[Koha] Public library with student accounts

[Chad Roseburg]

Are there any public libraries working with schools to create accounts for
use with various digital services, checkout ...etc.?

Just wondering what your process is and what rights the accounts have.
Currently, we upload the accounts without checkout privileges so they can
just be purged each summer and updated without having to worry about fines
and whatnot. The primary use, from my understanding, is for classes needing
access to research databases and possibly Overdrive. The reasoning is that
they can definitely still get regular accounts and checkout physical items
--- vast majority already have regular accounts but can't remember
their login creds. However, two public schools have indicated that they
would like the accounts to have checkout privileges baked into the
auto-generated accounts.

Not sure how to maintain the patron database and foresee problems.

- Koha can't identify duplicate accounts. Not a limitation of Koha, just
that there aren't enough match points to reliably de-dupe accounts. And
even if you could ...
- Student could get enough overdues to restrict access to databases
making class participation difficult.
- Duplicate accounts with fines.
- ???

Anyone got this figured out? Am I overthinking this?

Thank you!

[Chad Roseburg]

Thanks, Alex! This is very helpful. How are you hiding patron categories?

Chad,
We have a High School - Public Library joint facility and I load student
records every year. To manage the student and facility accounts I just have
a student and facility patron categories. I put expiration dates for the
students at 4 years. That way when they expire I can purge the accounts by
those that are expired. I do hide the student and faculty accounts from the
public library login accounts and hide the public library accounts from the
school login accounts. This helps in that staff will not the student or
faculty account and think it is a duplicate account. I also hide the school
patron categories from public library staff so they do not use them by
mistake and vise versa. It seems to work.
Hope this helps.
Alex Hatley
Library Technology Manager
Corpus Christi Public Libraries
805 Comanche
Corpus Christi TX, 78401
PH# 361-826-7045
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------------------------------
*Sent:* Tuesday, August 28, 2018 7:48 PM
*Subject:* [ByWater Partners] Public library with student accounts
Are there any public libraries working with schools to create accounts for
use with various digital services, checkout ...etc.?
Just wondering what your process is and what rights the accounts have.
Currently, we upload the accounts without checkout privileges so they can
just be purged each summer and updated without having to worry about fines
and whatnot. The primary use, from my understanding, is for classes needing
access to research databases and possibly Overdrive. The reasoning is that
they can definitely still get regular accounts and checkout physical items
--- vast majority already have regular accounts but can't remember
their login creds. However, two public schools have indicated that they
would like the accounts to have checkout privileges baked into the
auto-generated accounts.
Not sure how to maintain the patron database and foresee problems.
- Koha can't identify duplicate accounts. Not a limitation of Koha,
just that there aren't enough match points to reliably de-dupe accounts.
And even if you could ...
- Student could get enough overdues to restrict access to databases
making class participation difficult.
- Duplicate accounts with fines.
- ???
Anyone got this figured out? Am I overthinking this?
Thank you!
--
Chad Roseburg
Assoc. Director / IT
Automation Dept.
North Central Regional Library