Setting Options for Deleting Patron Records

When a patron record is deleted, it is permanently removed from the Polaris database. You can manually delete patron records (see Deleting Patron Records) or you can specify criteria whereby patron records are automatically deleted each night.

With either method, you can specify blocks that prevent certain records from being deleted.

Note:
Staff must have the following Circulation permissions to delete patron records and override blocks to deletion: Patron registration: Delete, and Patron registration: Override blocks to delete.

You can set Polaris to automatically delete patron records that have been inactive for a specified number of days. If you set Polaris to immediately delete unblocked records that meet this criterion, you can also choose to place any blocked records in an exceptions record set. You should regularly review this record set. If you do not want any records to be deleted immediately, set Polaris to place all the records that are candidates for deletion, both blocked and unblocked, in a record set where they can be reviewed. After review, some records may be edited and retained, while others may be manually deleted from within the record set.

Polaris Permission Groups - Default Permissions Reference.

Records that are blocked from automatic deletion, whether placed in a record set or not, are deleted automatically when the circumstances that prevented deletion no longer exist. System-assigned circulation blocks prevent automatic deletion. Library-assigned or free-text circulation blocks do not prevent automatic deletion.

The Patron Services parameter Patron delete options sets the criteria that affect both manual and automatic deletion of patron records. The parameter is available at the system, library, and branch level.

Note:
Even when a patron record is manually deleted in the Polaris staff client, it is not immediately removed from the database. Instead, the barcode is modified and the name, address, e-mail address, and user-defined fields are made blank, and the record is not returned in Find Tool search results. The altered record is then deleted as part of the nightly Patron Processing SQL job. This process optimizes staff client performance, and does not affect the settings, procedures, and conditions for automatically and/or manually deleting patron records described here.

See also:

Retaining Financial Information for Deleted Patron Records

Certain patron account data from deleted patron records is saved in separate database tables for the period specified in the Patron Services parameter Account transaction deletion. If an associated item record is also deleted, the item record ID, barcode, title, author, and material type are retained. This process ensures the accuracy of the following reports even when the transacting patron records have been deleted:

Note:
The Daily Cash Balance Detail, Daily Cash Drawer, and Daily Cash Drawer POS reports can use retrospective data dating back to the beginning of the calendar year during which Polaris 4.0 was installed. The other reports listed here use only data from patron records deleted after Polaris 4.0 was installed. This is because these reports include both charge and payment transactions, and the retrospective data does not include charges.

The saved data is then purged according to the parameter setting in the nightly Patron Processing job. For example, if the setting for Account transaction deletion is two years, any data older than two years is purged when the job runs. For more information about setting the Account transaction deletion parameter, see Setting Patron Accounting Options. Patron Financial Reports