[Koha-devel] RFC: alternate borrower IDs

[Bernard Shiundu]

I run koha in an academic library setting and I can declare the functionality will be hugely useful to my library and a couple others I know especially the Academic bit and the free text bits. And just for record the bit about getting data from other databases would also apply in a corporate setting with users being drawn from a HR or payroll application (again unique IDs that are not 'library based')

=======================
Bernard Shiundu
Systems Librarian, Strathmore University
Nairobi, Kenya

> -----Original Message-----
> From: koha-devel-bounces at lists.koha.org [mailto:koha-devel-
> bounces at lists.koha.org] On Behalf Of Galen Charlton
> Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 12:06 AM
> To: Koha-Devel
> Subject: [Koha-devel] RFC: alternate borrower IDs
>
> Hi,
>
> Various LibLime customers have requested the ability to have the
> borrower record store additional IDs beyond the barcode and OPAC user
> ID.  To meet this requirement, we propose the following development,
> which barring a general escape of zombies from the sewers of Chicago,
> I could implement by the middle of next week.
>
> The concept of alternate (or additional) IDs would support the
> following use cases:
>
> [1] A (academic) library loads patron records for their students from
> CSV file extracted from a database run by the campus registrar.
> However, the registrar does not know or care about barcodes and
> userids assigned by the library; all they supply is a unique campus ID
> number that the library is expected to match against during patron
> imports.
>
> [2] A library has more than two identifiers for their patrons.  Two
> types of identifiers can take passwords or PINs.
>
> [3] More broadly, and this is something that falls out of the specific
> implementation I'm about to propose, the library wants to add
> free-text attributes to the patron record that are not covered by the
> existing columns of the borrowers table.
>
> To implement this, two new database tables would be added:
>
> borrower_attribute_types (ID or attribute_types)
>  * ID type code (e.g., INSTID)
>  * ID type description (e.g., 'Campus student ID')
>  * repeatable (whether or not a borrower record can have more than one
> ID of that type)
>  * unique (whether or not the ID should be enforced as a unique
> identifier)
>  * opac_display (whether or not the ID should display in the patron's
> account page)
>  * password_allowed (whether or not a password can be associated with
> the ID and used for patron authentication)
>  * staff_searchable (whether or not the ID can be searched in the
> staff interface)
>
> borrower_attributes
>  * borrowernumber (foreign key)
>  * ID type (foreign key)
>  * attribute (text string containing the ID or attribute)
>  * password (optional password associated with the ID)
>
> The primary functional changes would be
>
> 1. new Administration page to define borrower ID types
> 2. new patron editing page to add, delete, or edit borrower ID types
> 3. additional pane or box in patron account tab in OPAC to display
> additional IDs
> 4. in staff client, ability to include one or more ID types in search
> box
> 5. ability to load alternate IDs via the patron import tool.  This
> would be done by adding an optional column in the CSV file that would
> contain ID types and IDs.  Any unique ID would act as a matchpoint.
> For example, the column might contain:
>
> "INSTID:12345, MAJOR:Physics, ADDLOGIN:abcdef/passwd"
>
> The new feature would be guarded by a syspref - if the preference is
> off, no sign of the additional IDs would display in the Administration
> menu, the patron editor, or the OPAC.
>
> I would appreciate comments on this proposed functionality, the
> proposed implementation, and whether or not this would be of use to
> others.
>
> Regards,
>
> Galen
> --
> Galen Charlton
> Koha Application Developer
> LibLime
> galen.charlton at liblime.com
> p: 1-888-564-2457 x709
>
>
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