[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Batch Functions

[Dan Wells]

Hello all,

We currently sync to two different student information systems, one for the college and one for the seminary.  Evergreen does have a possible way to classify identifiers (i.e. record their sources) via the config.identification_type table as linked to the actor.usr.ident_type field.  In our system, we have a 'College' identifier_type and a 'Seminary' identifier_type, and our load overlays based on a combination of ident_type and ident_value.  You can of course have as many types as you have ID sources, and this method also assumes you are not already using ident_type for some broader purpose.

Sincerely,
Dan


Daniel Wells
Library Programmer/Analyst
Hekman Library, Calvin College
616.526.7133

-----Original Message-----
From: open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org [mailto:open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of Tina Ji (Project Sitka)
Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2014 12:31 PM
To: Evergreen Discussion Group
Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Patron Batch Functions

Our academic libraries use the unique identifiers from the student information system as ident_value. We have only a few academic libraries, but some use the same student information system (same software, runs separately). We encountered the duplicate ident_value issue, and had to pad it.

We also have another working scenario. Some libraries want to sync between Evergreen and the student information system on every patron load. They send us a complete current students file. We delete all student records based on patron profile, such as Student and Postgrad Student, and then undelete and update matching records and load nonmatching records.

Tina Ji
Support Specialist
BC Libraries Coop


Quoting Martha Driscoll <driscoll at noblenet.org>:

> Rogan,
> Thanks for mentioning the unique identifier problem.  I did intent to 
> associate ident_value with the unique identifier coming from the 
> campus system.  Having non-unique identifiers from multiple campus 
> systems is definitely a possibility.  Our libraries are told to append 
> the org_unit shortname to the university id.  That mostly works well 
> except in cases where a student was entered by hand prior to a data 
> load and the library staff person did not enter the ID or entered it 
> without the shortname appended.  We will see barcode collisions in 
> that case which will halt the load until resolved.
>
> Martha Driscoll
> Systems Manager
> North of Boston Library Exchange
> Danvers, Massachusetts
> www.noblenet.org
>
> On 12/9/2014 9:12 AM, Rogan Hamby wrote:
>> I think the syncing between Evergreen and the student information 
>> system will be critical part and I think the workflow you mentioned 
>> Tim is fairly typical.  I noticed that the wiki write up already 
>> mentions an ident_value.  Is that intended to be a unique identifier 
>> from the origin student information system?  If so, can we imagine a 
>> scenario where we might have multiple origin student systems, such as 
>> a consortium with multiple schools?  We might need a table to 
>> identify those external sources.


Tina Ji
1-888-848-9250
Support Specialist
BC Libraries Cooperative/Sitka