Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Batch Functions
Great suggestion. Some of these features would be very useful in public library environments as well. Thanks for sharing. CM -- Chauncey G. Montgomery, MLIS Director/Fiscal Officer | Community Library 44 Burrer Drive | Sunbury, OH 43074 740-965-3901 | http://community.lib.oh.us On 12/08/2014 04:49 PM, Martha Driscoll wrote: The Evergreen for Academics group has been discussing several issues of importance to academic libraries including support for batch loading of patron records, batch patron update, and batch patron delete. Academic libraries regularly load student records at the beginning of a semester to both add new students to Evergreen and update the contact information and expiration dates of students already in the database. Loads can be once a semester but can also be more frequent than that. Even though academic libraries who regularly load student records likely have a set of scripts in place to automate this task, it would be great if there were an interface within the client, similar to Vandelay, for batch loading of patron records. Batch updates can also be important to change expiration dates for a group of students or faculty. As students leave their academic institution, it is important to delete those expired records. I put together a list on the Evergreen for Academic wiki of the functions that a batch patron interface should have. This list is based my experience loading patron files for our 10 academic consortium members. Please let me know what issues you encounter and what functionality should be included on the wiki. http://wiki.evergreen-ils.org/doku.php?id=evergreen_for_academics:batch_patron_functions
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Batch Functions
I don't know about others but at C/W MARS the academics provide a file and all the data comes from the student information system including mailing addresses. We often get one address that is a campus address and one that is a home address. I think Martha has it covered but we have some institutions who would want address information overlaid and others who might want all address in the record because of the way students can move around. On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 8:39 PM, Galen Charlton g...@esilibrary.com wrote: Hi, On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 3:49 PM, Martha Driscoll drisc...@noblenet.org wrote: I put together a list on the Evergreen for Academic wiki of the functions that a batch patron interface should have. This list is based my experience loading patron files for our 10 academic consortium members. Please let me know what issues you encounter and what functionality should be included on the wiki. http://wiki.evergreen-ils.org/doku.php?id=evergreen_for_academics:batch_patron_functions Thanks for putting this together, Martha, it looks like a great start. One set of use cases that I'm particularly curious about are how addresses should be handled. For example, does it suffice for most of the libraries in the IG to have the batch import handle one address per patron? Do any of you get mailing address data from any place other than the student and staff information systems? Are any of you in a position to not have to worry about keeping student mailing addresses in the ILS at all? Regards, Galen -- Galen Charlton Manager of Implementation Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts email: g...@esilibrary.com direct: +1 770-709-5581 cell: +1 404-984-4366 skype: gmcharlt web:http://www.esilibrary.com/ Supporting Koha and Evergreen: http://koha-community.org http://evergreen-ils.org -- Tim Spindler tjspind...@gmail.com *P** Go Green - **Save a tree! Please don't print this e-mail unless it's really necessary.*
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Batch Functions
I think the syncing between Evergreen and the student information system will be critical part and I think the workflow you mentioned Tim is fairly typical. I noticed that the wiki write up already mentions an ident_value. Is that intended to be a unique identifier from the origin student information system? If so, can we imagine a scenario where we might have multiple origin student systems, such as a consortium with multiple schools? We might need a table to identify those external sources. On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 8:50 AM, Tim Spindler tjspind...@gmail.com wrote: I don't know about others but at C/W MARS the academics provide a file and all the data comes from the student information system including mailing addresses. We often get one address that is a campus address and one that is a home address. I think Martha has it covered but we have some institutions who would want address information overlaid and others who might want all address in the record because of the way students can move around. On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 8:39 PM, Galen Charlton g...@esilibrary.com wrote: Hi, On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 3:49 PM, Martha Driscoll drisc...