CIRCULATION ADMINISTRATION
Chapter 5. MANAGING PATRON GROUPS AND CATEGORIES
Managing Patron Categories
VERSO provides two options for "classifying" library patrons: Patron Categories and Patron Groups.
- The Patron Categories function allows for broad classification of your
library’s patrons (Staff, Student, Juvenile, etc.). Patron Categories may also
be managed through the User Administration module (see the
User Administration
User Guide for more information). The Patron Categories function is also
associated with:
- the Primary Patron Holds feature that allows libraries to establish preferences for their own patrons (against patrons from other libraries) when placing holds for “newly added” items in the library’s catalog.
- the optional ILL Request Limits feature that lets you create and maintain one or more Patron Categories to which patrons may be assigned for the purpose of restricting the number of ILL requests a patron may have active at any given time
The Patron Groups function allows for an additional level of classification based on a defined commonality appropriate to your library. See Managing Patron Groups for details.
To access patron categories:
-
From the Circ Admin menu, select Patrons - Patron Categories.
- The Patron Categories screen displays.
- The Patron Categories screen lists all currently defined patron categories for your library by Category name, and provides the following information for each category:
-
Seq - the display sequence for the Patron Category in the Patron Category menu on the Add and Edit User Account screens
Category - the name of the Patron Category
Report to Unique - for libraries using the services of Unique Management, Inc., indicates whether or not patrons associated with the category that have overdue fines or fees will be reported to Unique Management Inc., either Yes or No.
Unique Management support is optional and may not be enabled for all systems. The Report to Unique field is shown only if your library has enabled Unique Management support.
Active - indicates whether or not the associated Patron Category is currently active (shown in the Patron Category menu on the Add and Edit User Account screens); either Yes (the associated Patron Category is active) or No (the associated Patron Category is not active)
Primary Patron – for libraries that have configured Primary Patron Holds functionality (see Primary Patron Hold Management for details), the list indicates whether patrons assigned to each category are (Yes) or are not (No) “primary” patrons of the library.
When Primary Patron Holds functionality is configured, “primary” patrons are given preference when placing reserves for “newly added” items in the library’s catalog.
For ILL Lending – for libraries that have enabled Circ-ILL functionality, indicates whether or not patrons associated with the category may participate in interlibrary loan; either Yes or No.
Circ-ILL is a purchasable enhancement and may not be enabled for all systems. The For ILL Lending field is shown only if your library has enabled Circ-ILL functionality.
- If desired, you can reconfigure, sort and filter table content (see the System Basics User Guide for details).
- From the Patron Categories screen, you may select to:
- Set the display sequence for patron categories (see Setting the Patron Category Display Sequence for details)
- View patron category statistics (see Viewing Patron Category Statistics for details)
- Add a new patron category (see Adding a Patron Category for details)
- Edit an existing patron category (see Editing Patron Categories for details)
- Merge two patron categories into a single patron category (see Merging Patron Categories for details)
- Print a copy of the Patron Categories list (see Printing Circulation Parameters for details)
- Save a copy of the Patron Categories list to your local workstation (see Saving Circulation Parameters for details)
- Email a copy of the Patron Categories list to yourself or to another party (see Emailing Circulation Parameters for details)