[Koha-bugs] [Bug 32444] New: Identify patrons as a group or family unit

[bugzilla-daemon at bugs.koha-community.org]

https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=32444

            Bug ID: 32444
           Summary: Identify patrons as a group or family unit
 Change sponsored?: ---
           Product: Koha
           Version: master
          Hardware: All
                OS: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: enhancement
          Priority: P5 - low
         Component: Patrons
          Assignee: koha-bugs at lists.koha-community.org
          Reporter: cbrannon at cdalibrary.org
        QA Contact: testopia at bugs.koha-community.org
                CC: gmcharlt at gmail.com, kyle.m.hall at gmail.com

For years, Koha has used guarantors to link families together.  Progress was
made when we were able to link more than one person to a child.  However, there
are other areas where it might be beneficial to link patrons together that
don't involve parents.

https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=31329 proposes to
block linked accounts when one is restricted.

But before we do that, I think it might be worth looking at the guarantors a
little bit and refine our approach with this functionality before proceeding
with 31329 (sorry Wally!).

I think guarantors should be updated to something more universal, linking any
patron to any patron.  Right now we limit it to linking a parent or guardian to
a child.  But what if we wanted to link a household.  That might just be
siblings in the same house.  What if it was husband and wife?  What if it was
an organization?

There are some great ideas with linked accounts, like what 31329 proposes.  And
I am sure that there are others.  For example, maybe your library has some
resources that you want to limit 1 per household.  Right now we can't do that,
but perhaps we could with a re-imagined linking system.  What if we wanted to
update information in the linked accounts?  This would be a good start.

What does this re-imagined linking look like?  Perhaps:
* Eliminate the limitation allowing the links to just child accounts.
* Name the organizational grouping: Household, School name, business name, etc.
* Identify and an all guarantors in the grouping.
* Can the grouping exist without a guarantor?
* If not, if the last guarantor is removed from the group, should someone else
in the grouping be marked as guarantor, should the grouping be allowed to carry
on without a guarantor, or should the grouping be dissolved?

There may be other aspects we might want to consider in this functionality, but
this is a good start.

Once this is reworked, then we could look at options of linking blocks to
particular groups, updating groups, circulation limitations to groups, etc.

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