Setting System Postal Codes

In organization workforms and throughout Polaris, whenever you need to enter an address, you simply select a country (US or Canada) and type a valid postal code. The City and State/Province boxes are filled in automatically. The postal codes are defined and maintained with two tables that you can access from the Administration Explorer:

Note:
You can work with these tables at the system, library, or branch levels. Changes made at any level are applied to all organizations in Polaris.

Countries policy table - Defines the postal code length and styles for the countries in which the library sends mail.
Postal Codes database table - When Polaris is installed, the Postal Codes database table contains the current ZIP Codes defined by the United States Postal Service. Canadian postal codes are installed at implementation for Canadian customers.

Note:
If your library is in the US but you need Canadian postal codes, contact your Site Manager. You must be using Polaris version 3.5 or later.

Additions to the Postal Codes Table from Polaris Records

Staff members who have the Circulation permission Patron registration: Modify postal address fields can also enter a new city/country postal code combination for a US or Canadian address when creating or editing patron records in the staff client, and the new combination is added to the Postal Codes database table when the record is saved. Staff members without this permission can edit street addresses or select a different (but existing) postal code/city/state/country combination in a patron record.

Note:
The permission is not checked during offline patron registration. If a patron address in an offline file has an unknown postal code, or if the city does not match an existing postal code, an error appears in the offline upload report and the address is not accepted. If the postal code and city match an existing combination, but the county does not match, the county in the patron address is changed to match the existing postal code-city-county combination.

The Serials permission Suppliers: Modify postal address fields controls the ability to enter a new city/country postal code combination for a U.S. or Canadian address when creating or editing a supplier record, and in the Donor view of a fund record. Staff members without this permission can edit street addresses or select a different (but existing) postal code/city/state/country combination in a supplier or fund record.

Note:
The Modify countries table: Allow and Modify postal codes table: Allow permissions are required to change these tables in Polaris Administration.