[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Deleting Patron Accounts

[Rogan Hamby]

There are a few different kinds of deleting in Evergreen.  One is to turn
on the deleted flag on the account.  That doesn't do much other than hide
the account from the staff client pulling it up and is relatively harmless.

The other kind of deleting is obliterating the account.  This is the delete
option that is on the "other" menu in the staff client and comes up with
this warning:  "Completely OBLITERATE this patron account, including bills,
payments, bookbags, etc?  This is IRREVERSIBLE."  And it has a checkbox.

The good?  It deletes it and it's gone forever.

The bad?  As the message warns, gone forever is also anything tied to it.
My accountants would throw a fit at bills and payments and other records
disappearing from the system and we're audited every other year.  So,
whether or not it's bad will depend on your circumstances, your accounting
environment, etc...

As a result it can also throw off counts of circulations, holds, etc... if
you want to go back and run numbers on old data sets.

If we want to truly remove a patron I run an anonymization script that
strips out their address except for zip code, names, phone numbers, email,
etc.... and leaves a generic patron in place but leaves all of their
associated records.

On Tue, Aug 4, 2015 at 1:21 PM, Scott Thomas <scott at albright.org> wrote:

> Our old ILS would not allow you to remove a patron until all outstanding
> bills, holds, and checkouts were cleared. We were thrilled that Evergreen
> would simply allow you to remove the patron. However, I have heard from
> various sources that, while EG will allow you to remove a patron with
> impunity, it is not good practice to remove a patron with outstanding
> transactions and bills. Can anyone clarify this?
>
> Thank you,
> Scott
>
>
>
>
>
> Scott  Thomas, MLS
>
> Head of Information Technologies and Technical Services
>
> Scranton Public Library
>
> Lackawanna County Library System
>
> 2006 N. Main Ave.
>
> Scranton, PA 18508
>
> Ph: 570-207-2379
>
> Fx: 570-348-3020
>
> Email: scott at albright.org
>
>
>
>
>



-- 

Rogan Hamby, MLS, CCNP, MIA
Managers Headquarters Library and Reference Services,
York County Library System

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit
me.”
― C.S. Lewis <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1069006.C_S_Lewis>
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