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  • How will your users will authenticate?

  • How will you update your patron data?

  • How, and from where, do you want your users to access the library?

  • How you wish to communicate with your users.

Mandatory fields:

  • First name; Last name

  • Email address

  • Primary user ID: unique within the institution

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Info

Note:  It was confirmed by Andrea Bainbridge (EXL) by email that a library Barcode, can be specified as primary ID.  As long as the college system recognizes the barcode value as the primary ID, there should be no issues with the SIS integration. (And, there is no need to submit two fields with a duplicate value, or map the barcode field to more than one other Alma field.)

Non mandatory fields:

  • Additional Identifiers: code to indicate the ID from the student information system, and any social media IDs supported for your institution.  

  • Phone Numbers (consider your institution’s privacy rules), addresses, notes, blocks, statistics

  • Expiry date: The estimated date when the user is expected to leave the institution. See Expiration Date for more information.

  • Purge date: The date on which the user will be purged. See Purging Users.

Patron Information-Use Cases:

Primary ID

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Mandatory for physical circulation: loans, bookings, holds, reserves, fines, fees, blocks

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Mandatory

Email address

Notify patrons when requested items become available or if fines owed

Statistical categories (e.g., department, school, program)

Analytics:

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such as programs/departments can be mapped in Alma;  Managing User Statistics allows reports to be filtered by users, by user group, category, and so forth.

Expiry date

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and purge date

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Both elements useful for cleaning out patron file.

3rd party integrations for patron information: consider the importance of these functions as you think about IDs to include in your patron file

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Student Information System (SIS): refresh patron files

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External authentication

Provide access to electronic resources via Primo VE from on and off campus; use of Primo VE to create bookings / holds / requests, etc., store search results, history & favourites

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SIS match identifier

Social

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login

Provide alternate login for users

 

  • Fulfillment network (consortia)