- ALWAYS search to make sure there isn’t a patron record already in Leap
- Click the New Patron button
- Mouse, tab or scroll between sections – don’t skip a section
- Use the Navigation menu on the left side to quickly move to sections when editing
- Fields marked with the “*” are required to save the record
- Borrower information should be entered in mixed case, please avoid using ALL CAPS when entering information in the borrower registration screen.
Click here for start of the year tips!
Profile
- Barcode (scan the card) (When scanning barcodes, the scanner sometimes grab the barcode twice, resulting in a barcode that looks like this: 2197806756899021978 – it adds an extra 21978 at the end. When you scan that person’s card to check out a book, it won’t work because the card has only 14 digits!)
- Registered branch (where you are)
- Patron code (determines borrowing permissions)
- Name – in separate fields (Suffix is free text (for example, you could type Jr., Jr, or Junior). Please include Jr., Sr. IV, etc. in the Suffix field and not with the last name.
- Registration Dates—today’s date
- Expiration Date – fills in automatically; edit only for patrons whose cards expire sooner than default four years
- Birth date – mm/dd/yyyy
- Statistical class
Attributes
- No Marketing Communication is the No Foundation Contact setting. Note that students do not receive any contact except for holds and ovrdue notices.
- Parent/Guardian is entered simply First name Last name. Please don’t use symbols or punctuation unless it’s a hyphen or apostrophe in the name.
- Bookmobile is Outreach use only
- Grad Yr/Homeroom is the student’s high school graduation year (Shared System use only)
- You will create record sets for the Grad Yr/Homeroom field and Shared System staff will update this field for you each year. LINK TO RECORD SET INSTRUCTIONS
Email Addresses
- Use the Alt Email field ONLY if patron requests having notices sent to a second email address. It is not necessary to enter the same email in both fields. The alt email field doesn’t serve as a back-up, either, in case the first one doesn’t work. Having an email address in both fields means two notices will get sent out.
- The alternative email is often added when patrons report not receiving library emails to first email address
- Email is not required however we send the majority of patron notifications via email or phone
- Note: For students, you may use school address so students receive, for example, hold notifications. You may also decide to allow them to add that information themselves when the login to the catalog.
Addresses
- Default first address is patron’s Home Address
- Type Postal Code (Zip Code) first
- Leap will add the City based on the zip code
- Addresses can be edited or deleted as needed
- Address check date will default 99 years
- Schools are more likely to have the most current address
- After completing the Home address, you can add additional addresses as needed by clicking on the Address button (circled in blue)
- We are not using the Address Check Date – it should always be 90+ years. If you need to expire a card, use the Expiration Date.
- Zip Codes that match multiple entries will display a selection menu (see below)
Phone/Fax
- Use dashes to separate the numbers and no ( ) around the area code
- When entering phone number, please use the 000-000-0000 format. Any variation such as (000) 000-0000 or 0000000000 or 000.000.0000 WILL cause problems with our automated phone systems.
- Enter up to three phone numbers. When entering two phone numbers, use Phone 1 and Phone 2. Phone 2 should not be blank if there are 2 phone numbers.
- Phone numbers are not designated as Home, Mobile, Work, etc. in Phone/Fax section
- NOTE: leave the Wireless Carrier as Unspecified
Notification Settings
- In this section any phone number entered previously under Phone/Fax can be assigned to the mobile number for Text Messaging.
- In this example phone number 1 is used for Text Messages
- Notice Address designates the address used for mailing bills for long overdue materials
- In this example the Home Address is used
- Notification Option designates how overdues and hold notices are delivered
- In this example they would be sent to the email addresses entered previously
- If you have a borrower who does NOT want to receive any notifications, please select “none” as their notification option. The check boxes in the Preferences section (for example exclude borrower from Notices and Reminders) don’t work the way we think they would.
- Borrowers who wish to receive notifications via text message should have their notification option set to TXT Notice. The “Additional TXT notice” box should be checked only if they have email/phone set up as their notification option AND they want an additional text notice.
eReceipts
- Although the default is (None), patrons can specify due date slips and payment receipts be emailed instead of printed
- In the drop down menu, choose Email address and eReceipts will be sent to both email addresses entered earlier
- Select (None) if the patron prefers the printed slips/receipts
- Slips can be printed on demand even if eReceipts are selected here
- If you leave as Email Address and but haven’t entered one earlier in the patron record, then Leap will prevent you from saving the record until you change the eReceipt option to (None) or add an email address.
Preferences
- Generally these are not updated
- Patrons must sign up for Reading History through Bibliocommons
- Exclude from Collection Agency is used for patrons in our Second Chance program and would not be selected during the initial registration.
- NOTE: All patrons under the age of 18 are excluded from Collection Agency.
