How to view the Patron Categories saved on your site
Patron categories are important because they are used within the fine and circulation rules to determine which items can be taken out by which patrons and for how long. They can also be used to determine a variety of features and functions that will be applied to individual patron accounts, including the circulation messages patrons receive. This document outlines how to view patron categories which already exist on your site and explains the purpose of the different fields that will need to be addressed to create new patron categories.
The patron categories table may be updated to include new fields with different releases of KOHA. This document is accurate for the 21.11 release, however it does include information relevant to earlier and later releases of KOHA.
How to navigate to the patron category table
Go to KOHA administration > Patrons and circulation > Patron categories.
This will take you to a new page with a table of the patron categories already defined on your site.
How to view the details of a specific patron category
To view the details of a specific category click the blue link in the
Category Name
column or click
Edit
under the
Actions
column
. This will take you to a new page where the details of a specific category can be set or edited.
Category Code
This data is used by Koha to track the patron category. It cannot be changed after being saved.
It should follow coding conventions already on your site, for instance, if the codes for other patron categories follow the pattern AB.ST (Staff),
AB. STU (Student) then any new ones should be formatted AB.XXX, XXX being a three letter pattern to denote the description.
Description
This denotes the type of patron that should be sorted into the category.
This can be edited after the fact and is intended to be explanatory for patrons and staff.
Enrollment period
This sets how long a patron account will be active for. It is possible to set this with a specific date or with a specific time
period, i.e 19/08/19 vs. 6 months. A patron account that reaches the end of the enrolment period will not be deleted, but will no longer be active. At the very least, if a patron is no longer active they will not be able to complete checkouts, but individual libraries can set other restrictions for expired patrons. For more details about expired patrons, please check our Help Centre.
Age required and upper age limit
This is an optional setting to ensure patrons can only be added if they fit into a particular age range.
This can be useful to prevent young children from being added to an adult patron category in error and as a result having access to mature material.
Enrollment fee
This is an optional field that will automatically add a charge to all newly created patron accounts.
Overdue notice required
This gives the option to allow patrons within to receive overdue notices.
Please note, this setting will only make it possible for patrons within the patron category to receive overdue notices. To actually set overdue notices to go out, the
Overdue notices/status triggers area of Koha will need to be configured.
For more details about the circulation notices on Koha, please check our
Help Centre.
Lost items in staff client
This is an optional field that allows the library to charge a fee to a patron account if an item checked out to a patron account is marked as LOST.
Hold fee
This is an optional field that allows the library to charge a fee to a patron account if a hold is placed.
Category type
This determines limitations across the entire category. Type includes adult, child and staff and each type has particular features
and potential limitations. For example, a child category can have limitations for checkout and cannot be made a guarantor for another user.
Library limitations
This allows the library to restrict patron categories to certain branches. If a staff member from a branch not within the limitation tries to add a new user
with a limited patron category it will not be allowed.
Password reset in OPAC
This determines if patrons are able to use the
Forgot your password?
link on the OPAC. There are three options for this feature:
Follow system preference OpacResetPassword:
This setting results in whether or not the patron can reset their password via email
being determined by the
OpacResetPassword
system preference.
Allowed
:
This setting gives patrons the ability to reset their password via email regardless of how the
OpacResetPassword
system preference is set.
Not allowed
:
This setting prevents patrons from resetting their password via email regardless of how the
OpacResetPassword
system preference is set.
Password change in OPAC
This determines if patrons are able to alter their password from within their account after logging into the OPAC. There are three options for this feature:
Follow system preference OpacPasswordChange:
This setting results in whether or not the patron can reset their password via email being determined by the
OpacPasswordChange
system preference.
Allowed:
This setting gives patrons the ability to reset their password via email regardless of how the
OpacPasswordChange
system preference is set.
Not allowed:
This setting prevents patrons from resetting their password via email regardless of how the
OpacPasswordChange
system preference is set.
Minimum password length
This option allows staff to set a minimum number of digits a password must be to save an indiviual patron account.
When a patron is created under the patron category the minimum password length is set for, the password on their account will need to have the number of digits defined in the patron category.
If this is left blank, the site will use the default minmum length of 3 digits.
Require strong password
This determines if patrons created with this patron account will need to have a strong password created, as defined under the
RequireStrongPassword system preference. This means the password will need one digit, one lowercase letter and one uppercase letter.
There are three options for this feature.
Follow system preference RequireStrongPassword
This setting result in whether or not a patron account requires a strong password being determined by the
RequireStrongPassword system preference.
Yes
This setting will require a patron account created with the patron category to have a strong password as defined by the
RequireStrongPassword system preference.
No
This setting will not require a patron account created with the patron category to have a strong password as defined by the
RequireStrongPassword system preference.
Block expired patrons
This determines if patrons will be able to renew or place holds on the OPAC after their account has expired.
There are three options for this feature:
Follow system preference BlockExpiredPatronOpacActions
This setting results in whether or not the patron can reset their password via email being determined by the
BlockExpiredPatronOpacActions
system preference.
Don't block: This setting gives patrons the ability to reset their password via email regardless of how the BlockExpiredPatronOpacActions system preference is set.
Block: This setting prevents patrons from resetting their password via email regardless of how the BlockExpiredPatronOpacActions system preference is set.
Default privacy
This dictates the length of time which checkout history is kept for a patron. There are three options:
Default:
Checkouts will be anonymised as often as is set by the cron batch_anonymise.pl. Please contact Interleaf Technology for details about how this cron is set on your own system.
Never
Checkouts will be anonymised when they are checked back in.
Forever
Checkouts are never anonymised.
Exclude from local holds priority
This option allows any patron created under this patron category to be excluded from the settings in the
LocalHoldsPriority system preference.
Default messaging preferences for this patron category
This allows the library to set if and how certain circulation notices are sent for everyone under a partciular patron category.
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