Add Patron Notes

Adds or appends a Contact, General, Alert, or Category note to selected patrons

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

Add Patron Notes utility Selections tab

Options

Add Patron Notes utility Options tab

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 Terminology 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 Manual Entry section of our Patron Imports Best Practices for more information.

Selections

Advance Patron Grade utility Selections tab

Change Patron Grade

 Textbook Tracker

Changes the grade (i.e. level) of selected patrons to the specified grade

"Grade" is a localization term that can be altered in Terminology 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

Change Patron Grade utility Selections tab

Options

Change Patron Grade utility Options tab

Change Grade to: Specify the new grade you would like selected patrons to be in.

Change Patron 2nd Location

Textbook Tracker

Changes or adds a specified 2nd location for selected patrons

"2nd Location" is a localization term that can be altered in Terminology Preferences.

You can also use Authority Control to edit, combine, or remove individual 2nd locations.

Selections

Change Patron 2nd Location utility Selections tab

Options

Change Patron 2nd Location utility Options tab

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 Terminology 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

Change Patron Location utility Selections tab

Options

Change Patron Location utility Options tab

Change Location to: Specify the new location you would like selected patrons to have.

Change Patron Policy

Textbook Tracker

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

Change Patron Policy utility Selections tab

Options

Change Patron Policy utility Options tab

Change Policy to: Specify the new policy you would like selected patrons to have.

Change Patron Security Group

Textbook Tracker

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

Change Patron Security Group utility Selections tab

Options

Change Patron Security Group utility Options tab

New Security Group: Specify the new security group you would like selected patrons to be in.

Change Patron Status

 Textbook Tracker

Changes the status of selected patrons to the specified status

How does each status affect patron permissions?

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

Change Patron Status utility Selections tab

Options

Change Patron Status utility Options tab

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?

  1. All Charges, Fees, and Fines: Everything
  2. Lost Fees Only: Charge record with a transaction note or description of “Lost”
  3. Overdue Fines Only: Charge record with a transaction note or description of “Overdue Fine” or a currently accumulating fine
  4. Other Charges/Fees: Everything except items in 2 and 3
Use(s)
  • 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.
  • If you only want to forgive minimal charges—such as those under $1—use the Patron Balance selection to indicate that range.
Selections

Forgive Charges utility Selections tab

Patron Balance: Enter a balance range to forgive. 

Options

Forgive Charges utility Options tab

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

Textbook Tracker

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

Move Patrons to Site utility Selections tab

Options

Move Patrons to Site utility Options tab

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

Reassign Union Site Patrons utility Selections tab

Options

Reassign Union Site Patrons utility Options tab

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:

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

Remove Patron History utility Selections tab

Remove Patron Notes

Removes all Contact, General, Alert, or Category notes from selected patrons

Use(s)

Run this utility to remove old and temporary notes past librarians may have left.

Selections

Remove Patron Notes utility Selections tab

Options

Remove Patron Notes utility Options tab

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 Patron Pictures utility Selections tab

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 GG4L 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. You can also run this utility if you update patrons with manual imports, FTP, or SIF; however, you'll select for patrons with a Homeroom (i.e. location) of Gone.

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

Remove Patrons utility Selections tab

Options

Remove Patrons utility Options tab

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 Accounts

Renews the accounts of all selected patrons 

Textbook Tracker

This utility will only work when Preferences > Patrons > Patron Rules > Disable account expiration dates is unchecked.

The number of days a patron's account is active after renewal is determined by patron policies.

Selections

Renew Patron Account utility's Selections tab

Reset Patron Accounts

Textbook Tracker

Resets patron usernames and/or passwords to the chosen formats

Operators must have these specific security permissions to run this utility:

  • Management > Patrons > Import, Export and Utilities
  • Management > Patron Passwords > Edit

Note that operators can only change the passwords of those with a lower security level than themselves.

Use(s)
  • Run this utility at the beginning of the school year to let patrons who have forgotten their usernames and passwords over the summer successfully log into their accounts.
  • If students aren't familiar with their barcodes, run this utility to change usernames to something easier to remember, such as their first initial and last name.
Selections

Reset Patron Accounts utility Selections

Options

Reset Patron Accounts utility Options

Reset Password by

No Change: Choose this option if you only want to reset usernames.

Last Name (non-secure): Changes each patron's password to their last name. Patrons with special characters or accents in their last name will be prompted to create a new password when logging in, as diacritical letters are not supported in the password field. For security purposes, we strongly recommend that each patron change their password after initially accessing their account. 

Patron (email link): Emails patrons a password reset link. They will be able to choose their new password.

Reset Username by

No Change: Choose this option if you only want to reset passwords.

Barcode: Changes usernames to each patron's barcode. Username fields in Alexandria default to barcode.

First Initial + Last Name: Changes usernames to each patron's combined first initial and last name (e.g. Darla Anderson's username would be "danderson").

First Name + Last Name: Changes usernames to each patron's combined first name and last name (e.g. Darla Anderson's username would be "darlaanderson").

Email Address: Changes usernames to each patron's email address. If a patron has multiple emails, the utility will use the first one listed in their patron record.

Use Nickname when available: When checked, the patron's nickname will be used instead of their first name.

Patrons will be skipped if changing their username would result in duplicates. They will also be skipped if you're changing usernames to email addresses and they have none listed.  After running the utility, check the Operations Information  file to see if any patrons were skipped.