Setting Up Patron Account Access and Options

If you permit access to patron accounts from the PAC, patrons can log on to view and cancel requests, view and renew items out, estimate fines on currently overdue items, and view fines and fees. Depending on the features you offer, they can also manage messages, view their reading histories, pay fines or make donations by credit card, work with saved search agent searches, or view transcripts of sessions with a virtual reference service.

Additional Administration settings allow users to set up a new patron account from the PAC, create and change user names and passwords, and request address changes. You can also offer email communication with the library (Ask Us) to registered patrons and guests. In addition to the patron account options, you can set holds options that enable patrons to change the hold pickup branch. See Set hold options: Enable patrons to change the holds pickup branch from the PAC.

Notes:

Important: Certain patron account settings apply to both Polaris PowerPAC and Mobile PAC. You may need to clear the page cache to see the results of some changes in either PAC. See Updating Page Caches. Patrons cannot access their accounts from the PowerPAC Children's Edition.
For Patron Access Options, PowerPAC and Mobile PAC honor system administration settings as follows:
- If the patron is signed in, the system uses the setting for the patron's registered branch.
- If the patron is not signed in, the system uses the setting for the connection branch.