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Polaris 4.1 Training

Patron Services

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Patron Services 1

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• Patron Services Menu

• Patron Registration Record

Patron Services Menu

• To access Patron Services, use the Patron Services drop-down

menu or click on the first red marble

• Patron Records

• Patron Record Sets

• Course Reserves Records and Templates*

• Outreach Services*

*If licensed these topics will be covered in different training sessions

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Patron Registration

• Address and Phone view

• A patron record is associated with a branch in Polaris

• Points of contact and notification preferences are set in this view

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Telephone notification

• Only one phone can be designated for TXT messages

• A phone that has been selected for telephony can also be

selected for additional TXT notices

• If the notification option is set to TXT only one notice will be sent

to the designated mobile phone

• Mobile phone carriers are managed in System Administration

Patron Registration

• General view

• Note that the patron’s password is not displayed

• Staff can if a patron’s reading history is being maintained

(patrons may enable/disable this feature in the PAC)

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User defined fields

• The five user defined fields (UDFs) are optional fields

• A setting in System Administration can make any of the UDFs a

required field when registering a patron

• Each UDF can be either a free text field or a dropdown menu

Patron Registration

• Status view

• This view shows information regarding the patron’s record

including fines, blocks, number of items checked out and their

history of current notices

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Patron Registration

• Patron Photo view

• This is an optional view if you choose to implement this feature

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Registering Patrons 2

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• Create a new Patron Record

• Copy a Patron Record

• Merge patron records

• Express registration

• Patron duplication detection

• Post a message from a Patron Registration record

Create a New Patron Record

• Click on the New button on the shortcut bar

• Press the P key on your keyboard or scroll down to Patron

Record

• Click the OK button on the screen or just press ENTER

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Create a New Patron Record

• You can also right-mouse click on a patron results list and select

Create Patron

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Create a New Patron Record

• Fill in fields on the first two views remembering that fields that

are bold are required

• Default information, such as the expiration date and address

check date is coming from settings in System Administration

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Address and Phone view

• Click the Add button to add a patron address

• Add or edit the postal code first—the city, county and state will fill in automatically

• Multiple address (Home, Office, School, etc.) may be added

• Set the preferred notice and notification options and make sure the required information is present for deilvery

General view

• A PAC password can be entered on the General view

• If staff do not enter a password, a SQL job will populate the field with the last four digits of the phone number in the Phone 1 field

• A patron’s password can be 4 to 16 alpha/numeric characters

• Passwords must be only four digits (no alpha characters) if

using Inbound Telephony

Copy a Patron Record

• Copying a record is helpful if you are creating records for

multiple members of a household

• After registering the first patron or opening a current registration

record, click on the New icon in the workform tool bar

• Select Copy Existing Work Form

• Click OK or press ENTER

Copy a Patron Record

• All of the information from the current registration is copied to

the new one except for the barcode and password

• Edit the new patron record as needed

• Save the new registration record

Express Registration

• Express Registration is available from the Check Out workform

• When the Express Registration icon is clicked a blank

Registration workform appears

• Express Registration can have different defaults and required

fields set in System Administration

• A block can be automatically placed on a patron record that was

created by express registration to signal the need for staff to

review and confirm registration information

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Patron Duplicate Detection

• Polaris uses the barcode, patron name, address, and registered

library fields to check for suspected duplicate patrons

• Additional fields may be added as match points in System

Administration

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Post a message from the Registration

workform

• Posted messages appear on a patron’s account record in the

PAC

• Go to Tools Post Message to access this functionality

• Messages can be selected from a predefined list or a free text

message may be entered

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Polaris Patron Services Guide

• Help Online Documents from the Polaris Shortcut Bar

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