[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Reading History opt in on patron application

[Rogan Hamby]

Hi Eva,

I could certainly see that being a developed feature.  I certainly can
think of a lot of handy situations for it and it's certainly doable.  I'm
thinking of the folks that come in an bulk check out by genre and check out
20 items at a time because they assume they've read at least half of them
and won't remember until they are a chapter into the book.

I would be a little worried about the workflow and if it was meant as a
preventive (i.e. give them a chance to not check the item out) that there
might be a speed/timing issue so it might take a bit of thought of the best
way to do it.





Rogan Hamby

Data and Project Analyst

Equinox Open Library Initiative

phone:  1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)

email:  rogan at EquinoxInitiative.org
web:  http://EquinoxInitiative.org

On Wed, Oct 18, 2017 at 6:24 PM, Cerninakova Eva <cernin at jabok.cz> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I know it is a little bit out of the topic, but I have another question
> regarding patrons reading history:
>
> We were asked by some libraries, whether it is possible in Evergreen to
> alert staff at checkout in cases when a patron had already borrowed the
> same book before. Such feature is available in most of the ILS that are
> used  in the Czech Republic  and patrons  (and librarians too) find it
> quite useful.
>
> Is there such possibility in Evergreen? I don't think so, but I just want
> to be sure.
>
> By the way, Czech libraries would also appreciate reading history opt in
> on  patron application ;-)
>
> Eva
>
> ---
>
> Mgr. Eva Cerniňáková
> cernin at jabok.cz
> Tel. +420 211 222 409 <+420%20211%20222%20409>
>
> Knihovna Jabok
> http:/knihovna.jabok.cz
> Tel.  +420 211 222 410 <+420%20211%20222%20410>
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> ------------------------------
>
> Dne 18. října 2017 11:43:39 odpoledne Aubrey Area Library <
> aubreyarealibrary at gmail.com> napsal:
>
>> Hey Josh,
>>
>> An interesting proposal. I think it would be a neat addition to to add to
>> patron registration process.
>>
>> Like Terran, staff being able to view a patrons reading history would be
>> better off as a togglable library setting. The fact that we can retrieve a
>> patrons reading history is a somewhat guarded secret due to privacy
>> concerns in our consortium.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Jordan Woodard
>> Aubrey Area Library
>>
>> On Wed, Oct 18, 2017 at 1:44 PM, Josh Stompro <stomproj at exchange.larl.org
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> Hello, we are running into the fact that many of our patrons that want
>>> to make use of a reading history, don’t find out about it until long after
>>> they sign up for an account. Many of these patrons are also non
>>> computer/online catalog users, so there is no chance that they would ever
>>> find the option to enable it themselves, and even if they knew about it,
>>> they wouldn’t be able to set it themselves.  So they find out about it
>>> after talking with staff, and then get mad when they find out that it will
>>> only have their history starting at the point they sign up.  Since they
>>> don’t use computers, they need staff to walk them through (do it for them)
>>> logging into their account and finding the option, so it would be handy if
>>> staff could just do it for them.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> We could set the library setting to default the checkout history to
>>> being enabled, but we really don’t want to make that decision for everyone,
>>> and then put the onus on them to figure out how to use the catalog to turn
>>> it off.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> So we are considering adding an opt in checkbox to the patron
>>> application, along with a user setting that staff can check, to allow staff
>>> to enable the circ history at patron registration time.  The user setting
>>> being checked or unchecked would trigger a nightly process that would
>>> enable/disable the reading history for that account.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> In theory, this could result in a customer saying that they never signed
>>> up for the feature, saying that staff did it on their own.  But since it is
>>> already trivially easy for staff to log into the catalog as a customer, it
>>> seems like that would already be a problem.  (staff know what the default
>>> pin numbers are based on, or could just change the pin, a customer that
>>> never uses the catalog would never know that the pin was changed)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Has anyone else done this or something like this?  Is this a horrible
>>> idea?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I think staff would also like to be able to access the patrons history
>>> from their staff stations, which would make readers advisory easier.
>>> “Which Louis L’Amour titles haven’t I read yet”.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> We have had problems in the past with patrons physically marking books
>>> that they have read before, to make it easier for them to find the ones
>>> they haven’t read.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Josh
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Lake Agassiz Regional Library - Moorhead MN larl.org
>>>
>>> Josh Stompro     | Office 218.233.3757 EXT-139 <(218)%20233-3757>
>>>
>>> LARL IT Director | Cell 218.790.2110 <(218)%20790-2110>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> If you need further assistance, please contact the library at
>> 940-365-9162 <(940)%20365-9162> or send a reply email.
>> Thank You, The Library Staff
>>
>> 226 Countryside Dr., Aubrey, TX 76227
>>
>>
>>
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