Patrons

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General

AllowPatronToControlAutoRenewal

Asks : ___ to allow/disallow auto-renewal for account. If allowed a patron will be able to update their own account to allow/disallow auto-renewal.

Default: Allow only staff

Values:

  • Allow only staff

  • Allow patrons

Description:

  • If set to ‘Allow patrons’, patrons will be able to enable or disable automatic renewals from their online account on the OPAC. Only items for which automatic renewal is enabled in the circulation rules will be affected.

  • In all cases, staff is able to change this in the patron’s account.

CheckPrevCheckout

Asks: ___ check borrower checkout history to see if the current item has been checked out before.

Default: Do not

Values:

  • Do

  • Do not

  • Unless overridden by patron category, do

  • Unless overridden by patron category, do not

Description:

  • When the value of this system preference is set to ‘do’, Koha will look at the patron’s circulation history to see if they have checked this item out before. An alert will show up on the screen indicating that patron has indeed checked this item out. Staff will be prompted to allow the checkout to occur.

    image1390

  • If the value is set to ‘do not’, Koha will not check the patron’s circulation history.

  • When the value is set to ‘Unless overridden by patron category, do’, this will check the patron’s circulation history unless the patron’s personal setting or the patron category setting specifically say not to.

  • Lastly, if the value is set to ‘Unless overridden by patron category, do not’, Koha will not check circulation history unless the patron’s personal setting or the patron category setting specifically say to check.

    Note

This system preference will not work for patrons that have chosen to anonymize their reading history.

CheckPrevCheckoutDelay

Asks: Trigger a warning if the current item has been checked out no longer than ___ days ago.

Default: 0

Description:

  • This system preference limits the behavior of CheckPrevCheckout to a number of days. If an item has been borrowed by a patron longer than the number of days, there will be no warning, as if the patron had never borrowed it.

  • Requires CheckPrevCheckout to be enabled.

  • There is no time limit if this is set to 0 or is empty.

DefaultPatronSearchFields

Asks: ___ Comma separated list defining the default fields to be used during a patron search

Default: surname,firstname,othernames,cardnumber,userid

Important possible values can be found in the borrowers table of Koha’s schema located at http://schema.koha-community.org/

Description:

  • This system preference enables you to define which fields are searched when you do a basic patron search.

  • These fields will also appear in the drop down menu in the patron search, so you can search only the specific field.

EnableBorrowerFiles

Asks: ___ enable the ability to upload and attach arbitrary files to a borrower record.

Default: Don’t

Values:

  • Do

  • Don’t

Description:

  • When enabled this will add a ‘Files’ tab to the left of the patron detail page where you can view and upload files to the patron record.

ExtendedPatronAttributes

Asks: ___ searching, editing and display of custom attributes on patrons.

Default: Enable

Values:

  • Don’t enable

  • Enable

Description:

  • Patron attributes are library-defined custom fields that can be applied to patron records.

    Note

    Use custom attributes for fields that the default patron record does not support such as driver’s license number or student ID number.

FeeOnChangePatronCategory

Asks: ___ charge a fee when a patron changes to a category with an enrollment fee.

Default: Do

Values:

intranetreadinghistory

Asks: ___ staff to access a patron’s checkout and hold history.

Default: Allow

Important

If you have the OPACPrivacy preference set to ‘Allow’ and the patron has decided to not have their history kept, staff will only see currently checked out items.

Values:

  • Allow

  • Don’t allow

    Important

    Reading history is still stored, regardless of staff being allowed access or not unless the patron has chosen to have their history anonymized via their privacy page.

LockExpiredDelay

Asks: Lock expired patrons after ___ days. Leave empty to disable this behavior.

Default: empty

Description:

  • This system preference determines after how many days expired patrons are ‘administratively locked’.

  • Administrative lock prevents patrons from logging into the OPAC.

Note

This system preference requires the misc/cronjobs/cleanup_database.pl cronjob (no parameter necessary other than –confirm)

MaxFine

Asks: The late fine for all checkouts will only go up to ___ [currency].

