Voyager Access Services Implementation: Patron file subcommittee minutes,
October 26 and November 4

Present: Sara Spoonhower, Peter Hoyt, Howard Raskin, Susan Currie

This is a summary of our two meetings. We reviewed the Patron Interface Format specs from Voyager and identified some questions for Endeavor. (See e-mail at end of this summary. Note: I didn't send everyone the attachment Marlene mentions but I can if anyone is interested. It is the SIF).

We decided that our first task was to evaluate data in the current patron file to see how it will convert. We are specifically focusing on authorization cards and records that have numerous multiple subrecords. There will be some manual cleanup work needed after the initial patron database load. For example, active authorization records will migrate but NOT as linked subrecords to the original issuing faculty. We will have to organize staff in Olin and Mann to relink these. There could be as many as 1500-2,000 of these, depending on how many active records there are. Currently, there are more than 800--hopefully it won't go as high as 2,000.

Peter ran a report, which gave us a breakdown on the pseudopatron records still in NOTIS. There are still active pseudopatron records for Lost, Missing and Bindery even though those are now item conditions in NOTIS and will be item statuses in Voyager. Susan will post a note on circadmin-l to get some information on pseudopatron records and how they are being used. She will also send a note to our contact at Voyager to ask how processing and departmental pseudopatron records/cards migrate and what takes their place.

There is definitely some clean-up work to be done to the patron file. We will review the patron accounting records for cleanup prior to migration. Peter will run a few reports for us to review at our next subcommittee meeting on Friday, November 12. After that, the Endeavor Functional training will be held for members of the IMT (November 16-19). Susan will organize a full committee meeting after that training.

1. Who is responsible for migrating the NOTIS Patron Accounting File? to Voyager?

1a) If CU, is there a SIF?
1b) If Endeavor, what sorts of cleanup should we do first?

Endeavor will extract most, but not all of the Patron Accounting Records. Item Charges and Miscellaneous charges are both migrated as fees in Voyager. For Item charges, this means that the fee record will contain a note listing the information about the item which the charges pertain to, but will not create a logical link in the system to the item record itself. The overdue information is migrated as currently charged material plus the number of notices that have already been sent. Any future notices required will be determined by the circulation policy matrix in Voyager. Deposit accounts are not migrated.

As far as cleanup, please purge as much as is reasonable. Fines less than $1 more than 2 years old, for example. Fines older than date x. CU is responsible for the patron extract itself. If you only extract active patrons after a certain date, it might be a good idea to purge fines older than that date, for example.

2. Is it possible to configure the field names that appear on the client screens? For example, we would prefer the name "patron ID" to "barcode" when referring to the number encoded on a patron's Library card.

The prompts and messages that patrons see are customizable.

The following questions all refer to the Patron Update SIF.

3. What is the meaning of the statistical category fields? Some libraries desire statistical data about their patrons other than by patron group. For example, all undergraduate students may have the same borrowing privileges, and therefore be in the same patron group, but the institution might find it useful to know whether students from certain schools, or with certain majors use the library more or less than others. In such a case, the school affiliation (Engineering, Arts & Sciences, Art & Design, etc.) would be a statistical category.

4. The relationship among the following fields is unclear to me:
patron id
institution id
ssan

Patron ID is a system assigned database record control number for the patron record. It is NOT the barcode
Institution ID is a unique identifier assigned by the institution to each patron. It can be used instead of SSAN
SSAN is Social Security Number. Every patron record must have either an Institution ID or a SSAN. Whichever one is chosen by the institution is used as the match point for all future patron updates.

4a) Do we determine the patron id or does Endeavor determine it based upon the contents of the other two fields?

Patron ID is sequentially assigned by the system as the records are loaded into the database.

5. It appears to me that patron bar codes (which I assume correspond to physical library or id cards) do not automatically expire, but must be explicitly de-activated by means of a file update. Is that correct?

This is correct.

6. The SIF document refers to a protect_address flag. Where in the file structure is that field?

The protect_address flag is set within the circulation client. It is not part of the patron SIF.

7. What are the preferences for using addresses? For instance, does e-mail trump temporary? Are the preferences configurable?

In the terms you have used, in 98.1 e-mail trumps temporary, if the address is currently valid and if it is not marked "hold mail". Temporary trumps permanent, under the same strictures. In 99.1, preferences are configurable by patron group within each circulation policy group.

8. Unfortunately there are several typos and inconsistencies in the Patron Update SIF document. Therefore I wish to clarify which fields are the transaction counters and therefore will not be updated by us.

The Patron Update SIF in the Technical Manual does have a few errors in it. I have attached to this e-mail a later version of the SIF, which should not have any coding errors, although I admit it still contains a few spelling errors. If this version also has the inconsistencies you have mentioned above, please let me know where they are located, so that I can be certain they are corrected.

8a) Are historical charges part of the transaction counters?
8b) Are historical callslips part of the transaction counters?

The answers to both questions are YES.

Please let me know if there are further questions that I can assist with.

Marlene
>Marlene A. Harris
>Project Manager
>Endeavor Information Systems, Inc.
>2200 E. Devon Ave., Suite 382
>Des Plaines, Il 60018
>847-296-2200 ext. 2679
>800-762-6300 ext. 2679
>fax: 847-296-5636 > >