[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Deleting Patron Accounts

[Scott Thomas]

Hi Rogan,
   Thank you for replying.  One thing you mentioned has piqued my interest. It might be easier if I gave a scenario instead of trying to describe what I mean. Say, on January 2, 2016, I run a report on circulation for 2015 and then, a month later, delete many patrons some of whom had checked out materials in 2015. If I ran the same 2015 report again after the deletions, would the numbers be different because the patrons were purged? In other words, when a patron is deleted, do their countable circ transactions go with them?

Scott


From: Open-ils-general [mailto:open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of Rogan Hamby
Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2015 1:33 PM
To: Evergreen Discussion Group <open-ils-general at list.georgialibraries.org>
Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Deleting Patron Accounts

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<mailto: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<tel:570-207-2379>
Fx: 570-348-3020<tel:570-348-3020>
Email: scott at albright.org<mailto: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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