Default: empty (empty value means no limit)

Description:

  • This preference controls the default cap on fines accrued by the patron. Leaving this preference blank means that there is no cap on the amount of fines a patron can accrue. If you’d like, single item caps can be specified in the circulation rules matrix.

patronimages

Asks: ___ images to be uploaded and shown for patrons on the staff client.

Default: Allow

Values:

  • Allow

  • Don’t allow

Description:

  • If this preference is set to ‘Allow’ the staff will be able to upload images of patrons either one by one or in bulk. Patrons images will show on the detail page to the left of the patron information. They can also show in the OPAC if you set the OPACpatronimages preference or in the self check out module if you set the ShowPatronImageInWebBasedSelfCheck preference.

PatronsPerPage

Asks: By default, show ___ results per page in the staff client.

Default: 20

Description:

  • This preference will let you define how many patrons to show on patron search results pages.

ProtectSuperLibrarianPrivileges

Asks: ___ to access/change superlibrarian privileges. Note: A permitted user

needs to have the ‘permissions’ flag (if no superlibrarian)

Default: Allow only superlibrarians

Values:

  • Allow all permitted users

  • Allow only superlibrarians

StatisticsFields

Asks: Show the following fields from the items database table as columns on the statistics tab on the patron record: ___

Default: location|itype|ccode

image106

Important

Enter the values separated by bars (|)

Description:

  • This preference lets you set which fields will show on the patron record on the Statistics tab.

TrackLastPatronActivity

Asks: ___ track last patron activity. Everytime a patron will connect, the borrowers.lastseen will be updated with the current time.

Default: Don’t

Values:

  • Don’t

  • Do

useDischarge

Asks: ___ librarians to discharge borrowers and borrowers to request a discharge.

Default: Don’t allow

Values:

  • Allow

  • Don’t allow

Description:

  • A discharge is a certificate that says the patron has no current checkouts, no holds and owes no money.

    Note

    In France a “quitus” (“discharge”) is needed if you want to register for an account in a library or a university.

    Note

    Academic libraries often require that you have a clear record at the library before you can graduate.

Membership expiry

BorrowerRenewalPeriodBase

Asks: When renewing borrowers, base the new expiry date on ___

Default: current date

Values:

  • current date.

  • current membership expiry date.

Description:

  • This preference controls what the patron’s new expiration date will be when you renew their card. Using the ‘current date’ will add the subscription period to today’s date when calculating the new expiration date. Using ‘current membership expiry date’ will add the subscription period to the old expiration date for the patron when renewing their account.

MembershipExpiryDaysNotice

Asks: Send an account expiration notice when a patron’s card will expire in ___ days.

Description:

  • If you would like to notify patrons that their accounts are about to expire then you can enter a number of days before expiration in this preference. The notice text can be customized in the Notices & slips tool.

    Important

    You will need to enable the membership expiry cron job for this notice to be sent.

NotifyBorrowerDeparture

Asks: Show a notice that a patron is about to expire ___ days beforehand.

Default: 30

Description:

  • When the patron attempts to check out materials, a warning will appear in the check out screen of the staff client telling the librarian that the patron’s account is about to expire.

    Important

    This notice will appear on the patron’s record in the staff client.

Notices and notifications

AutoEmailNewUser

Asks: ___ an email to newly created patrons.

Default: Don’t send

Values:

  • Don’t send

  • Send

Description:

  • This system preference determines if library users are sent a welcome email

  • The notice used is the WELCOME, it can be edited in the notices and slips

  • The welcome notice is sent to the email address specified in the AutoEmailPrimaryAddress preference.

AutoEmailPrimaryAddress

Asks: Use ___ patron email address for sending out emails.

Default: first valid

Values:

  • alternate

  • cardnumber as

  • home

  • work

  • first valid

Description:

  • If you choose ‘first valid’ as the value for AutoEmailPrimaryAddress the system will check the email fields in this order: home, work, then alternate. Otherwise the system will use the email address you specify.

AutoRenewalNotices

Asks: Send automatic renewal notices: ___

Default: (Deprecated) according to –send-notices cron switch

Values:

  • (Deprecated) according to –send-notices cron switch

  • never

  • according to patron messaging preferences

Description:

  • This system preference determines whether automatic renewal notices

EnhancedMessagingPreferences

Asks: ___ staff to manage which notices patrons will receive and when they will receive them.

Default: Allow

Values:

  • Allow

  • Don’t allow

    Important

    This only applies to certain kinds of notices, overdue notices will be sent based on the library’s rules, not the patron’s choice.

    Note

    To manage if patrons have also access to these settings, use EnhancedMessagingPreferencesOPAC.

Description:

  • These messages are in addition to the overdue notices that the library sends. The difference between these notices and overdues is that the patron can opt-in and out of these. Setting this preference to ‘Allow’ will allow staff to choose for patrons to receive any one of the following messages:

    • Item checkout: A notice that lists all the of the items the patron has just checked out and/or renewed, this is an electronic form of the checkout receipt

    • Item due: A notice on the day and item is due back at the library

    • Hold filled: A notice when you have confirmed the hold is waiting for the patron

    • Item checkin: A notice that lists all the of the items the patron has just checked in

    • Advanced notice: A notice in advance of the patron’s items being due (staff can choose the number of days in advance)

EnhancedMessagingPreferencesOPAC

Asks: ___ patron messaging setting on the OPAC

Default: Show

Values:

Description:

  • These messages are in addition to the overdue notices that the library sends. The difference between these notices and overdues is that the patron can opt-in and out of these. Setting this preference to ‘Allow’ will allow patrons to choose to receive any one of the following messages:

    • Item checkout: A notice that lists all the of the items the patron has just checked out and/or renewed, this is an electronic form of the checkout receipt

    • Item due: A notice on the day and item is due back at the library

    • Hold filled: A notice when you have confirmed the hold is waiting for the patron

    • Item checkin: A notice that lists all the of the items the patron has just checked in

    • Advanced notice: A notice in advance of the patron’s items being due (The patron can choose the number of days in advance)

FallbackToSMSIfNoEmail

Asks: ___ Send purchase suggestion messages by SMS if no patron email is defined.

Default: Disable

Values:

  • Disable

  • Enable

Description:

  • This system preference only applies to notices related to suggestions. If a patron has no email address and has an SMS alert number, the suggestions notices will be sent to their SMS number.

SMSSendDriver

Asks: Use the SMS::Send:: ___ driver to send SMS messages.

Note

This may not work with all providers.

Important

Please refer to your national laws concerning the sending of bulk SMS messages before enabling this feature.

Description:

  • There are two options for using SMS in Koha. You can use the Email protocol for free by entering ‘Email’ as the SMSSendDriver or you can pay for a SMS driver. Some examples of values for the driver are:

    • SMS::Send::Us::Ipipi

    • SMS::Send::US::TMobile

    • SMS::Send::US::Verizon

    • SMS::Send::IN::Unicel

    Additional values can be found here: http://search.cpan.org/search?query=sms%3A%3Asend&mode=all

    Important

    Only drivers available as Perl modules will work in this preference, so make sure a Perl module is available before choosing an SMS service.

    Once a driver is entered in the preference an option will appear in the staff client and the OPAC on the patron messaging form to choose to receive messages as SMS

    image105

    Important

    You must allow EnhancedMessagingPreferences for this to work.

SMSSendUsername, SMSSendPassword, and EmailSMSSendDriverFromAddress

Asks: Define a username/login ___ and a password ___. Override from address with ___ for emails sent using “Email” send driver.

Description:

  • Some SMS gateway providers require username and password credentials and these can be entered here. Additionally, one specific email address may be required as sender (from address) for all emails sent by the Email SMS send driver.

TalkingTechItivaPhoneNotification

Asks: ___ patron phone notifications using Talking Tech i-tiva (overdue notices, advance notices and holds notices are currently supported).

Default: Disable

Values:

  • Disable

  • Enable

Description:

UseEmailReceipts

Asks: ___ email receipts to patrons for payments and writeoffs.

Default: Don’t send

Values:

  • Don’t send

  • Send

Description:

  • If set to ‘Send’, Koha will send emails to the patrons for each payment or writeoff done in their account.

    Note

    • The letters used are ACCOUNT_PAYMENT and ACCOUNT_WRITEOFF

    • You can edit them in the Notices & slips tool.

Patron forms

autoMemberNum

Asks: ___ default the card number field on the patron addition screen to the next available card number

Default: Do

Values:

  • Do

    • If the largest currently used card number is 26345000012941, then this field will default to 26345000012942 for the next patron

  • Don’t

Description:

  • This preference determines if the patron’s barcode is automatically calculated. This prevents the person setting up the library card account from having to assign a number to the new card. If set to ‘Do’ the system will calculate a new patron barcode by adding 1 to the maximum barcode already present in the database.

BorrowerMandatoryField

Asks: The following database columns must be filled in on the patron entry screen: ___

Default: surname|cardnumber

Description:

  • This system preference enables the system administrator to choose which fields staff is required to fill in when creating or editing patron accounts.

  • This ensures that basic information is included in each patron record. If a staff member leaves one of the required fields blank, an error message will appear and the account will not be created or saved.

Note

For help with field names, ask your system administrator or view the database structure associated with the borrowers table.

Note

If either PatronQuickAddFields or BorrowerMandatoryField (or both) is set, a button labeled “Quick add new patron” will be displayed in the patrons toolbar.

BorrowersTitles

Asks: Borrowers can have the following titles ___

Default: Mr|Mrs|Miss|Ms

Description:

  • This preference allows the staff to choose the titles that can be assigned to patrons. The choices present as a drop down list when creating a patron record.

    Important

    Input multiple choices separated by |

BorrowerUnwantedField

Asks: The following database columns will not appear on the patron entry screen: ___

Description:

  • This system preference enables the system administrator to choose which fields staff doesn’t need to see on the patron entry form.

Note

For help with field names, ask your system administrator or view the database structure associated with the borrowers table.

CardnumberLength

Asks: Card numbers for patrons must be ___ characters long.

Description:

  • The length can be a single number to specify an exact length, a range separated by a comma (i.e., ‘Min,Max’), or a maximum with no minimum (i.e., ^,Max’). If ‘cardnumber’ is included in the BorrowerMandatoryField list, the minimum length, if not specified here, defaults to one.

CollapseFieldsPatronAddForm

Asks: When adding new patrons or editing existing patrons, collapse the following fields from the full form (can still be expanded later)

Values:

  • Additional attributes and identifiers

  • Alternate address

  • Alternate contact

  • Contact information

  • Guarantor information

  • Housebound roles

  • Library management

  • Library setup

  • Main address

  • OPAC/Staff login

  • Organization/Patron identity

  • Patron account flags (existing patrons)

  • Patron messaging preferences

  • Patron restrictions (existing patrons)

Description:

  • This system preference allows you to temporarily hide sections from the patron add form and the patron editing form. The sections will be collapsed and staff will be able to expand them if needed.

  • If you would rather completely hide sections, without the possibility of expanding them, enter the field names in BorrowerUnwantedField.

PatronDuplicateMatchingAddFields

Asks: The following database columns: ___ will be used to detect possible duplicates when adding a new patron.

Default: surname|firstname|dateofbirth

Description:

  • This system preference allows you to choose which fields will be used to detect duplicate patrons.

PatronQuickAddFields

Asks: The following database columns ___ will be added to the patron quick add form when entering a new patron. Displays only mandatory fields and fields specified here. If applicable, the guarantor form will be shown as well, individual fields in that form will be ignored.

Default: blank

Description:

Note

For help with field names, ask your system administrator or view the database structure associated with the borrowers table.

Note

If either PatronQuickAddFields or BorrowerMandatoryField (or both) is set, a button labeled “Quick add new patron” will be displayed in the patrons toolbar.

uppercasesurnames

Asks: ___ store and display surnames (last names) in upper case.

Default: Don’t

Values:

  • Do

  • Don’t

Patron relationships

AllowStaffToSetCheckoutsVisibilityForGuarantor

Asks: ___ staff to set the ability for a patron’s checkouts to be viewed by linked patrons in the OPAC.

Default: Don’t allow

Values:

  • Don’t allow

  • Allow

Description:

  • This system preference controls whether the staff can see the option to show the checkouts to linked patrons in the OPAC.

    image1472

AllowStaffToSetFinesVisibilityForGuarantor

Asks: ___ staff to set the ability for a patron’s fines to be viewed by linked patrons in the OPAC.

