Granting Permissions

Polaris permissions control who can access, create, modify, or delete specific record types and who can perform specific tasks in Polaris. Most permissions that control access to and modification of record types are set for the organization that owns the specific record. Permissions that control the ability to do specific tasks are typically set at the system level.

You can set up permissions based on the needs of the organizations in your system, and the tasks that staff members are expected to do. To allow administrators to control all records and functions in Polaris, you can set up certain staff members as “Superusers” or add these staff members to the Administrator permission group.

Using the fine level of control available in Polaris permissions, your library can effectively manage the specific tasks your staff members can perform in Polaris. The flexibility of Polaris permissions provides libraries options to accommodate various staff responsibilities, such as:

Check-out clerks cannot override circulation blocks, but the supervisor does have permission to override these blocks.
Staff members at a large library system rotate among different branches. The staff members have a set of permissions that are the same for all but one branch. The one branch is more restrictive with the permissions granted to rotating staff.
Senior catalogers have permissions to maintain authority records used by the entire library system. All other catalogers have permission to access the headings used in bibliographic records, but they cannot add any headings or change existing ones.
The library system has a central acquisitions department, but individual branches maintain their own selection lists. The central acquisitions department can access each branch's selection lists, but only specific staff members at the branch can modify the lists.
Each member library in a consortium prefers to keep its fund structure private. Libraries cannot view (access) each other’s fund records.

When a staff member does not have the appropriate permission to do a patron services or circulation task, a permission block message appears. You can allow specific staff members (typically supervisors) to override certain permission blocks so the blocked staff member can continue the task. Set the following profiles for staff members as appropriate: Override acquisitions blocks; Override serials blocks; Override cataloging blocks; Override patron services blocks; and Find Tool: Override SQL search blocks.