[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Deleting Patron Accounts - AND books?

[Martha Driscoll]

Hi Jennifer,
The way the system is currently designed, the expectation is that the 
copy data will be available even if the people want to delete a record.

The circulation tables records each circulation transaction.  That table 
is used in reports that need to count circulation statistics.  The table 
does not record specific information about the copy that was circulated, 
but it does point back to the specific copy.

Let's say a professor wants to know how the eastern religion books 
circulated over the last 5 years.  Maybe the college put some money into 
that program and bought a lot of material.  Maybe some of the copies 
were damaged or lost and removed from the collection over the span of 
that 5 years.  If the copies are gone when you run a circulation report, 
you won't be able to count by things like copy call number or copy 
statistical category.  That data would have been removed with the copy. 
  The same is true for bibliographic data.  If the circulation 
transaction can't find the original bib, then categorizing your 
statistics by bib data won't be possible. The circulations will still be 
present in that table, but drilling down to specific details will be lost.

Martha Driscoll
Systems Manager
North of Boston Library Exchange
Danvers, Massachusetts
www.noblenet.org

On 8/6/2015 9:39 AM, Walz, Jennifer wrote:
> Mike,
>
> Yup.  That is precisely it.   I don’t want to have to remember to filter
> for “deleted”.   That seems really a weird expectation, when it should
> have been deleted. (meaning it is not there) J
>
>    And it clutters up the server.  I like clean systems and only the
> stuff we have is there and nothing else.
>
> And we get weird and random empty records that we can’t figure out how
> they got there.   Did someone make a mistake?   Did the system get
> confused?   Did we do something wrong?     Then fixing that is just a
> pain.   Would be nice to blast everything and just start over.  With the
> phantom records hanging around the system, you can’t really do that.
>
> Maybe we could have a report run that “clears” the system only when you
> run it.   It could be an admin only function and run when it is deemed
> appropriate. Our previous system had reports like that.  It was lovely.
>
>    Thanks!
>
> Jennifer
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> Jennifer Walz, MLS - Head of ILS Random Weirdness
> Kinlaw Library - *Asbury University*
> One Macklem Drive, Wilmore, KY 40390
> 859-858-3511 ext. 2269
> jlwalz at asbury.edu
>
> *From:*Open-ils-general
> [mailto:open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org] *On Behalf
> Of *Mike Rylander
> *Sent:* Wednesday, August 05, 2015 10:43 AM
> *To:* Evergreen Discussion Group
> *Subject:* Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Deleting Patron Accounts - AND books?
>
> Jennifer,
>
> Where, other than reports that lack a filter on "Is deleted", are these
> items showing up?
>
> Thanks,
>
>
> --
>
> Mike Rylander
>
>   | President
>
>   | Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts
>
>   | phone:  1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
>
>   | email: miker at esilibrary.com <mailto:miker at esilibrary.com>
>
>   | web: http://www.esilibrary.com
>
> On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 10:35 AM, Walz, Jennifer <jlwalz at asbury.edu
> <mailto:jlwalz at asbury.edu>> wrote:
>
> All –
>
>    I completely understand!   This is a valuable option for those folks
> who need this.  But there should ALSO be an option for completely and
> utterly obliterating the record – if you need to.    We just REMOVED
> about 600 books from our collection (remember that we are an academic
> library) and we never want to see them again.   We expect that they are
> weeded and gone.   But no.   They are still hanging around the system to
> clutter things up.   And confuse things too.   That is why we are
> experiencing so much problem with our items we are moving around into a
> new Children’s collection.   We weeded, we merged, and now we are
> changing call numbers.   But the “deleted” stuff keeps showing up when
> we THOUGHT we deleted it and never want to see it again.
>
>    I’m NOT saying to remove the option to “hide” items in case you want
> to use them again or in the case where there are items attached or fines
> or such.   BUT, it would be really great to also have the option to
> really and finally REMOVE items from the system.  There are times when
> that is needed as well.
>
>    Thanks!
>
> Jennifer
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> Jennifer Walz, MLS - Head of ILS Ministrations
> Kinlaw Library - *Asbury University*
> One Macklem Drive, Wilmore, KY 40390
> 859-858-3511 ext. 2269 <tel:859-858-3511%20ext.%202269>
> jlwalz at asbury.edu <mailto:jlwalz at asbury.edu>
>
> *From:*Open-ils-general
> [mailto:open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org
> <mailto:open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org>] *On Behalf
> Of *Rogan Hamby
> *Sent:* Wednesday, August 05, 2015 10:10 AM
> *To:* Evergreen Discussion Group
> *Subject:* Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Deleting Patron Accounts - AND books?
>
> Oh yeah, they reappear like fleas.  It's one reason I don't like
> obliterating, things that folks are sure they never want to see again
> one day suddenly are desirable the next.
>
> On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 10:00 AM, Jason Stephenson <jstephenson at mvlc.org
> <mailto:jstephenson at mvlc.org>> wrote:
>
> Funny thing about deleted copies is they come back!
>
> Just last week I was asked to undelete about 1 dozen copies that showed
> up in the returns.
>
> If you really delete them from the database, you can't do that.
>
> Just some food for thought.
>
> Jason
> --
> Jason Stephenson
> Assistant Director for Technology Services
> Merrimack Valley Library Consortium
> 4 High ST, Suite 175
> North Andover, MA 01845
> Phone: 978-557-5891 <tel:978-557-5891>
> Email: jstephenson at mvlc.org <mailto:jstephenson at mvlc.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>
>