[wactclc-alma] [EXTERNAL] - Re: Patron expiration dates

[Herman, Amy]

We set our student expiration date as the end of the quarter because we want as many materials returned by the end of the quarter as possible.  There is no way to set a hard and fast due date as the last day of the quarter  in Alma, other than by exploiting the patron expiration date (this has been an unanswered enhancement request for many years). If the patron expiration date is after the end of the quarter then our circulation staff have to remember to manually change every single loan due date during the last 3 weeks of the quarter as the end of the quarter draws down (we have a 3 week loan period).

Amy Herman
Library Faculty | Olympic College
1600 Chester Avenue | Bremerton, WA 98337
aherman at olympic.edu<mailto:aherman at olympic.edu> | 360-475-7256
Visit the OC Libraries website<https://libguides.olympic.edu/index> to connect to services and resources!

From: wactclc-alma <wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu> On Behalf Of Sarah Gray
Sent: Wednesday, December 6, 2023 12:10 PM
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] - Re: [wactclc-alma] Patron expiration dates

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Our student expiry date is currently set to the day after the quarter ends. I'm curious, though-- is there a compelling reason not to set student expiry dates to the first day (or last day of the first week) of the next quarter?
We can't prevent students with overdue/lost items from registering and can't withhold transcripts, so I'm wondering if there is any real benefit to expiring patrons the day after the quarter ends. Changing the expiration date to the first day of the next quarter would allow students to use items until the very end of the quarter without worrying about having to rush them back within 24 hours. It would also allow students to borrow/renew items over the between-quarter breaks, without requiring any manual intervention from us.

I'm interested to hear if anyone is already doing this, and what the potential drawbacks of this approach might be.

Thanks,
Sarah

On Wed, Dec 6, 2023 at 9:37 AM Kelley, Katherine <Katherine.Kelley at lwtech.edu<mailto:Katherine.Kelley at lwtech.edu>> wrote:
Hello all,

We’re reviewing our item checkout renewal process (for non-equipment items). Our patrons expire at the end of each quarter and since due dates cannot go beyond the patron expiration date, we cannot renew in the system and end up saving patron and item info in a text doc. Then, we renew items during the break between quarters once the currently registered students have been added or renewed in the system.

I’m wondering when do your patron accounts expire? Can we give students an added quarter even if they may not continue at the college?

Thank you!
Katherine

Katherine L. Kelley (she/her)
Faculty Librarian / Library Coordinator

Lake Washington Institute of Technology Library<https://www.lwtech.edu/campus-life/library/>
11605 132nd Avenue NE
Kirkland, WA 98034
425.739.8100 x8503



--
Sarah Gray (she/her)
Systems & Collections Librarian
Library | 3rd Floor, Lynnwood Hall
sarah.gray at edmonds.edu<mailto:sarah.gray at edmonds.edu> | 425.640.1526

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