[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Opt-in Feature

[Mike Rylander]

On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 3:54 PM, James Fournie
<jfournie at sitka.bclibraries.ca> wrote:
> Hi Everyone!
>
> I am wondering if any other sites are using the patron opt-in
> functionality.  This is the feature that will only retrieve patrons
> from other libraries if they have consented to have their information
> shared with your library.  I believe this functionality was created by
> Equinox specifically for us at SITKA due to British Columbia's privacy
> laws.
>
> I am attempting to patch this functionality to take into account
> multi-branch sites and deeper org-trees.  Currently, it will force you
> to opt-in patrons at different branches of the same library, which
> doesn't really make sense.  I would like to add a setting to
> opensrf.xml under the opt-in setting for the org unit depth below
> which opting does not apply.   It would be helpful to know if other
> sites are using this feature and have noticed this problem.
>

I have some ideas I'd like to air out here.

How about, instead of a global config file setting, we add a new
permission (say, patron.opt_in) which we would give to relevant
staff-type groups or specific users.  The depth of the permission
assignment (using a consortium->system->branch style hierarchy for
this example) would define where in the org tree the staff member with
that permission is allowed to opt the patron in.  So, if the staff
member has the "patron.opt_in" permission at the "system" level, they
can choose to opt the patron in at the system of their current
worstation org unit, or any deeper org unit (a specific branch-level
org unit within their worstation org units system, in this case).

When opting the patron in, they are presented with a dropdown of all
orgs that they have this permission at, and they choose the correct
one.  This org unit, which may be the system, or a specific branch, is
recorded as the org_unit that the user has opted in at.

This would allow local policy to decided if there are some staff
members that can opt patrons in at the entire consortium, and some
that can only opt in at a specific branch.  It also allows for a bit
more flexibility for complex, unbalanced hierarchies.

After that is made possible, we simply need to change the query in the
patron search method to check for a hierarchical opt-in setting.  That
can be done pretty easily with an EXISTS condition in the WHERE
clause, replacing the LEFT JOIN + WHERE check that's there now.

Thoughts?


-- 
Mike Rylander
 | VP, Research and Design
 | Equinox Software, Inc. / The Evergreen Experts
 | phone:  1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
 | email:  miker at esilibrary.com
 | web:  http://www.esilibrary.com