Superseded patron categories (e.g. zzDONOTUSE)

Owned by Julie Petzold
Last updated: Feb 23, 2022
4 min read
About this page

FUWG Project Name: Superseded patron categories (e.g. zzDONOTUSE)

Page content contributors:

Julie Petzold, Kara Young, Spruill Harder

Contents:

Brief description of project

Would like to cleanup (remove) old patron records from Alma.

Information gathering

  • Develop a plan for resolving accounts
    • Can accounts with no items be deleted?
      Yes- accounts must have no items in order to be deleted.
    • How should we proceed with accounts with items? Do we need access to collections to resolve? Do we remove items from accounts and let the items enter the "missing process"? Does the latter have us looking in the "correct" location? Who used the account?
      See below


4/17/20 Updates:

  • Resource sharing accounts
  • Pseudopatrons
    • Transit patrons
    • Lost, missing
    • Libraries
    • Carrels
  • Who reviews the pseudopatrons? Can’t tell who created or used them.

4/30/20 Update:

  • Needs Volunteer: Messaging:
    • Anything that is still being actively worked on, create work order
      • This may inspire requests for new work orders, which can be developed
    • Anything that is no longer being worked on and is on the shelf, return in Alma
    • Anything that is missing, return and mark missing
    • Process for RS: Same process for ILL lists?
      • Do collections need to be involved?
      • Can they be put through the Absent Items workflow?
    • Jason F.C. Clarke will have team return items and mark missing for items out to RS pseudopatrons
    • Offer assistance in interpreting data
    • A timeline will be determined at a later point
  • Needs Volunteer: Who do we contact?
    • Primary: the contact in the pseudopatron account
    • Secondary: ELT, Communications list, departmental email
  • No response: return and mark missing

5/14/20 update:

  • ILL (RS) pseudopatron loans taken care of via "close lost loans" job (closes all loans, not just lost, and marks as missing using an input file of barcodes)
  • Talk about process for review going forward
    • Workorders: really intended as temporary state
    • Are items permanently in some kind of process? Can we categorize them in a different way? Perhaps create a location?
  • Jackson's team entered some email addresses where they could be found on these patrons: Pseudopatron with loans.xlsx
  • Jackson Childs: Discuss with Absent Items group to develop best practices going forward

5/14/20 update:

  • Kara got email addresses associated with these accounts
  • Next steps?

5/29/20 updates:

From Jackson

It seems the pseudopatrons can be grouped roughly into these categories:

  1. Related to a specific library (FAL, Music, Tozzer, etc.)
  2. Related to a specific unit (ILL, shelf prep, Imaging, MidEast, etc.)
  3. Lost or Missing type workflows
  4. Carrels and Studies
  5. External type pseudopatrons (exhibits, Assyriology and any other non HL libraries or rooms)

I would suggest we can use Kara’s workflow for 1+2, maybe move loans to 3 directly to missing, and develop a different plan for 4 and 5, which I could help with.

From Ronnie:

1 and 2 involve the movement of items either between work units/areas of the same location or from one location to a centalized HL service location, so that makes sense. Those are work orders in Alma, but the emptying the pseudopatron accounts of loans for these can be a local solution. For example, I emailed Steven Riel the list of items loaned to the MCZ pseudopatron for loans to the CONSER Office. He could verify that some of them were in his office, but others can't be verified until folks at the Serials office at 625. As a result, I discharged the lot and created work orders for each for MCZ Tech Services so that they are under my control for the time being and I did not (yet) have 'Cataloging @ 625' as a work order department option. Not saying everybody needs to do that; just telling you how I handled mine. MCZ's pseudopatrons are empty of loans and ready to have a sip poured on the ground in their honor.

For 3-5, I concur, though exhibits are temporary locations in Alma.

9/30/21

Introduce task later in the semester (November meeting) as an intersession project.

1/25/22:

Spruill should reach out to contacts to let them know about the project with a suggested timeline suggesting steps for remediation and a deadline. We can propose bulk updating items to include a note regarding previous pseudopatron loan information and then marking the item as missing.

Libraries should reach out by a certain date to indicate they will remediate in some other way if they don't want to participate.


Project Plan (including Communications)

  • Proposal for completing – Accepted 1/28/22
    • Julie emails Communications list with the following
      • Items will receive a Statistics Note 3 indicating they were last on loan to a pseudo-patron will read “Most recently loaned to a pseudo-patron account” 
      • Items will then be removed from pseudo-patron and marked missing
      • Missing reports will be configured to include the note
      • Items can then be searched for as part of the regular missing processes
      • Pseudo-patron will be deleted
      • Respond by Friday, March 25 date if you would like to work with LTS on a different plan for clearing your pseudo-patron accounts
    • After Friday, March 25 date
      • Kara and Julie add notes to items
      • Kara removes items from pseudo-patron accounts
      • Julie and Kara mark items missing
      • Kara deletes pseudo-patron accounts