It's the time of year when we normally start working on the annual patron removal process for public libraries (The school libraries get a separate survey later in the spring). Public libraries and school/community libraries, please respond to the survey by Wednesday, February 19th: https://forms.office.com/g/V9iv05bKAN

We are making some changes to this process this year.   

Removing inactive patrons is an important maintenance task for several reasons, but we know it can be problematic to have a huge drop in registered patron numbers once a year.   

Beginning this year, we're sending the survey out once, but patrons will be removed monthly. For example, if you choose the 3 years of inactivity option in the survey, in March we'll remove patrons who were last active in February of 2022. That will continue throughout the year. If you want to see a list of your patrons’ last activity date, check out this BLUEcloud Analytics (BCA) report: Use Count by Last Activity Day – Yearly. You will need to sign into BCA to access the report. 

This process was done yearly in the past because of the MSC staff hours required and the annual count for the MSC cost share formula. We are going to utilize a new method that should help reduce the staff time. And, the MSC has used different calculations to determine our member cost shares over the past several years to alleviate the swing that our current formula causes. We expect to present a similar option on the budget for membership approval again this year so member costs should not be affected by the removal happening throughout the year rather than once in March. 

 There will be some other changes to go along with this adjustment.  

• We're NOT removing special User Profiles like ILL, Staff/Faculty, Volunteer, etc. Most libraries choose not to remove those in our survey, and they often have special considerations involved, so that will be separated from this process. 

• The optional removal of inactive patrons with bills is going to change, this is a different process that must be done before the patron removal so in the interests of streamlining the overall project there will be fewer options offered. There will be more details in that section of the survey. 

 Here's what's NOT changing. 

• Patron inactivity is determined by Last Activity Date - this field is updated by the system when a patron checks out an item, places a hold, or uses any 3rd party service that connects to our server via SIP. For example, a patron who borrows an item from MontanaLibrary2Go has their Last Activity Date updated when Overdrive authenticates their barcode. 

• Patron Expiration is NOT the date we use for this process. Many libraries no longer use this field, and it is less accurate overall. 

• Patrons with items checked out will NOT be removed. 

• System Users will NOT be removed. 

Please note, part of the federal reporting requirements for public libraries specify patrons must be purged regularly, so if we do not receive a response from your library, we will use our default selection and patrons with 10 years of inactivity will be removed. 

Whether you’re filling holds for patrons at your library, for a branch, or transiting items within a broader sharing group, you’re providing a valuable service for Montanans. Come learn how to streamline your hold processes in the MSC! 

This webinar will cover: 

• How holds work in the Symphony ILS 

• Managing holds – from placing and filling them, to modifying or removing them entirely, to regularly cleaning your library’s holds shelf 

• Common hold issues and how to fix them 

A recording will be made available after the session. 

1 CE Credit – Technology 

Event resources available in the ASPeN Event Calendar: https://mslservices.mt.gov/ASPeN/Events/Event_Detail?Event_ID=28797 

On December 24, 2024 SirsiDynix was acquired by Harris Computer. The acquisition was announced publicly on January 7, 2025. 

With this acquisition SirsiDynix welcomes a shift from a private equity model to more long-term business strategies. They will continue to operate as an autonomous business with no expected changes to products, services, support, or other operations. 

To read more about the acquisition see the Marshall Breeding article.