new grade level or Revert to discard it.
  1. To remove a grade from the table, select (highlight) the grade that you would like eliminated and click Remove.
  2. When you are finished, click Save to keep your changes or Revert to discard them.
  1. To edit existing information in the Grade Table, select (highlight) the grade that you would like to modify and click the Edit button; this will call forth the Edit Grade level roll-down.
  2. You can edit information in the Sort, Grade, and Description fields. If you modify the Sort order, the grades in the table will be adjusted automatically.
  3. When you have finished making changes, click OK.
  4. Finally, click Save to keep your changes or Revert to discard them.

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Lexile

Reading is essential to your patron's success. The lexile values established here are used to track your patron's reading progress as they move from kindergarten through high school. For more information on the importance and increasing performance of lexile scoring, please review the corresponding Alexandria Lexiles section.

Settings
  • Reading to Learn Lexile. The lexile value at which a patron has moved from Learning to Read to Reading to Learn. The transition from Learning to Read to Reading to Learn usually occurs between the third and fourth grade; therefore, the default Reading to Learn Lexile value is commonly set somewhere between 345 and 460.
  • Color Lexile Graphs. Use color in lexile progress graphs. Graphs without color are easier to read when printed in black and white or grayscale. This preference also affects the printed and on-screen outcome of your patron Lexile reports.


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