@noblenet.org wrote: I put together a list on the Evergreen for Academic wiki of the functions that a batch patron interface should have. This list is based my experience loading patron files for our 10 academic consortium members. Please let me know what issues you encounter and what functionality should be included on the wiki. http://wiki.evergreen-ils.org/doku.php?id=evergreen_for_academics:batch_patron_functions Thanks for putting this together, Martha, it looks like a great start. One set of use cases that I'm particularly curious about are how addresses should be handled. For example, does it suffice for most of the libraries in the IG to have the batch import handle one address per patron? Do any of you get mailing address data from any place other than the student and staff information systems? Are any of you in a position to not have to worry about keeping student mailing addresses in the ILS at all? Regards, Galen -- Galen Charlton Manager of Implementation Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts email: g...@esilibrary.com direct: +1 770-709-5581 cell: +1 404-984-4366 skype: gmcharlt web:http://www.esilibrary.com/ Supporting Koha and Evergreen: http://koha-community.org http://evergreen-ils.org -- Tim Spindler tjspind...@gmail.com *P** Go Green - **Save a tree! Please don't print this e-mail unless it's really necessary.* -- Rogan Hamby, MLS, CCNP, MIA Managers Headquarters Library and Reference Services, York County Library System “You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” ― C.S. Lewis http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1069006.C_S_Lewis
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Batch Functions
Hi everyone, The address question is interesting as we really only use email addresses and cell numbers for library functions. If we need to pursue someone because of lost items, etc, we refer those students to Student Accounts. They would have the addresses from the student info system. Maybe physical addresses aren't as critical anymore? Just a thought. Thanks! Gordana Gordana Vitez, BA (Hons), MLIS Library Services Systems Coordinator Library Bookstore Services Welland Campus Niagara College gvi...@niagaracollege.ca 905.735.2211 ext 7404 http://www.niagaracollege.ca/library -Original Message- From: open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org [mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of Walz, Jennifer Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2014 9:38 AM To: Evergreen Discussion Group Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Batch Functions All - We do not worry about addresses for ON-campus students. They live here. :-)But we do need addresses for off-campus students. So it would be great to have a marker or indicator or way to distinguish between those two. But we would need only one address on the patron record.We also make sure that every student has an on-campus email address. Jennifer -- Jennifer Walz, MLS - ILS person Kinlaw Library - Asbury University One Macklem Drive, Wilmore, KY 40390 859-858-3511 ext. 2269 jlw...@asbury.edu -Original Message- From: open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org [mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of Galen Charlton Sent: Monday, December 08, 2014 8:40 PM To: Evergreen Discussion Group Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Batch Functions Hi, On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 3:49 PM, Martha Driscoll drisc...@noblenet.org wrote: I put together a list on the Evergreen for Academic wiki of the functions that a batch patron interface should have. This list is based my experience loading patron files for our 10 academic consortium members. Please let me know what issues you encounter and what functionality should be included on the wiki. http://wiki.evergreen-ils.org/doku.php?id=evergreen_for_academics:batc h_patron_functions Thanks for putting this together, Martha, it looks like a great start. One set of use cases that I'm particularly curious about are how addresses should be handled. For example, does it suffice for most of the libraries in the IG to have the batch import handle one address per patron? Do any of you get mailing address data from any place other than the student and staff information systems? Are any of you in a position to not have to worry about keeping student mailing addresses in the ILS at all? Regards, Galen -- Galen Charlton Manager of Implementation Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts email: g...@esilibrary.com direct: +1 770-709-5581 cell: +1 404-984-4366 skype: gmcharlt web:http://www.esilibrary.com/ Supporting Koha and Evergreen: http://koha-community.org http://evergreen-ils.org
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Batch Functions
When I load student records I provide for up to two addresses. Libraries provide the local address first followed by a secondary address. The first address gets an address_type of 'MAILING' and it's ID is set in the usr.mailing_address and usr.billing_address. The second address gets an address_type of 'ALTERNATE'. Either address can be blank but all our libraries provide a primary address and some provide a secondary home or international address. I'm not sure how critical it is to have the secondary address in Evergreen. If students live on campus, then the campus address is used. If the student has a mail stop, then that can be included as well. Community colleges provide a single home address. It is important in our consortia to have valid mailing addresses for all patrons for notice printing. If the student borrows material from another library, that library may want to mail paper notices or a bill. -- Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 12/8/2014 8:39 PM, Galen Charlton wrote: Hi, On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 3:49 PM, Martha Driscoll drisc...