FAQs: Understanding Display and Maintenance Libraries

Configuration and Policies > FAQs for System Configuration > FAQs: Understanding Display and Maintenance Libraries

The Display and Maintenance attributes of the Library policy are used by SirsiDynix Symphony in various ways. See the following examples to better understand these attributes.

The Display and Maintenance Libraries settings are taken into consideration when searching items or users. They are not taken into consideration when an item or user barcode is scanned in with a barcode scanner. The only exception is when current charges are displayed at checkout; in that case the Circulation Display Libraries setting is used.

The Acquisition Display and Maintenance Libraries settings affect the libraries presented for selection in acquisitions and selection lists wizards. Additionally, they affect the libraries available for selection during the selection phase of acquisitions reports.

The following acquisitions wizards are display wizards, and the Acquisitions Library list for these wizards is populated using the Acquisitions Display Libraries setting in the Library policies. In these wizards, you should not be able to select from the Acquisitions Library list a library that has not given your login library display privileges.

All other acquisitions wizards allow changes to the acquisitions records, and are considered maintenance wizards. The Acquisitions Library lists of those wizards are populated using the Acquisitions Maintenance setting in the Library policies. In the maintenance wizards, you should not be able to select from the Acquisitions Library list a library that has not given your login library maintenance privileges.

The Acquisitions Library lists are the first level of security. For added measure, the server checks Display and Maintenance Libraries settings before saving modifications to acquisitions records, and before a single record display of an acquisitions record.

The following is an example of how a SirsiDynix Symphony administrator can set the Acquisition Display Libraries and Acquisition Maintenance Libraries attributes.

For example, the MAIN library is set up to be able to display and maintain all libraries’ acquisitions records. BRANCH1 and BRANCH2 library staff can modify only their own acquisitions records. However, BRANCH1 and BRANCH2 library staff can display acquisitions information system-wide. The MAIN Library policy would only have MAIN listed in the Acquisition Maintenance Libraries attribute. The BRANCH1 Library policy would have MAIN and BRANCH1 in this attribute, and the BRANCH2 Library policy would have MAIN and BRANCH2 in this attribute. However, so that all libraries in the system can display acquisitions information system-wide, MAIN, BRANCH1, and BRANCH2 would be listed in the Acquisition Display Libraries attribute of each of the Library policies, or alternately, these fields could be left blank.

The Bill Display Libraries attribute affects what appears on the Bills tab of the User Display wizard.

The first level of security is whether the login library allows the user lookup library (which defaults to ALLLIBS) to display bills. An additional check is then done to determine if the login library is in the bill library’s bill display group. This check is done for each bill.

For example, the group PUBLIC includes the MAIN, HUNT and GREEN libraries. Another group BRANCHES includes the libraries PARKER and LOWELL. The Bill Display Libraries attribute is set to ALL_LIBS for the MAIN library policy. When logged in at MAIN, and a search is done for a user at HUNT library, the system will first check to see if the MAIN library policy lists a group that includes HUNT library in the Bill Display Libraries field. Since ALL_LIBS does include HUNT, the user at MAIN has access to view the HUNT user. A secondary check is then done to determine if the user has access to view each individual bill for the HUNT user. The HUNT user has bills from GREEN and PARKER libraries. The system will check the library policies for GREEN and PARKER to see if the Bill Display Libraries group includes MAIN library in order to view the bills. The library policy for GREEN lists PUBLIC group in Bill display libraries. The library policy for PARKER lists BRANCHES group in Bill display libraries. Users logged into MAIN will have access to view bills with a bill library of GREEN (since PUBLIC group includes MAIN) but not bills for PARKER library.

The Bill Maintenance Libraries attribute affects the Bill a User wizard, as well as how user statuses (such as DELINQUENT or BLOCKED) are set for different library groups.

For information about how this attribute affects billing users from other libraries, see the FAQ: Billing a User.

The following is an example of how this attribute could be set by a SirsiDynix Symphony administrator.

For example, the group ALL_LIBS includes the MAIN, LOWELL, and BAKER libraries. Another group LOWELL includes only LOWELL library, and yet another group, BAKER, includes only BAKER library. If the Bill Maintenance Libraries attribute is set to ALL_LIBS in the MAIN Library policy, library staff at MAIN can create user bills for all libraries. If LOWELL has this attribute set to LOWELL, then LOWELL library staff can create user bills for LOWELL. If BAKER has this attribute set to BAKER, then BAKER library staff can only create user bills for BAKER. Neither branch can create user bills for MAIN.

Maintenance checks for the Call Number, Item, and MARC Holdings Maintenance Libraries attributes have been added to the following wizards to determine whether all libraries or specific library groups can create or modify call numbers, items, and holdings.

For example, in order to be able to add or modify call number information for MAIN library call numbers, the Library policy linked to your login, BRANCH1, must have the MAIN library listed in the Call Number Maintenance Libraries attribute.

The Modify Title wizard contains a call number maintenance check. If you click the Call Number/Item tab in the Modify Title wizard and select a call number/item for the MAIN library, WorkFlows will check the Call Number Maintenance Libraries attribute of the Library policy linked to your login. If MAIN is not a library for which you have call number maintenance access, when you click Save, WorkFlows displays the message “You may not create/modify this library’s call number information.”

For example, in order to be able to add or modify item information for MAIN library items, the Library policy linked to your login, BRANCH1, must have the MAIN library listed in the Item Maintenance Libraries attribute.

