Weekly Update – September 28, 2011
Welcome Dublin Public Library!
Dublin Public Library in Wayne County, Indiana successfully migrated to Evergreen Indiana on Tuesday, September 27, 2011. Please join me in welcoming them!
Patron accounts from a new Evergreen Indiana library
Just a reminder that all the patron accounts from new libraries joining the consortium need to be re-assessed so that they have the correct level of borrowing permissions, especially by those libraries physically close to the newly migrated Evergreen Indiana library as they may have patrons in common.
Circulation tip You can limit a patron search in the Limit results to patron in in the Patron Search field. Get in the habit of setting this limiter to Everywhere so that you can be sure to open the correct account and will recognize any patron duplicate accounts.
What should all Evergreen Indiana libraries do to ensure accurate patron accounts and borrowing privileges? Be aware of your library’s reciprocal borrower contract/agreements and whether you have one with a newly migrated Evergreen Indiana library. The new EI library may be bringing duplicate patron records with different borrowing privileges into the EI patron database. Your responsibility as a member library is to recognize that a new library has migrated to Evergreen Indiana and be informed about your library’s relationship with the new library. Circulation staff at your library will ask for the patron’s Evergreen Indiana card, pull up their account, assess whether the patron is a reciprocal borrower at your library with residence in the new library’s district, and if they are notify them that they will need to go to the new EI library in order to receive their Evergreen Indiana resident card.
What should the new Evergreen Indiana library do to ensure accurate patron accounts and borrowing privileges? If a patron had an account with the new library before migration, the new library will look up their account, ask for ID and proof of residency (if ID isn’t current), update patron account (if necessary), and assess what level of borrowing privileges the patron will receive. If a patron had an Evergreen Indiana reciprocal borrower card with a Evergreen Indiana library but they are a resident in the newly migrated Evergreen Indiana library’s district, staff at the new library will pull up their account, ask for an ID and proof of residency (if ID isn’t current), update the patron account, and assign appropriate borrowing privileges. NOTE: In the case described in the previous sentence, the patron would receive a resident card with the new Evergreen Indiana library.
Merging patrons If you do find that there are patron duplicates in the patron database that need to be merged, compile those duplicates in the Merging Patrons excel spreadsheet and follow the instructions.
Catalog freeze
There was a catalog freeze to accommodate the new library joining the consortium this past weekend. However, it was discovered that there were new bibliographic records added during that time. Just a reminder that editing or adding new bibliographic records during a catalog freeze is not recommended because changes to bibliographic records are not guaranteed to be saved during that time. Items can be added to existing bibliographic records but creation of new bibliographic records is prohibited. Announcements are made far enough in advance to the consortium so that Evergreen Indiana cataloging staff can plan for the catalog freeze and will not need to revisit their work.