Default: Don’t allow

Values:

  • Don’t allow

  • Allow

Description:

  • This system preference controls whether the staff can see the option to show the fines to linked patrons in the OPAC.

    image1472

borrowerRelationship

Asks: Guarantors can be the following of those they guarantee ___

Default: father|mother

Description:

  • This preference enables the system administrator to define valid relationships between a guarantor (usually a parent) and a guarantee (usually a child). Defining values for this field does not make the guarantor field required when adding a guarantee type patron. This preference creates a drop down list identifying the relationship of the guarantor to the guarantee. To disable the ability to add children types in Koha you can leave this field blank.

    Important

    Input multiple choices separated by |

PrefillGuaranteeField

Asks: When adding a guarantee to a guarantor patron fill the following fields in the guarantee’s member entry form from the guarantor’s record: ___

Default:

  • Contact - Primary email

  • Contact - Primary phone

  • Main address - Address

  • Main address - City

  • Main address - Country

  • Main address - State

  • Main address - ZIP/Postal code

  • Main address - street number

Description:

  • This system preference is used to copy information from a guarantor account to a guarantee account when using the ‘Add guarantee’ button

Privacy

GDPR_Policy

Asks: Set GDPR policy to ___ GDPR is the EU General Data Protection Regulation. When you enforce, patrons need to give consent before using the OPAC. If you set to permissive, Koha will warn but not enforce. NOTE: If you enable this you will also have to set the URL of your public privacy policy with the PrivacyPolicyURL setting.

Default: Disabled

Values:

  • Disabled

  • Enforced

  • Permissive

Description:

  • This system preference enables a GDPR consent form to appear on the OPAC when a patron attempts to login. If this preference is set as Enforced then when a patron attempts to log into the OPAC a GDPR consent form be presented to them. The patron will have to provide consent to the library’s GDPR policy before they can gain access to their account details. If the patron does not consent to the GDPR policy they will be logged out of their account. If the preference is set to Permissive then the patron will be presented with the GDPR consent form but they will not be required to give consent to access their patron account. If the preference is set to Disabled then no GDPR consent form will appear when patron logs into the OPAC.

PrivacyPolicyURL

Asks: Use the following URL ___ to refer to your local privacy policy in messages about privacy and data protection.

Default: blank

Important

If you enforce GDPR policy, make sure that this page is not blocked.

Note

The URL is only displayed if GDPR_Policy is set.

UnsubscribeReflectionDelay, PatronAnonymizeDelay and PatronRemovalDelay

Asks: Lock/expire patrons that submitted an unsubscribe request (refused consent) after ___ days, anonymize locked/expired accounts after ___ days and remove anonymized patron accounts after ___ days.

Description:

  • This system preference is used to purge accounts of patrons who have opted out/refused consent in the GDPR consent form (see GDPR_Policy).

  • The first box is the number of days after which an opt-out patron’s account should be locked (equivalent of having entered the wrong password too many times)

  • The second box is the number of days after which locked account should be anonymized

  • The third box is the number of days after which anonymized accounts are deleted

Security

EnableExpiredPasswordReset

Asks: ___ the ability for patrons to directly reset their password when it is expired.

Default: Don’t enable

Values:

  • Don’t enable

  • Enable

Description:

  • When using the password expiry functionality, patrons must reset their password once it is expired. By default, this is done through email, similarly to the “Forgot your password?” functionality.

  • This system preference lets patrons reset their password directly.

    The reset password form

FailedLoginAttempts

Asks: Block a patron’s account if it reaches ___ failed login attempts.

Default: blank

Description:

  • This is used to block a patron’s account after they entered the wrong password too many times

minPasswordLength

Asks: Login passwords for staff and patrons must be at least ___ characters long.

Default: 8

Warning

This applies to both the staff login and the patron OPAC login.

Note

Password length can also be set by patron category.

RequireStrongPassword

Asks: ___ a strong password for staff and patrons

Default: Require

Values:

  • Don’t require

  • Require

Description:

  • If set to ‘require’ this system preference will require patron and staff passwords to contain at least one digit, one lowercase and one uppercase.

Note

Password strength can also be set by patron category.