Password
- Set the initial Password as the last four digits of the library card barcode
- The password is encrypted (you won’t be able to see it if you look the patron up later). Reenter the last four digits if the patron forgets their password
- The patron can change or reset the password in Bibliocommons
Misc. info
- After a patron record has been saved, a Misc. info section appears that hold registration date, circulation counts, merging information, etc.
- The Record ID is a unique identifier that will not change. Patrons’ library card numbers may change if they are lost ad replaced, but this Record ID is permanent.
NOTE: If you are entering a sibling group, or a batch of school room cards, or museum curator cards, you can use the Copy button. Fields such as the address field will be filled in already.
New School Year Tips
This is what you need on the spreadsheet from your school office. When creating new students directly from the spreadsheet, first look up their name to verify they don’t already have a card (usually name and birthdate will be the most obvious clues).
If they do not have an existing card, create one for your location, patron code Juvenile Exception, Statistical Class SS Primary or SS Secondary. Patrons with this Juvenile Exception code may check out just three books at a time, and no DVDs or CDs. To be able to check out more than three, students will have to have their adult sign the IndyPL registration form (English, en Espanol) accepting responsibility for lost materials.
Last name
First name
Middle name
Suffix
Birthdate
Parent/guardian
Graduation year
Email address
Alt email address
Zip code
(City if not Indpls)
Street address line 1
Street address line 2
Phone 1
Phone 2
Phone 3
All Polaris Patron Codes
Adult Regular Patron
Adult Special Patron
Bunny Bag Card (used for checking out bags of books; available only at IndyPL)
Day Care Collection (day care centers have an organizational card used by the Bookmobile)
Earn and Learn
Electronic Registration (if someone’s phone is registered in their name at a Marion County address, then they may be able to apply for a library card number online to use for IndyPL eresources. If they want to check out books from a branch or Shared System location, you will issue them a “regular” library card, and change their patron code to the correct one.
Juvenile Exception (these patrons are an exception to our policy that an adult will sign the library card application for minors thereby accepting responsibility to pay for lost materials)
Juvenile Patron (these patrons have an adult’s permission to check out all DVDs)
Juvenile Restriction (these patrons can check out DVDs from only the children’s collection)
Juvenile Special Patron (this code would be used only by a branch for students who live out of the county and are not in a Shared System school)
Library Express Patron (used by Outreach and Volunteer Services for our delivery service for people who are homebound)
My First Library Card (for kids 0 to 6; used only by library branches. If you have a student with this patron code, you may give them a new card and change their code to whatever their adult requests when they turn 6.)
Non-Resident/PLAC (people who live out of the county can pay for a Public Library Access card)
Recall Request Card (used by IndyPL staff)
Second Chance (used by IndyPL staff – do not change Patron Code!)
Shared System Community Member (these cards are issued by only the Holy Cross Lutheran library and the Maurer Jewish Community Library for their patrons who live out of the county and want to check out materials owned by their respective library. This card does not give them permission to check out any other materials so don’t use it by accident!)
Shared System Museum Curator (used by Shared System museums)
Shared System Museum Staff (used by Shared System museums)
Shared System Room Card (for classroom teachers; to be used only for instructional materials and only at school; allows for a nine-week loan period)
Staff (Shared System staff are designated as such by the statistical class SS Staff; this patron code is used only for IndyPL staff. Shared System staff should use the Adult Regular Patron code. )
Staff Bibliocommons (for all IndyPL and Shared System staff who will create lists for your organization in Bibliocommons)
Statistical class
The statistical class makes a lot of sense behind the scenes in Polaris. You might not need to use it, but you do need to choose the right code for your patrons!
SS Primary: All primary students (grade six and below)
SS Secondary: All secondary students (grade seven and up)
SS Staff: All Shared System staff, no matter what patron code they have.
Pretty simple! All other statistical classes are for use by IndyPL staff.
Common Errors: Please review
When creating or updating a library card, please remember the following data entry best practices:
- Barcodes – should be 14 digits, please be careful when typing the numbers and watch for double scans when using scanners. Also, if a card is expired, double check that you did not scan an item in the barcode box before renewing/saving.
- Names & addresses should be in Mixed Case…first letter capitalized, and the rest NOT capitalized. Do not use ALL CAPS. Jr., Sr., III, etc. should be in the Suffix Field, not part of the last name.
- Do NOT use the “Name on Identification” fields.
- Stat Classes – There are only THREE stat classes you should be using: SS Primary (Elementary), SS Secondary (Middle & High School), SS Staff (Adults).
- Email addresses – are NOT required, please do not make up an email address. Also, do not put the same email address in BOTH email fields…only use the second one if you have two emails that need to receive notices.
- Phone number should be in the 000-000-0000 format. Please use dashes, include area code. Do not use parenthesis, periods or add extra spaces before/after the number.
- Preferences – Do NOT make changes in the preferences box. If you have questions about any of these, please let us know.