Searching for and Adding Patrons
Destiny
There are very important and specific guidelines in dealing with Patrons.
Before adding a new patron either a teacher or student, make sure you search for them across the
district before adding a new record.
To search for a student, click on the Circulation Tab, then click on Checkout on the option field
on the left side of the screen. Under the “FIND” box, make sure to remove the check mark beside” Only
my patrons. Change the pulled down choice to barcode. Enter the PowerSchool number in the “Find”
box and click on Find Patron box.
If you did locate the patron, the message will appear
o
o
Jane Doe (Barcode: 333662)
Patron is visiting from School X
Grade3 Loan Policies apply to off-site patrons
Go ahead and check out to the. They are considered a guest until the next “build”. The patron will be
updated to the correct site on the next build date. Any items from the other school and the patron’s
history will stay with the student when they move. The builds are usually done 1 to 2 times per month.
You will need to continue to find them in this manner until the next build is complete. You may check in
materials in the normal manner.
If you do Not find them by entering their PowerSchool number, try searching by their Name (be sure the
spelling is correct). Also, be sure you use the pull down screen to search the correct field. This is the
most common mistake made when searching. For example, if you have entered the PowerSchool #
and the First name choice is in the pull down tab, you will not find the patron. Also remember that the
pull down function “holds” the information from the last way searched (called a sticky).
Always be aware of your pull down tabs when they appear in all features of Destiny. You may need to
change your search factor in the pull down tab in order to search successfully.
IF you still do not find the patron, add them as a NEW Patron.
Adding New Student Patrons
Go to the Back Office Tab. Then choose “Manage Patrons” on the left Sub tab area. Select “New
Patron” located at the far right of your screen.
Double check you have the correct PowerSchool number before adding a student patron.
(Very important!)
Now enter the following fields
Last Name – First Name - District ID - Barcode – Patron Type You do NOT have to enter anything
else for now. You may enter their homeroom teacher in the Homeroom teacher field, if you want.
Everything else will update at the next build.
You may see this error message when you try to save “this number is already assigned”
Barcode 1319057 is already assigned to the following patron:
Smith, Arianette
District ID: 1319057
Grad Year: 2021
Ashley Elementary (P 1319057) 1st
That means that the PowerSchool number is already assigned. Search again for them across the
district. Make sure the PowerSchool number is correct. If you feel the number is correct, but you still
cannot locate the student patron. STOP, DO NOT do anything creative like using their name or
padding the District ID field. If you do, the student will NEVER be updated or moved to their new
school. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT-- ONLY CORRECT POWERSCHOOL NUMBERS SHOULD
EVER BE IN THE DISTRICT ID and BARCODE FIELDS.
If you still cannot find them and cannot add them in the correct way, write down the barcode of the
book they are checking out and CALL either Elisha or Yvette.
STUDENTS WHO HAVE LEFT THE SYSTEM
If you know a student has left the school and is showing up in overdue notices, DO NOT change their
status to inactive. Just change the Patron Type from a grade level to STUDENT. When running
overdue notices, be sure to remove Student as an option.
Marking a student as inactive will cause problems across the database. If you move a student to
Inactive, or restricted that field is never updated in a patron build, so if the student later appears at your
school or another school, they will be under "inactive" and when overdues are run, their name will be
omitted.
If you know students have left the system permanently and have books checked out from several years
ago, go ahead and delete the student and allow the books to become LOST.
Adding Teachers
Please review your faculty and remove teachers that are no longer at your school. Check for
OLD faculty that have books out from years ago that are no longer in our system and DELETE THOSE
FACULTY NAMES. You can check emails to see if they have moved to another school.
Teacher barcodes and District ID’s are their payroll number with an F in front (no spaces e.g. F124355)
Double check that all of your faculty/Staff are entered in this manner.
The teacher can provide you with her payroll number from the check stub or the Lead secretary can get
that for you. REMEMBER always add an F in front of that number with NO spaces.
Room numbers.
We noticed that we have several schools that are using BOOK ROOM or ROOM 102 etc. as a patron
account. This will not be allowed in our Destiny database because this causes conflicts and confusion.
Room patrons must follow the formula we have established.
Remember the policy is: We prefer items to be checked out to a PERSON who is responsible for those
items-- not a room number.
BUT if you must:
Use your school number first, then Bookroom or School # Room102. (example 340Bookroom or
340Room369) This will prevent duplicates and will identify YOUR Bookroom across the system vs. the
Bookroom or Room 102 at another school. Be sure to create a ROOM Patron type under Library
Policies that is setup for checking out materials on a 90 or 180 basis depending on the material. Call
the IRC for assistance if necessary.
Volunteers, Parents, Adults not school system employees
When Adding a new parent or volunteer to the data base, use this formula : A or V School#
random number (A is for Adult)(V is for volunteer) ( example A3402 or V3402) This again identifies
your Adults vs. Adults at another school. We will not allow adults who are not school system
employee’s logins to your catalog so do not filled in user name or password fields.