@noblenet.org wrote: I put together a list on the Evergreen for Academic wiki of the functions that a batch patron interface should have. This list is based my experience loading patron files for our 10 academic consortium members. Please let me know what issues you encounter and what functionality should be included on the wiki. http://wiki.evergreen-ils.org/doku.php?id=evergreen_for_academics:batch_patron_functions Thanks for putting this together, Martha, it looks like a great start. One set of use cases that I'm particularly curious about are how addresses should be handled. For example, does it suffice for most of the libraries in the IG to have the batch import handle one address per patron? Do any of you get mailing address data from any place other than the student and staff information systems? Are any of you in a position to not have to worry about keeping student mailing addresses in the ILS at all? Regards, Galen
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Batch Functions
Rogan, Thanks for mentioning the unique identifier problem. I did intent to associate ident_value with the unique identifier coming from the campus system. Having non-unique identifiers from multiple campus systems is definitely a possibility. Our libraries are told to append the org_unit shortname to the university id. That mostly works well except in cases where a student was entered by hand prior to a data load and the library staff person did not enter the ID or entered it without the shortname appended. We will see barcode collisions in that case which will halt the load until resolved. Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 12/9/2014 9:12 AM, Rogan Hamby wrote: I think the syncing between Evergreen and the student information system will be critical part and I think the workflow you mentioned Tim is fairly typical. I noticed that the wiki write up already mentions an ident_value. Is that intended to be a unique identifier from the origin student information system? If so, can we imagine a scenario where we might have multiple origin student systems, such as a consortium with multiple schools? We might need a table to identify those external sources. On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 8:50 AM, Tim Spindler tjspind...@gmail.com mailto:tjspind...@gmail.com wrote: I don't know about others but at C/W MARS the academics provide a file and all the data comes from the student information system including mailing addresses. We often get one address that is a campus address and one that is a home address. I think Martha has it covered but we have some institutions who would want address information overlaid and others who might want all address in the record because of the way students can move around. On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 8:39 PM, Galen Charlton g...@esilibrary.com mailto:g...@esilibrary.com wrote: Hi, On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 3:49 PM, Martha Driscoll drisc...@noblenet.org mailto:drisc...@noblenet.org wrote: I put together a list on the Evergreen for Academic wiki of the functions that a batch patron interface should have. This list is based my experience loading patron files for our 10 academic consortium members. Please let me know what issues you encounter and what functionality should be included on the wiki. http://wiki.evergreen-ils.org/doku.php?id=evergreen_for_academics:batch_patron_functions Thanks for putting this together, Martha, it looks like a great start. One set of use cases that I'm particularly curious about are how addresses should be handled. For example, does it suffice for most of the libraries in the IG to have the batch import handle one address per patron? Do any of you get mailing address data from any place other than the student and staff information systems? Are any of you in a position to not have to worry about keeping student mailing addresses in the ILS at all? Regards, Galen -- Galen Charlton Manager of Implementation Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts email: g...@esilibrary.com mailto:g...@esilibrary.com direct: +1 770-709-5581 tel:%2B1%20770-709-5581 cell: +1 404-984-4366 tel:%2B1%20404-984-4366 skype: gmcharlt web: http://www.esilibrary.com/ Supporting Koha and Evergreen: http://koha-community.org http://evergreen-ils.org -- Tim Spindler tjspind...@gmail.com mailto:tjspind...@gmail.com *P** Go Green - **Save a tree! Please don't print this e-mail unless it's really necessary.* -- Rogan Hamby, MLS, CCNP, MIA Managers Headquarters Library and Reference Services, York County Library System “You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” ― C.S. Lewis http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1069006.C_S_Lewis
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Batch Functions
