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: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:koha-devel- > [EMAIL PROTECTED] 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 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > p: 1-888-564-2457 x709 > > > _______________________________________________ > Koha-devel mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel > _______________________________________________ > Koha-devel mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.koha.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel _______________________________________________ Koha-devel mailing list [email protected] http://lists.koha.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel
