[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Aged Circulation?

[Mike Rylander]

On Fri, Dec 3, 2010 at 1:48 PM, Martha Driscoll <driscoll at noblenet.org> wrote:
> It sounds like statistical categories are a much broader concept, more like
> a custom field with no assumptions about what kind of data users may choose
> to store.  In that case, I can see the reluctance to store that information
> in the aged_circulation table.  I think there may still be a role for a more
> narrowly defined statistical category that is retained in cases where aging
> the circulation table is desired or mandated.

At the behest of users, yes, patron stat cats became more than their
name suggests ... ;)  They have the ability to act in the same way as
their copy/item cousins, though, so all is not lost.

But there's a broader point I alluded to, which is that because stat
cats (both user and copy/item) can be owned (given proper permissions)
anywhere in the org tree, you risk inter-institution information
leakage.  Regardless of how strict the policy is at Library A, Library
B may attach their own information to a patron, with local policy to
back it up, when that patron uses their services.  It's not just the
specific datapoint semantics that we need to consider, but also the
consortial nature of Evergreen and how that changes the playing field
for what, in a standalone system, would seem to be trivial.

Also, thanks, Martha, for contributing to the discussion on the list.
The community working through these considerations is how we will
eventually come to consensus on best to move forward (or not move, in
some cases).

--miker

>
> Martha Driscoll
> Systems Manager
> North of Boston Library Exchange
> Danvers, Massachusetts
> www.noblenet.org
>
> On 12/3/2010 11:32 AM, Mike Rylander wrote:
>
>> I don't have, on hand, empirical evidence one way or the other, but I
>> think it's reasonable to assume that because it's a stated use case
>> for user stat-cats, using stat-cat values to store individually
>> specific information about a patron is not entirely uncommon.  Also,
>> because stat-cats can be locally defined, it's not unreasonable to
>> further assume that local policy could leak information about patrons
>> from "foreign" libraries.  These (and others) are all things we'd need
>> to think carefully about in expanding the set of retained patron data.
>>
>> All that being said, it is certainly a solvable problem.
>>
>
>



-- 
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