Hi, The C/W MARS network has a mix of academic and public libraries. The address field in the Evergreen patron record is very important to our public libraries when they fill Holds for academic libraries. Public libraries need enough information to contact the academic patron if necessary. Joan Joan Kranich C/W MARS Member Services jkran...@cwmars.org 508-755-3323 ext. 21 -Original Message- From: open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org [mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of Gordana Vitez Sent: Tuesday, December 9, 2014 10:23 AM To: Evergreen Discussion Group Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Batch Functions Hi everyone, The address question is interesting as we really only use email addresses and cell numbers for library functions. If we need to pursue someone because of lost items, etc, we refer those students to Student Accounts. They would have the addresses from the student info system. Maybe physical addresses aren't as critical anymore? Just a thought. Thanks! Gordana Gordana Vitez, BA (Hons), MLIS Library Services Systems Coordinator Library Bookstore Services Welland Campus Niagara College gvi...@niagaracollege.ca 905.735.2211 ext 7404 http://www.niagaracollege.ca/library -Original Message- From: open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org [mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of Walz, Jennifer Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2014 9:38 AM To: Evergreen Discussion Group Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Batch Functions All - We do not worry about addresses for ON-campus students. They live here. :-)But we do need addresses for off-campus students. So it would be great to have a marker or indicator or way to distinguish between those two. But we would need only one address on the patron record.We also make sure that every student has an on-campus email address. Jennifer -- Jennifer Walz, MLS - ILS person Kinlaw Library - Asbury University One Macklem Drive, Wilmore, KY 40390 859-858-3511 ext. 2269 jlw...@asbury.edu -Original Message- From: open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org [mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of Galen Charlton Sent: Monday, December 08, 2014 8:40 PM To: Evergreen Discussion Group Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Batch Functions Hi, On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 3:49 PM, Martha Driscoll drisc...@noblenet.org wrote: I put together a list on the Evergreen for Academic wiki of the functions that a batch patron interface should have. This list is based my experience loading patron files for our 10 academic consortium members. Please let me know what issues you encounter and what functionality should be included on the wiki. http://wiki.evergreen-ils.org/doku.php?id=evergreen_for_academics:batc h_patron_functions Thanks for putting this together, Martha, it looks like a great start. One set of use cases that I'm particularly curious about are how addresses should be handled. For example, does it suffice for most of the libraries in the IG to have the batch import handle one address per patron? Do any of you get mailing address data from any place other than the student and staff information systems? Are any of you in a position to not have to worry about keeping student mailing addresses in the ILS at all? Regards, Galen -- Galen Charlton Manager of Implementation Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts email: g...@esilibrary.com direct: +1 770-709-5581 cell: +1 404-984-4366 skype: gmcharlt web:http://www.esilibrary.com/ Supporting Koha and Evergreen: http://koha-community.org http://evergreen-ils.org
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Batch Functions
Hi Chauncey, I absolutely agree. Having a tool to update batches of patron records can come in handy for any number of projects that a public library may be doing, such as: - add statistical categories to users for better demographic information - fix data migration problems - fix interesting spellings of cities - update expiration dates - update passwords based on a formula - update usernames based on a formula - standardize prefix or suffix text - add/remove alert_messages Public libraries enter patron data by hand for the most part rather than load it from another database. Inconsistencies in spelling, case, and format could be easily cleaned up. I have also used patron load functionality to add dummy ILL patron records to our system. These are used to check out material to off-system libraries and loading them in batch ensures that coding for statistics is accurate and consistent. Deleting expired patrons is also not just an academic function. Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 12/9/2014 8:44 AM, Chauncey Montgomery wrote: Great suggestion. Some of these features would be very useful in public library environments as well. Thanks for sharing. CM
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Batch Functions
Our academic libraries use the unique identifiers from the student information system as ident_value. We have only a few academic libraries, but some use the same student information system (same software, runs separately). We encountered the duplicate ident_value issue, and had to pad it. We also have another working scenario. Some libraries want to sync between Evergreen and the student information system on every patron load. They send us a complete current students file. We delete all student records based on patron profile, such as Student and Postgrad Student, and then undelete and update matching records and load nonmatching records. Tina Ji Support Specialist BC Libraries Coop Quoting Martha Driscoll drisc...@noblenet.org: Rogan, Thanks for mentioning the unique identifier problem. I did intent to associate ident_value with the unique identifier coming from the campus system. Having non-unique identifiers from multiple campus systems is definitely a possibility. Our libraries are told to append the org_unit shortname to the university id. That mostly works well except in cases where a student was entered by hand prior to a data load and the library staff person did not enter the ID or entered it without the shortname appended. We will see barcode collisions in that case which will halt the load until resolved. Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 12/9/2014 9:12 AM, Rogan Hamby wrote: I think the syncing between Evergreen and the student information system will be critical part and I think the workflow you mentioned Tim is fairly typical. I noticed that the wiki write up already mentions an ident_value. Is that intended to be a unique identifier from the origin student information system? If so, can we imagine a scenario where we might have multiple origin student systems, such as a consortium with multiple schools? We might need a table to identify those external sources. Tina Ji 1-888-848-9250 Support Specialist BC Libraries Cooperative/Sitka
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Batch Functions
Hello all, We currently sync to two different student information systems, one for the college and one for the seminary. Evergreen does have a possible way to classify identifiers (i.e. record their sources) via the config.identification_type table as linked to the actor.usr.ident_type field. In our system, we have a 'College' identifier_type and a 'Seminary' identifier_type, and our load overlays based on a combination of ident_type and ident_value. You can of course have as many types as you have ID sources, and this method also assumes you are not already using ident_type for some broader purpose. Sincerely, Dan Daniel Wells Library Programmer/Analyst Hekman Library, Calvin College 616.526.7133 -Original Message- From: open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org [mailto:open-ils-general-boun...@list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of Tina Ji (Project Sitka) Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2014 12:31 PM To: Evergreen Discussion Group Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Batch Functions Our academic libraries use the unique identifiers from the student information system as ident_value. We have only a few academic libraries, but some use the same student information system (same software, runs separately). We encountered the duplicate ident_value issue, and had to pad it. We also have another working scenario. Some libraries want to sync between Evergreen and the student information system on every patron load. They send us a complete current students file. We delete all student records based on patron profile, such as Student and Postgrad Student, and then undelete and update matching records and load nonmatching records. Tina Ji Support Specialist BC Libraries Coop Quoting Martha Driscoll drisc...@noblenet.org: Rogan, Thanks for mentioning the unique identifier problem. I did intent to associate ident_value with the unique identifier coming from the campus system. Having non-unique identifiers from multiple campus systems is definitely a possibility. Our libraries are told to append the org_unit shortname to the university id. That mostly works well except in cases where a student was entered by hand prior to a data load and the library staff person did not enter the ID or entered it without the shortname appended. We will see barcode collisions in that case which will halt the load until resolved. Martha Driscoll Systems Manager North of Boston Library Exchange Danvers, Massachusetts www.noblenet.org On 12/9/2014 9:12 AM, Rogan Hamby wrote: I think the syncing between Evergreen and the student information system will be critical part and I think the workflow you mentioned Tim is fairly typical. I noticed that the wiki write up already mentions an ident_value. Is that intended to be a unique identifier from the origin student information system? If so, can we imagine a scenario where we might have multiple origin student systems, such as a consortium with multiple schools? We might need a table to identify those external sources. Tina Ji 1-888-848-9250 Support Specialist BC Libraries Cooperative/Sitka
Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Batch Functions
Hi, On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 3:49 PM, Martha Driscoll drisc...@noblenet.org wrote: I put together a list on the Evergreen for Academic wiki of the functions that a batch patron interface should have. This list is based my experience loading patron files for our 10 academic consortium members. Please let me know what issues you encounter and what functionality should be included on the wiki. http://wiki.evergreen-ils.org/doku.php?id=evergreen_for_academics:batch_patron_functions Thanks for putting this together, Martha, it looks like a great start. One set of use cases that I'm particularly curious about are how addresses should be handled. For example, does it suffice for most of the libraries in the IG to have the batch import handle one address per patron? Do any of you get mailing address data from any place other than the student and staff information systems? Are any of you in a position to not have to worry about keeping student mailing addresses in the ILS at all? Regards, Galen -- Galen Charlton Manager of Implementation Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts email: g...@esilibrary.com direct: +1 770-709-5581 cell: +1 404-984-4366 skype: gmcharlt web:http://www.esilibrary.com/ Supporting Koha and Evergreen: http://koha-community.org http://evergreen-ils.org
