[Wactclc-alma] blocks and notes disappearing

[Thomas, Kirsti]

I've got an update on this.

The situation was that I was using a user block to flag patron records without email addresses so that circ staff could know to add email addresses during check-out transactions.  Since we have over 3000 patron records with no email address, I was using the Update/Notify Users job to add the user block in batch.

I discovered last week that the user blocks I was adding were being overwritten during the daily patron load.  Communication with Ex Libris support staff indicated that user blocks and notes on external patron records are overwritten during the daily patron load.  Ex Libris support staff recommended extracting the notes and blocks and adding them to the files for the daily patron load.

I had the time yesterday to do some troubleshooting with circ staff and figured out a bit more about what was going on. I also discovered a much easier fix than Ex Libris support staff recommended.

When you add a note or user block to a patron record manually, the default setting is to add the block/note as an internal field.  Even if the user record is an external record, internal fields are protected from overlay during the daily patron load.  So by simply doing nothing and leaving the box for Add as an external  unchecked, you protect the note/block from being overwritten. In other words, unless you're going out of your way when you add a note or block,  it's going to be protected as an internal field.


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Further digging into the documentation on Running Manual Jobs<https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/Alma_Online_Help_(English)/Administration/070Managing_Jobs/020Running_Manual_Jobs_on_Defined_Sets> revealed that there's a setting in the Update/Notify Users job that controls whether data gets added as an internal field or an external field.

At the top of the Task Parameters screen, there's an Added/changed field setting.  The default option for this setting is: By user account type.  If this option is selected, the block/note is set an an external field on external patron records, and an internal field on internal patron records.  If you change the option to: Internal then whatever block/note you add will be an internal field protected from overlay.

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When I ran the job before, I'd left the Added/changed field setting as-is.  I ran the job last night with the Added/changed field setting set to Internal.  That did the trick.  The user blocks I added were still there after the daily load ran early this morning.  <sarcasm> Clicking a button turned out to be a much easier option than trying to figure out a way to merge data from different systems for re-import. </sarcasm>

Kirsti S. Thomas
Library Technical Services Manager
Seattle Colleges
kirsti.thomas at seattlecolleges.edu




From: Wactclc-alma [mailto:wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu] On Behalf Of Herman, Amy
Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2017 10:50
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>
Subject: [Wactclc-alma] blocks and notes disappearing

At yesterday's meeting someone mentioned that their blocks and notes for students disappear every night.  I put a manual block and note on a student's account yesterday, and it is still there today after the SIS load ran at 2am, so mine did NOT disappear.

Would that be because we have the "Users- Remove Blocks" job deactivated?

"The Users - Remove Blocks job runs daily to determine whether suspended users have fulfilled their suspension period and have not exceeded the configured demerit threshold while on suspension,. If this is the case, the user's block is lifted."

Amy Herman
Library Faculty | Olympic College
1600 Chester Avenue | Bremerton, WA 98337
aherman at olympic.edu<mailto:aherman at olympic.edu> | 360-475-7256



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