The Add Items wizard contains an item maintenance check. If you select a title for the MAIN library with a single call number attached, WorkFlows will check the Item Maintenance Libraries attribute of the Library policy linked to your login. If MAIN is not a library for which you have item maintenance access, WorkFlows displays the message “You may not create/modify this library’s item information.”

For example, in order to be able to add or modify MARC holdings information for the MAIN library, the Library policy linked to your login, BRANCH1, must have the MAIN library listed in the MARC Holdings Maintenance Libraries attribute.

The Add Title wizard contains a MARC holdings maintenance check. If you click the MARC Holdings tab, you are prompted to select a library from the Add Holdings for Library list. If you select MAIN, and MAIN is not a library for which you have MARC holdings maintenance access, when you click Add Holdings, WorkFlows displays the message “You may not create/modify this library’s MARC holding information.”

Cataloging Maintenance Libraries determines which library groups will be checked for the existence of another copy before displaying a warning message that the last copy of the group is about to be removed.

The Modify Due Dates wizard is affected by both the Circulation Maintenance Libraries and the User Maintenance Libraries in the following manner:

The following is an example of how a SirsiDynix Symphony administrator can set the Circulation Display Libraries and Circulation Maintenance Libraries attributes.

For example, the ORANGE group includes nearly all libraries in the Orange County Library System (MAIN, ORANGE, CENTER, CARNEGIE, PALM, BUENAVISTA), except for Palm High School. The NORTH group includes libraries in the north county area (ORANGE, CENTER, CARNEGIE), and the SOUTH group includes libraries in the south county area (PALM, BUENAVISTA). Palm High School has its own group, PALMHIGH. MAIN library controls many of the circulation and cataloging activities for the other county libraries, so the Circulation Maintenance Libraries attribute is set to ORANGE in the MAIN Library policy. The other libraries have this attribute set to NORTH or SOUTH as appropriate. PALM has this attribute set to PALMHIGH, since the high school library acts independently from the county libraries. All libraries, except PALMHIGH, can view each other’s circulation records, so ORANGE is typed in the Circulation Display Libraries attribute of all Library policies in the Orange County system. The PALMHIGH Library policy has this attribute set to PALMHIGH.

The Patron Credit Maintenance Libraries attribute affects the following wizard, helpers, and report.

The Patron Credit Maintenance Libraries attribute is checked when you use wizards and helpers that can pay bills from or issue refund credit to patron credit accounts. The attribute is also checked when the Assume Lost report attempts to pay assumed lost item bills and processing fees automatically.

If your library wants to use patron credit accounts to pay bills at other libraries, SirsiDynix recommends setting up the Library policies to contain the same list of libraries in the Pay Maintenance Libraries attribute and the Patron Credit Maintenance Libraries Attribute. Unexpected results can occur if the list of libraries in the two attributes are different. Refer to FAQs: Credit User Accounts for information.

An example of how a SirsiDynix Symphony administrator could set these attributes follows.

For example, the staff at the public libraries in River County (RIVERCITY, LAKESIDE, OCEANVIEW) can display each other’s serial control information, but they can only modify their own serial control records. The Serial Maintenance Libraries attribute in the RIVERCITY Library policy contains only RIVERCITY. However, the Serial Display Libraries attribute contains RIVERCITY, LAKESIDE, and OCEANVIEW. This is the same pattern used for the LAKESIDE and OCEANVIEW Library policies.

In User Display (Display User wizard) an additional check is done to determine if a user has access to view individual circulation records in the various lists. When determining what checkouts can display in the checkout list, SirsiDynix Symphony will check whether the login library is in the charge or item (depending on configuration setting) library’s user display group for each charge.

When determining what bookings can display in the list, SirsiDynix Symphony will check whether the login library is in the booking library’s user display group for every booking.

When determining what outreach history can display in the list, SirsiDynix Symphony will check whether the login library is in the call number library’s user display group for every history record.

For example, the group RIVER_PUB includes the public libraries of River County (MAIN, VALLEY, LAKESIDE, WESTMINSTR). A group RIVER_SCHLS includes the school libraries of River County (RIVER_HIGH, RIVER_JR, LAKE_ELE, WESTM_ELE, VALLEY_ELE). If the MAIN Library policy has RIVER_PUB listed in the User Display Libraries attribute, MAIN library staff will be able to display user information for the public libraries, but not for the school libraries. Alternately, if RIVER_HIGH has RIVER_SCHLS listed in the User Display Libraries attribute, the high school library staff will be able to display user information for the school libraries, but not for the public libraries.

The Modify Due Dates wizard is affected by both the Circulation Maintenance Libraries and the User Maintenance Libraries in the following manner:

Expanding on the preceding example, the SirsiDynix Symphony administrator for the River County Consortium may want to define more groups so that user information for the high school and junior high can only be modified by their respective staff. The new groups would be HIGHSCHOOL (including only RIVER_HIGH), JRHIGH (including only RIVER_JR), and ELEMENTARY (including LAKE_ELE, WESTM_ELE, VALLEY_ELE). The RIVER_HIGH library policy will have HIGHSCHOOL in the User Maintenance Libraries attribute. This way, no public, junior high, or elementary library staff can modify RIVER_HIGH user information. RIVER_JR will have JRHIGH in this attribute, and the elementary schools will have ELEMENTARY in this attribute. The public libraries will not have the school library groups listed in this attribute.