[CALIBK12] Patron History

Tue Sep 4 09:09:55 PDT 2007

I used a patron's history last week to pick books for a student who was hospitalized.  I also use it for students who can't remember the last book in a series they read or when they want to recommend a book to a friend but can't remember the title.

Does your district prevent counselors from seeing a kid's past grades?  Or keep VPs from seeing a kid's discipline record?  Have library staff members abused this information in the past?  It sounds like the district doesn't respect or trust the library staff.

Tony

--------------------------------------------------
Tony Doyle, Library Media Teacher 
Member California Young Reader Medal Committee
Livingston High School
Livingston, CA
tdoyle at MUHSD.K12.CA.US
Http://www.lhswolves.org/library/index.htm
Http://lhsblog.edublogs.org <http://lhsblog.edublogs.org/> 
"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture; you just have to get people to stop reading them."
Ray Bradbury

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________________________________

From: calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu on behalf of Ann Sperske
Sent: Tue 9/4/2007 8:19 AM
To: ode2living at aol.com; calibk12 at listproc.sjsu.edu
Subject: Re: [CALIBK12] Patron History

As of today, we can see the patron history with Destiny textbook manager. It's important to see the patron history because:
1) a student leaves the school and has books checked out in her name
2) to make sure students are issued only 1 textbook per class and don't try to check out multiple copies (oh, because they lost one or left it in the car)
3) to track patron statistics -- as far as seeing what courses are the most impacted
4) as to library patron history, it's important to see what a student has checked out in the past to make good, solid recommendations for future checkouts-- lead them to the right kinds of genres that interest them.
5) to mark as lost any book that belongs to a student who dies unexpectedly
6) to check what books a student has checked out and if necessary scan a lost textbook to find its owner and then make a note in the student profile if the student is a habitual textbook/library book LOSER.

These are some of the very important reasons that Destiny provides a patron history and why we use it. If we didn't have it available, it would severely impact our ability to do our job effectively. Good luck.

-----Original Message-----
From: calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu
[mailto:calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu]On Behalf Of ode2living at aol.com
Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2007 10:01 PM
To: calibk12 at listproc.sjsu.edu
Subject: [CALIBK12] Patron History

Hello. All of the libraries in my district began using Destiny last 
week. With the new program, our assistant superintendent did not want 
the library staff to be able to view the patron history, stating 
students' privacy, so she had the IT dept turn it off. The LMTs are 
planning on talking to her about this at our next meeting because we 
are very concerned about the implications this would have at the 
school level vs. public. We use this information to prove to students 
and parents that a student has checked out a book. We compare the 
date a book was checked out to a student's schedule from Aeries and 
their attendance on that date. When this is presented, it puts all 
disputes to a halt. Without this, we will have no leg on which to stand.

So, I was wondering:

1. Are you able to view your patron history? How valuable do you find 
it to be? For what purposes do you use it other than the reason above?
2. What is CSLA's stance on this? I'm familiar with ALA's, but school 
libraries have unique issues that public/academic don't have.
3. If you have Destiny, do you know if patron history can be turned 
on for the textbook side and not the library side? Ideally, we want 
BOTH because we run into this same situations with library books as 
well when classes come in, but the textbook side is the most crucial.

TIA! We appreciate it.

Connie Joyce
Library Media Teacher
Rancho Cucamonga High School
Rancho Cucamonga, CA

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