IS OPEN THE LIBRARY Polaris ILS Patron Services 5.0 SP3 Training

Patron Services Patron Services Menu Patron Registration Record

PATRON SERVICES MENU To access Patron Services, use the Patron Services drop-down menu or click on the first red marble Patron Records Patron Record Sets Course Reserves Records and Templates* Outreach Services* * If licensed these topics will be covered in different training sessions

PATRON REGISTRATION – ADDRESS AND PHONE VIEW A patron record is associated with a branch in Polaris Points of contact, notification, and receipt preferences are set in this view

PATRON REGISTRATION – ADDRESS AND PHONE VIEW Only one phone can be designated for TXT messages A phone that has been selected for telephony can also be selected for additional TXT notices If the notification option is set to TXT only one notice will be sent to the designated mobile phone Mobile phone carriers are managed in System Administration

PATRON REGISTRATION – GENERAL VIEW Note that the patron’s password is not displayed to staff Staff can see if a patron’s reading history is being maintained (patrons may enable/disable this feature in the PAC) Patron’s may also be excluded from specific notifications

PATRON REGISTRATION - USER DEFINED FIELDS The five user defined fields (UDFs) are optional fields A setting in System Administration can make any of the UDFs a required field when registering a patron Each UDF can be either a free text field or a dropdown menu

PATRON REGISTRATION - STATUS VIEW The status view shows information regarding the patron’s record including fines, blocks, number of items checked out, and their history of notices

PATRON REGISTRATION - PATRON PHOTO VIEW This is an optional view if you choose to implement this feature

PATRON REGISTRATION – PATRON CUSTOM DATA FIELDS In Administration  Patron Services  Profiles, libraries can define up to ten Patron Custom Data Fields (PCDF) at the system level and filter them for use at the library or branch level The field types are string, integer, date/time, and Boolean

PATRON REGISTRATION – PATRON CUSTOM DATA FIELDS PCDFs may be required in Patron Registration in the Staff Client and self-registration in the PAC and Mobile PAC PCDFs (except those defined as Boolean) are in the Search by and Limit by lists of the Patron Find Tool Boolean PCDFs are in the Limit by list only

Registering Patrons Create a new Patron Record Copy a Patron Record Merge patron records Express registration Patron duplication detection Post a message from a Patron Registration record

CREATE A NEW PATRON RECORD Search carefully to make sure the patron does not exist in the database already If you have a results list, right-mouse click on any patron and select Create Patron

CREATE A NEW PATRON RECORD An alternative way to create a new patron is to click on the New button on the shortcut bar Scroll down to Patron Record or press the P key on your keyboard Click the OK button on the screen or just press ENTER

CREATE A NEW PATRON RECORD Complete all views used by library, remembering that fields in bold are required Default information, such as the expiration date and address check date are coming from default settings set in System Administration

ADDRESS AND PHONE VIEW Click the Add button to add a patron address Add or edit the postal code first—the city, county and state will fill in automatically Multiple addresses (Home, Office, School, etc.) may be added Set the preferred notice, notification and receipt options and make sure the required information is present for delivery

GENERAL VIEW A PAC password may be entered on the General view If a password is not entered, a SQL job can populate the field with the last four digits of the phone number in the Phone 1 field A patron’s password can be 4 to 16 alpha/numeric characters and is case sensitive Passwords must be four digits (no alpha characters) if using Inbound Telephony

COPY A PATRON RECORD Copying a record is helpful if you are creating records for multiple members of a household After registering the first patron or opening a current registration record, click on the New icon in the workform tool bar Select Copy Existing Work Form

COPY A PATRON RECORD All of the information from the current registration is copied to the new one except for the barcode and password Edit the new patron record as needed Save the new registration record

MERGE PATRON RECORDS Merging patron records is helpful if you discover duplicate patron registrations in your database The staff member must have the permission to merge patron records From the primary (winning) patron workform go to Tools  Merge with Patron

MERGE PATRON RECORDS The Patron Merge dialog box appears Click on Select record to delete Search for the secondary (losing) patron record using the patron find tool

MERGE PATRON RECORDS Double-click the selected record The secondary record is transferred into the Patron Merge dialog box Click the Merge button

MERGE PATRON RECORDS The secondary record is deleted from your database Any items out, holds, fines, etc. from the secondary record are transferred to the primary record UDFs in the primary record remain unchanged The barcode from the secondary record is transferred to the former barcode field of the primary record YTD and lifetime use counts of the secondary record are added to those of the primary record If both patrons have saved lists in the PAC, the lists associated with the secondary patron are moved to the primary patron For a complete list, in Help go to Polaris Topics/Merging Patrons/Effects on patron record information

EXPRESS REGISTRATION Express Registration is available from the Check Out workform When the Express Registration icon is clicked a blank Registration workform appears Express Registration may have different defaults and required fields set in System Administration A block can be automatically placed on a patron record that was created by express registration to signal the need for staff to review and confirm registration information

PATRON DUPLICATE DETECTION Polaris uses the barcode, patron name, address, and registered library fields to check for suspected duplicate patrons Additional fields may be added as match points in System Administration Patron Services Parameters

POST A MESSAGE FROM THE REGISTRATION WORKFORM Posted messages appear on a patron’s account record in the PAC Go to Tools Post Message to access this functionality Messages can be selected from a predefined list or a free text message may be entered

Patron Record Sets Create a Patron Record Set Search For a Patron Record Set Bulk Change Creating a record set of items from a Patron Record Set

CREATE A PATRON RECORD SET Patron record sets are subsets/virtual groupings of patron records Records are grouped together for specific functions within Polaris: such as a listing of patrons for a book club or for bulk change purposes Use the Settings tab in the find tool to create a record set directly from a result list

CREATE A PATRON RECORD SET One of the options available from the right-click functionality of a result set is the ability to add selected results to a new or existing record set

SEARCH FOR A PATRON RECORD SET The Patron Services Record Set find tool can be brought up by clicking on the record set icon in the toolbar or using the Patron Services dropdown in the menu bar

BULK CHANGE Click on the Bulk Change icon on the Record Set workform toolbar to bring up the Patron Record Bulk Change dialog box

BULK CHANGE Most fields on the Patron Registration workform may be edited with bulk change functionality More than one field may be changed in a single bulk change operation Specify the changes to the selected fields and the changes will be applied to all the records in the record set Changes are done in real time (not overnight)

BULK CHANGE After making your selections click OK and review the Summary of Changes dialog box Once changes are made, they cannot be automatically undone Click the Continue button to make the changes

CREATING A RECORD SET OF ITEMS FROM A PATRON RECORD SET From an existing patron record set, click the Create Item Record Set icon on the workform toolbar

CREATING A RECORD SET OF ITEMS FROM A PATRON RECORD SET The item record set is created with any items with a status of Out, Out-ILL or Lost where a patron in the record set is the current borrower (or the last borrower if there is no current borrower)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Polaris Patron Services Guide and Polaris Patron Services Administration Guide may be found from the Help menu on the Shortcut Bar