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

[Isaac Devereux]

Hi All,

Late to the party here because I was out on FMLA, but at Shoreline students are usually set to expire at the end of the term in Alma. We will generally go ahead and renew them and their items, or check out new items if they tell us they are registered for the next quarter. I think previously we asked for proof of registration, but now we only do this for things like laptops.  I haven't regularly worked at Circ in a while, though, and things have been wonky since our ransomware incident last spring.

You can set a due date as the last date of the quarter, but you have to remember to go in and update the end of term date that all of those TOUs reference in the calendar every term.

regards,
sj


Saint-Jean Devereux
Library Technical Services

Shoreline Community College
library.shoreline.edu  |  206.546.6962
Pronouns: he, him / they, them

I welcome VSRE emails. More at http://vsre.info<http://vsre.info/>


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From: wactclc-alma <wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu> on behalf of Herman, Amy <aherman at olympic.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, December 6, 2023 12:33 PM
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>
Subject: Re: [wactclc-alma] [EXTERNAL] - Re: Patron expiration dates

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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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