Voyager+Information

> from Laurie > September 2010 > > I just completed the patron load for all undergraduate students. When a student presents his/her ID card at the circulation desk, the barcode on the card will match the barcode on his/her patron record. One thing you will notice is that most sophomores, juniors and seniors have two barcodes on their records. The barcode that is listed as “Active” in the patron database is the barcode that is listed on the ID card. The barcode that is listed as “Other” in the patron database is the old barcode. > > I decided to keep both barcodes in the patron database because some students have items charged and/or fines applied to the old barcode and it was more efficient to keep the old barcodes in the database rather than manually deleting over 1500 barcodes. When a student ID card is scanned at the circulation desk, the “Active” barcode is the barcode that will be associated with any transactions. However, if the “Other” or old barcode has outstanding charges and/or fines associated with it, the patron will be blocked from checking out materials. So even though the “Active” or new barcode is the one being used for future transactions, the “Other” or old barcode will continue to block transactions if there are outstanding charges and/or fines associated with it. If the “Other” or old barcode has no transactions and/or fines associated with it, it will simply remain in the record but will serve no purpose. It will not interfere with future transactions. > > The Institution ID that you see in patron records is the new 7-digit Datatel ID number. Like the barcode, this number is also printed on the student ID. You will notice that the Datatel ID on the student ID card has more than 7-digits. In our patron database, we use only the last seven digits of the number.
 * ** STUDENT BARCODE INFO **