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Patron record clean up for Alma Migration: Recommended and Required

edited 4/1/2020

Summary

The Resource Sharing Committee discussed how best to reduce migrating very old personally identifiable information that is not needed to serve current patrons in Alma. This includes reviewing the number and scope of long-expired patron records and long-unpaid fines and fees.

The January 16, 2020 CARLI Alma Migration Office Hours provided an overview of these guidelines, including the next steps for the clean-up processes.
The CARLI Office recommends watching this recording, or reading the slides with included narrative script, as a companion to reviewing this webpage.


Slides | Slides with speaker notes

The CARLI Office plans to begin the clean-up work in May 2020.

Overview

  • The (approved) recommendations to the CARLI Board are as follows:
    • Reinforce the long-standing CARLI policy that I-Share libraries do not assess overdue fines to other I-Share libraries' patrons, and expunge these fines.
    • Advise I-Share libraries to minimize the migration of patron records for individuals that are no longer actively affiliated with their institutions and recommend a workflow for eliminating these data.
    • Require forgiveness for fines and fees older than 7 years for other I-Share libraries’ patrons, and recommend that I-Share libraries forgive fines and fees older than 7 years for the library’s own patrons.
  • Rationale for these recommendations:
    • The CARLI Privacy Policy states, "It is our policy to store personal information in our systems for the shortest amount of time necessary to complete transactions or provide service."
    • The Committee focused on the question of at what point is it realistic for a library to assume they will not receive payment for, or the return of, a lost item. The work did not focus on measures that might be taken to increase the percentage of payments received for lost items.
    • Historical I-Share data reviewed by the Committee showed that the vast majority of lost items that were paid for or forgiven, were processed within two years of the item reaching lost status. Of the fines paid, 90% were paid within 2 years. Of the fines forgiven, 95% were forgiven within 2 years.
    • In light of varying financial practices among the I-Share member institutions, the general rule of accountancy that 7 years is sufficient time for maintaining records for potential audits, lawsuits, or claims; and the review of current and historical I-Share data, the Resource Sharing Committee is recommending an "older than 7 year" fine/fee forgiveness guideline.

Guidelines with clean-up workflows

The recommendations are carried out through seven guidelines.

  • Recommended: Purge eligible local patron records with expire/purge date older than 2 years (or fewer)
    • Workflow:
      • I-Share libraries can file a WRO (Work Request Online) for Circjob 39, Patron purge.
      • The WRO prompts for the date, and for the library to select whether to use the date in the patron record’s Expiration Date field or Purge Date field.
      • Patron record purges can be performed multiple times before the production data extract.
        • Submit a patron record purge soon to clean up the long-expired/long-past purge date records.
        • Submit a record purge request closer to the date of the production data extract.
  • Required: Purge patron records with only "historical" fines and fees.
    • Workflow:
      • Any patron record purges performed after February 1st will allow Voyager to delete patrons with only historical fines.
      • On February 1, 2020, CARLI Office staff will update the checkbox in Voyager System Administration for these I-Share libraries to "Allow Deletion of Patron with Historical Fines."
        • ALP: Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
        • ERK: Eureka College
        • KCC: Kankakee Community College
        • LAC: Lewis and Clark Community College
        • MIL: Millikin University
        • SEI: Southeastern Illinois College
        • UIC: University of Illinois at Chicago
        • UIU: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Required: Forgive all overdue fines owed by I-Share patrons.
  • Recommended: For local patrons, forgive fines/fees created more than 7 years ago (5 or fewer encouraged)
  • Required: For I-Share patrons, forgive fines/fees created more than 7 years ago [before 1/1/2013] (7 years required, 5 or fewer recommended)
  • Recommended: For local patrons, forgive and discharge items lost more than 7 years ago (5 or fewer encouraged)
  • Required: For I-Share patrons, forgive and discharge items lost more than 7 years ago [before 1/1/2013] (7 years required, 5 or fewer recommended).  
    • Workflow:
      • The CARLI Office will solicit each library's option by sending the I-Share Liaison a survey.
        • The survey will ask which option (listed below) for fine/fee clean-up the library selects, and the date ranges to be used.
      • The CARLI Office will be in contact with the I-Share Liaison during the clean-up process.
        • The I-Share Liaison is responsible for working with their library colleagues to disseminate, and gather, needed information.
           
        • Option 1: Library uses the same date for both local and I-Share patrons (preferred)
          • The CARLI Office staff will upload a report to the library's CARLI FTP directory of the patron’s basic information, paired with their fines/fees that will be forgiven.
          • The CARLI Office will run the Voyager server Circjob 41, which forgives all fines and fees created within the given date range, for both local and I-Share patrons.
          • After running Circjob 41, the CARLI Office will run an updated version of the Voyager Discharge Macro to discharge the lost items on the patron’s accounts, and then will update those lost items’ status to "Withdrawn", "Missing", or "Lost- Library Applied" at the choice of the library.
        • Option 2: Library uses different dates for local and I-Share patron thresholds.
          • The CARLI Office staff will upload a report to the library’s CARLI FTP directory of the patron's basic information, paired with their fines/fees that will be forgiven.
          • The CARLI Office will run the Voyager server Circjob 40 separately for local patrons, and for I-Share patrons.
          • Circjob 40 forgives all of the selected patrons' fines and fees; it is not limited to a specific type of fine.
          • After running Circjob 40, the CARLI Office will run an updated version of the Voyager Discharge Macro to discharge the lost items on the patron’s accounts, and then will update those lost items’ status to "Withdrawn", "Missing", or "Lost- Library Applied" at the choice of the library.
        • Option 3: Manual workflow
          • The I-Share Library, or the CARLI Office staff, can generate a list of I-Share and of local patrons owing fines/fees to the library within the date range(s) for clean-up.
          • The I-Share library's staff can perform manual clean up in Voyager Circulation.
        • Option 4: Combination workflow
          • Libraries could opt for a combination of Options 1, 2, and/or 3.

Full Report to CARLI Board of Directors, December 2019

This report was presented to the CARLI Board of Directors for their December 6, 2019 meeting.
The Board accepted the recommendations,December 6, 2019 Board Minutes.

This report consists of 3 parts: